I recently played through Tomb Raider: Underworld and Uncharted 2 back-to-back. While I'll admit that the two games are very different in their approach and narrative style, there's no denying they share many gameplay and thematic roots. The original Tomb Raider, afterall, was one of the first games to integrate cinematic elements with gameplay, while Uncharted 2 is arguably the best example in gaming of how to do exactly that.

Although its gameplay owed more to Gears of War and Prince of Persia, the original Uncharted felt like a Tomb Raider game with a loveable rogue in place of Lara Croft and a story lifted straight from an (imaginary) Indiana Jones movie. Uncharted 2 is a refinement of the first game, moving it further from the Tomb Raider formula and cementing its label as the video game equivalent of an Indiana Jones-esque action adventure movie. The franchise no longer seems like a spiritual successor to the ailing Tomb Raider series; it now stands firmly in its own right.

But Uncharted is still the closest thing around to Tomb Raider, and with Lara Croft set for yet another reboot, it's highly likely the developers will be looking at other games for how to improve the previously-winning -- but now dated -- formula. Here's my list of things they could learn from the Uncharted games while maintaining a separate identity and play-style (or, to put it another way, without turning Tomb Raider into Uncharted with a female lead).

Believable and relatable hero

The original Tomb Raider game ushered in a revolution in character design. Lara Croft was smart, sassy, eloquent, and strong. She was a woman. And she was a revelation. Finally women had a game character they could relate to, instead of the usual big, burly, and dumb strong-men with equally big guns. But the character of Lara Croft was never given meaningful depth, and as her hip-to-waist ratio and breast size grew more ridiculous she seemed less like a role model and more like a teenage boy's wet dream. Together with the mass of clones and increasingly unrealistic female protagonists in other games, this alienated Lara from an audience looking for believable and relatable characters.

Enter Uncharted, a game with obvious similarities to Tomb Raider, and a hero that is both likeable and relatable from the very first moment you meet him. Nathan Drake is an everyman. Lara Croft is a "stone-faced acrobat." They come from very different worlds and take a very different approach to adventuring. The lesson here is not to make Lara more like Drake; it is to make Lara more human.

Dynamic camera system

The single criticism of the Tomb Raider series that everyone agrees on is its shoddy camera system. Eight games and a remake have been made in the main series. Not a single one of them has a decent camera system. For years this problem plagued third-person games in general, but, gradually, developers figured out how to do it right. Core Design never managed to make it work. Apparently Crystal Dynamics didn't get the memo, either. The camera system in Tomb Raider Underworld fights the player just as much as it did in every previous Tomb Raider game. Uncharted 2, on the other hand, has a fantastic camera system that very rarely causes the player problems. It actually adds to the experience, rather than detracting from it, with cinematic flourishes such as pans, cuts and zooms, and a zoomed-in over-the-shoulder view when aiming in combat.

Working combat mechanics

Combat is not the focus of Tomb Raider. Never has been; hopefully never will be. But the developers -- or maybe the publishers? -- insist on including combat in every Tomb Raider game. It used to be awkward but fun; now it's just bad. Enemies take way too many bullets to take down. The melee combat feels stiff. You spend a lot of time killing endangered wildlife. And encounters with the incredibly dim-witted human enemies require a painful amount of running in and out of cover, since there is no real cover system implemented.

Then there's the weapon system, which is just bizarre. You choose a weapon at the beginning of each stage, but can change at any time. Somehow that tiny backpack of Lara's can fit a PDA, journal, grappling hook, submachine gun, assault rifle, tranquilliser gun, shotgun, spear gun, and an unknown number of health packs. Why do the developers cling to these old ideas?

I would argue that Uncharted 2 has too much combat, but at least I can enjoy it. The cover system is fantastic, letting you shoot around corners and from behind tables, or while hanging from a cliff, or aiding you in performing a stealth kill on an unsuspecting foe. The melee combat is fun and simple-yet-intricate. And enemies go down in what feels like a reasonable amount of time. More than anything else, though, Uncharted 2 shows how combat can work in the kind of environments that you find in Tomb Raider.

