Tomb Raider Underworld First Screens and Preview!

A couple of weeks ago, news broke out that Eidos had secured rights for a new Tomb Raider title, Tomb Raider Underworld. Everyone was right thinking it was another TR game, as tombraiderchronicles.com later confirmed that Tomb Raider 8 was indeed going to be Underworld. Most recently though, PLAY magazine managed to score an exclusive preview of the game and so here are the first solid details about the new TR Underworld.

According to PLAY Magazine, "Lara's adventure takes place after the events of Tomb Raider Legend. Her adventure will be a thrill ride for anyone new to the franchise. The emphasis is on bringing Lara's world to life, a lush, vast interactive world that reacts and remembers. It's pure woman versus wild."

The preview goes on mentioning that "In the level where Lara explores Southern Mexico, she leaves footprints in the mud, but it's raining so they wash away," something that tombraiderchronicles.com too had disclosed at the time TR Underworld was just being confirmed for next-gen systems (hopefully not only). "The bodies she leaves behind in combat encounters will stay, however, as will the debris from any destruction she causes," the piece continues.

According to megagames.com, the developers have also given Lara full motion capture "to bring a more natural fluidity to her movements, with proper weight and secondary motion." Also, "when Lara kneels on a muddy outcrop, only her knee will be covered in dirt and this will gradually dissipate as she continues on her journey."

I have to say, I'm losing all hope for a PS2 or PSP version of Underworld with all this graphical emphasis. What about the puzzles, the setting, the soundtrack...? Eh well, I guess we'll hear about those when the time is right.

Underworld is the third Tomb Raider developed Crystal Dynamics and the eighth in the series. It has been confirmed that Underworld will be released in 2008 for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.