Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

"Not bad, yet not good."

Alas, the newest Tomb Raider game, finally released after monthes and monthes of anticipation. A game that I've been looking forward to for some time now, actually.

Okay, on to some basics.

Control

Chalky. The controls are very sticky nonetheless. You need to press un-necessarily hard on the control pad to get Lara to do things for you, and sometimes she won't do what you want (i.e jump off a ledge instead of climb down a ledge). The controls are also very different from Angel of Darkness's predessors, with new controls and conditions. Very frusterating if your a Tomb Raider veteran. Don't worry too much about controls though, you will eventually get used to the chalkyness of them, or at least I did.

Graphics

Ooh la la. Angel of Darkness' graphics are definitely up to par with modern technology. Lara is now nice and smooth, and her hair actually moves fluently now. Elements appear natural and architecture appears realistic. Kudos. (Although I do not approve of how much mascara Lara wears now).

Gameplay

I've noticed several bugs while playing Angel of Darkness. The game tends to freeze unexpectantly from time to time, as well as lag (on a perfectly brand new CD). On another note, the game has also introduced several new death poses for Lara =D. For instance, in the first scenerio, I couldn't figure out how to jump pass a bloody hole in the ground and choked to death on a SWAT Team's smoke screen. I fell to ground and slid into the hole I was trying to jump over. Hilarious. *ahem* Gameplay is overall satisfactory, gameplay is smooth aside from occasionally lag. The new 'strength' system isn't bad either, but I can see hours of frusteration approaching because of it.

Wander the streets of Paris freely.

Replay

Uh. Well. If you like restarting a game and entering new voice responses, I guess you could say there was some good replay value to it. Then again, you could collect all the items, all the weapons, and blah. In the end, not much replay value. Tomb Raider ain't that kind of game.

Overall

Hrm. Well. I'd say rent before you buy. A lot of people are not happy with the game, yet some are. It all depends on your preference. If you can stand the chalky controls, Lara's new (and not so good) voice actress and some bugs, then you should be fine. As I said, rent before you buy.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/03, Updated 06/23/03