With the demo for next month’s Tomb Raider: Underworld becoming available on Xbox Live today, I was very eager to give it a try and see what’s new with my old friend Lara Croft. I was a Tomb Raider fan in the PS1 days, but it’s been years since I played through a whole game in the series. However, with last year’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune being so great, my love for jungle exploration and ledge-jumping has been renewed.

The demo starts off with Lara arriving at a tropical jungle island via boat. The first thing I did was jump right in the water, where I discovered that I wasn’t alone—there were sharks swarming the area. I got to test out underwater gun use by shooting down a few of the creatures, and found that when sharks get shot to death, they turn upside down and float aimlessly. I was pleased to find that, after circling the waters for a bit, the first shark I killed was still floating in place when I came back a few minutes later.

I spent most of the demo hopping from ledge to ledge, which is how to advance in the mysterious, run-down island temple. This is where I first encountered the demo’s major problem—the camera. The camera frustrated me almost to the point where I didn’t even want to play anymore. It won’t quite rotate all the way when you move it manually, meaning that Lara had to make some leaps of faith because I couldn’t quite see where I was jumping. Even worse, it will sometimes rotate on its own at the worst possible time, like when you’re about to jump from one tiny ledge to another, making Lara jump in the wrong direction and often fall to her death.

Graphically, Underworld looked pretty good most of the times. There were a few moments, like when Lara first arrives on the boat, where the visuals didn’t seem as polished as they should be, but for most of the demo she was looking pretty good. I liked the character model, with the exception of one thing—for reasons beyond my understanding, Lara was wearing way too much make-up. You know, I can understand the short shorts and cropped shirt, because it’s really hot in the jungle, but I can’t imagine this character going adventuring made up like a beauty pageant contestant. It’s a small complaint, nothing that actually effects the gameplay, but personally I found it a little distracting. One of the more impressive things about Lara Croft was that she gets dirty as she explores, but then the mud washes off when she jumps in the water. However, it appears that no amount of water can wash off caked-on beauty products.

Combat wise, I only came across sharks, tigers, bats, and bugs, so I did a lot of straightforward targeting and shooting. Lara comes equipped with grenades as well, and health packs, which can be found all over the temple, are mapped to the up button on the D-pad, which is convenient when you’re being mauled by multiple tigers who keep coming out of nowhere. Nothing out of the ordinary thus far, but I assume the full game will include a lot more as far as weapons and foes.

When Uncharted came out last year, it was constantly compared to Tomb Raider, but then set the bar so high that I think this year’s Tomb Raider might be compared to Uncharted. I have no doubts that the game will be entertaining and fun to play, but as far as being one of the top games of the year? I definitely have my doubts. It may, however, be the strongest Tomb Raider in years, as well as being the first real next-gen entry in the series.

Tomb Raider: Underworld will be out on November 19 for the 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and PC; a PS2 version is dated for early next year. Naturally, we will have a full review in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to Gamervision for more.

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Tomb Raider Underworld Due Out November 4