I didn't believe the Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews, especially with respect to the final ratings, around the time when the game launched. I purchased it a long time ago for PC, since I buy a lot of other games through Steam (especially during sales). Thing is, I never got very far into it, because the controls were - for me - unbearable when using keyboard and mouse (primarily because of the camera's insistence on focusing in front of Lara). Only more recently, I purchased an Xbox 360 and figured that I'd purchase a copy of this game to play on my new console. It couldn't be that much worse than the previous two games in the series, right? 
 
Wrong. 
 
Sure, I could post a review on this game, but I don't feel that it would be fair. I feel that this game has single-handedly killed what respect I had for this franchise...or at least severely maimed it. Anniversary and Legend were pretty solid. In fact, I'd probably rate each of them at 7/10 or higher. Underworld is far more ambitious, completely overhauling Lara by giving her new capabilities, both major and minor. Unfortunately, there's not one aspect of the game that's handled perfectly, and that's why I'm not bothering to post a review. The poor aspects of this game are so horrible that they completely nullify any impact that the good aspects might have on my final opinion. As such, why even bother mentioning the good things? 
 
As is typical of the series, you still have plenty of massive environments to traverse, generally with just one way up, down or through each of them. Looks can be especially deceiving, since you'll swear that there's a ledge that you can grab onto nearby, only for it to be a texture or shadow that's playing tricks on you. Even worse, some objects that you're supposed to interact with don't even work properly much of the time. For instance, there was a block in the final area that looked as though I could jump on it, so I gave it a shot. Lara leapfrogged right over it and fell to her death. I tried from different angles, and Lara just kept slipping off. Eventually, by some act of God, I ended up getting onto it. Problem was, a ledge that I thought I could hang from simply wasn't letting me grab ahold of it. A little later, however, it worked just fine. 
 
Really, all of the in-game mechanics just behave more erratically as you get further into the game. Lara jumps in any direction that she pleases, and directions on the analog stick can do different things from second to second without any movement on Lara's part.  Even worse, you'll find yourself getting stuck in level geometry increasingly more often as you progress in the game, with you being able to free yourself only through random button mashing. While the previous two games in the series had some of Underworld's flaws, they weren't nearly as game-breaking and were generally rare occurrences. This game's just awful, even to the point where it simply makes me not want to play the earlier games in the same series. It's destroyed my tolerance for the minor problems in those other games, since they've just occurred so often and so unfairly in Underworld. 
 
Really, the only other time that I've been this disappointed in a game/series was when I bought Final Fantasy IV for DS. I'd never played the game all the way through before, despite it having been one of my favorite games. Getting to the final dungeon and - finally - the final boss just destroyed my outlook on the game. I haven't even attempted the final boss in FFIV a second time. I was just disgusted by the fact that all of my characters' abilities were suddenly rendered obsolete, and the only likely method of beating the game would've been to stock up on Megalixers. Argh! 
 
So, out of curiosity, has any one game tarnished your outlook on an entire series for you? Tell me about it. That way, maybe I'll avoid playing some stinkers. :P

I didn't believe the Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews, especially with respect to the final ratings, around the time when the game launched. I purchased it a long time ago for PC, since I buy a lot of other games through Steam (especially during sales). Thing is, I never got very far into it, because the controls were - for me - unbearable when using keyboard and mouse (primarily because of the camera's insistence on focusing in front of Lara). Only more recently, I purchased an Xbox 360 and figured that I'd purchase a copy of this game to play on my new console. It couldn't be that much worse than the previous two games in the series, right? 
 
Wrong. 
 
Sure, I could post a review on this game, but I don't feel that it would be fair. I feel that this game has single-handedly killed what respect I had for this franchise...or at least severely maimed it. Anniversary and Legend were pretty solid. In fact, I'd probably rate each of them at 7/10 or higher. Underworld is far more ambitious, completely overhauling Lara by giving her new capabilities, both major and minor. Unfortunately, there's not one aspect of the game that's handled perfectly, and that's why I'm not bothering to post a review. The poor aspects of this game are so horrible that they completely nullify any impact that the good aspects might have on my final opinion. As such, why even bother mentioning the good things? 
 
As is typical of the series, you still have plenty of massive environments to traverse, generally with just one way up, down or through each of them. Looks can be especially deceiving, since you'll swear that there's a ledge that you can grab onto nearby, only for it to be a texture or shadow that's playing tricks on you. Even worse, some objects that you're supposed to interact with don't even work properly much of the time. For instance, there was a block in the final area that looked as though I could jump on it, so I gave it a shot. Lara leapfrogged right over it and fell to her death. I tried from different angles, and Lara just kept slipping off. Eventually, by some act of God, I ended up getting onto it. Problem was, a ledge that I thought I could hang from simply wasn't letting me grab ahold of it. A little later, however, it worked just fine. 
 
