Terrible

Games and pop culture go hand in hand as our industry pries into the lives of the young. I grew up with ninja turtles and wrestling, so you can bet I had TMNT the game and WWF Wrestlemania for the NES. Nowadays games are actually inspiring pop culture. This is the case with busty video game cover girl Lara Croft. Lara stormed onto the video game scene with Tomb Raider and since has been the self-proclaimed first lady of gaming. Whether it is her figure, or the appeal of the actual game, Lara is huge, both literally and figuratively. Lara has inspired calendars, comics and even two full motion pictures. It was only a matter time that she stepped into the world of next gen consoles with her arrival on the PS2. Unfortunately for us the effort was in vain as Lara Croft Angel of Darkness is a weak effort and weaker game.

Worse

The problems start very soon. Your first level of course is a training level to get you acquainted with the control and familiarize yourself with how the game is played. Problem here is I cannot imagine having to play the whole game with the controls as they are. The lack of response from the controls is beyond terrible. As a matter of fact there almost is no response from the controls you input. You may find yourself checking to see if the controller is plugged in and sadly, it is. Moving Lara about is almost torture as her motions are stiff at best. As you all should know the previous Tomb Raiders are about running, jumping,climbing puzzles and the likes. Same holds true with Angel of Darkness, however running to gap a ledge will quickly become the last adventure our heroine makes. You will press the jump button only for Lara to just keep running right off a four-story building to her voluptuous death.

Can I stop playing now?

The level designs do nothing to lead the player through the stages. You do not know which doors you can or can't open, which ledges you can or can't grab, or even which rails you can or can't jump over. You will fall victim to the "invisible wall" when trying to jump over small rails that, in the last level, you could jump over. I guess the player is not meant to go over there; heaven forbid exploration in a game entitled Tomb Raider.

I hate this game

I hate the PS2 as it has been the bane in my side as far as console gaming, and had it not been for Squaresoft, I would not own one. The game looks like Vaseline was smeared on the inside of my television set. Lara herself is really the only thing that looks ok. The textures very, how do you say, PS2 like. Also don't hope for too much going on at one time, the game likes to s lo w down to a crawl when the rain comes. Strange, I know but what do you expect from a game that sucks on a console that sucks more.

Finally I can stop talking about it, this is the last paragraph

There is not much more to say. I was very unimpressed by everything I saw, and uninspired to really even go any further with the game. I was anxious to play as the new playable character, however his levels come later in the game, and I was not about to stick around for that. I equate playing this game much like getting a root canal. This game is terrible in every facet. Sorry Eidos, sorry Lara, but thanks for wasting my time. Don't even bother with this one, do not rent, do not buy, hell don't even play it on a dare. (edit 3 days after post: I just want to say once more that this game fucking is so damn terrible...really, its that bad.)

Jul 2, 2003 | 10 comments
Mike Carabajal