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Unacceptabley Awful

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 41 / 47
Date: March 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In this day and age, are we as gamers really expected to put up with this level of crap? Possibly the biggest disappointment in the history of videogames since the Sega Saturn, 'Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness' is the first next-gen outing for the intrepid Ms. Croft.

Stuck in development hell for the best part of 2 years, Core and Eidos should be very, VERY ashamed of themselves for allowing such a bug-filled, poorly thought-out piece of software onto the shelves, much less a game with such a rich and popular reputation to live up to.

Put simply, 'Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness' is an absolute dog.

First: The graphics just do not cut the mustard. Granted, the human characters in the Tomb Raider series were never graphically astounding, but here they're just badly done. Textures are pixelated and the frame rate is low. Lara's animations are smooth and her new costumes are diverting, but that's it. Characters like Bouchard and Carvier are not good enough for the PS 2, being underdetailed and very badly animated.

Level design is very substandard for a TR game. And, horror of horrors, there's only one tomb, The rest of the game is like a horrible cross between Metal Gear Solid and a weak RPG, where Lara is forced to run about Parisian streets and warehouses with no real sense of raiding anything.

Second: The control system is an absolute abomination. Lara is just not meant to be analog. Gone is the intuitive quad-style floor layout and now jumps and falls are impossible to judge, the upshot of which is Core have created a game which is insanely easy to beat. Lining up the camera, controlled by the right analog stick, every time you want to make a jump, is just annoying, and the collision detection is ridiculous.

Third: This is such an easy game to beat. Although I should point out, you'd better get to like the phrases 'Overwrite Successful' and 'Load Successful', becuase you'll be seeing them a hell of a lot. Thanks to the ridiculous control system, Saving and Loading happens far more often than is acceptable, and when you do manage to make the jumps and climbs without the control system hampering your every move or the game crashing out (happens a lot, sound and event glitches abound) you wonder what happened to the rest of the level.

A horrible, horrible game that yields no rewards, and will cause great distress to fans of the TR series, 'Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness' is something we should all forget.

Core, never let this happen again.

save game... over & over & over

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: July 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is perhaps the worst [money] I ever spent.
Let's get the pros out of the way since there is only 1
PROS- The story is good rivaling that of the movie francise.
CONS 1.For all the hype and post-poned release dates you would think this game would have been less buggy and more playable.
2. The ps2 controls in this game are below par of the old atari joysticks, you have to push the run stick into next week to get her to get out of harms way not to mention the slow motion bug that happens when someone else is in the room with you, geez!
3. Stealth mode... as useless as Ben & JLo's partner movies.
4. load times- too many & too long.
5. weapons- why is it you can kick a dog twice to put him down but a pistol takes a whole clip to do it?
6. jumping & climbing require a lot of saving games because of the bad judge of distance
7. camera angles- most 3D games camera angles aggravate me to some extent, but this one is just FUBAR.
8. When targeting some enemies in certain areas you have to holster your weapon just so you can move around, don't know what that is all about.
I enjoy replay value as much as the next person, but having to jump from the same ledge 30 times because you keep screaming all the way to your death is just ridicilous...
I suggest games like Devil May Cry or The Thing but avoid this one.

Taking too l ong to receive!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 67
Date: March 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I ordered this game in August and still waiting. I actually bought it for my son. Actually he's waiting.

Take It Away In Chains

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Despite all the hype and all the delays, "Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness" turns out to be just a waste of plastic. The game would've been great had the designers taken the time to fix up the unacceptable amount of bugs and glitches, and come up with a new and different style of gameplay.

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.

Worst game of the series, and tha'ts saying something

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Anyone that was a fan of the first TR, and has followed the steady slide downhill in this franchise...well, suffice to say that this release turns that slide into an avalanche. It's hard to say if this game is worse than 3...if not for the fact that you can save when ever you want in this game, it would be, it's only positive merit really from a gameplay standpoint.

OK, what's wrong with it????

1. *TINY* environments. They just *don't* get what was so good about the first TR do they? The sense of vastness and exploration in the first TR was fantastic, and every subsequent release the world has gotten smaller and smaller. This one is laughable. If your idea of *exploration* is looking for bullets in a closet, this game is for you ;)

2. Bugs. This TR has more bugs than the rest of the series combined. Too many to even list, some game breaking, forcing you to reload from an old savepoint.

3. Horrible control. Mizz Croft is now sluggish, wimpy, and seems to have a real mind of her own when it comes to falling off of things, or jumping in a direction other than intended. The *delay* before running is absolutely maddening. There are some neat ideas in this one, but they are just horribly implemented.

4. No vehicles.....why?? Oh I know, the shove it out the door to bleed the last remaining dollars out of a once adoring fanbase mentality that permiates this game probably didn't leave much time for things like vehicles....or environments big enough to drive a tricycle.

