Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

There are always certain things that we can expect in life: taxes, death, and a new Lara Croft game every year.  I have had the new Tomb Raider Underworld game sitting on my PC shelf for over a month now, and I have yet to really give a second thought to playing it.  I asked for the game as a Christmas present and I received it, but with so much to play, and so little time to play games, I have put the old girl on backburner until today.

So Tomb Raider starts you off with a short tutorial level with you trying to escape a destroyed mansion.  Actually it is Lara’s own mansion that is destroyed.  Think the trailer that came out this summer and you get the idea.  Escaping the mansion is a pretty linear affair, with you having to use most of the basic maneuvers to escape with your life.  At the end of the level, I started getting shot at by one of my own team, which seemed a bit weird. 

With that we get a fade out and a reset to a week before the mansion level.  Now we are in the Mediterranean Sea, searching for a tomb that might lead us to a clue as to where Lara’s mother is at.  Seems that Lara’s dad died looking for this place, so she wonders if he died looking for her mother.  Here is where the problems start to occur.  Control of Lara is a bit hit and miss in the water.  Also, you dive under, and you really have no direction as to where to go.  You just know you have to find a cave somewhere underwater.   There were a couple of sharks to deal with, but most of the time they would leave you alone.  Just to get the PETA freaks in a mosh, I decided the sharks had to go.

After I found a few hidden keys, I found the freaking cave that looked dull and brown like everything else underwater.  I went in, unlocked a door and found a cave that would lead me to Niflheim, the land of the dead in Norse mythology.  At this point, I was running up on 30 minutes, but I did notice that Lara has a lot of smoother animations, like she moves a bit more realistically, especially when climbing.  I also noticed that Crystal Dynamics spend time animating a wet body look for Lara, so she has a shimmering glow whenever she gets out of a body of water.  Sounds like a good use of programming time.

So far the game is enjoyable, but nothing has really happened, beyond me laying the smackdown on the sharks.  No challenging puzzles, and no real opposition to fight as of yet.  Hopefully it gets better.