Tomb Raider Underworld

A close-up of a naga lizard (Image credit: Wikiraider)

Gods & Monsters: The Naga

One of the things I’ve always found intriguing about the Tomb Raider series is how often the game writers, developers, and artists draw on real-world mythology and folklore for inspiration when they’re designing ancient environments for Lara Croft to explore…and the exotic creatures that populate them. In previous instalments of my Gods & Monsters series, I looked at how Crystal Dynamics masterfully re-imagined the ancient Egyptian snake demon Apep and the ... [Continue Reading]

January 25, 2017 // 4 Comments

Lara’s Travels: Jan Mayen Island

In the last edition of Lara’s Travels, we looked at the real and in-game Tomb of Semerkhet in Egypt. This time, we will be leaving the scorching deserts of Egypt behind us and will be turning our attention to a remote, volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean: Jan Mayen. Lara travels to Jan Mayen in Tomb Raider: Underworld in search of Valhalla and Thor’s legendary hammer, Mjölnir, in order to put an end to Natla’s plans to bring about the “Seventh Age” (thought to be ... [Continue Reading]

August 10, 2013 // 7 Comments

Guest Blog: Gates of Hel: The Norse Cosmology Behind Tomb Raider: Underworld

In Tomb Raider: Underworld (2009), we follow Lara as she visits a number of Norse ‘underworlds’, scattered across locations including Mexico, the Mediterranean, and Thailand. Here she finds a series of artefacts allowing her to wield Thor’s legendary hammer Mjölnir, the key to opening the gates of Helheim, where she discovers the truth of her mother’s disappearance (following on from Legend’s plot). Unsurprisingly, the mythological and historical background of the game has been ... [Continue Reading]

August 6, 2013 // 8 Comments