Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

"Best tomb raider game yet"

Introduction:

Mind you I did not play the previous games that much, mostly because I found them a little boring and never finished any one of them. This game was a bit different because there were a few new elements to this one. I will get into those a bit later but I just want to say that I liked this new installment in the long running series the best by far, that is not to say that I did not have a few things that I hated about it.

Game play:

Ok, the game play was similar to the others in the series. It did include some of the old moves from the previous games that were loved by many but the only problem is the game does not teach you all of the moves that Lara can do. You just have to figure them out, this can get annoying if you are trying it alone but with a little help from this web site you can easily find the move list. I loved the fact that there were new elements in game play like investigating something by walking around a town and talking to people. In some cases being able to choose some responses. This would also determine your game course, I loved that none liner fact. Basically, when I chose options while playing the game I was mostly nice but I did appreciate the fact that some of the options were not so kind. There was even some times were stealth came into play, I also liked that part of the game play. There are problems with this game in the game play department though. One of which, that so happens to be the most annoying thing, is the movement of Lara. To run you have to ram the joy stick forward and then Lara will take like three seconds just to get to a running speed. Plus she can just stand there and not do a thing until you jam the joystick a direction again. Other times I had another problem, which is when the game makes you get suck on an object and not be able to move. This causes the player to have to load from the last save, and will piss off any gamer that experiences it first hand. And still there are times when you can see through a wall or a part of Lara. These glitches seem to be evident in all the tomb raider games. Why it popped up for this game is beyond me, I mean common they delayed this game like three times right? My question is what were they doing when the delays were being made. Anyway recounting all my likes and dislikes of this aspect of the game I would give the game play a 7/10.

Story:

The subtitle of the game would lead you to believe that Lara had gone bad, hell even some of the previews of this game would lead you to believe this fact. But the truth is far from it. The true meaning of the subtitle in this games name is not reveled until near the end. I liked the fact that it was a title that could be taken two ways. I will not go too far into the games story, so as to not spoil it for anyone who has not played it yet, but I will say some things. The story revolves around Lara being chased by the cops for a crime that, we assume, she did not commit. There is another part to the story that revolves around a friend of Lara's that left her to die in Egypt, that last part in the story line. It was a great story in my opinion, and I could find no bad or too hard to figure out parts of it. Overall I would give that story a 9/10.

Music:

The music is well done in my opinion. I must admit though, I hardly ever notice the music in games as I am playing them, unless the game I am playing happens to be a role playing game. But to make a good review of the game I took a minute to notice the music in each area as I went through the game for the second time. I found it to make the correct mood for each different circumstance. Basically while I do not think the music effected the game as much as it might for an role playing game, it did suit each area nicely. I would give the music a lower score then I could have gotten just because the music did not really stand out as much as the other elements in the game did. Other then the music in the background you can also hear the moans and groans of Lara when she jumps or hangs on a ledge. These kind of sounds can be heard in any tomb raider game, so nothing new here. But there is the extra manly noises that come out of the new playable character in the game. I did like the fact that this new guy has a few male sounds of his own but still you would expect it to be like that, or else it would suck badly. So no points for that distinction. Music score of a 5/10.

Graphics:

The new graphics do stand out more than they did in the last tomb raider game, although I have just seen pictures of that game, I would say they have improved. Some walls in the game still look like they are fake, as well as other things in the game. Even though I would say the graphics have minoritly improved from the last editions in the series, they did not improve enough to even be mentioned in my opinion. All the new graphics display are some new outfits for Lara and new environments which look no better than some other ones that I have seen in some other tomb raider games. Basically I am saying do not expect a graphically jump from the last tomb raider game and this one. The cut scenes should have been CG instead of just uncontrollable normal graphics. This did not make me happy and did not give the game any kind of edge over the others like it should have. I would give the graphics a 6/10.

Replay Value:

This game has no replay value at all, I mean you get nothing for beating it the first time that would make you wish to replay. After you beat it the first time you will likely put it on your self and never take it back down, other than to show your friends. Because of this reason I would say to rent the game at your participating rental place and beat it with that copy and return it when you are done, forget about the game and move on. I would give the replay value the lowest score possible 1/10.

Overview:

Over all I would say this game should have been held back until most of the glitches were fixed. This game should have had better cut scenes and slightly longer game. It would not have taken long for an extra level or two to be added to this game before the release. But in my opinion this was still the best tomb raider yet, but not by far. Due to the fact that I believe the games music and replay value have less to do with the games overall rating, the game will get a higher rating then an average of all scores would have resulted in.

Game play: 7/10
Story: 9/10
Music: 5/10
Graphics: 6/10
Replay Value: 1/10
Overall: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/23/03, Updated 07/23/03