Tomb Raider : Underworld

Tomb Raider: Underworld on PlayStation 2 is the late-generation console adaptation of Lara Croft’s ninth main adventure and the conclusion to the Legend trilogy. Eidos Interactive published this version in 2009, while Buzz Monkey Software developed the PS2 port; Crystal Dynamics led the original HD game. It follows the same core story as the Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases, but it is a distinct older-hardware version rather than a straight visual match for them.

The adventure opens in the wreckage of Croft Manor before moving back a week to Lara’s dive beneath the Mediterranean. Her search for Avalon, and for answers about her parents, uncovers one of Thor’s gauntlets and sets her on the trail of Mjolnir. Encounters with Amanda Evert, Jacqueline Natla and Lara’s doppelgänger carry the campaign through submerged ruins, Thailand, Mexico and the Arctic toward Helheim. Norse mythology provides the thread connecting these locations and their machinery, while the plot closes the family mystery established in Tomb Raider: Legend.

Exploration remains the heart of the PS2 game. Lara climbs ledges, poles and ladders, shimmies, crawls through tight passages, swims underwater and makes her way across traps and crumbling ruins. Her grapple is both a traversal tool and a puzzle device: it can pull objects, swing her over gaps, support rappelling and help her run along walls. Environmental puzzles ask the player to locate keys, manipulate mechanisms and work out how scenery fits together; the all-terrain motorbike is also used in selected areas for travel and problem solving.

The PlayStation 2 controller layout puts movement on the left stick and camera rotation on the right, with X for jumping and Triangle for interaction, safety grabs and faster traversal. Square fires the grapple outside combat, while L1 draws weapons or locks the camera onto a target and R1 fires. Lara can dodge or somersault while locked on, use two guns against separate targets when circumstances allow, and throw grenades with R2. The game also includes an adrenaline slow-motion response during sudden hazards, a PDA with optional hints and objectives, checkpoint restarts, manual saves, treasures and a post-game option to revisit locations for missed collectibles.

This release preserves the third-person platforming, combat and puzzle framework, the story campaign and the standard controller approach, but its environments and puzzle layouts were reduced for PS2 hardware. Those changes make it important to treat it as its own version when following a guide: routes and room-scale challenges need not correspond exactly to the larger, more detailed PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 maps. It also lacks the Wii version’s motion-controlled combat and puzzle interactions. The Nintendo DS edition is a separate 2D side-scrolling game, while mobile editions take still different forms, so neither is a substitute for the PS2 campaign.

The technical compromise was conspicuous to reviewers. Contemporary PS2 criticism pointed to a much rougher graphical downgrade, more twitchy and unpredictable controls, bugs, a more linear flow and reduced combat compared with the better-regarded HD versions. That does not change the basic appeal for a series fan: this is still a globe-spanning Lara Croft expedition built around dangerous ruins, acrobatic movement and mythological puzzles. It is best approached as the complete Underworld narrative adapted down to the PlayStation 2, with lower fidelity and redesigned spaces rather than the definitive version of the game.

The PS2 edition should also not be confused with Underworld’s post-release episodes. Beneath the Ashes and Lara’s Shadow were Xbox 360-exclusive downloadable chapters, so they are not included on this disc. For players returning specifically to the PS2 original, its standalone main adventure, manual save system and PS2-specific level compromises are the relevant context.