Run over there, climb something, jump across a gap, pick up an item, run some more, climb some more, jump some more, swim a little, flick a switch, make your way back to the beginning and go through a door you just opened. That’s how I’ve always thought of the Tomb Raider games, admittedly it’s not all like that, you also have to shoot some random wild animals and the odd foreigner who is clearly up to no good and most likely attempting to steal whatever it is you’re trying to…uh…borrow. That said, the DS version of Tomb Raider: Underworld reminds me a great deal of the original Prince of Persia game which no doubt influenced the Tomb Raider series as much as the Indiana Jones films. In case you’re wondering – the fact that I’m comparing this game to the 2D Prince of Persia is a very goods thing.

If this game excels in one department it has to be the quality of the visuals. The in-game graphics are surprisingly slick and even more surprising are the cut-scenes which I found very impressive for a title on the DS. The animations in the game are also very polished and the star of the show, Lara Croft, is a perfect example of this as she springs into action on the screen with her range of acrobatics.

It’s a shame that the impressive visuals are let down by the uneven audio which accompanies them. The game provides some decent sound effects as you explore each level but treats you to distorted speech during the cut-scenes. This may in part be down to the overall audio quality which the DS can offer but the fuzziness doesn’t do this game justice and if the developers couldn’t solve this issue then perhaps they should have dropped the speech altogether.

The combat is similar to every other Tomb Raider title in that movement is the key to success. You can lock on to your opponent and evade their attacks by rolling or jumping before shooting them and repeating this process until you’re victorious. Combat is pushed into second place and, at least in the DS version of the game, a good sense of timing when making those death-defying leaps or avoiding the array of inconveniently placed traps is of greater importance.

I can easily recommend this game to fans of the Tomb Raider series and what I find most interesting is that, due to the limitations of the DS platform, the developers were somewhat forced to create a game which is reminiscent of the original Prince of Persia and this adds a lot of charm to an otherwise run-of-the-mill platform title. Something I also noticed while playing this on the DS is that Nintendo’s handheld system really lends itself to the virtual novel concept and, with the game being split into multiple chapters, Tomb Raider Underworld works well as a “pick up and get through the next chapter” sort of title. With Christmas just around the corner I don’t think you can go wrong if you choose to pick this up as a gift for a DS owner and it’ll certainly make a good addition to their game collection.

8/10

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