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Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Review
Mark Simons
11/07/2003
We take a long hard look at Lara's first outing on the PlayStation2.
It's always a bad sign when TVG has to go out and purchase a game because the publisher in question has decided to stick to the 'No news is good news' belief for its latest title. In recent months we've seen Atari release 'Enter the Matrix' without issuing any code, whilst nobody was surprised to see Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness slip out on the sly, somehow avoiding the TVG letterbox.
As regular TVG readers will know, we've been warning Tomb Raider fans that all is not well with Lara ever since we first laid eyes upon the title, subsequent demonstrations right up to this years E3 did little to convince us that Lara's next generation debut was in any way next generation.
Whilst Core were keen to push the changes that lay in store at the games unveiling, it does appear that a number of these have simply fallen by the wayside. For starters the RPG-esque character development has been changed to an automatic nondescript system, whereby pulling objects and kicking down doors will upgrade Lara's arm and leg strength as you progress through the game. Essentially it's a system employed to keep players all on the same track and lend a sense of linearity to the proceedings.
A lot of fuss was made of Lara's new gritty image, and to be fair the storyline of Angel of Darkness is darker then previous outings. With Lara framed for the murder of her mentor and put on the run during the first phase of the game in Paris. Unfortunately we have to question the integrity of these changes? Why is Lara killing innocent security guards at the Louvre for example, when she's trying to CLEAR herself of murder charges, wasn't it better when Lara was just raiding tombs and trying to kill monstrous T-Rexes and other species that were close to extinction.
It's interesting to note that The Angels of Darkness is essentially made up of three different sections; the first taking place entirely in Paris focuses on Lara's run for freedom and also highlights one of the new introductions conversation and dialogue with other characters. Players are often presented with a choice of responses to questions in the conversations, but unfortunately this doesn't appear to offer that much freedom and often results in the same outcome.
Unfortunately the conversation feature does contain some extremely frustrating flaws, for example an early conversation sees players die if they choose the wrong answer from a choice of two at the beginning of the conversation - it would have been better to allow Lara to try and rescue the conversation once you notice the other character becoming more irate at Lara's response. Instead you have to watch the other character growing angry and then pulling out a gun and shooting Lara without any input on the proceedings it's a nice feature, but like so many aspects of this game it just hasn't been properly worked out.
Fortunately the delays have allowed Core to enhance and change crucial aspects that crippled the game at previous showings; the over-complicated combination of d-pad and analogue controls have been dropped in favour of a more traditional dual analogue control method to control Lara and the camera. Previous builds had used the d-pad to edge Lara closer to the edge of platforms without the fear of falling off them, whilst the analogue stick was used to make Lara run; fortunately realising that this was too convoluted, Core have implemented a 'walk' mode, which simply sees you tap a shoulder button to switch between walk and run modes it's not perfect, but it's far superior to what we've seen in the past.
Unfortunately the controls themselves just don't feel as if they've evolved from the 1996 original title, you'll find yourself cursing at Lara's lack of agility and edging near to throwing your PS2 out of the closest window as the controls let you down time and time again. Even trying to do the simple task of turning Lara around is turned into a monstrous affair, which will have you twitching the controls and would even make an angel turn the air blue with swearing good thing there are no children near the TVG offices we say...
So surely after four years of development we should expect some new features; well yes that's true, however does it really take four years to come up with a stealth manoeuvre? By tapping a shoulder button Lara enters a stealth mode and can crouch up against a wall and sneak up on unsuspecting victims. Unfortunately because of the unresponsive control system, it's highly likely you'll completely ignore this whole aspect and there's no denying that it does feel cheap and just put in there because of the success of Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. The original Tomb Raider was such a source of inspiration and along with Mario 64 the true pioneer of 3D games, unfortunately playing this will leave a bitter taste in the mouth of ardent Tomb Raider fans.
Having finally obtained the finished version, it appears that Core have wisely decided to change the camera system that was in place in previous builds. As with many of the new ideas, it looks like Core decided at the last minute that it didn't work and had to go back to the drawing board and implement a more traditional approach. Previous builds featured numerous fixed-camera locations, however this has now been changed to a camera that closely follows Lara from a fixed distance behind her. Unfortunately the camera features numerous basic flaws that just shouldn't happen in modern 3D games; on numerous occasions you'll find yourself fighting once again with the controls because the camera has flipped over and subsequently flipped all of the controls.
