Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Impressions

A playable demo of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is here at E3, and it marks the first time we've seen Lara Croft in action in quite some time. The PlayStation 2 game appears to be trying to take the game away from from the tombs and into a slightly more modern setting. Along the way, the second coming of Ms. Pac-Man will learn some new moves to go with her new look.

For starters, the L2 button is used to enter stealth mode, which is essentially a crouched walk. There's also a toggle between running and walking, as well as a sprint button. Lara's tall, reaching vertical leap is still present, you can still execute a quick turnaround roll, and, like in the original, you can "shimmy sideways until there is room."

Lara has a more street-style look in the game as well. She's wearing a short denim jacket and jeans. When armed with a pistol, she'll grip it with both hands and hold it up to the side of her face, Charlie's Angels-style. The demo version being shown at E3 starts out in the basement of a dance club. After icing one guard, you make your way up to the dance floor, where more armed thugs await. During the fight, the club's sound and light system turn on, and you're treated to a light show and some pumping house music while you do some fighting.

Graphically, the models and environments look just fine, but the game currently has some pretty serious camera problems that occasionally prevent you from seeing the action at all. Also, the game's graphics are really quite jagged, giving the game the look of a much earlier PlayStation 2 game in some spots. Hopefully both of these problems will be worked out before the game is released. The game is also scheduled to come out on the PC.