Ranking the Classic Tomb Raider Games

With the release of Tomb Raider I - III Remastered several months ago, I had a renewed interest in the games and felt a need to replay them again (or just outright play at all seeing as I hadn't completed several of them and hadn't ever played one). I went back to the original versions I already owned and, well, some months later I've finally finished the last one in the series of "classics" (that is the one's developed originally by the now defunct Core Design). And I have reached my verdict for each entry in the series. Take note however that I'm only going to outline what I like (or indeed dislike) about each game and rate it out of ten, these aren't full blow reviews. Having said, since that each subsequent game gets more complicated, so my observations do as well, culminating in what will amount to almost a full blown review for Angel of Darkness, simply because of how complex of an observation that game needs. Also despite the first three games having what amounted to free expansion packs, I haven't played any of those, so otherwise shan't be mentioning them.

Talking of not otherwise mentioning things, I am also not going to rate any other games in the series released outside of the first six main titles, so that means Crystal Dynamics and their various "contributions" to the series can go fuck themselves. In fact Crystal Dynamics can go fuck themselves in particular because I really do not like them (for varying reasons I won't go into). Anyway without further ado…

Tomb Raider (1996)

Lara Croft, internationally renowned archaeologist turned endangered species murdering machine, is hired by Jacqueline Natla to go in search of an artefact in Peru. However she soon finds out there's more to the story surrounding the artefact than she's been told and goes on a quest to find pieces of the it as well as the possible location of Atlantis.

Ah, Tomb Raider. Lara's first outing and the start to a long series of games, some (or perhaps just one) great, and some… Not so great. For the first entry in the series it isn't actually that bad, which is evident considering it spawned so many more titles in its wake. Despite it being released in 1996 (the same year as Duke Nukem 3D and Super Mario 64 believe it or not), the game does look fairly pretty for 1996 standards, and aside from the signature tank controls and having to put up with Lara ignoring basic control input resulting in her plummeting to her crunchy death on countless occasions, the locations you visit are generally well designed and the puzzles rarely leave you scratching your head (at least for too long), and as such the level pacing is sufficient to keep you entertained at the same time. There's also a training level in the form of Croft Manor set aside from the main game, though you can't do much in it except learn the basics.

I had fun with this game, even though it did have it's irritating moments. However my major gripes with the it stems not from the gameplay mechanics or some occasionally annoying puzzle solving requirements, but mainly from the final Atlantis levels, as they're considerably more difficult and less aesthetically pleasing; I mean what on earth was going on with that pulsating meatiness? As such the plot does take a bit of a nose dive at this point. Although the plot had been fairly vaguely thrown together throughout the game, some revelations you get towards the end which had been hinted to previously, kind of just make it all come across a bit on the weird side. To top it off, one of the final bosses you encounter is essentially a gigantic bollock monster with arms. It was certainly a unique take on the legend of Atlantis, that's for sure.

Overall, not amazing but it is at least still fairly good: 7/10

Tomb Raider II (1997)

Lara's straight back into the action in search of the legendary Dagger of Xian in China, but instead finds the temple locked up tight and guarded by a distinctly out-of-place homicidal Italian. Upon researching further she finds out that these weirdos are holed up in Venice and are also looking for a way to get into the Temple by finding an artefact lost on a shipwreck that will allow them access to the key to the temple, currently hidden in a Tibetan monastery, so Lara decides to beat them to it.

TRII came along a year later and to much fanfare; as arguably this is the best Tomb Raider in the series (the classic ones at any rate and while I'm sure some would disagree; most probably won't). Some new mechanics include being able to light flares, a few new weapons, being able to climb ladders and of course, Lara's now got long plaited hair (she was supposed to have this in the first game but they couldn't get the physics right so removed it before release, hence why she has one in the cutscenes - although this has been fixed by community mods over the years). The croft manor training level also makes a return and is considerably more fleshed out than the previous game's version, with a timed assault course and also secrets to find. It also has an addition in the form of Winston the butler who follows Lara around relentlessly (and slowly) with some tea. Naturally this spawned the infamous pass time of locking the butler in the freezer.

