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.)
