To preface this review, I want to say that prior to playing this game, I played each prior Tomb Raider in release order, so Tomb Raider 1 - Chronicles. I knew well before starting this that Angel of Darkness was the black sheep in the franchise, the undeniable worst entry, and just a bad game in general. Now that I have finally played the game for myself, I can undoubtedly that this game lives up to it's reputation tenfold and just might be one of the worst games I've ever played.
The problems surrounding this game's development and resulting downfall of Core Design are well-documented already so I won't be wasting time with that. Instead of reviewing the game that could have been, I will try to focus solely on the game we got: a game best described as a broken, unfinished, disjointed mess.
Within the first five minutes of starting Angel of Darkness, you will notice three things right off the bat.
1.) The controls have changed for seemingly no reason
2.) The game is no longer built on "blocks"
3.) Lara somehow controls even worse than before
1 and 3 are ultimately the biggest pitfall with this game as it constantly is in flux with maintaining a worse version of 1-5's tank controls, while also trying to make the levels themselves more complex, the latter of which the game fails at more often than not. For example, many levels in this game house only very small sections with difficult platforming or a puzzle in which the solution is often in the exact same room that the puzzle is.
During the game's first few levels, I honestly thought it had potential. It didn't feel as good as the prior games but the levels themselves were interesting enough to disguise it. The Louvre and Hall of Seasons levels in particular are highlights, which are in the first half of the game. The latter half of the game is not worth talking about at all. If the game was nothing but the latter half, this game would honestly have zero saving graces. This game introduces a new playable character, Kurtis Trent, who adds nothing, literally nothing of value to the story at all. He controls exactly like Lara and only appears for 2 out of 29 levels. The story would be exactly the same had he not been in it.
The absolute worst part of this game is the bugs. The last two games had a few bugs that could be solved with a reload but this game has game-breaking games all over the place. Two major bugs I encountered were my notebook disappearing entirely. Certain puzzles rely on it, and it just completely erased itself from my inventory, forcing me to look online. Speaking of the inventory, after the first Kurtis mission you return to Lara. When I reached this point, I lost every single weapon and health kit I had encountered up to this point, forcing me to complete the rest of the game without ammo or health (pickups became extremely rare). The game does introduce melee but like everything else in this game. It sucks and it sucks really, really bad.
Ultimately, this game is just a mish-mash of half-finished ideas, crappy levels, and a story that is borderline engaging but mostly just boring and forgettable. As the final Core Design Tomb Raider game, this was the worst possible scenario for a send-off. Play it to form your own opinion if it's as bad as people say but absolutely do not go in expecting some kind of underrated gem as even with fan-patches, this game is just bad bad bad.
The problems surrounding this game's development and resulting downfall of Core Design are well-documented already so I won't be wasting time with that. Instead of reviewing the game that could have been, I will try to focus solely on the game we got: a game best described as a broken, unfinished, disjointed mess.
Within the first five minutes of starting Angel of Darkness, you will notice three things right off the bat.
1.) The controls have changed for seemingly no reason
2.) The game is no longer built on "blocks"
3.) Lara somehow controls even worse than before
1 and 3 are ultimately the biggest pitfall with this game as it constantly is in flux with maintaining a worse version of 1-5's tank controls, while also trying to make the levels themselves more complex, the latter of which the game fails at more often than not. For example, many levels in this game house only very small sections with difficult platforming or a puzzle in which the solution is often in the exact same room that the puzzle is.
During the game's first few levels, I honestly thought it had potential. It didn't feel as good as the prior games but the levels themselves were interesting enough to disguise it. The Louvre and Hall of Seasons levels in particular are highlights, which are in the first half of the game. The latter half of the game is not worth talking about at all. If the game was nothing but the latter half, this game would honestly have zero saving graces. This game introduces a new playable character, Kurtis Trent, who adds nothing, literally nothing of value to the story at all. He controls exactly like Lara and only appears for 2 out of 29 levels. The story would be exactly the same had he not been in it.
The absolute worst part of this game is the bugs. The last two games had a few bugs that could be solved with a reload but this game has game-breaking games all over the place. Two major bugs I encountered were my notebook disappearing entirely. Certain puzzles rely on it, and it just completely erased itself from my inventory, forcing me to look online. Speaking of the inventory, after the first Kurtis mission you return to Lara. When I reached this point, I lost every single weapon and health kit I had encountered up to this point, forcing me to complete the rest of the game without ammo or health (pickups became extremely rare). The game does introduce melee but like everything else in this game. It sucks and it sucks really, really bad.
Ultimately, this game is just a mish-mash of half-finished ideas, crappy levels, and a story that is borderline engaging but mostly just boring and forgettable. As the final Core Design Tomb Raider game, this was the worst possible scenario for a send-off. Play it to form your own opinion if it's as bad as people say but absolutely do not go in expecting some kind of underrated gem as even with fan-patches, this game is just bad bad bad.