Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Angel of Darkness

The Good
Tomb Raider: AoD features an all new graphical engine capable of many many polygons and beautiful environments, richly detailed with fluid animation and crisp texturing. Along with its new look, TR: AoD sports a snazzy storyline that pits Lara in the middle of a murder mystery. It's 'whodunnit' and the star is everybody's favorite busty heroine. From the CGI to the settings, it's all very well done with a consistent style through the whole game, clearly influenced by a particular film debut. The rest of the game has stayed pretty familiar throughout, from running, jumping and shooting, to exploring with intense music, clear sound effects and some of the highest heights imaginable. TR: AoD delivers the traditional experience that most TR fans want(ed) with a new sort of flair and gusto that shows, Core Design and Eidos are trying to give a damn.

Finally, the best point about the newest installment has to be--no, not her curves, though they look fantastic--the save feature. I like being able to save anywhere. I'm primarily a gamer upon computer, thus this speaks to me. To all game developers the world over, save anywhere!

The Bad
TR: AoD brings to life frustration unbound. With fluid animation, Core lost control. Not that Lara was ever the most controllable character on the console, but TR: AoD shows that with a little love, any character can be turned into an Analog nightmare. Countless times you will find yourself flying to your doom at the bottom of a pit due to a last minute twitch of the thumb which sent Lara careening towards a wall, rather than the ledge. Though Core has tried to deal with this possibility by making the 'grabbable area' very forgiving so you could be at a fifteen degree angle and still manage to latch on. Sometimes it's no help though.

Core also tried to bring a new gameplay element to life in TR in the form of Role Playing. This almost worked because Lara is a 'detective' of sorts, thus it fits the role. Unfortunatly, since the game is set in Paris that meant they needed voice actors to mimick a french accent, and we all know that the TR series has never had the best voice actors at the best of times. Lines are choppy, hurried and sometimes down right annoying. Lara was played expertly, however, with a convincing british tounge, but no british lingo. Too bad.

In addition to the Role Playing game play, Core implemented a sort of attribute upgrade system, wherein Lara could improve her abilities. Having been out of the Tomb Raiding game for some time, Lara evidently needs to brush up on her skills. Thus at certain points you will increase your strength in certain ways. I decided this was something I didn't like because of the way it was implemented. Instead of having it increased through pickups or experience points, or some such, Lara is in fact limited until she reaches a point in the game and the attribute upgrade is used as a way to prevent the player from reaching a point without fullfilling an objective. Examples include doors that can't be opened until you pull a lever in a room that activates something else entirely. In other words, all the running and jumping is great but only after you pull the lever does Lara 'feel stronger'. I can understand the reasoning behind this from a game design standpoint, but overall, it is simply ridiculous.

The Aritificial Intelligence in TR: AoD is shit. For lack of a better description, it is absolute garbage. There is in fact, no AI. There is PacMan intelligence. Am I being too harsh? I'll cite an example: I climbed down a ladder to get away from a guard. The guard, as I was climbing away, withdrew his sidearm and began firing at where I was upon the ladder. He emptied his clip into the thin air that I left in my wake. He then reloaded, and began firing again. After that clip, he reloaded and fired... and reloaded, and fired. This continued. Finally, after me and my girlfriend had had a good laugh about this, I climbed the ladder, at my girlfriend's behest, and killed the guard.

Oh, the stealth, I'll note is a nifty addition. Though we caught some of this gameplay in Chronicles, it is much improved. Be warned, however, it is a far cry from Metal Gear. Hell, it isn't even Tenchu.

The Bottom Line
Do you like Tomb Raider? Yeah, me too, got time to kill? Rent it.

The Good
I finished playing Angel of Darkness only 5 minutes ago, and I must admit that I enjoyed quite a lot of it. I feel elated that I actually did it! And using a laptop keyboard no less! Don’t ask me how I managed it because I got so very frustrated and almost quit at least 4 times. Keep in mind that this is my very first Tomb Raider game and my inexperience with action games like this was probably the reason for my anguish!

I played the fully patched version of Angel of Darkness, remember, so I don’t know how many things were changed from the original release. That said, I agree with some of the comments made by other reviewers, but not all of them.

The story stands out as the best thing about AoD and what kept me playing. An evil man intends to reincarnate the only remaining member of an ancient and potentially deadly race (the angel of darkness, I presume). Of course, Lara is the only one who can stop that from happening. Although the plot is not new and has been used many times (in movies as well as games), it is still good and is told well in this game.

While graphics are nothing exceptional, and occasional programming and design glitches were noticed, I still thought they were nicely done overall – colorful, varied and interesting. Of course Lara looks good, but so do the other characters.