TRII has perhaps some of the most memorable locations in the series, and despite the initial great wall level having a sudden difficulty curve sharper than Lara's tits, the remainder of the locations, especially the next few levels set in Venice, and later the sunken ship and early Tibetan levels make for an amazing game to play and enjoy. Coupled with a much larger array of enemies to shoot in the face, this entry in the series may be seen more as an action game than an adventure game (and some of it's minor criticisms over the years has been that it focused a lot more on Lara killing everything in sight than the actual exploration elements that made the first game what it was). Personally I liked the additional enemy threat and thought it improved the overall gameplay we got in the first game immensely, even if in recent years it's spawned even more criticism from woke nobend retards who call out what they consider to be racial stereotyping (but we all know those kinds of snowflakes will always try to find something to offend them so they can complain about it on Reddit for Internet points).

That's not to say the game hasn't got any legitimate detriments of course; just like the predecessor the final few levels (starting with the end of the Tibetan levels), become frustratingly difficult or just outright drawn out and boring to navigate. The Temple of Xian for instance was horrendous and should frankly have been the final level (but alas it wasn't). They clearly also decided to stick with the same "what the fuck" formula from the previous game and made the 'Floating Islands' level completely bonkers in terms of aesthetics, which doesn't really help its flow. It's not all about the end of the game that irks me though, as I also found some previous levels to be a bit difficult with considerably more moments that left me wondering what the fuck I was supposed to be doing. One of the sunken ship levels for instance took me literal hours to figure out where I was supposed to go at one point, all because a ledge was too well hidden and the path to said ledge not obvious in the slightest. Unlike it's predecessor however, the plot seemed fairly well paced throughout the game and didn't just suddenly go weird (it was weird from the start but in a good way).

Ultimately despite it's flaws, it is one of, if not the best Tomb Raider game ever released, in my opinion. 9/10

Tomb Raider III (1998)

While out raiding some tombs in India looking for a supposed unique artefact the native tribe once possessed, Lara is found by a Doctor researching the same artefact and is informed by him of the existence of several similar artefacts all made from an ancient meteorite that hit Antarctica a long, long time ago. After subsequently being roped into finding them, Lara heads off on a journey around the world that takes her to London, the Nevada Desert and the South Pacific.

TRIII is a favourite among many gamers, but it isn't one of mine. However I still quite like it; just not as much as the previous game. They took a few different approaches in this title (something I think they should have stuck with in later titles), namely the fact that now you can pick which location Lara is to travel to after the initial levels in India. There are a few other added mechanics too, such as Lara now being able to crawl and also sprint. Croft Manor once again makes a return only this time Lara has a shooting range she can use, as well as using Winston the Butler for target practice (thanks to his use of the tea tray as a shield). The story is also perhaps on par with TRII in terms of pacing and engagement and in fact I found it a little more interesting and in-depth compared to the previous two titles, which is a good thing by any stretch of the imagination.

The problem I find TRIII has is there are more bad levels than there are good. Although not too difficult to navigate in most instances, some are just too long and drawn out, making them a bit on the uninteresting side. I'd say the South Pacific ones being pretty much the worst offender here, although India's starting levels don't do much to get you going. The idea of the Nevada levels alone might pique your interest but once you play them you'll be less enthralled as they also come across a bit dull, although Area 51 at least changes things up considerably. London is by far the best set of levels, though many consider them to be the most difficult (I'd be inclined to agree but the fact I liked them a lot detracted from the frustration of not being able to figure out what the fuck I was supposed to be doing in some cases). And finally, in a change from what had been the norm up until now, the final levels set in Antarctica are actually considerably less bonkers and more entertaining to traverse.

