Tomb Raider: the Angel of Darkness

Game: Tomb Raider: the Angel of Darkness
Gamer: Yumiyuri
Console: PlayStation 2

SPOILER ALERT!

I've been a big fan of the Tomb Raider games (though I haven't played all of them) and I decided to make a review of the one I'm recently playing, which is Tomb Raider: the Angel of Darkness.

Unlike the other Tomb Raider games, the main setting of AOD is in Europe, in the modern cities, where Lara is being hunted down by the police for the supposed murder of her friend, Verner Von Croy. The game deals with Lara trying to solve the incident behind the murder, about the strange serial killer the people call the Monstrum, and artifacts called The Obscura Paintings.

As usual, players are to solve puzzles, using Lara's gymnastic, stealth, and shooting skills. Players can also choose the dialogue Lara will say when she is communicating with someone to gain information. There are several ways to get the story going, since you can talk to different people as you progress through the game.

From my experience of playing the game, Angel of Darkness is a little bit disappointing. Gone was the joy of evading traps and solving puzzles in the ancient ruins, the cities of Paris and Prague didn't really give the traditional Tomb Raider feel. Lara does gain new moves - back-flip, small hop, stealth moving, army crawling, and hand-to-hand combat. However, there are instances in the game that Lara needs a strength upgrade in order to move on (break/pull/push stuff to make her arms and legs stronger). This, in my opinion, is unnecessary and only poses as a nuisance. There isn't much action early in the game, mostly just you running around to get the info you need. In Paris, your enemies are mostly the rats and the police.

There is also the matter of the gameplay. Controlling Lara can be frustrating sometimes, sometimes not responding to a player's command, which usually results in her getting killed. The camera angles don't really help you get through the game, though you can control them most of the time, but there are stages where you cannot control the angle, which makes it difficult to get Lara where you want to go. There are also some bugs that may be triggered which make playing even more frustrating - Lara running then seeming to fall for eternity against a gray background, an endless fight scene that you can't get out of unless you reboot the game, etc.

The upside of it all though, is that the game is a challenge and the storyline interesting. The graphics have improved greatly (this is set after Tomb Raider: the Last Revelation and is the sixth game in the Tomb Raider series). A new element is added to it - playing another character. Later in the game, you gain control of one of the characters aside from Lara (not saying who it is ). When you reac Prague, that's when the game gets more interesting. You now get to battle monsters and other creatures ala Resident Evil in true, Tomb Raider fashion. Also, let's not forget the booby traps xD

All in all, I give this game a 7/10. It wasn't that bad, and it does provide good entertainment. I recommend this game for those looking for a challenge (and with very, very long patience).

Angel of Darkness wasn't a really bad game; though the camera angles were awful and having Lara's insides look hallow made the game look unprofessional.

The combat, battles and sneaking around weren't all that bad and trying to infiltrate your way into the caverns from the museum early in the game was fun. But the bad camera angles and camera shots that showed Lara's insides looked lackluster and unprofessional.

6/10 for me and I know some reviews that made the game rated much worse.

Not if her boobs are hallow

^YES!

^ NO WHERE NOT where having a educational talk about Lara's boobs JEEZZZZZ anyway no i hate the series.

Anniversary and Legend were the best Tomb Raider games. speaking of ass and boobs, you can make Lara do the commando crawl in AOD and you get a very nice close up

Her real-life model is very pretty...@-@

Of course you know this rei

lol, i'd list Lara as one of those women whose body i would kill for :p

How about the movie Tomb Raider, that Angelina Jolie played in, she was a pretty nice looking lady in that one as well. As far as the games go, I will admit I have only finished tomb raider 1 and that's about it. Angel of Darkness turned me off when I was stuck on the ledge and had to turn about or jump to the next ledge that I could never reach. I never did play it again after that.

haha, like i said, you need a LOT of patience xD

Try playing Anniversary, it's the remake of the first one and it was a lot of fun

It's a mix of patience and skill, good evading, jumping swimming and shooting. Like I said, I only made it to the facility and underground cave; after that, I gave it up.

the jumping is the most annoying part -.-

The jumping is okay, i just hate having to go forward with only by hitting up on the directional pad and turning with left or right. It's like playing Vampire Hunter D which was an awesome game by the way.

the jumping's the bitch when you don't hit the buttons at the same time and Lara ends up dying -.-

Oh yeah I do know that feeling. like direction and then jump. And although her actions don't lag, how she is controlled makes the controls feel stiff when I'm doing the movements.

yeah...well, it's an old game, can't blame them for having sucky controls xD