And speaking of the NPCs, there are plenty of them – and the actors do a fine job in portraying them – especially the actress who voiced Lara. I got a real feel for Lara’s personality from that voice and from the dialog written for her part. I was surprised how well the lip-syncing came off – very good indeed.

The musical score adds quite a lot to the mood of the moment and the game in general. Sound effects blend in and are appropriate to your location or the actions you are taking. (Lara’s screams as she plummeted to her death time after time will be remembered for a long while. Ha!)

As far as action elements go, I expected more tomb “raiding” and fighting off monsters –and while there was some of that, not nearly the hack and slash I thought it would be. Close-combat moves (supposedly introduced in this game), were great and stealth was fun to do. The majority of gameplay is spent jumping over bottomless pits to far-away platforms, climbing up ladders and walls and shimmying across ledges. “Adventure” type puzzles were more mechanical than anything else – pulling levers in a certain order, for instance. Lara’s “power-ups” were simply a means of stopping you from doing something too early until she became “stronger”.

The interface is fairly simple. A touch of the ESCape key puts you back at the main menu for saving, loading, options and exit. Pressing the TAB key accesses your weapons and items. Loading your weapons with ammo “manually” seemed like an unnecessary step to me, though. If you didn’t plan ahead, you could run out mid-fight! (Why not just equip the ammunition automatically?) Not counting the one Quick Save slot, there are only 14 save game slots, but I found that adequate. The only annoying part about the interface was when I chose to Exit – it asked me two times if I was sure!

I chose the full installation so I didn’t need either of the 2 discs in my drive while I played. Nice. AoD has a decent length and it took quite awhile for me to finish (especially with my fumbling fingers). And the end game sequence was great!

The Bad
Yes - the game has some bugs, and it even crashed to my desktop a few times on me. I was able to continue afterwards, though, so no big deal. (Sometimes I wished I had saved more often, but that’s not the game’s fault!)

Yes - Lara (and Kurtis) run too slowly, which is especially noticeable during one or two of the major fight sequences. “Running” actually starts out with a few walking steps before going into a sort of trot. Although Lara can eventually sprint faster, she must be running first.

Yes - the camera angles are weird at times, especially if you have no clue where you want to go.

In three of the “levels”, you get to play the part of Kurtis Trent, a street punk type of guy who becomes Lara’s ally. Rather than being an asset, though, he came off as the opposite – clunky, unattractive and, well, haphazard. I think they should have left him out completely – especially since Lara could have done all of what he did – even better. He has some “special abilities” and one great weapon, but you don’t control when those assets are used. Unfortunate.

Bosses are supposed to be the hardest, but because of your character’s movement deficiencies (mostly in running and dodging), at least one of them is nearly impossible to kill. (Even though there are PS2 cheats, too bad Eidos didn’t create any for the PC version. A god mode would have been a godsend, pardon the pun.)

Otherwise, it didn’t help that the manual was incomplete, as if it was printed before the interface design was finished. Some of the keyboard keys are not explained at all, or explained incompletely. There are dual uses for several of the keyboard keys of which there is no mention in the manual. (For instance, your Sprint key is used also for “looking around” (sort of a freeze camera), and the “duck down” key is used for exiting some special zoom-in and computer screens.) The manual also mentions an option to turn subtitles on or off. In my game, subtitles were set on permanently and nothing appeared in the options about them.

The Bottom Line
I can’t compare this Tomb Raider with others in the series, because this is my first one. If you’re like me, you’ll find the story engaging enough to hold your interest and keep playing. Alongside practice, patience, persistence and luck, thank the stars for walkthroughs and one saved game, which helped me tremendously, I’ll admit. (Kudos to you, Stella!)

As a game, Angel of Darkness (patched) has more good going for it than bad, in my opinion. It’s worth playing .. period.

The Good
By the end of The Last Revelation, Croft was merely left for rubble, and in Chronicles, just a slew of memories. Thus, Murti Schofield was hired by Core Design to rewrite the series for a new generation. The result was Angel of Darkness, in which Schofield opted for a Gothic renovation of Tomb Raider inspired by both noir and Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen developed by Silicon Knights. The orchestrated score featured in Angel of Darkness sounds phenomenal, and was composed by Peter Connelly and Martin Iveson, and performed by The London Symphony Orchestra.

The Bad
Once Crystal Dynamics took over the franchise they would not continue with Schofield’s proposed sequel entitled The Lost Dominion. Sneaking around the Louvre like Solid Snake was a change of character for Lara Croft. Additionally, maneuvering Lara was made even more awkward with broken mechanics that were rarely reminiscent of the original Tomb Raider. Eventually, the player would discover the Tomb of Ancients beneath The Louvre. However, much of the game was spent conversing with characters in a Parisian Ghetto via dialogue trees straight out of Funcom’s The Longest Journey.

