The Tomb Raider Underworld E3 demo starts with Lara swimming through an underground cave wearing a wetsuit instead of her signature tank top and shorts. She's following a lead left behind by her father, and the story will bring into question everything that Lara treasures about herself and her life as a tomb raider. Armed with a spear gun in addition to her usual twin pistols, the tethered spear can be used as both a weapon or for swinging and different puzzle sequences. We were told that Lara will also be carrying a tranquilizer gun now - a long time request of Tomb Raider fans who thought it was funny that Lara would explore these lost worlds and kill rare or endangered animals. Incidentally, the tranquilizer is likely to work on people too, but we're not sure how popular being humane to homicidal humans will be.

Underworld uses a heavily modified version of the Legend engine, so the graphics and animations look superb. Lara becomes progressively dirtier as she climbs along grimy walls. A buildup of dirt grows on her legs, arms and face, which can be washed off with a quick swim. Underworld will also be doing away with load screens, so there will be no interruptions while being immersed in the world.


Gameplay will focus on the series' greatest strengths, namely exploring giant lost cities and figuring out large scale mechanical puzzles. In the demo, the room's exit is blocked by a kraken (a giant squid-like creature), with its tentacles wrapped around critical gears and components needed to get the ancient machinery running. After some skillful running, climbing, acrobatics and shooting, Lara was able to release the kraken's hold of from the gears while removing the locks from a spiked sundial that happened to be dangling precariously over the creature's head. At that point, weak links on the chains holding the sundial in place highlighted in gold, showing that it could be interacted with. A few well placed shots later, and the spiky sundial comes crashing down on the kraken and the door is opened. Lara then uses a rope to wall walk down to lower ground, just one in a list of new moves she'll be capable of in Underworld.

The gold highlighted chain links are one example of a friendlier, more community-oriented Tomb Raider. Lara will be carrying a camera in addition to her usual gear, and Underworld will feature a built-in photo sharing system. So, players can put their photography skills to work by offering tours of lost cities. More practical uses for the system include helping fellow players out with tough puzzles so that no one will become horribly stuck running back and forth, trying to figure out what to do next. The E3 demo did not include any hands-on time, so we don't know if the running and jumping is as forgiving as previous games, but the developer managed to misjudge a few judge and fall to Lara's doom while running the demo, which clues us in. Fortunately, he had invincibility and flying cheats going to correct his mistakes, which players probably won't have access to when the game releases. Tomb Raider Underworld is scheduled to release in November 2008 and will take Lara Croft on an epic, global adventure.

Download the Tomb Raider Underworld "Beneath the Surface" HD Trailer