Tomb Raide The Angel of Darkness Review - PC Game Reviews

Tomb Raider - The Angel of Darkness Review

year, which was still good, but used the same technology. They then proceeded to churn out TR III, IV and V, using the same basic game engine. These games were disappointing, but sold well thanks to the larger-than-life Lara. Eidos finally vowed to get it right; to get the series back on track and make a game that would please its current fans and win new ones. Through the course of the game, Lara would grow and evolve as a character! The game would feature cutting edge graphics and advanced control. As Lara, you would have to stop an unholy alliance from unleashing their incredible powers on the world. For the first time, the choices you made in conversations with characters would have an effect on the plot! You would also get to control Kurtis Trent, an experienced warrior on a quest for revenge against the same alliance, which killed his father.

After three years of promises, the game is finally here. It begins with the murder of Lara’s mentor, Werner Von Croy. Unfortunately, Lara is the only suspect. She has to escape the law while hunting for the real killers. You visit different places in Paris and Prague, uncovering an ancient conspiracy. As promised, the storyline is one of the better ones in the TR series. However, the improvement in Lara’s abilities is a joke.


Theoretically, “You are rewarded for puzzle solving and exploration in the form of improvements to Lara's jumping ability, brainpower, upper body strength, etc” In reality these upgrades border on the insane. For e.g. at one point you get to search the apartment of a dead art dealer. A chain at the top of a platform of scaffolding has to be pulled. To get the strength to do this enormous task, a chest of drawers must be pushed slightly in any direction. Actually climbing up to the chain doesn’t help. If you don’t push that specific chest, you don’t get stronger. Even Lara’s new found ability to have conversations doesn’t have much effect on the game-play. Admittedly, the graphics are great, but the actual game-play sometimes features the same old crates, puzzles and switches that should have been stopped with TR3. Moving on to the “advanced control”. The earlier TR titles were designed on a grid; each step you took moved you one block forward. Thus if you had lined yourself up correctly you could make any jump, ten times out of ten. The grid has been removed by the designers, which makes jumping from one platform to another a lot harder. Incredibly, both the PS2 and PC versions slow down in certain areas. Add to that an unresponsive control scheme and several bugs and you have the recipe for a disappointing game. Disappointing, because it could have been so much more. Instead, it ends up as just an average third person title. If you still love the TR series, then buy this game by all means. It is one of the better ones in the series and old fans of Lara (like me!) will feel waves of nostalgia all over again. However, people who have never played a TR title before will find it much harder to look past the game’s flaws. For those gamers, I recommend Splinter Cell, Mafia or GTA III.

HIGHS: Good Music, Great Voice Acting
LOWS: Buggy, Bad Controls.
NUTSHELL: Buy it if you still love Lara.
Christof Rating: 83 %