Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness Review
7.0
Format PlayStation 2
Developer Core Design
Publisher Eidos Interactive
Genre Adventure, Action
4-Jul-2003 Welcome back, Lara, where have you been? You could have sent us a postcard. Story-wise we know you were trapped in a tomb, abandoned, but not forgotten. We knew you would escape, you just had to. Yet, we've waited... and waited.
Next-gen sequels to Gran Turismo, Metal Gear and Grand Theft Auto have been and gone, but still no sign of you, Lara. We even went to the movies to watch Angelina Jolie in your support, but really we wanted to be playing with you, not watching from afar. Now, with The Angel Of Darkness you've resumed your rightful place in the arena, the PlayStation's original It girl has returned, but is it a fashionably late arrival, or too late for the heroine?
The Story So Far So where has she been? Well, we'd like to tell you but we're none the wiser. At the end of The Last Revelation we knew that Lara was trapped in a tomb. At the end of Tomb Raider Chronicles we were teased with the fact the Lara had escaped. Now at the start of The Angel Of Darkness, everything is seemingly rosy, Lara's alive and well in Paris, out of her dusty shorts and wearing some fancy denims. What happened?
She's also made up with the man that got her stuck in that tomb, Werner Von Croy. Well, perhaps not deep down, but enough to take a phone call from him and head off to Paris to heed his desperate pleas. The problem is as soon as she's arrived Werner is shot dead and Lara, it seems, is the culprit. Now she's on the run, wanted for murder, without a hieroglyph in sight.
Walk Tall As with all the Tomb sequels, for this adventure Lara is equipped with new abilities like climbing drainpipes, hopping over guardrails and pilfering people's cupboards. The opening level walks you through lots of these new moves, but also introduces you to the new control system!
And walk you will as the analog controls will take some getting used to if you're a Tomb veteran. It's likely to cause debate among fans as the new controls are over-sensitive and will lead to more than a few ill-placed steps.
Plenty of new additions have been made to the gameplay. Stealth, interaction with characters, smoother animation, weather effects, new outfits, a second playable character and a plot that will take Lara through at least two more sequels.
Spot The Difference After a saunter through the initial levels you'll slowly begin to realise a few things. Why is this game called Tomb Raider? Why am I playing a France-based Shenmue? Why is Lara being so rude to everyone she meets? What's that deal with that guy Eckhardt and why does he look like Anthony Hopkins?
It must all be part of the new direction. Yeah, that must be it. A new Lara for a new generation, that's how they're selling it.
Towards the end of the Paris-based levels Core's plans for Tomb Raider become clear. You see, that's when you lay eyes on the first proper tomb and by then you've earned it. You've been running around Paris asking everyone about a man named Bouchard, you've located his hideout and then ventured into the sewers, broken into the Louvre museum and found a way to open an ancient lock with a code-based key in an underground archaeological dig. Finally, you're in a tomb.
Going Underground In Lara's previous adventures we've been spoiled by the tombs we've visited. Our gal would be off globetrotting, exploring some Aztec ruins here, paddling up an Indian river there, and after a while it became a bit repetitive.
The sights that were before her, unseen by humans for centuries, should have been awe-inspiring but she simply skipped through them, seemingly more concerned about judging the length of jumps. Now you've got to earn the right to step inside a tomb and you're not venturing outside two European capital cities.
It's perhaps the bravest change in The Angel Of Darkness: to effectively reduce one of the most unique selling points. But it's a change that succeeds. Besides, there's plenty of awe-inspiring level design and architecture you can utilise in the modern, urban world. You don't need ancient sites to create dilemmas for Lara. Just check out the light-rigging mission inside The Serpent Rouge, the giant greenhouses of the BioResearch Facility, the James-Bond-villain design of The Aquatic Research Area.
There are many memorable moments in the game, with inspired use of locations to incorporate the familiar Tomb Raider style of gameplay. But it doesn't feel a million miles from the previous games and when a game debuts on a more powerful system we don't want minor improvements, we want major ones. Part of this problem harks back to the control system and a lack of interaction and freedom.
For Freedom You see, The Angel Of Darkness boasts detailed environments. Rooms cluttered with objects, ornate decoration. Trouble is you can only interact with certain items.
It suddenly seems strange that you can move a chest but Lara refuses to push a chair, even though it's smaller, probably lighter. She can only pick up the items that give off the little Resident Evil twinkle, letting you know they can be collected. Sure, this makes it easier to play, but it's also incredibly frustrating.
The levels may be look less grid-like, less angular, but the control system, Lara's abilities and animation restrict you to traversing the levels in a very grid-like way. A long jump requires Lara to run and jump to clear it. Lara goes through two walk cycles before she gets up the speed to run. So you step back from the edge two paces, allowing Lara enough distance.
How is that different to the previous Tomb Raiders? Is it because we want to play it the same way? No, it's because Lara's abilities haven't changed that much, just the control of them, and because the level designers' thinking is still too linear.
Blame It On The Girl Too often there is only one way to cross a room. Too often a situation requires Lara to jump rather than rely on any other skill.
Remember the tasks Indy faced in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade? Core seems to - not only do you have to track a diary in the early part of the adventure but the three tasks that Indy faced to get to the Holy Grail are mimicked in a section called The Hall of Seasons. Except there are now four tasks. In all but one of them you rely on Lara's jumping abilities. Come on, can't she do anything else?
By Tomb Raiders IV and V we were moaning about the churning out of sequels; a nice irony is that now we are moaning for having to wait so long for part VI. Well, them's the breaks.
But for every month that the game hasn't been released, it's been steadily ageing. Core was secretly working on The Angel Of Darkness when Tomb Raider IV was in production, that's a development period of nearly five years.
Would you like to start designing a game today that was to come out in five years time? Think you could anticipate what people would be playing, what innovations might have been and gone? Tricky, isn't it?
So Core has effectively played it safe. It's taken the Tomb Raider you may know and love and made minor tweaks and adjustments. Who can blame it? Yes we would have liked more, to be blown away with every new element it introduced, to be in awe as Lara turned every corner. But we're not. The Angel Of Darkness may occasionally reach new heights, but too often it stumbles.
Long-time fans of the series will find little to fault with this newest instalment - indeed they will probably be pleased with the stronger plotting, with the new abilities and the return of Ms Croft - but if this was supposed to be a new Lara to attract new players, there needs to be a rethink.
It's good to have Lara back on our screens but we'd like a little more class next time out. Angel Of Darkness is classic Lara but a little too familiar and repetitive. Alex H
The Angel Of Darkness is the first part of a new trilogy for Lara Croft. In case you're worrying that her passport has expired and she's never gonna step outside of Europe again, don't. While Lara only gets to explore Paris and Prague this time out, the sequel will boast more exotic locations and far more tombs. Remember, this is only the first part of a much bigger adventure!
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