There are some inherent issues this game has with the way it is set up though; as when you play the Nevada levels, eventually you lose all your items and have to reacquire some of them. This means if you don't play Nevada first after India, you end up losing weapons you picked up previously and wind up having to acquire them again later, which in most cases is doable, but it depends on when you complete Nevada. If for example you end up going to Nevada last, you'll be a bit fucked as several weapons aren't available to find in Antarctica. This is only a minor issue though. Generally the game works well enough as long as you conquer Nevada first. This game also marks the first time you can unlock a secret level, also set in London, if you find all the secrets in the game. Considering all you got for finding secrets in the previous two games were some weapons or ammo it makes a change to actually give you something overly worth the effort to look for them.

Beyond all that, it's clear that Core Design tried to do a bit of a combination of the original game's adventuring and the sequel's shooting, while trying to create some memorable locations and a plot that was entertaining enough to keep you engaged. For the most part they succeeded but honestly, they didn't quite manage to make most of the levels memorable enough to hit the mark. Though I'll certainly give them an A for effort, especially with the "choose your own location" mechanic. If only they'd stuck with that sort of forward thinking in the next title.

In the end, it doesn't top TRII even with the much better final levels, but it certainly does enough to make it at least second best. 8/10

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999)

Lara returns to Egypt to irresponsibly raid the Tomb of Set, and after finding the legendary Amulet of Horus and pinching it, she inadvertently lets Set out of his tomb-prison where he starts wrecking havoc. Lara, now realising what she's done, sets off across Egypt to figure out a way to imprison him again and save the world from certain doom, all the while also trying to thwart her mentor turned arch rival Werner Von Croy.

The Last Revelation as an apt name, as it's the last revelation of just how crap the Tomb Raider series could get. My god what a chore. In an attempt to go back to Lara's roots (supposedly) as a tomb raider, again, they literally have her raiding a tomb in Egypt. As it stands, the plot winds up being entirely set in Egypt and there's barely any aesthetic variation in any of the levels, which are also plentiful as they put in the most levels to date compared to previous entries, although some technically are the same level as you have to backtrack between them to complete certain puzzles and progress. Talking of backtracking, there's a considerable amount of it required in some areas, which was as far as I'm concerned a way the developers used to artificially inflate the length of the game. Generally speaking, I really don't understand what they were thinking when they made TLR, as honestly it's literally only got maybe three or four memorable levels in it; namely Alexandria. Beyond that it's very samey and dull with some levels being ridiculously difficult to navigate in places.

I found myself using a walkthrough on many occasions because I couldn't figure out where I needed to go, but more importantly I couldn't be bothered to figure it out myself due to how utterly uninterested I felt in carrying on. Compared to the previous three titles where although I did use walkthroughs, it was literally only a handful of times and usually even if I got stuck I kept trying myself (for sometimes hours) before I figured it out. TLR had me using a walkthrough in almost every single level, no word of a lie. Some of the puzzles were so contrived that I find it hard to believe you could figure them out without pure blind luck. The boredom of the backtracking just made things worse. Granted I'm no spring chicken and my brain power likely doesn't do me any favours, however I reiterate the fact I felt bored of the level design and uninterested in progressing under my own steam was a big factor in why I didn't put much effort into trying to figure out by myself how and where I needed to go so many times.

As an example of how contrived it can get though, towards the end of the game you have to put four artefacts you've up to that point been collecting in a room to open the way ahead. Except you'll most likely only have three. This is because unless you have eyes like a hawk (or indeed look at a walkthrough beforehand), you'll have walked straight past the door you were supposed to go in to get the fourth artefact in the previous level, as it was around a nonchalant corner that even if you explored you probably wouldn't have noticed it. The only way to open said door was to move a block onto a picture carved into the floor that was barely visible. Oh and the block you have to move looks exactly like all the other blocks the level is made up of; something the TR games have always done is make the movable blocks generally obvious that they are movable, either by making them slightly different colours or having different textures or just outright having them sat right in front of you out of place from thew rest of the level. This block however genuinely didn't look like a movable block at all, and was instead quietly pretending to be part of the level geometry.

