YMMV / Tomb Raider: Underworld

• Angst Aversion: Zig-Zagged. The overall dark and foreboding atmosphere of this game, combined with the Trauma Conga Line that Lara endures, can turn away players that are accustomed to the previous games, which generally were lightweight, action-adventure stories. However, once Tomb Raider (2013) was released, Underworld became far lighter by sheer comparison alone, lessening the complains over its brooding tone.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Nowadays, this game is primarily recognised as "that game where Lara wears the skintight black swimsuit-leotard for the swimming sections while the camera follows her ass". And certain high-quality cosplay of that.
• Complete Monster: Jacqueline Natla. See here for details.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Underworld's story is executed pretty well, and is a good payoff for things set up in the prior two games. Underworld's gameplay however is a broken mess that you would be better off skipping.
  • Conversely, Play the Game, Skip the Story applies to certain levels of the game (namely, Thailand and all of Mexico), which are oftentimes brought up as the peak of level design in the LAU trilogy.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Lara's Doppelgänger became very popular with the fanbase.
• Obvious Beta: While not as bad as other examples, it's still quite noticeable. The issues range from annoying, but tolerable - such as wildly inconsistent fall damage - to outright Game-Breaking Bug - like plot-important objects or entire areas not spawning/loading properly.
• Player Punch: The death of Alister, not to mention Amelia Croft's fate.
• Porting Disaster: The PS2 and Wii ports. The PS2 version, in particular, has often been compared - unfavorably - to Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness on the same console, and it's clear that the game was made with the next-gen consoles in mind. (The fanbase, as well as reviews, seems to like the Wii version much more than the PS2 version, which, while still scaled down, still retained more elements from the main game. The Wii version contains a few exclusive puzzles and a few more enemies compared to the PS2 version). The issues with the PS2 versions are as follows:
  • The graphics is really bad for 2009 (the port was delayed) and is inferior to Tomb Raider: Legend, especially with the fire effects during the Croft Manor fire sequence. Unlike the other versions, there are also no wet and dirty effects, so Lara doesn't get dirty and is always dry when she's under the rain or swimming.
  • The cutscenes are unsightly and low-quality.
  • Lara's acrobatic manouvers are reduced and there's no option to perform a quick dash.
  • The framerate is unstable.
  • The iconic medipacks are gone. As a result, Lara's health regenerates over time.
  • Lara goes through plants and tall grass, while in the other versions, she moves them with her hands to make way through them.
  • The sharks in the Mediterrean Sea and the giant spiders in Mexico were removed, as well as the weapon to kill the sharks. This was because the hardware of the console was too weak for them, as they occupied too much RAM.
  • Unlike the other versions, Lara's flashlight can't be turned on on command. The light now turns on automatically, but only in dark areas.
  • Parts of the levels were cut, like the backtracking in the Mediterranean Sea and half of Amanda's ship, while an underwater puzzle in the Arctic Sea's underwater section is reduced to a cutscene, minimizing the already low amount of combat and making an already short and quite linear game even shorter.
  • The Wii port featured a nasty glitch which, if triggered, could prevent the player from completing the second level of the game. Obvious Beta indeed.
  • Lara is only given one weapon (that you can't choose) alongside her pistols in each level and it also has infinite ammo, which with the now fully regenerating health makes combat dull.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Compared to Anniversary, Underworld is shorter, has much fewer enemies and no bosses, fewer timed sections, and a much stronger emphasis on exploration and atmosphere than combat.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: This game marks the first time in the series where Lara is fully motion captured, making all of her movements throughout the game incredibly realistic. Unfortunately, when said mo-capped movements are combined with her somewhat cartoony face and proportions, it can cause a little of this.
• The Woobie: Lara herself by the final act. After three games worth of search, she finally finds out what happend to her mother. She's a mindless thrall. And Lara not only has to repeatedly shoot her, but first convince herself it's not her mother, while standing right next to her, to even be able to pull the trigger and defend herself. And few moments later, Natla smugly rubs it into Lara's face how she first used and then personally killed lord Croft.