Tomb Raider doesn't need more combat, á la Uncharted. It just needs better combat. And taking some ideas from Naughty Dog would be a great start.

Memorable (support) characters

The characters are the stars in Uncharted. Drake, Elena, Chloe, Sulley, Roman, Harry, Tenzin, and Zoran Lazarevic are all iconic, memorable characters that draw you into the story and action. You care about the good guys, feel shafted by the turncoats, and want to see the bad guys get what's coming to them. But who do you remember from the Tomb Raider games besides Lara? Natla? Winston (Lara's butler)? Chances are you barely (if at all) remember those two recurring characters, and can recall no-one else.

Memorable story (and dialogue)

Tied in to the forgettable characters of the Tomb Raider games, the story has ranged from terrible to mediocre-yet-interesting. It can't help that the canon has been revised numerous times, with Lara's history and motivations varying wildly depending on the game (or film). But that doesn't change the fact that there is little worth remembering in the story or dialogue of anything attached to the Tomb Raider name. You may remember environments, locales, action sequences, and insane boss-fights, but do you recall how they fit into the story? I certainly don't.

By contrast, the story in the Uncharted games could easily have come from an Indiana Jones movie. They follow a formula, but do so with such great panache that most people will happily sit back and enjoy the ride. Excellent characters, voice acting, and animation make a huge contribution here, creating a performance of the highest quality. And it's not just the big moments -- like betrayal, a major discovery, or a tender moment. The little touches to the storytelling during gameplay, which come mostly through dialogue and off-the-cuff remarks, are perfectly timed and appropriate.

This does not mean that Lara should start uttering sarcastic remarks about her situation or begin adventuring with a friend that constantly makes fun of her. Lara should be Lara -- whatever that means. But when she does talk it should be interesting. And when she raids tombs or sacred archaeological sites it should be with clear purpose and motivation.

nice view

More interactive environment/More consistent design

Tomb Raider's level design has always been excellent, but sometimes there are places that look accessible or objects that should be movable or breakable when in fact they are not. The series is infamous for its bugginess -- a consequence of every title being rushed out before it was complete. But invisible walls are bad design. Ledges that look grab-able but aren't are bad design. Any inconsistency in game logic is bad design. It is nearly impossible to avoid this entirely, but the Tomb Raider games tend to be very bad at establishing the boundaries of what is and is not possible, whereas the Uncharted games have thus far kept these problems at a minimum. If an adjacent area is inaccessible, it should look that way, and if you can somersault onto a wooden pole several metres away and fling your body from one tiny ledge up to another twice your height above, a small pile of rubble should pose no problem.

Inconsistent design is maddening
 

On the Flip-side

There's still plenty of room for improvement in the next Uncharted, though. And Tomb Raider does a few things better than Naughty Dog's star attraction. So here are three things that the next Uncharted could take from the Tomb Raider series.

Secrets that actually feel like secrets

I'll admit this was improved in Uncharted 2 -- it was really hard finding some of the in-game treasures. But the Tomb Raider games -- especially the first few titles -- have always made it seem like you've made an astonishing discovery, untouched for hundreds if not thousands of years, every time you find a secret area. It took a keen eye and thorough exploration to find these secrets, and they somehow felt more tangible than a small treasure sneakily placed in the environment.

The original Tomb Raider "secret found" chime

Wildlife

Does it strike anyone else as strange that the exotic locales Drake visits are almost devoid of wildlife? I'm not advocating a Tomb Raider style "let's kill some endangered species, just for the hell of it." Still, the environments would seem more realistic is there were more animals, birds, and other such beasts. Maybe it's asking too much of the hardware. Maybe it's too much work. But it'd certainly draw me further into the game world, just like it used to in Tomb Raider.

Larger-than-life mid-level bosses

Anyone who has played either of the first two Tomb Raider games will remember fighting a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was thrilling and completely unexpected. Tomb Raider 3 pulled the same trick with a giant stone statue with six arms and a sword in each hand. These weren't end of game bosses. In fact, such encounters tended to be relatively early in the game. Uncharted 2 made some strides towards this kind of heart-racing enemy encounter (I hate helicopters), but there was something extra in the use of creatures that are more ingrained in our human psyche as fearful.