Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness impressions

By Greg Kasavin, GameSpotPosted Jun 20, 2003 3:23 pm PT

We picked up a copy of the new Tomb Raider game, and we're not liking what we're seeing so far.

Eidos recently announced that Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness had gone gold and would be in stores by this weekend, despite rumors that the game would see another delay. However, we've got the proof in our hands that the game is actually done--our preordered retail copy showed up this morning, and we've since been playing the game to see how it finally shaped up. In short, we were quick to note a number of rather serious-looking problems with the game's control and visuals that seem to suggest that this latest Tomb Raider shipped earlier than it probably should have.

The beginning of Tomb Raider has Lara Croft fleeing from some armed thugs through a rundown part of town. Here is where the game attempts to get you acquainted with the control scheme, but Lara's voiceover tutorial doesn't always trigger correctly, and it's not clear exactly what you're supposed to climb on or where you're supposed to go, so this initial sequence doesn't give a good first impression. The controls seem sluggish and unresponsive, and it's particularly difficult to get Lara to turn parallel to a ledge, so that she could time her jumps correctly. Sometimes the camera angle switches during a sequence, forcing you to compensate on the control stick or else spontaneously turn the other direction. Also, the game suffers from some incredible bouts of slowdown--sometimes the action suddenly just slows to a complete crawl, as though Lara Croft were suddenly walking on the Moon or something.

We noticed some bizarre inconsistencies in the game. One part later into the first sequence has Lara trying to escape from a building that's been filled with knockout gas. We came across a door and tried to open it, but Lara informed us that the door was locked and needed a key. The next floor up, we tried opening a similar door, and without a word, Lara shoulder rushed it, crushing the door open.

Lara is now capable of moving stealthily, crawling on all fours, and moving while prone. Knowing she's this agile, we were very surprised when we found ourselves unable to crawl through a space roughly five feet across--basically just an old mattress folded across a vertical metal bar. This proved to be an insurmountable obstacle, as solid as a brick wall.

Another surprise came when we stealthily eliminated an opponent standing perfectly still with his back turned to us. The defeated enemy blinked several times and then vanished completely, just like in the 1987 arcade classic, Double Dragon.

It's easy to die in the game even early on by falling to your death due to the awkward control scheme. Once dead, you're given the option to load a saved game or exit to the main menu--so you need to remember to save periodically. For some strange reason, pressing the pause button brings up a menu with just an option to exit the game, while pressing the select button gives you access to your inventory and such. We found ourselves checking our inventory frequently, since picking up objects in the environment just causes a small, indecipherable image of the object to appear in the corner of the screen.

If you've gathered from these impressions that we're not particularly impressed with Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness from what we've played so far, you've gathered correctly. It's evident that this game isn't ready for prime time, and yet here it is in our hands, and potentially in yours. We're cautiously optimistic that the game gets better than these early sequences, but nevertheless highly recommend that you stay tuned for our full review early next week before rushing off to pick this one up.

1 Comments

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jakeboudville
Posted Sep 22, 2006 5:47 pm PT

looks impressive
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