5. Laggy....that's right, laggy.. Some of the (tiny) environments look fantastic, but your PS2 will slow to a crawl. It's a shame they sacraficed so much gameplay for the sake of eyecandy. Oh well, not the first, and certainly not the last to do so.

You *will* watch the "making of" at the end of playing this game, and shout obscenities back and the screen.

Highest caution rating, buyer beware. Buggy, boring, small, short, and shallow. Rental only, as you can beat the game in 2 -3 days tops, if you can stand to keep playing it that long. Keep in mind that this review is from a longtime fan of this series. It's a real shame that this franchise just keeps getting worse with each release...so much potential.

NOT WORTH the WAIT nor the MONEY!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: July 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

We, a family of four, are a big fan of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft, but this PS2 game really [stunk]. Throughout the entire game you have to wrestle for poper control of her movements and there's a real lag time for Lara to speed up. We finished the game with big disappointment: too easy, too short, too frustrating. For those who gave 5-STARS, come on, be honest. You gave high ratings because you're a true fan of Lara's body and not the series. How can any game lovers rate this one above 2 STARS is beyond me.

Stay away from this mess of a game!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I love the TR series, but this game is awful. It would be a fun game if not for all the bugs. It does have better graphics than the others, but that's the only nice thing I can say. It's amazing the number of bugs this game has considering how long the game was delayed. I've played demos with fewer bugs. The game will slow down because it's raining on the screen. It slows down other times for no apparent reason. And the control scheme is arguably the worst I've ever played. You'll get stuck climbing up ladders that you don't want to climb and other won't be able to climb boxes that you need to climb all because of the poor way the control scheme is set up. This game is sad, and the manufacturer should be ashamed that they didn't do any better with the extra time they had to get all the kinks worked out of this game.

Thumbs down

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

By far, the worst of the TR games. Glitches and bugs are everywhere and even frequent saves won't save you from having to start over. Important pieces of rooms go missing or the screen turns to grey. Sometimes Lara becomes invisible and you should probably turn down the volume on your tv because when her guns get stuck on super rapid fire, the sound is deafening!
I won't bother going into the poor controls. Save your money. Rent this game or borrow a buddy's so you can see for yourself.

Tomb Raider has lost everything that made it good

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game was a huge disappointment. I am a long time fan of the series, ever since 2. I have played and loved them all...except maybe Chronicles, but even that one was way better than this. As many people have noted, the control is all new, and terrible. I mastered long ago the initially tricky controls of the PS1 Tomb Raider games. The controls of those games was hard at first, but very fun once mastered. The controls for AofD are just plain frustrating, even turning a certain direction is nearly impossible...you will often find yourself turning completely around when you just need a nudge to the left or right. Jumps are very difficult and frustrating. Gone are the two pistols with unlimited ammo, Laras traditional outfit, and the ability to jump and shoot. Gone also are the vast, interesting worlds. This game takes place mainly inside, in cramped places, in cities or buildings, and only very rarely in an actual "tomb". It has completely lost the feel of the original Tomb Raider games that most of the long time fans love. Tomb Raider could have been so amazing on the PS2, but instead Eidos released this joke of a game. And yes, it is full of bugs, glitches, and has somewhat frequent slowdown, something I haven't seen in a game in quite awhile. The stealth mode is almost worthless and not at all interesting (stick with Metal Gear and the like for stealth),the inventory screen is inconvenient and slow,the storyline is decent but again has lost the traditional feel of Tomb Raider games, and the ability to talk to people is nice but doesn't come near to saving this wreck of a game. I rented it recently, and I am greatly relieved that I didn't waste money on buying it. If something isn't broken, you shouldn't fix it. Eidos ignored this fact and messed with a perfect recipe for great games. If you're going to change a game, you should at least keep the aspects of the games that made them great intact. Eidos trashed all of the good aspects of Tomb Raider and released a game that doesn't even deserve to have the Tomb Raider name attached to it. After playing this I don't think I will ever buy another new Tomb Raider game, unless they make some kind of miraculous leap back to the old style of Tomb Raider games, which I doubt they will. Another great game series down the drain.

Possibly the WORST of the TR series

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is one of those games you wish to end fast, but not because its action packed, its like a dying animal, you want to end fast to stop the suffering.

The storyline is nothing original and follows the same pattern as previous TR (Lara retrieves items that are then stolen by her enemies...pfft). There are like 3 different enemies throughout the game...so it take little, if any, skill to take them out. The bosses are simply retarded, I beat them the 1st time I fought them. The puzzles are extremely easy or downright impossible to figure out. The game slows down (matrix effect) on some parts, this is extremely frustrating. The angles will sometimes not let you see, so you have to move around to figure out where you are. The stealth and experience new features are pretty lame. I used the stealth move ONE TIME throughout the game. The experience thing is just to make you take more time to finish the game. Oh yeah, no vehicles at all on this one. I could go on but th 1,000 word list would be reached...this game is simply terrible, a shame to the Tomb Raider name which I have been fan for many, many years.

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