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Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness

Never have so many fans waited so long through so many crappy outings without abandoning ship. Except maybe the Green Bay Packers fans of the 1970s and ’80s.

Based on the revolutionary nature of the first Tomb Raider on PSOne back in 1996, the series has spawned a library of sequels, each of unfortunately diminishing quality. The seeds of the series’ destruction may have been sewn after the second game in the series, when the original creators left the company and the series.

Yet even through the third title, critical reaction to the slowly dropping quality of the series was taken with a grain of salt by most fans since, after all, Lara Croft was the videogame world’s first genuine sex symbol. But after that, the wheels fell off and the complaints not only increased, but started coming from longtime fans, not just members of the videogame press.

Finally, gearing up for the game’s PS2 debut, Core and parent company Eidos seemed to get religion on the game’s need for a drastic reworking. “We’ll be taking Lara new, darker places than ever before,” they promised. “There will be a multi-episodic approach with segments being released two to three times a year, to comprise an overall major epic. Plus, we’re getting her out of the tombs and into all-new environments. Tomb Raider will once again be a cutting edge game that every other game tries to catch up to.”

It was big talk and raised a lot of hopes. Unfortunately, about the only part of that promise they delivered on was – for the most part – taking Lara out of the tombs. The game begins with her in the warehouses and streets of Paris. As for the rest of the promised changes? Well, mission not exactly accomplished.

Okay, so Lara is a murder suspect, right? But even though the opening sequence dramatizes the murder in question, Lara claims not to be sure if she did it. It appears that way to the gamer, but storytelling logic dictates it’s a mislead and she probably didn’t.

All fine and well and good. But Ms. Croft’s personality, such as it was in prior games, has undergone a radical shift. Gone is the sexy, self-confident adventuress and in her place is a shrill, demanding and often unsympathetic look-alike. Yuck.

Dark places? Take this to mean that, basically, in addition to turning Lara into an unlikable potential murderess (as opposed to a sympathetic, falsely accused one), they toss her into a world that is often – and without logic – portrayed as a teen-rated, cheap knockoff of the Silent Hill world.

Sure, Lara’s world has always been a bit fantastic. Even in the first title, one of the most thrilling moments was the first-ever appearance of a T-Rex. Yikes! Did the game suddenly become Jurassic Park? No one cared. It was unexpected and fun. And that’s what’s been missing from most Tomb Raider titles ever since – a sense of the unexpected that leads to a fun sense of panic.

Instead, we get watered-down survival horror mixed with a poor man’s imitation of Metal Gear Solid 2. Ingenious? Nope. In fact, LCTR: Angel of Darkness has the distinct feel of a first-generation PS2 game. In fact, in places it reminded me of the Capcom survival-adventure title Shadow of Destiny. The graphics of the newest Tomb Raider are about on par with that title, also.

Does this make LCTR: AOD cruddy all by itself? No, it just makes it a title released about two years too late to be considered anywhere near the current baseline of games, let alone “cutting edge.” That’s too bad, since Tomb Raider fans are the most willing-to-love fans you’re likely to find. Tons of fans, myself included, wanted SO badly to love the new Tomb Raider. But it’s just not worthy.

The interactive scenes aren’t even as advanced as Shenmue: Episode One, a Dreamcast game that came out over three years ago. The world is barely more immersive than its PSone predecessors, let alone PS2 era titles like Grand Theft Auto or MGS2. It’s just a thin, thin game that’s lost its sense of fun and thrills and discovery.

Eidos’ recent power move – to blame it all on Core Design, fire them off the title and replace them with Crystal Dynamics is also a move that hardly inspires confidence. Crystal Dynamics, much like Core Designs, broke new ground when they release Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver on PSone about five years ago. Since then, we’ve seen another three games in the series with another, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, on the way. And, much like Tomb Raider, the technologies that felt cutting edge five years ago now feel, well … five years older and nowhere near cutting edge anymore.

So Eidos’ verdict is in before ours, though ultimately there’s not much difference either way. Much as I wanted to love Angel of Darkness, I found myself for much of the game praying for the return of TV’s Touched By An Angel – it’d be less painful. But will Crystal Dynamics taking over the series solve anything? Well, it might solve load times. It could result in a smoother control system. Will it solve the problem of repetition and the lack of surprise and a fun sense of panic?

Hard to say. But it’s hard to imagine Core Design staying in place would be any better; if they were capable of that, Angel of Darkness would have been a whole lot better.

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Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Sep 3rd, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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