Its time for Lara to move, and fast! These spiders are meaner than ever. The new dual aiming ability helps her pick off a few quickly, however it’s not long before they catch up with her. The gargantuan spider dives for Lara’s face, legs’ writhing as it gets closer - a vivid image of the ‘face huggers’ from the Alien films spring to mind as Lara screams trying to remove the spider from her face. She’s not out of the clear until she’s loaded each spider with a generous amount of lead, as another improvement to the AI means enemies can now scale the walls in pursuit of Lara.

As Lara makes her way out of the temple we notice that the autograb when walking off of high surfaces is turned off. Unlike in Tomb Raider Anniversary when Lara gets a little too close to the edge of a platform she won’t turn around and grab the ledge as she falls. This could be a hindrance to players who joined the series at Tomb Raider Legend if the option isn’t available to enable it, however it will probably be welcomed by the oldschool hardcore gamers as it provides an extra challenge.

"The real beauty of Lara's next-gen makeover shines through"

Lara lands gently on the floor and makes her way toward the muddy forecourt adjacent to the temple doors. The camera is turned round so that we can get a look at next generation Lara’s facial features. As the camera pans to face Lara, the sky is illuminated with a flash of lightening giving Lara a radiant and youthful glow for a moment or two. As the sky fades back to its once ominous self the real beauty of Lara’s next generation makeover shines through. Contrary to recent pictorial publications Lara does not look aged. Unfortunately recent magazine scans seem to have shown the new model in an extremely poor light; however, seeing the new Lara first hand we can reveal that she looks as young and vibrant as ever.

Lara’s facial animations, like most things in Tomb Raider Underworld, have been stepped up a notch. To add to her more human appearance Lara’s face is now animated in individual sections. The eyebrows, eyes and mouth all have their own detailed animation patterns. At one point Lara even gives a mischievous raised eyebrow. These new features allow for a range of expressive moods including angry, happy, inquisitive and many more.

After a short look at the next generation Lara, she heads off to complete the final part of the level. Another of Lara’s new moves is the ability to sprint; this comes in handy especially when she has to climb steep muddy hills. Lara moves with much more realism this time around; her movements have a real sense of weight behind them unlike the animation in previous games to the series. You get the sense that she is a real person in a real environment.
 

Lara makes her way into the final Mayan temple, the temple that houses the gates to Xibalba and the clock mechanism that opens them. The view over to the, now closed, gates of Xibalba is fairly unimpressive and bland. A sheet of green is really all the area is comprised of; something we feel really needs work on. With the ultimate puzzle piece in her hand Lara successfully resets the clock.

The unimpressive, bland foreground quickly changes as the gates to Underworld are set in motion triggering the first cinematic of the demo. Huge ornate pillars rise slowly from the ground forming an ancient pathway leading straight into the mouth of hell. A burst of flames explode from the elaborate dragon-headed pillars signalling the rise of the Underworld gates. It’s now a race against the clock. Lara must find a way to get to the gates before they seal.

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