I'm almost positive the fucks did this on purpose so you were more likely to miss it and carry on to the next level, meaning to progress you were forced to backtrack (yet again) to go back and get the item. While I'm sure some people probably did notice the barely visible carving on the floor, then saw the door, and then searched around for the movable block, I'm willing to bet most people who were doing this on their own merits (i.e. without the aid of a walkthrough) missed it and ended up either thinking they had missed an item somehow and now soft locked the game or spent an hour or more (like I did) wondering around the pyramid tomb you're in trying to find it, when in reality you had to go back outside, back down the side of the pyramid and into that little nook. Yea, the game isn't littered with these examples but it has enough of them for it to be a detriment overall.

I could go on too; like how some of the enemies are just infuriating. For example there are some wraiths you'll come across throughout the game that are impervious to damage by Lara, and the only way to kill them is to find a totem on the level and stand by it until the wraiths disappear. Generally they don't show up near one of these totems either, meaning if you want to carry on unhindered (as every time they touch Lara they can cause considerable amounts of damage) you have to once again backtrack to find a totem you previously ran by. On at least one occasion I nearly soft locked my game as I had saved with low health, had no medkits to use and was being interfered with by one such wraith that kept killing me as a result. I had to retry from my last save several times and get back to a totem a fair way back in the level in order to get rid of it so I could finally progress without dying.

Not only that but there are also several mini bosses throughout the game that are completely invulnerable, and the only way around them involves some quick movement or just a lot of running around. At one point also you're up against soldiers in Cairo who have placed automated turrets everywhere which, while they can be destroyed, isn't easy to do so when you're being shot to shit. In general all this makes for an already frustrating experience ten times worse.

Even the final boss is introduced in a broadly "fuck you" kind of way as it largely seems to invalidate the whole point of your exploration of various levels previously, and overall the encounter ends up being entirely lacklustre given he's invulnerable and isn't really a boss at all; he's just a minor annoyance that floats around shooting orbs at you and making weird noises while you clamber around and find a way back out of the cave you entered before he showed up.

All these aspects would result in me severely degrading my score for TLR as I was actually close to giving up on it. This was the first game in the series I genuinely found the least enjoyable and I actually felt like I couldn't wait for it be over so I could move onto Chronicles. There's a good chance as well I'll probably never play the game again, or if I do it certainly won't be for a very long time. There are at least some nice levels (all be it barely any compared to previous games), although gone is the Croft Manor training level, which is shame, and in its stead is a small introductory set of levels based in Cambodia that gives us a glimpse of a teenage Lara and also introduces her mentor (who later ends up being her main rival) Werner Von Croy, but unlike Croft Manor, you cannot skip these levels (without cheats at least). These beginner levels also serve to set up the reasoning why Lara and Von Croy wind up as bitter rivals, after he ignored his own teachings and gets trapped while attempting to obtain an artefact called the Iris.

I mentioned before how Alexandria is one of the better set of levels in the game, despite the backtracking being mostly introduced in them. Well part of these levels is another new aspect of the game where you're introduced to a long-time friend of Lara's called Jean-Yves, which marks the first time in the series you're able to converse with an NPC outside of a cutscene and that also isn't a villain that you ultimately have to defeat. He has his headquarters in Alexandria and Lara can make multiple pitstops to talk to him, which in itself sounds like a nice enough idea as you'd expect they would have made it so he would impart some valuable information for Lara to use and thus make it somewhat easier to figure out what you were supposed to do next, but alas they dropped the ball on that one too, as his short conversations are vague and barely tell you anything you didn't already know.

I will lastly say that I remember way back when before this game was released that I played a demo of it (likely on one of those PlayStation magazine demo discs you could get) where Lara was in what would presumably become The Lost Library levels of Alexandria, and I remember thoroughly enjoying it. These demo levels however were massively changed or scrapped entirely in the final release, which if you ask me was a bad move. It suggests that perhaps there's a beta or alpha version of this game floating around somewhere that might actually be considerably more enjoyable to play than the final product (although that's entirely speculatory on my part as demos were often made specifically for promotional events and may not even have been part of the game originally).

