Take It Away In Chains
What do I mean by that? Every single movement Lara makes is animated and much slower than it ought to be. A three-legged dog with one eye could swim through a pool of molasses in less time than it takes Lara to run from one side of a room to another. Not only that, but simple actions like crouching take at least 3 seconds longer than they should. And don't get me started on jumping. Jumping from ledge to ledge is about the only task the developers could come up with for you to do. Apparently, it's the camera's job to make it seem a lot harder than it is. If the camera's turned just slightly to the wrong angle, you might end up doing a side flip to your doom instead of jumping forward.
The puzzles that you come across (rarely), are usually idiotic and unrealistic. At one point in the game, you're asked to get from one side of a room to another, unfortunately the only way the door on the other end will open is if the laser security system is activated. The first thing you should notice is that these lasers are very poorly placed and any real person could easily just step over them or duck under them. Of course, being the tomb raider she is, Lara must use a series of timed run-and-jump moves to get through them, making what would be an extremely easy sequence to get through into a much harder one.
You'll learn early to save all the time. The game is extremely glitchy and freezes up in certain areas, usually when there's lots of things going on at the same time (like when three lights are turned on and there's another guy in the room). Also, since Lara dies inconsistently, you'll never know if that jump to the floor below is too far or not. I found that in certain areas, a ten foot fall to the floor can result in death, while in other places, falling forty feet will only slightly hurt your life bar.
Then there's all those nagging questions. Why is it that setting yourself on fire will slowly drain Lara's health, but stepping into a laser can kill you instantly? How come it takes seven bullets to kill a guy with no body armor? What kind of dog dies after two kicks, but remains alive after being shot several times? What's the point in the stealth mode if you almost never have to use it? In the extras section, why do the game designers claim that '"Tomb Raider" has always set the benchmark for games'? Why does the "Cradle Of Life" movie trailer have such messed up audio? I could go on and on.
In conclusion, all I have to say is that "AOD" was not worth the wait and isn't worth your money. Save it. I hope Eidos decides to speed up the gameplay in the next "Tomb Raider" installment and gets some developers that aren't mental patients to work on it. If not, I won't be buying it.