About as complex as a Bruckheimer film
Lara Croft has been spending the last few years in hiding. Lara’s long time friend, Professor Von Croy calls her to Paris, as a deal he accepted has begun to go horribly wrong. Von Croy was commissioned by a man named Eckhardt to research the five Obscura paintings, 15th century pieces of art with mysterious powers. Von Croy’s associates have all been murdered, but worst of all, Lara is on hand to see Von Croy get shot and killed. Due to her memory going fuzzy (plot device), Lara can’t remember the events of the evening, but now she is on the run from the authorities. Did she shoot him? Did he commit suicide? Was he murdered? It’s now up to Lara to find the real culprit, and clear her name.
Like wrestling a crocodile
We’re just going to be frank from the outset and say that this game is the result of what happens when businessmen and games development mix. In fact, if someone came up to me in the streets tomorrow and said that Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is a finished game, I’d laugh at them. Angel of Darkness feels as if it needed at least another year in development, but the fact of the matter is that Eidos forced Core to rush the game out for the end of Eidos’ fiscal year to please its shareholders. Of course, Eidos did attempt to rush Angel of Darkness to stores last Christmas, only to have the game be rejected by Sony Computer Entertainment – and seeing how bad the game is at the moment, you can only begin to wonder how bad a game must be for Sony to reject it, considering some of the turds they have released and approved for release over the years.
Angel of Darkness is presented in that whole Hollywood style that English developers (mainly Sony ones, but this is still a PS2 console exclusive) seem to love so much, and that we seem to hate so much. Direction of these cutscenes is fine for the most part, though they interrupt the flow of the gameplay and still have several glitches in them, such as sounds jumping and repeating themselves and the game crashing for no reason. The bugs continue once you reach the gameplay portions of the game, but you’re met with a much more sinister and powerful adversary - the control method.
Trying to control Lara in Angel of Darkness is a constant battle - it feels like you’re trying to wrestle Hulk Hogan in the sense that no matter what you do, it’s always going to overpower you, and then screw you over. The control type is the old point and aim style of games such as Resident Evil – moving the stick from side to side pivots the character, and pushing up on the stick makes the character move forward and so on. The main thing that makes Angel of Darkness’ control more frustrating than any other game using this method is the way that forward movement is handled. By holding up on the analog stick, Lara will start walking forward and then eventually break into a run. It just doesn’t work when you match it up to what the game is asking you to do – acrobatic moves over rooftops where one false move will result in death and a 60 second load time, moving around confined spaces and so on. The huge bugs in the game, such as suddenly falling through floors, and not grabbing edges when the button is pressed do not help either.
On top of all of this, the drastic change in gameplay mechanics we were supposed to see for this iteration of the series is non existent. It’s Tomb Raider in the city, with the same old fetch the key and move the box puzzles, with a few added fetch object x for person y quests. A few changes have been made to existing parts of the gameplay, such as the fact all guns have limited ammo, as well as the new grip meters. Performing certain things in the game will make Lara stronger, which will allow her to hold onto edges for longer when she needs to shimmy across them. Of course, these gains in strength are scripted, so if you miss one of them, you’re essentially screwed later on. The quest itself is actually pretty long, but given the fact that you’ll become completely and utterly frustrated with the controls after the first 15 minutes, I don’t foresee players getting too much bang for their buck.
As smooth as White Water Rafting
Angel of Darkness flaunts some very nice visuals in places, but these nice graphics come at a price. The environments are mostly big and detailed with plenty of special effects, but this has a negative effect on the frame rate, which can completely bottom out during points of the game, rendering it unplayable (and confirming our claims that it’s like a beta). Lara has received a significant boost in the number of polygons in her model, especially around the…uh… bust area. She still looks completely unrealistic, both in her proportions and her stupidly designed facial look. She may be an icon, but Core now has the power to make Lara look a lot better than the 32-bit hussy she resembles.
The aural presentation of Angel of Darkness shines in some areas, but is dull in others. The impressive musical score was performed by the prestigious London Philharmonic Orchestra. The action sound effects are intensive, and sound brilliant over Dolby Pro Logic II. Unfortunately, the game is let down by some of its voice acting. Some of the actors are good, portraying excellent copies of thick European accents, while others, particularly the voice of Lara are dull, lacking in enthusiasm and drag down the quality of the game. The script is also very dull and riddled with problems. You are given the opportunity to say certain things during the flow of a conversation that are supposed to affect the outcome of this conversation, yet regardless of what you say to the character, you get what you need, e.g. character x is pissed off with Lara and asks her to leave and shows her the door, yet the next second they are standing in the kitchen, all happy and cheery, and Lara gets what she wants. This provides more evidence to suggest that this game is not finished.
Never again
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is not a finished product by any means. The fact that the game had to be rushed out for the sake of Eidos’ financial statements confirms my prior beliefs on the series and its characters; Lara Croft is nothing but a big bosomed, tight assed, completely unrealistic looking cash cow, who gets tarted up and whored out every year, just in time for Christmas (or in this case, in time to meet the end of their fiscal year). Rather than the rehashes we’ve been subjected to since 1997, we’ve been given an unfinished load of tosh that didn’t really show any promise anyway. Don’t buy it. Don’t rent it. Avoid playing it.
They don't seem right, but then they could be, just doesn't seem right though. Anyone know for sure?
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