In closing, it's a slog and not Lara's finest moment, but the story is at least mostly entertaining when you're not pulling your hair out trying to advance it. 5/10

Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000)

With Lara presumed a corpse buried under a ton of shit in Egypt, some of her friends gather in Croft Manor to reminisce of her achievements while they wait for news from Von Croy who, wrecked with guilt for running away like a little girl from the collapsing tomb at the end of the last adventure, is manning a dig to try and find her, dead or alive. The trio gather around the fire and tell stories about how Lara had left her mark in Rome, sneaked onto a Russian submarine, defeated evil in Ireland as a teenager and lastly how she eventually ended up acquiring the Iris artefact from Von Croy in his company's high-tech research headquarters.

Core Design were really showing the strain by the time this game released, having already done four Tomb Raiders in four years (this being the fifth for a fifth year in a row), with up to this point only TR2 being an improvement over the previous entry (in my opinion of course). That changed here as anything was going to better than the train wreck that was TLR. Chronicles marks the first time where each location you visit hasn't got anything to do with each other in terms of story; it's like playing four mini Tomb Raider games in one I guess, hence the name. Generally the mechanics aren't much improved over TLR, so gameplay wise it's pretty much the same as before, just a tad better in terms of refinement. There's still no Croft Manor unfortunately, which I can understand this time around given Lara's buried under a metric fuckton of sand, though the training (if you so desire to call it that) is now provided at the start of the Rome level and all you have to do is head through a door to the left of the start. But it can be completely avoided if you wish, which is a marked improvement over forcing you through the Cambodia levels in TLR. Something I'm actually surprised they didn't do was bring back the location select introduced in TRIII as I feel it would have worked quite well here.

As I've already stated you begin in Rome, which for all intents and purposes I think are the best levels in the game, and are slightly reminiscent of TRII's Venice levels (and have some characters returning from TR - all be it because this part of the story is set before the first game's story occurs, hence why they're still... alive). A low point I think are the Ireland levels, in which we see a 16 year old Lara (presumably set just before or after the Cambodia levels from TLR). They're dark, dingy and... Weird. Although at this point weirdness appears to be a staple for these games so I can give it a pass for that. After all, in previous entries we've already seen a T-Rex (or two), a gigantic bollock monster with arms, Yetis, a bloke turned into a dragon by stabbing himself in the heart, living Shiva statues, a bloke turned into a giant spider because of meteorite… Magic, and the literal Egyptian god Set. However as much as Ireland is a bit on the spaced out plain of existence, the levels set in VCI Headquarters are on the other end of the spectrum and are probably among the hardest levels in any Tomb Raider game. They remind me of TRIII's Area 51 level, except ten times harder and considerably more frustrating.

I will also note here that, although I played a modified version of this game (not too modified, just enough to get it to work properly on modern PC's) there were an awful lot of bugs. Towards the end of the final VCI level (and last level of the game) I encountered a bug that meant an enemy I had to kill by using poison gas got stuck down a hole (a known issue apparently), and because I'm an idiot who tends to only use one save file, I'd saved after he got stuck. This effectively meant I soft locked the whole game right at the end (the literal end of the entire game) and unless I cheated I wouldn't be able to continue as you can't kill the enemy any other way. Apparently there is a long drawn out procedure you can follow to try and "reset" the level by backtracking up to a point, but it isn't guaranteed to work. In the end I used a save game editor to give myself the key the enemy was supposed to drop which in itself meant I could continue and end the level, and ultimately the game. But regardless, that was not a high point, and I came across several other bugs that hampered progress in places (though none were quite as catastrophic).

