Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

"Bugger..."

Tomb Raider. A series which is highly recognized even outside of gaming circles. With a new movie coming soon, the Tomb Raider name is definitely big. However, given the last few...subpar editions, it is no longer a very respected one as far as series go.

Enter Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. The first Next Generation entry into the series. Most fans of the series over the past year have been following new information on the title. Most of that info has been ''it's delayed...again.'' Countless delays usually mean one of two things: a genuinely well polished game fine tuned to near perfection or something that has been molding underneath the couch for a year. Sadly, Angel of Darkness seems to have fallen under the latter.

With that said, let's begin...

Gameplay (5/10):

Tomb Raider...what can I say. The tried and true formula hasn't changed much over the years. Sure, a move or two has been added in each installment, but it isn't much of a change. Angel of Darkness doesn't go too far from the old formula. The old grid based controls of the past (think Resident Evil...or a tank) has been dumped for movement from the camera perspective (think Devil May Cry or Metal Gear Solid.) Unfortunately, it doesn't work as well as in the two examples given. Often a camera angle shift will result in Lara running in a direction you probably don't want to go. If that direction happens to be a large drop, then...well. Crap.

Controls this time around feel, at least to me, rather sluggish at times. More than a few instances death came about due to Lara deciding to jump seconds after I press the button. The controls themselves take a lot of getting used to and aren't the most comfortable in the world. If you're familar with the previous installments it won't be nearly as bad. But new comers could not want to endure the learning curve to get into the necessary grove.

Combat and puzzles have always been the core of Tomb Raider. Puzzles more so, but we'll start with the combat. Gone are the dual infinite ammo pistols of the past. Well what the hell do I do if I'm out of ammo? New is a simple combat system and stealth kills. Stealth kills go about the same as games like Metal Gear Solid or Tenchu, although not nearly as flashy and impressive as the latter. Sneak up to an unsuspecting baddie and you'll break their neck, instantly killing them in a nice silent fashion. Also present is hand to hand combat as an option. This is performed only with a single button. Tap the button once and Lara will perform a single blow. Keep on a tappin' and she'll bust out a combo. Hold the button longer and you'll get the same effect, but with some kickin'. While a nice in concept, half the time you'll be faced with a guy that decides ''hey, I've got a gun'' and you end up injured from you're fancy footwork. Gunplay on the other hand is basically the same as it's always been. Auto aiming is done for you, so lock on and blast away. Not very deep or exciting, but whatever floats your boat.

Puzzles have always been the core of the series. While the setting may be not in tombs the entire time (don't worry, it eventually gets around to the series' namesake) there are a bunch of puzzles to cover. Although, for often than not these prove frustrating or monotonous. It's the usual Tomb Raider affair most of the time. Though there isn't much push a bunch of blocks around type of puzzles though.

Now let's get to why gameplay quite frankly is stifled. Forget the sluggish, unresponsive controls. This game has more bugs than a roach motel. I'm wondering if they even play tested this thing. I'm going to say right now the later third of the game is a lot more polished than the first half or so. But to have half a terribly buggy, sloppy game and half a mediocre at best one is to say the least disappointing. I've had at least eight cases of the game just locking up and having to be reset. Once I restarted and had...I don't even know how to describe it...some kinda pipe thing stuck through Lara. Right...

Now once or twice I can deal with, even the best games have their bad days, but when it gets close to a dozen: something is wrong with the picture. I've also had the game on several occasions just decide to load up and where I last saved for the hell of it. I'd like to continue the game, not reload. Thanks anyways Mr. Glitch. Graphical glitches have happened quite a bit as well. Textures messed up, rooms not loading. A few instances I just feel through the damn floor. Slowdown is also a problem quite a bit for a decent portion of the game. Much like in ZOE2 when destroying twenty enemies on screen at once and explosions litter the sky, the game begins to crawly. However I'm not destroying dozens of enemies. I'm running down a hallway. The game may run at 60 FPS, but these instances happened a bit too often for my tastes and messes with the experience in general.

A word of warning, I've also encountered a fatal glitch around halfway through. Fatal glitch as in if I only had one save file, I'd be screwed. For a game in development and constantly delayed for so long, the amount of bugs, glitches, and slowdown is inexcusable. Save often if you are going to try and make your way through the bug infested early parts of the game. Don't try to cough it up to my PS2 either, it hasn't had a single problem in two years. Unless AOD is possessed by evil spirits, it is sloppy programming to blame.

