Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Review

In the 90’s we were used to the best economy ever in American history and could afford buying oh so many Tomb Raider sequels. Unfortunately, our sanity couldn’t afford it, so Eidos took a break. It took them until 2003 (nearly 3 years into the PS2’s life) to finally release Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. The question that I would like answered is, why even release another Tomb Raider game if you can’t make it good?

Angel of Darkness feels like a normal adventure game. You have the classic exploration elements and of course puzzle solving. The story involves Lara getting framed for the murder of her mentor, Werner Von Croy and on the run from the cops. She attempts to uncover the true criminals in an adventure that takes her through Paris and Prague, and she ends up revealing an ancient conspiracy.

Controls in Angel of Darkness are frustratingly difficult to grasp. Simple tasks like walking straight along a ledge are more difficult than they should ever be (yes it is that bad). I’ve played many PS2, Xbox, and GCN games, but none of them have worse controls than Angel of Darkness. How could such a huge franchise like Tomb Raider have such frustrating controls and such an unenjoyable gaming experience? Core was given over three years to develop this game and three game delays later we get this piece of garbage. Can someone please kill Lara before Core can muster up another Tomb Raider game?

This might be one of my shortest reviews ever and for good reason. This game sucked and it sucks to review it. The PS One versions of the series were more well-known for their vast 3D world than incredible detail (that we have grown to appreciate in today’s games). Angel of Darkness does very little to improve the amount of detail, although I’d say it is up to PS2 standards. Major lag, even with only one person on the screen, was a serious problem for me and resulted in death plenty of times and saving about the same amount. I probably spent more time saving than actually playing.