The whole affair left us wanting Toby Guard's 'Galleon' even more; from what we've seen the Tomb Raider creator has created a very flexible third-person title, which features fast and responsive controls along with being able to interact seamlessly with the environment none of this having to precisely move yourself in front of a ladder to just grab hold of it. A nice new introduction is the ability to scale walls, however you kind of stumble across this because the new move isn't explained to the player at the beginning of the game; unfortunately no tutorials with your butler in this version.
Whilst we found ourselves forgiving Lara for moving like a 7-ton dumper truck and Core for basically realising that their new ideas weren't quite cutting it, we can't say the same for the bugs that rear their ugly heads all too often - we've simply lost count of the number of times we've had to reset our Playstation2 because Lara has got stuck in a wall yet again. Whilst this is obviously an issue with rushing the game to the shop shelves, another frustrating flaw is the way the save system has been implemented. Instead of using a similar fixed position as in previous titles, players are free to save wherever they want, this isn't the problem; the fact that whenever you enter a new location there is no auto-save means that once you get into the game and find yourself forgetting to save, then find the controls let you down, or you misjudge a jump, fall to your death, and scream out aloud as you've got to do the whole lot over again.
Because of the trail-and-error nature, we were hoping that Core would have implemented proper streaming technology to eradicate load times; unfortunately this isn't the case, with obtrusive load times throughout every level and more frustrating at every death; we don't even want to think how much time we've wasted waiting for Lara to load, it's as bad as that?
The opponents that you'll face have to be some of the dumbest we've witnessed in a next-generation action / adventure title; OK so Tomb Raider has never been noted for its stunning AI, however this does feel like a PSOne title at times as enemy characters do little more then stand still and fire at you - poorly at that!
Whilst Tomb Raiders flaws and misgivings are blatantly obvious, there are actually some good points, which are hard to discover because of the numerous problems. For starters Core has created an extremely cinematic experience; through cut-scenes and a stunning orchestral soundtrack, Angel of Darkness certainly feels like an epic movie at times. More importantly Core have actually managed to lend this feeling to the actual gameplay in a handful of occasions; for example, during the opening section in Paris, you'll find yourself having to escape a bomb blast through the sewer system, just as you're getting towards the end, the camera switches in front of Lara and displays the ball of flame that's chasing Lara out of the tunnel - reach the end and switch to a dynamic camera position as Lara jumps out just before getting her bottom burnt; it's classic movie material and makes you gawp every time.
There are also some really good level designs in the game with some deviously implemented puzzles, it's just a shame the control flaws let these down so badly.
The strong story and direction also pulls you through the game, whereas a weaker plot would certainly have resulted in players ditching this after the first few hours. It's testimony to the guys at Core that you actually find yourself playing for much longer then you would with any other game that contained such fundamental flaws.
Oh yes and then there's Kurtis; we were surprised by how little you play as this second character, whose stance takes on more of a survival/horror feeling. Unfortunately Kurtis has the same control issues as Lara, and what was ultimately billed as an important new feature in Tomb Raider simply fizzles off as a mild-distraction to the normal flow of the game.
On a visual level Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is something of a mixed bag. Despite the ten-fold increase of polygons, Lara isn't looking particularly good; whilst the normal view of her arse isn't too bad, closer inspection of her face reveals some scary eyebrows and poor textures. In comparison to the likes of Metal Gear Solid 2 or Silent Hill 3, Lara is looking positively primitive; even the character models in the age-old Shenmue on the Dreamcast looked superior to this!
Bizarrely the opening stage in Paris appears to have taken place after a nuclear holocaust or something equally as destructive, because you'll only see a handful of characters at best; from our experiences of the busy metropolitan city it's nothing like this, even first thing in the morning.
Elsewhere the game is prone to bouts of slowdown that really chug the game down and unfortunately have an impact on the precision movements required in the game.
On a positive note the animation is extremely nice although the rag-doll physics can lead to some interesting body positions that defy every physics law known to man, whilst the game shows off a nice variety of special effects and luscious lighting; although it's not true lighting but merely a cheap effect that doesn't cast shadows, either on the landscape or from characters.
Whereas you can level a fault at virtually every aspect of the game, the same can't be said about the game's music; once again it's perfectly suiting, creeping in at the right moments to generate suitable levels of tension and excitement. Oh actually we can have a moan, some of the voice acting is absolutely atrocious at times and Lara isn't sounding as seductive as she once used to be, in fact she borders on down-right annoying at times.
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