Tomb Raider: Underworld - Xbox 360

4:48pm Monday 24th November 2008

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Another primeval endangered species slaughtered, another arcane puzzle solved and a fallen angel captured, and this is only the start of Tomb Raider: Underworld on the X-Box 360.

The posh, refined voice of Lara Croft is back and ready to set-off on her greatest challenge yet.

Make sure you watch the in-game trailer before embarking on the first mission. Lara's troubled past is easy enough to remember but reminding yourself which associates have double-crossed her and how many times will add resonance to your quest.

Underworld takes Lara Croft deep into a realm which, in the spirit of the true grave-robbing genre, connects the dots between various myths.

Black panthers, demonic possessed statues, and measly spiders will challenge you. Humans are a bit more rare but an assault on a tanker ship which goes wrong adds drama.

But the sheer scale and size of the levels is astounding. From the first wetsuit clad plunge into the ocean, which of course leads to a spot of underwater potholing, you feel like the world is your oyster.

For those, like, me who gave the last few tomb raider games a wide berth, it had felt like Lara had become a mere franchise, with new levels tacked on but few innovations.

There were too many edges to the world, which could be peered over and looked pretty, but were off-limits. Not here.

Underworld captures the imagination with its beautifully realised environments immersing you with everything from the parrot cat-calls to the creeping vines.

As you desend into the netherworlds, the atmosphere builds along with that good old sense of exploring long-lost worlds.

Meanwhile Ms Croft looks better than ever with a choice of outfits to boot. Gone are the stereotype cartoonish features of the original. Geek fan-boys (and girls) will rejoice.

The game controls feel smoother and after a quick training level warm-up leaping, climbing and firing will feel instinctive.

Is it too easy? The hint function will now give you fairly detailed instructions on how to negotiate the underworld if you let it. I did, and, apart from one frustrating hiatus where I backtracked fruitlessly scouting for an innocuous item, I sped through to the finale.

A sub-plot involving the question of whether Lara herself destroyed her own English mansion, feels superfluous, dragging away from the main storyline: a quest for Croft's mother involving Norse, Aztec and other ancient legends.

The villains and creatures will not offer gamers any serious trouble either, and the resolution gives back slightly less than promised. But when its scope was so great, that's to be expected.

And after the sheer blood-curdling dread I felt, when a giant octopus tentacles whipped away into the darkness of an ocean cavern in front of me, was never quite recreated - even in the final confrontation in the deepest bowels of the Underworld.

But overall Underworld brings back the awe and imagination to the Tomb Raider world. Where next?