This time around Lara is also accompanied by a second playable character, Kurtis. He's only playable at a few select points and plays quite similar to Lara. His sections tend to be a bit more action oriented than Lara's.

Story (7/10):

The story this time around is a lot better than previous titles. Though that's not saying much considering many of the old Tomb Raider's stories were ''find some ancient relic, have some evil human rival trying to get said relic for evil purpose, fight some ancient evil.'' Well, not exactly but you get the idea.

This time around, Lara is framed for the murder of Von Croy and is on the run. Lara has killed hundreds of people, but this person is a plot related death, so it's extra bad. Lara has to contact someone upon Von Croy's last wishes before he croaked. Insert the usual blend of conspiracies, ancient spooky stuff, and the like. While nothing much to write home about, it does serve as something fresh from the boring plotlines of the past games.

Each stage is a lot more story oriented than previous installments. You usually have a objective in areas and not just ''get to the exit'' like most of the previous games. It isn't great, but it ain't bad either.

Graphics (7/10):

No doubt the biggest improvement in Angel of Darkness are the graphics. Leaps and bounds above its PS1 predecessors, it still isn't top notch stuff. Character models are pretty good, although not the most realistic. Lara looks more like her CG self of the past, but as far as that looking like a realistic character...it isn't happening. Overall, the character models were quite nice though. Designs were for the most part very good. Some of the creature designs were quite imaginative and unique. Animation for Lara and the other characters in the game are very nice as well. Yes, her boobs bounce. No, I'm not going to give a higher opinion of the graphics for it.

Lighting is pretty nice and there are some nice particle effects, particularly the snow in a certain area is pretty nice (although again...slowdown). Early on in the game however, everything feels kind of blah and unimpressive. The early areas are quite drab and not the most interesting to waltz through. Also, the beginning parts of the game have frequent, annoying loading though the different subareas of the stages. It's quite a pain in a few areas. But, it gets much better in these areas as the game goes on. The later stages are quite impressive and have some nicely designed architecture All in all, it isn't the greatest. Certain not bad at all.

But if you're just around to stare at Lara's butt, then it gets the job done. You little perv you.

Sound (8/10):

The music score of the game is by far the best in the series. Nice orchestrated musical scores. Music in Tomb Raider games hasn't been...hell...I don't even remember any of the music except for the time theme in the first game. But the music this time around is very nice indeed.

Voice acting is pretty good. Lara sounds quite good and is very chatty. Instead of going to an inaccessible area and saying ''no'', she'll give you an idea of what you should do about it if you're stuck. Sound effects for most things, gunshots, and just general sounds are nicely done and fit very well. I was quite impressed with the sound work done with this game. Although, I did have music glitch up once or twice. There was also a sound glitch where Lara decided if she was going to die, EVERYONE was going to hear about it. Oh well, nothing's perfect.

Replay (5/10):

The game as a whole took a good twelve hours to complete on average. Hardcore fans might be able to best it in less. Newbies a few hours more. But you get the idea. I'm sure if you're a diehard Tomb Raider fan, you'll be itching to give it another go when you complete Lara's newest adventure. However, I found very little incentive to go through again. With little reason to give it another go, replay is all depending on if you want to do it all again. The game itself is pretty linear, so you won't find much new on a second playthrough. Still, knock yourself out if you want to. Just don't fall through the floor.

Rent or Buy?

I'd most definitely have to say this is a rental at best. The bugs and glitches present just crushed a lot of enjoyment that could have come from this title. Frequent, frustrating deaths and sloppy controls just further my stance at rental. For long running fans of Ms. Croft, I'm sure this is a worthy investment. But for the casual player, free-up a weekend and prepare for some frustration.

Finals (5/10 not an average):

I'm going to be blunt, this game was not ready for release. This must be the most bug ridden game of the year thus far and a huge disappointment given the development time. I tried to give the Tomb Raider series a chance to redeem itself from the big boobed cash cow it was becoming. But all that was delivered was a big boobed disappointment. Maybe one day Core will correct their mistakes and spend their development time better. But for now, I'm thanking the lenient return policy at the store I purchased Angel of Darkness. Bugger...

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/03, Updated 06/23/03