The reception that Uncharted received made everyone question the need for another Tomb Raider game. Everything that Lara Croft had done in the past Nathan Drake did better, and while Tomb Raider: Legend was a breath of fresh air for that series, it was obvious something new was needed in order to compete. And this year's E3 gave Eidos a chance to show off the latest entry in Croft's world. Once Tomb Raider Underworld loaded up it was obvious that Eidos was trying something new, as Lara Croft dove off the side of a boat and began to descend into the ocean.

Lara swam into a cave deep under the sea to find an ancient treasure, preparing to raid tombs like the good old days. As expected, the underwater lair wasn’t without its share of dangers, including a deep-sea kraken sat in wait- its tentacles stretched throughout the corridors. The areas looked great and every bit of the environment glowed with detail. Muddy floors and moist walls gave off an appropriate shine and the kraken’s slimy skin looked as sickly as one could hope. The only disappointing bit of the game’s presentation was Lara herself, and while she looked as beautiful as ever she didn’t seem nearly as detailed as her surroundings. The initial promises of the environment rubbing off on Lara (pervert) are fulfilled, but the mud-covered adventurer looks more like she was assaulted by mosquitoes than she looks like she just got finished climbing.

Eventually she found her way into the main hall, where the octopus-like beast sat in wait with a large, spiky “sun sphere” hanging over its head. Lara, with the help of her grappling hook and weapons, began trying to find ways to dislodge the object to drop it onto the guardian’s head. She worked her way through the area finding different ways to move the tentacles off of bridge controls. While climbing to the top of the Sun Sphere the screen became blurry and a tentacle swung towards a column, showing the first Adrenaline Moment in the game.

Adrenaline Moments are Eidos’s response to button-timing sequences. Past Tomb Raiders have had these sections, forcing you to response to a button prompt on the screen to avoid falling rocks or similar situations. They feel like giving more control, and from time to time the screen’s colors will fade and the gameplay will slow to a near stall, giving you just moments to find your way out of a situation. It’s a fantastic solution to the stale “Hit X or be squished” sections that every game seems to be adding and a welcome addition.

A few well placed bullets and some puzzle solving dropped the sphere onto the kraken, smashing the beast and opening the door. Our demo ended, and I was left wanting more, and praying for some improvements. Before we left I asked if the Lara Croft model was done and they said it was, which disappointed me greatly. With the amazing visuals the game looks to put forward I would have hoped that the first order of business was bumping the heroine to the highest-resolution possible, but my dreams were cut down and a strange, unfitting character remained. Animations also looked off, especially her swimming. I’ll hold out hope that these issues will be addressed, and still anxiously await the title.

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