Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

Graphics and Sound

The entire game has been given a facelift, no complete overhaul actually, since it is making its first appearance on the PS2 game console. Now, while this does mean that the graphics are much prettier and far more detailed, this becomes a huge problem during gameplay. Why? Well, the engine doesn't seem to be able to handle the particle effects in the game. On the one hand, you enter a room and see lovely plumes of steam or drops of rain, but then Lara starts running in slow-mo because the game hangs up. It literally looks like she is in bullet time and it is painfully irritating. Personally, I would have preferred the grainy graphics of the PSX to this. Seriously. Another downfall is the fact that the game is incredibly dark in some areas. I had to adjust the brightness on my television and max it out to be able to see, especially in the dismal industrial area that starts off the game. Although the levels are very attractively rendered, it is a continuous irritation that there are load times each and every time you enter a new area. No, I am not talking about a new 'area', but if you walk from one street to another in the Parisian Ghetto, load time. Ugh.

Now for the good stuff. Yes, the game's graphics are lovely. The cut scenes are well done and the voiceovers are excellent. Background music is fabulous as always and it was quite a ways into the game before I heard that familiar Tomb Raider theme song remixed into something new and fresh. Of special note is the groovy techno mix you'll encounter in Le Serpent Rouge, however when I grew tired of the tune and went to turn it off via the switch I turned it on with, it only started over from the beginning of the tune. Ugh. Despite this, Angel of Darkness earns high points in the sound department.

Gameplay

And thus, the game begins. The first level basically gives you the run-down on Lara's moves. The way she controls is very different from previous iterations, but more on that later. She can still jump, shimmy, hang, dive, roll, push and pull objects and all that stuff, but a few new things have been added.

First off, Lara can now 'level up' her attributes. You might be running about the game and find a box you need to push out of the way. She'll say 'I'm don't think I'm strong enough to move that' or something similar. So then she goes about her business and comes to a door on a cabinet. You press the action button and she forces it open and says 'I feel stronger'. So now, she has 'leveled up' and she can now go move the box. Ok, this is just lame. Super lame. I can see where they were going, attempting to integrate some RPG elements into the story, but instead, it just ends up being silly.

Then there is the newly added grab bar so that Lara's time hanging from something is limited by this. While you might think this would be a cool addition, it isn't, mainly because of the wonky control of the game, which I'll fully address in Game Mechanics. When you grab onto a vine or a pipe and have to shimmy across, you are given a certain length of time. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try or scream at Lara to move, she just hangs there. Not moving an inch. This is terribly frustrating and I can see no rhyme or reason for it. The game just has very non-responsive control at times. What times? Try every time you need her to run. The idea is for the analog stick to be truly analog. A gentle press to walk and a firm push in the right direction to run. But when you attempt to get Lara to run, she takes several seconds to go from walk to run, and even then, she merely saunters. Oftentimes, this is too late and whatever you needed to run from has already injured you. This is a very bad thing. Sure, later on down the line, Lara gets one of her lower body attributes and is then able to sprint, but what is this? In previous Tomb Raider games, Lara could sprint without a magical upgrade. Boo, hiss.

In Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, the developers tried a little something new. There is another playable character named Kurtis. Now, Kurtis doesn't have attribute upgrades, mind you, but maybe this is a good thing. He comes on the scene at certain times, so he is not selectable from the start.

Ok, let's talk about Stealth mode. In this mode, Lara is able to execute the move you always wanted her to be able to execute in previous games - the stealthy kill. She can go into Stealth mode, sneak up behind an enemy and crack their neck under your command - at least that's how it is supposed to be. What actually happens is this - you might see a guard or someone that you want to stealth kill so as not to attract attention. You'll walk up behind him, however if he is also walking, you have to chase him until he stops. He doesn't seem to notice that you bump into him if he stops unexpectedly. Did I mention that you look like an ape when you are in Stealth mode? Arms curved out to the sides - I actually laughed at her the first time I saw it. Embarrassing. Anyway, so he finally stops and you hit the action button, waiting for that impressive kill. She might respond. She might not. He might start walking away again. Who knows? It's bad, bad, bad.

Another problem I had with the game was storyline progression, or should I say incongruous storyline progression. Say you decide to do certain mini missions in the game in a different order than the game would have you do them. That is fine, no real problem in storyline progression, however if you decide to visit a location and speak to an NPC, Lara will ask dumb questions about events that have already happened. Why couldn't someone have programmed a flag in so this wouldn't happen? It was just really disappointing.

Speaking of NPC's, you can choose different things to say to them when you encounter them and this will affect how they react to you. For instance, early on in the game, you go to the apartment of Madame Carvier, a friend of Werner's. If you are rude to her, she will not give you Werner's notebook, which he left in her possession so she could give it to you. The notebook is valuable because it contains Werner's notes on the situation he called Lara to help with in the first place, along with updates as you accomplish tasks. If you play nice, you get the notebook. In the end, she still calls the cops on you and you have a few minutes to escape, but if she doesn't give you the notebook, you can just steal it from her apartment. Same ending, just a different way to go about getting there. At least you aren't permanently penalized for saying something stupid.

Difficulty Level

Game Mechanics

A new feature that has been added is the appearance of a hand icon whenever you encounter something you can interact with. This might be a cabinet you can open or a pickup on the ground. In some of the really dark areas, this comes in handy.

Now for the glitch festival. For starters, I mentioned that I tried to turn off the techno song at Le Serpent Rouge, well what I didn't mention was that the first time I tried this, certain objects in the game turned momentarily lime green and the screen faded to an oatmeal color. The music was still going and I could still play the game, although I couldn't see anything. What is up with that? There was the time I jumped out onto a platform and landed just fine, then of her own volition, mind you, Lara begins grabbing at the air, and actually pulls herself up onto some other imaginary platform in mid air. Then she fell and died. And I was happy, because she had made me angry. Then, as she hit the ground, she emitted a short scream. Then after a second or two of being lifeless and crumpled on the ground, a long, blood-curdling scream came from the now dead Lara. Oh boy. Then there was the time she shimmied down a pipe and climbed onto a ledge. So far, so good. But then, she begins to levitate up the side of the building, of her own volition once again. I watched in shock and disgust only to see her feet disappear at the top of the screen. The camera locked into first person view and I tried to look around and couldn't. Nice, huh? Oh, and for fun, try and make the camera come close to her head so you can see only her eyeballs and teeth. Skeleton Lara. Freaky! I am scarred for life.

On the upside, you have the ability to save anywhere you want. This is good because you need to creep and save with a game like this. On the downside, this is another indication of cheapness. If the game wasn't sure a pain to play, you wouldn't need to creep and save. Also, the load times are incredibly slooooow and happen often, as mentioned above. Bummer.

In conclusion (yes, finally), Lara doesn't control the same way as she did in earlier games, and I won't complain about change. However, if you are going to revamp an engine (or start from scratch), when you release it, make it right. I would have preferred that this game not see the light of day for another year or two if it would have meant that Angel of Darkness would have been worth playing. As it is, it isn't. Even for a hardcore fan like myself, I am hard pressed to even recommend this game to a collector. Wait for the bargain bin. It won't be long.