The Bottom Line
Due to the commercial failure of Angel of Darkness, Schofield literally burned the game’s manuscript, which inevitably prompted Crystal Dynamics to reboot Tomb Raider. To make up for Schofield’s proposed sequel, Eidos shoehorned novel adaptions such as The Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick, and two other novels that are loosely tied with Angel of Darkness. Despite the interesting direction and presentation, Angel of Darkness did not live up to its hype.

The Good
EVERYTHING!!!!! Of course the environments are incredible, the sound is stellar, the movement is PRECISE, saving at any moment is extremely helpfull, and lara has never looked so good. Everything about this game is CRISPY!!! Any of you crackheads that can't seem to get a handle on the movement should stick to TETRIS or something that requires minimal "touch". If you are a true fan of Tomb Raider you should appreciate how far this game has come. Maybe you need a reminder?, by sticking in the first one and comparing. I can't seem to put this game down once I dive into it night after night.

The Bad
There are very few slow downs that I have come across and I can't find anything that I don't like. Instead of being impatient with the controls just chill out and take your time, this game needs to be savoured for the greatness involved.

The Bottom Line
If you like quick, dull games STAY AWAY!! This game rips!! I have not once regretted shelling out the $65.

The Good
Tomb Raider(TR) has truly evolved into something to be impressed at. From the first TR, to hit retail on the Sega Genesis platform, till TR: Angel of Darkness(AoD) I have been a huge fan. I won't comment on how I flipped when they decided to turn my favorite video game heroine into a full motion picture. Let's go over the basics, shall we:

1. Graphics: These were done with bloody good taste. Eidos has used the power of the PS2 engine and blasted out the epitome of 'lifelike'. Lara Croft is no longer that boxy, archaic character from TR1 but now a smooth-lined, sexy, and real game character. The background had me feeling as if I was actually visiting these place and I wanted to explore every nook and cranny before moving on to the next level/task at hand. Great Job! 10 out of 10 pts.

2. Sound: Absolutely amazing! But I must say that since the first TR I have always been a great fan of the music employed to better tell Lara's story. It's great to hear how it has also improved over the years. I believe that, along with the motion picture music, they should make a soundtrack for those who truly enjoy the instrumentals. Like myself. The character voices did leave little to be desired and I am quite sure that some of them could have been done better. But, let's be serious, the only person that we really want to hear, being TR fans, is Lara Croft. I can give nothing but two thumbs up to whoever did her voice. Stellar performances! 10 out of 10.
   
   The Bad
   To be fair and well rounded, I will mention somethings that did irk my nerves. To be quite honest, not every game is perfect and I do believe that is one of the why sequels are made to the originals. Not only do sequels improved on what is already great, but they serve to introduce new missions, characters, levels, and fix bugs and add needed changes. That is precisely what was done in the TR series. It's quite obvious to anyone who is an avid TR fan. With that in mind, lets continue:

Artificial Intelligence(AI): In some cases, Artificial Idiots. I believe that it is quite difficult to actually make an intelligent NPC. They follow specific programs codes that can be changed by the character in a limited way. Basically, if you do this, the NPC will do that, so on and so forth. At one point during gameplay, near the beginning of the game, I had to sneak up on a guard whose back was facing me. To test the guard, I ran up to him with guns drawn. No response. I then proceeded to walk to his front and, facing him, shot the guard in his head for being so stupid. Initially an 8 out of 10 but I understand the difficult task the developers have so the final is 9 out of 10.

Controls: This too has evolved. For the better and a little towards the worse. The game is very involved and require a bit of reading to the get control assignments down. This is usual with most games of the RPG, action, adventure, etc., genre. The controls in TR:AoD were, honestly, annoying. I am justified in this because I have been playing from the start and I know the older controls. I am not too happy that they used the analog nightmare for direction instead of the D-pad. With one wrong move of your thumb Lara is sent to her death, or you miss a ledge, or something else happens that you just did not want to happen. I want the developers to bring the controls back to the Tomb Raider: Chronicles era. Weighed and found wanting: 5 out of 10.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, there were two reviews done before this one that accurately purposefully went over both extremes and opinions of the game. I felt that in one of the reviews, to label someone as a 'crackhead' because they don't like the controls, was uncalled for. He was a little to zealous in his efforts but I understand the point he was trying to make. The other review was very professional, went over most points in detail, and refrained from name calling. I appreciated his opinions as well. I stand like this: Eidos is always exceeding itself. The first TR, I thought, was an extraordinary achievement and they keep coming better and better. I would have preferred they stick to the Chronicles controls but one has to understand that with sequels, and such, comes change. With practice, anyone can handle it. Everything else was great and because of love my girl, Lara, so much, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness gets at 10 out of 10!