Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

"A game with great potential, but has several major flaws."

Being a great fan of the Tomb Raider series, I was ecstatic when I came home with the latest sequel to Lara's adventures: The Angel of Darkness. Though the game is vastly superior to its predecessors in some aspects, in a few areas it lags behind other games of the time.

Graphics: 9/10
No complaints here. Lara's transformation into something that can be perceived as a human was amazing. The scenery, though often dank, tomb settings (Tomb Raider, anyone?), is very beautiful. Some NPCs look awkward, especially around the limbs. The clothing is interesting, but looks as if it were painted on a few of the NPCs. Lara's outfits are very nice however.

Sound: 8/10
Sound is excellent, all the creepy tomb/sewer noises were well done. I actually jumped a few times. Voice acting, particularly Lara, is well-acted compared to many other similar video games. My only complaint is the occasional metallic-sounding voice, but it might have been my speakers.

Controls/Gameplay: 4/10
This is the MAJOR flaw in the game. Controls - are - terrible. Lara's reaction is sluggish to the buttons, and she steers like a drunken elephant. Not that I've ever tried to steer a drunken elephant, or even encountered one. It saddened me that they removed the "tap back" function from previous TRs, allowing one to perform a successful running jump. Now one has to guess and it is quite difficult. I felt the jumping was a slight improvement over Tomb Raider III, but I hate having to save and reload after dying on a stupid jump. One level in particular where Lara has to escape an explosion is difficult because she turns around so slowly and likes running into walls.
In addition, another playable character was introduced. This person is even harder to control than Lara and often runs out of ammo for the one weapon the character has. Several bosses are fought with this character, and they are quite difficult indeed!

Plot: 6/10
Not to say that this game has a poorly constructed plot, it's just that it's like a blue whale in a fish bowl; it's too big for the game. A character from a past game is murdered and Lara is accused and must solve it, thus leading to a secret society, artifacts, and a mysterious villain. It actually has a better plot than the past games (I need to find this artifact in this country), but Core had to cut so much out of the story to meet Eidos's time constraints. It seems raw and unfinished, but had they spent more time on it, I'm sure this would have been the best Tomb Raider.

Overall: 7/10
This could have been an epic, beautiful game. However, the developers took what could have been good, and slapped it together into a glitchy, average (not bad) game. I would recommend the PC version over PlayStation 2 though, because there are patches for the PC. If you love Tomb Raider, buy it. If you aren't familiar with the series, rent it and see how you like it. It's a darker TR, and had it had a little more care and love put into it, it could have been great, instead of average.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/29/07