Really, all of the in-game mechanics just behave more erratically as you get further into the game. Lara jumps in any direction that she pleases, and directions on the analog stick can do different things from second to second without any movement on Lara's part.  Even worse, you'll find yourself getting stuck in level geometry increasingly more often as you progress in the game, with you being able to free yourself only through random button mashing. While the previous two games in the series had some of Underworld's flaws, they weren't nearly as game-breaking and were generally rare occurrences. This game's just awful, even to the point where it simply makes me not want to play the earlier games in the same series. It's destroyed my tolerance for the minor problems in those other games, since they've just occurred so often and so unfairly in Underworld. 
 
Really, the only other time that I've been this disappointed in a game/series was when I bought Final Fantasy IV for DS. I'd never played the game all the way through before, despite it having been one of my favorite games. Getting to the final dungeon and - finally - the final boss just destroyed my outlook on the game. I haven't even attempted the final boss in FFIV a second time. I was just disgusted by the fact that all of my characters' abilities were suddenly rendered obsolete, and the only likely method of beating the game would've been to stock up on Megalixers. Argh! 
 
So, out of curiosity, has any one game tarnished your outlook on an entire series for you? Tell me about it. That way, maybe I'll avoid playing some stinkers. :P

Until further notice, Ninja Gaiden II has tarnished the series' name to me. I'll never play another one unless I someday beat that game. I've mentioned several times how I found the original Xbox title to not be so hard, but this one beats me mercilessly.

" Until further notice, Ninja Gaiden II has tarnished the series' name to me. I'll never play another one unless I someday beat that game. I've mentioned several times how I found the original Xbox title to not be so hard, but this one beats me mercilessly. "

I bought it on pc, it's really aweful and almost unplayable. I don't even know what to do most of the time and only play it because lara is hot or I need a few screenshots, otherwise I should just uninstall it and try to finish it at a later time.

"

I bought it on pc, it's really aweful and almost unplayable. I don't even know what to do most of the time and only play it because lara is hot or I need a few screenshots, otherwise I should just uninstall it and try to finish it at a later time.

"

Oh, so now I know I shouldn't buy it, as my generally incredibly high endurance for tedious game design and controls in a platform game was gradually lowered by my adventure with Sonic Unleashed.

Yup. Sonic Unleashed is a very good answer to your question at the end of your post - I'm not touching any Sonic game in the next 5 years after that piece of shit. I didn't even finish that game, got stuck in the third chapter. The level designers should go straight to hell and fry for eternity.

God of War III. I'm going to pick up Ready At Dawn's God of War: Ghost of Sparta for sure, but I'm never buying another Santa Monica-developed God of War game. III was abysmal.

" and only play it because lara is hot "

Personally I found Underworld to be pretty much more of the same as Legend and Anniversary. I enjoyed both of those, and I enjoyed Underworld too. My biggest problem with the game was that it didn't bring anything new to the table, and consequently it just felt like a shiny PS2 game with beautiful environments offset by somewhat dated gameplay mechanics. I also agree with you regarding the environment being deceptive at times. On the whole though, I did find Underworld to be a competent game that was quite easily on par with Legend, if not quite up to the standard set by Anniversary. I'm sorry that you didn't. Maybe Lara will be able to win you over again with her latest redesign?

"

Oh, so now I know I shouldn't buy it, as my generally incredibly high endurance for tedious game design and controls in a platform game was gradually lowered by my adventure with Sonic Unleashed.

Yup. Sonic Unleashed is a very good answer to your question at the end of your post - I'm not touching any Sonic game in the next 5 years after that piece of shit. I didn't even finish that game, got stuck in the third chapter. The level designers should go straight to hell and fry for eternity.

"

" Personally I found Underworld to be pretty much more of the same as Legend and Anniversary. I enjoyed both of those, and I enjoyed Underworld too. My biggest problem with the game was that it didn't bring anything new to the table, and consequently it just felt like a shiny PS2 game with beautiful environments offset by somewhat dated gameplay mechanics. I also agree with you regarding the environment being deceptive at times. On the whole though, I did find Underworld to be a competent game that was quite easily on par with Legend, if not quite up to the standard set by Anniversary. I'm sorry that you didn't. Maybe Lara will be able to win you over again with her latest redesign? "

" What're your feelings on Sonic 4? "