Assembled By The Board

HIGH It actually has value for offline players.
LOW Lengthy load times after every death.
WTF Writers need to stop writing snarky dialogue around the act of flipping switches.
HIGH It actually has value for offline players.
LOW Lengthy load times after every death.
WTF Writers need to stop writing snarky dialogue around the act of flipping switches.
HIGH Coming across an ingenious puzzle…
LOW …and then hearing Lara blurt out the solution.
WTF Buying timed exclusivity and then releasing it the same day as Fallout 4.
HIGH Incredible vistas around every corner.
LOW The whole experience feels a little too automated.
WTF The preposterous voice acting of Mathias, the Solarii leader.
It's a Tomb Raider extravaganza! We dish on the latest incarnation of Lara Croft, female protagonists in general, and the state of the "Cinematic Action" genre, a term which I claim full credit for coining. With Richard Naik, Brad Gallaway, Ashley King, Sara Rich, and (later on) Tim "Skype Connection Dropped" Spaeth.
Also, check out this article by our good friend Rhea Monique if you have time. Well worth a read.
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Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.
HIGH Climbing the Queen's sanctum as it shatters in a storm.
LOW Spending 20 minutes trying to glitch my way past a showstopping bug.
WTF "I hate tombs."
HIGH Some of the best cooperative action I've ever experienced.
LOW Not being able to instantly retry failed challenges.
WTF Why was online co-op not ready to go at launch?
HIGH Evil Lara is the best thing to happen to Tomb Raider since Legend.
LOW The content ends far too soon.
WTF Ten dollars for an hour and a half? Seriously?
HIGH Reaching the top of a particularly troublesome climb.
LOW Dying repeatedly because of the awful camera.
WTF Lara's outfit choices for an arctic expedition: wetsuit or skimpy wetsuit. Apparently no one has ever heard of exposure to the elements. Neither outfit has shoes…
The new Tomb Raider: Underworld DLC came out today. Titled Beneath the Ashes, this new add-on level starts off with Lara Croft in her father's study, hidden underneath the burned wreckage of Croft manor. For those who haven't played Underworld yet, the story basically veers off towards Norse mythology elements, and Ashes has our heroine going deeper underground into a new secret area that was underneath the first secret area. Allegedly there's an artifact down there that can create and control the undead thralls that populated the latter stages of Underworld proper, and Lara's not one to leave vital artifacts unmolested, natch.
I watched a "developer's diary" video on Ashes a few weeks ago, and one of the folks putting it together spent some time saying that the Tomb Raider team really worked hard on the puzzles and were able to dig in and give it their best. I appreciate that they probably put a lot of effort into it, but frankly, I don't see it. Although it's shorter and more focused than any of the levels in the retail release, it still suffers from a heavy feeling of blah, not being very visually interesting and lacking any real personality. There were also a few spots where I was stuck—not because I couldn't figure out what to do, but because the areas still have a vaguely too-open feeling to them which was often complicated by Lara not jumping where I wanted her to. The two things combined led me to believe that I wasn't performing the correct action, resulting in some minor frustration and wasted effort.
I still call myself a Tomb Raider fan, but out of the three titles that Crystal Dynamics has had a hand in, I would rank Underworld dead last behind Anniversary and the stellar Legend. This DLC does nothing to change that, and continues the mediocrity that was present in its parent title. Additionally, this new level is overpriced at 800 points ($10) since most players will be able to get through it in less than two hours. Unless you’re an absolute Tomb Raider fanatic, I'd say that it's not worth the download.
For all its popular appeal, Tomb Raider was a geekily strict platform game, but one unmatched (arguably to this day) in making your conquests over the land feel real. When you climbed to a great peak using just your hands and the rock around you, you really felt the achievement, the human achievement. Mario offered carefree, balletic fantasy; Lara, with her bone-breaking falls and audible strains of upper-body anguish, kept it very real.
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