Tomb Raider, Angel Of Darkness
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Out of the ashes...
Lara Croft Tomb Raider Angel Of Darkness Review
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Repalyablity: 2/10
Opinion: 5/10
Overall: 6.0/10 ( Poor )
Out of the ashes, right into the 'What went wrong?' sector.
Gameplay: 7
Lara Croft Tomb Raider AOD started out very hilly. You are thrown straight into the game, with not background whatsoever to tell you what is happening. Patching it would most likely show you are movie of how the story starts, but gamers like me, hate downloading patches and demand that games should be fairly stable and not AFFECT THE GAMEPLAY!!!
But back to the game, you play as Lara Croft in this not so exciting game. The first thing you'll notice is her braid swings realistically and is rather nice. Please don't call me a pervert in the next statement you're about to read. Another thing is her boobs shake to her movement too. But you'll only see it for a few moments in the game as the camara is stationed behind her at all times.
In this game, there is still a nice selection of guns and bad guys. The guns, however, now requires ammo, unlike the last few games where Lara can equip herself with 2 guns and fire up everything in sight without the worry of reloading. There is also a new game feature, Grip. Hang on a ledge for too long will cause Lara to fall down ( to her death ).
Another feature is the stunning ragdoll physics. ( where people don't clip through walls!!!) I discovered it in the 2nd difficult mission when Lara runs out of oxygen and collaspes. They fall so realistically! (Damn I love ragdolls!) The bad guys too fall, but don't scream for joy, they flash a few times and disappear before your very eyes, like "Mario".
Now for the flaws, as explained above, this game requires a patch which I certainly hate to download. Lara Croft loses some of her physical ablities from her previous games, like rolling in midair and flipping her guns in midair. One of the annoying parts is her new skill building feature. She gains more strangth which enables her to jump higher and further. Since Tomb Raider is about jumping from one very tall stepping stone to another, you cannot predict where she would land. Normally, she would overshot her landing and fall. You wouldn't want to keep missing your landing through out the whole game, now would you?
Graphics: 8
Think, Enter The Matrix with poor textures and funny looking people. Only, AOD has even poorer texture and some major graphic gliches. Without the patch, the gliches are everywhere. At least the humans and some things are smooth. The lighting effect strangely does not affect shadow for some reason. But ignoring it will help you enjoy this game.
Sound: 8
Couldn't comment much. Average voice acting. Some sounds from pistols don't have sound when too many sounds are playing. The music is alright, but more music would be appericated.
Replayablity: 2
I loved playing Tomb Raider, twice to get the story. But AOD makes the game pace very slow and the new RPG adventure element is time wasting. Don't bother playing again, as the creators would have drilled the story into your head, even though you have no idea how it started.
Reviewer's Opinion: 5
I feel this is a poor console game ported poorly onto a computer. The firefights are few and far between, the RPG/adventure element is a waste of time, controls is like learning Spanish in 24 hours, the graphics are almost bad and the game is starting to show it's age. Getting stale... and staler... till it is a rotting piece of software which might suffer the same fate with "Heroes of Might & Magic" (BTW, 3DO, the creators of it, close down due to failure of it's 4th and 5th game)
Lara Croft Tomb Raider Angel Of Darkness Review
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Repalyablity: 2/10
Opinion: 5/10
Overall: 6.0/10 ( Poor )
Out of the ashes, right into the 'What went wrong?' sector.
Gameplay: 7
Lara Croft Tomb Raider AOD started out very hilly. You are thrown straight into the game, with not background whatsoever to tell you what is happening. Patching it would most likely show you are movie of how the story starts, but gamers like me, hate downloading patches and demand that games should be fairly stable and not AFFECT THE GAMEPLAY!!!
But back to the game, you play as Lara Croft in this not so exciting game. The first thing you'll notice is her braid swings realistically and is rather nice. Please don't call me a pervert in the next statement you're about to read. Another thing is her boobs shake to her movement too. But you'll only see it for a few moments in the game as the camara is stationed behind her at all times.
In this game, there is still a nice selection of guns and bad guys. The guns, however, now requires ammo, unlike the last few games where Lara can equip herself with 2 guns and fire up everything in sight without the worry of reloading. There is also a new game feature, Grip. Hang on a ledge for too long will cause Lara to fall down ( to her death ).
Another feature is the stunning ragdoll physics. ( where people don't clip through walls!!!) I discovered it in the 2nd difficult mission when Lara runs out of oxygen and collaspes. They fall so realistically! (Damn I love ragdolls!) The bad guys too fall, but don't scream for joy, they flash a few times and disappear before your very eyes, like "Mario".
Now for the flaws, as explained above, this game requires a patch which I certainly hate to download. Lara Croft loses some of her physical ablities from her previous games, like rolling in midair and flipping her guns in midair. One of the annoying parts is her new skill building feature. She gains more strangth which enables her to jump higher and further. Since Tomb Raider is about jumping from one very tall stepping stone to another, you cannot predict where she would land. Normally, she would overshot her landing and fall. You wouldn't want to keep missing your landing through out the whole game, now would you?
Graphics: 8
Think, Enter The Matrix with poor textures and funny looking people. Only, AOD has even poorer texture and some major graphic gliches. Without the patch, the gliches are everywhere. At least the humans and some things are smooth. The lighting effect strangely does not affect shadow for some reason. But ignoring it will help you enjoy this game.
Sound: 8
Couldn't comment much. Average voice acting. Some sounds from pistols don't have sound when too many sounds are playing. The music is alright, but more music would be appericated.
Replayablity: 2
I loved playing Tomb Raider, twice to get the story. But AOD makes the game pace very slow and the new RPG adventure element is time wasting. Don't bother playing again, as the creators would have drilled the story into your head, even though you have no idea how it started.
Reviewer's Opinion: 5
I feel this is a poor console game ported poorly onto a computer. The firefights are few and far between, the RPG/adventure element is a waste of time, controls is like learning Spanish in 24 hours, the graphics are almost bad and the game is starting to show it's age. Getting stale... and staler... till it is a rotting piece of software which might suffer the same fate with "Heroes of Might & Magic" (BTW, 3DO, the creators of it, close down due to failure of it's 4th and 5th game)
