The Japanese influenced island in Tomb Raider is one of the game’s greatest strengths this is a thrilling and beautiful land to explore, combining tight linear corridors and open spaces with excellent design choices by Crystal Dynamics. The game goes in a different direction with its structure, choosing a semi-open world Metroidvania style that opens up as Lara obtains the right gear. But this is a fundamentally different Croft, she feels like a woman more grounded in her environment and lacking the wit and charm of the previous Laras.
As the game progresses her ‘kill first ask questions later’ attitude from the original games begins to come back and it’s great to see. Though there’s an element of cognitive dissonance with the story, it’s a minor negative with one of Tomb Raider’s most interesting plots. It may have fallen apart had it not been for the interesting story and well-crafted character study Lara is young and uncertain of herself but still fearless and capable. The games takes a big leaf out of the Uncharted playbook, going for grand cinematic storytelling rather than the platforming and puzzling of the original games. The reboot trilogy is a touchy subject for Tomb Raider diehards.
Though the game certainly feels rushed and an extra 6-12 months in the oven would have resulted in a far superior product, Angel Of Darkness is worth your time – once you get past the game’s many quirks. Combining a film noir style of storytelling with a sweeping orchestral score that sets the mood beautifully, along with Core’s excellent level design, Angel of Darkness succeeded where it mattered for a Tomb Raider game. The tank controls from the original PlayStation era returned and were somehow made even more clunky, the game was riddled with bugs, featured bizarre levelling up elements, awful stealth gameplay, and dialogue trees which while good in theory were completely superfluous.īut looking back, many people overlook what Angel Of Darkness did well: a challenging puzzle game, varied locations bought to life with vivid and beautifully realised graphics for the time, along with one of the most accomplished and incredibly tense stories Tomb Raider has ever done. Coming in at number 10 is the game that is often held responsible for the downfall of original Tomb Raider developer Core Design, and for good reason.
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