User Rating: 7.5 | Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness PS2
Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness is an excellent adventure that has been harshly criticized for minor flaws that many games already have. I can see Greg Kasavin’s slant when you take into account the length of time this game has been in development. There was an expectation that a new level of greatness was going to be achieved by Aidos. Perhaps they set them selves up for the shots to be taken. The game does have some noticeable slow down in the opening levels due to the rain. It happens elsewhere through the game and is but a moment of slow motion. It doesn’t bother me as much as it should because there is so much more in this game to make you forget it happened. Complaints have been laid on the controls system, which frankly are unfounded. The only folks that would have any problems are people who have played Tomb Raider before and need to adjust to the changes. One thing I have found is similar to playing say MGS2 when you end up with Lara doing a 180 as a response to a change in Camera Angle. I have found that it helps a lot in really delicate places, an example would be, when walking on a beam, to use R3 and adjust the camera. It really helps and the R3 camera movements are smooth and an excellent tool for planing your next move. I have used this feature more than I have in previous games. Another feature I really enjoy, is not having to hold down the walk button to prevent Lara from walking over the edge. Now you can toggle it on and off with the L1 and an Icon appears on the bottom right. The old steps to the edge, jump back, run and jump is gone too. The control system is more forgiving about not planting your foot right at the lip for a running long jump. You just line it up and go. When you slay a character it does the blinking and disappearing bit which is a little lame. But the upside is you can see right away if you were supposed to collect something from the dispatched victim. Items have a glint to them so you can spot them a lot easier. It is an improvement because there isn’t endless back tracking to re-check corpses to see if you missed something. The environments are highly detailed and the level design is excellent. The graphics are so much better that it’s hard to believe when you pop in the original Tomb Raider for a comparison. Lara is very detailed and long gone are the jagged polygons. A lot of work went into character design. All in all if you loved the first couple of versions of Tomb Raider you won’t be disappointed. If you have never played this franchise before don’t be put off by the strict review given by Greg. He is being honest but his score drops this game below many games that Angel of Darkness is far superior to. Andrew D. McIvor
