Tomb Raider: Underworld (BTA DLC 24/2/09 p19)

PostRe: Tomb Raider: Underworld (Demo Out) by KK » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:52 pm

Hero of Canton wrote:Jesus, the camera's atrocious. It's absolutely killing it for me.

Very surprising this, as both Legend & Anniversary didn't have anything major problems.

Going back to the days of the original franchise.

Raze wrote:You can, it's in the demo. You can adjust loads of different settings, like auto-aim, grab reflex, enemy health, Lara health, weapon damage etc.

I can't remember if you can turn the icons off though.

*Edit* Yeah you can turn them off. And the crosshair. And you can definitely misjudge jumps.

Cheers - back on my P.O. list.

KKLEIN wrote:
Hero of Canton wrote:Jesus, the camera's atrocious. It's absolutely killing it for me.

Very surprising this, as both Legend & Anniversary didn't have anything major problems.

Going back to the days of the original franchise.

I did have a few small issues with the camera on both of those. Less so with Legend, and I put that down to Anniversary being based on an older game and thus perhaps the level design wasn't necessarily best-suited to the camera they implemented with Legend. There's no such excuse this time. The level design might be a bit more intricate, but I'd rather it was simpler. In tight spaces, it's embarrassingly poor. And you know when games subtly point you in the right direction for where to go? This seems to actively do the opposite thanks to the camera. I've often had to blind-jump backwards off a wall hoping that there's something to grab onto because the camera will only show what's to the side.

The camera in the Underworld demo is awful and it makes no sense at all. I had no problems with the camera in Legend because any time you had to do a jump the camera naturally panned around to let you see the jump, but from what I played of the demo you need to move the camera yourself and then after fighting with it for a bit it'll rest in the position Legend automatically went to. Very annoying, and it looks like it'll ruin a really solid Tomb Raider game.

There was also a few times when Lara didn't seem to be as smoothly animated as she was in Legends. She juttered about every so often, although that could have just been a demo problem.

Chris, is this 100% finished code?

Cheers for the views HoC. Sounds like they haven't fixed the camera over the demo then. Think I might give this a miss after all.

Eighthours wrote:Chris, is this 100% finished code?

What percentage completion are review codes at usually?

Hero of Canton wrote:
KKLEIN wrote:
Hero of Canton wrote:Jesus, the camera's atrocious. It's absolutely killing it for me.

Very surprising this, as both Legend & Anniversary didn't have anything major problems.

Going back to the days of the original franchise.

I did have a few small issues with the camera on both of those. Less so with Legend, and I put that down to Anniversary being based on an older game and thus perhaps the level design wasn't necessarily best-suited to the camera they implemented with Legend. There's no such excuse this time. The level design might be a bit more intricate, but I'd rather it was simpler. In tight spaces, it's embarrassingly poor. And you know when games subtly point you in the right direction for where to go? This seems to actively do the opposite thanks to the camera. I've often had to blind-jump backwards off a wall hoping that there's something to grab onto because the camera will only show what's to the side.

PostRe: Tomb Raider: Underworld (Demo Out) by KK » Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:33 pm

Well I probably wasn't going to buy it anyway...but for a totally different reason.

I have a rather extreme phobia of spiders. I can't even look at them on a TV screen. It's progressively got worse over the years...

Raze

Cropolite wrote:
Eighthours wrote:Chris, is this 100% finished code?

What percentage completion are review codes at usually?

Varies.

I do know that the Legend and Anniversary review copies (at least the PC versions) were slightly earlier builds, but the retail versions only had minor changes. They didn't fix one major issue in Anniversary, for example.

The camera is unacceptably bad, but if you're looking for an old school TR experience then it'll probably not bother you so much. It's not so hard to get to grips with when you realise that most of the time you need to jump in the one direction you can't see, but that's a very shoddy way of having to play the game.

I'll still be getting it, mind. I just might wait until after Christmas now. A second playthrough of the demo highlighted the flaws even more, although it was somewhat more fun with the prompts off.

Despite the camera issues I enjoyed the demo. I didn't find it unbearable so I'll be happy to buy the game.

Eighthours wrote:Chris, is this 100% finished code?

As far as I'm aware. I didn't get any notes explaining away 'graphical weirdness' (hello, Motorstorm 2!) or camera shiteosity.

That said, I've just completed a puzzle of such delicate intricacy it reminded me of Ico. Really lovely stuff, even if it took twice as long for me to do than it should have done thanks to the camera.

Okay, I give up. I've reached a point where I'm totally stuck. Completely and utterly. I think the game may have saved at a point where I can't physically solve a puzzle, and even if this puzzle is solved in the way I think it is, it's the most strawberry floating stupid thing I've seen in a game for a long, long time. And I've played Disaster: Day of Crisis.

PostRe: Tomb Raider: Underworld (Demo Out) by KK » Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:19 pm

Hero of Canton wrote:Okay, I give up. I've reached a point where I'm totally stuck. Completely and utterly. I think the game may have saved at a point where I can't physically solve a puzzle, and even if this puzzle is solved in the way I think it is, it's the most strawberry floating stupid thing I've seen in a game for a long, long time. And I've played Disaster: Day of Crisis.

Old school Raider. This is what TR was all about! Us gamers have gone soft.

(No, I don't want a return to the impossible TR3 & 4 either.)

Raze

Hero of Canton wrote:And I've played Disaster: Day of Crisis.

What the hell? I thought you liked that, I just bought it too. :cry:

Tell us the puzzle (spoilered, natch) and I'll see if I've any ideas!

Raze wrote:
Hero of Canton wrote:And I've played Disaster: Day of Crisis.

What the hell? I thought you liked that, I just bought it too.

Disaster has stupid stuff in it, it's just gloriously stupid as opposed to completely strawberry floating idiotic like this is.

Tell us the puzzle (spoilered, natch) and I'll see if I've any ideas!

It's impossible to easily explain, but I'm thinking the game might have autosaved at a point where the puzzle is half done and I'm actually physically unable to complete it. I've been trying for two solid hours. I've tried everything. It's one single room, so I can't go anywhere else. The 'sonar map' makes about as much difference to the situation as a Russell Brand apology. The hints are more useless than Conflict: Denied Ops.

I actually want to kill the makers of the game at this point. They've pissed me off with the appalling (and I'm not exaggerating - it's absolutely abysmal) camera. Now this strawberry floating awful puzzle, which - if it has glitched - is going to force me all the way back to the start of the game.

I've actually had to email Eidos to try and see if they know how to get through it. It's the first time I've ever had a game in for review that I've been stuck on. There have been others I've struggled with but I've always managed to get through eventually. And I really liked Legend, too.

Isn't the PDA guide thing helping?

Jaxley wrote:Isn't the PDA guide thing helping?

The hints? Spectacularly useless in this case. The map is possibly the most pointless waste of time since the invention of the wasp.

Can PDA be avoided also?

Cropolite wrote:Can PDA be avoided also?

You have to activate your PDA and press buttons to access the 'hints', so it's up to you if you want to use them or not.

Tomb Raider: Underworld (BTA DLC 24/2/09 p19)

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