While it's certainly better than TLR, it is also shorter, which some may think is a negative but I think is a positive: TLR proved that having long drawn out levels that could be overly complicated with obtuse puzzles just made for a slog of a game and the shorter, more straight forward approach used in previous titles was king, and generally what made the series great in the first place. The game ends up essentially being a sort of episodic filler title to bridge the gap between TLR and Angel of Darkness (which wouldn't be released for another three years) as well as a sort of farewell of sorts to Lara and her "old ways" as they clearly had a lot of changes in mind with the upcoming AoD.

It's a bit of a mixed bag but it mostly brings Lara back on form to an extent. 6/10

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003)

Some time after Von Croy and his diggers found Lara alive after the events of The Last Revelation and Chronicles, he has requested to see her about matters of grave importance regarding some artefacts known as the Obscura Paintings. However Lara's still pretty pissed off with him over leaving her to be buried in the first place and refuses to help him. Despite this she goes to see him to see what he's so worried about and while arguing they are attacked by an unknown force, during which Von Croy is killed and Lara regains consciousness with only a blurry memory of the events. Suspected of his murder, she has no choice but to go on the run and try and figure out what these Obscura Paintings have to do with the mysterious goings on and an apparent serial killer nicknamed the Monstrum stalking their way through Europe.

This is it, the game that killed the franchise, or at least it killed it under the guidance of Core Design. In essence it ended up killing them too, really. The game's development history was a bit of a roller coaster, even though it was relatively short compared to some games I could mention (by this point Duke Nukem Forever had been in development hell since 1997 and was still eight years away from release). But Eidos wanted results and Core Design apparently only had an unfinished and buggy game to provide them, which they ultimately did. The game was released and as you can guess, series fans and critics alike weren't overly impressed, and despite sales being decent after its initial release, ultimately it was considered a failure. Eidos used this as a means to take the IP away from Core Design and give it to Crystal Dynamics, while Core Design later ended up changing their name before being shut down completely several years later in 2010.

I had never played AoD originally when it released on PlayStation 2; I skipped over it when it came out in 2003 as it was pretty much panned by critics and gamers alike for being a massive departure from the norm that was Tomb Raider, but also due to the technical issues the game suffered with. In the years since, many enthusiasts have fixed aspects of the game (well, on the PC version at least) and made it considerably more playable on modern hardware just like previous titles in the series, so I decided to give it a try and see if it could at least match or improve upon my experience with TLR. So, the big question is, now that I've managed to play AoD from start to finish, do I rate it higher than TLR?

Yes, I do.

A controversial opinion? Perhaps. Let me explain, though you better buckle up, as this is going to be even longer than my rant about TLR.

The first thing I noticed about AoD was of course the improved graphics. Given this game's from 2003, and the previous entry three years prior was stuck in the PlayStation (1) era of graphics, I was actually surprised to see Miss Croft looking so… Polygonal. I mean it shouldn't really have been much of a surprise given I was playing the Windows version, tweaked to its best settings and with a few mods applied to improve things here and there, but regardless it still did surprise me finally seeing a more realistic (but still mostly faithful to the original character model) version of Lara prancing around in tight denim jeans. They even gave her boob physics which quite frankly is amazing (I'm not sorry to say I love a big pair of wobbly breasts). Although I'm sure she's lost weight around her arse.

Actually, talking of her arse, given the game's gritty opening and apparent change of pace and direction compared to what the Tomb Raider series have mostly all been about up until this point, I think it's clear Core Design wanted to take Lara in a literal different direction to the norm with Angel of Darkness, by trying to get away from those sexy vibes they'd obviously (as much as they would probably deny it) underpinned in previous entries where they made the character model wear considerably skimpy outfits at times as well as giving her an enormous pair of breasts and a shapely arse from the word go.

However, as the game goes on, this fresh new outlook clearly went out the window as she once again starts to exhibit sex appeal, notably when she encounters Kurtis for the first time and he literally touches her up (which she seems to enjoy), and much later dons a wetsuit where we (finally after all these years) get a decent glimpse of her ample cleavage (so top marks there).

So by initially giving Lara's sex appeal a backseat, did they manage to focus on decent gameplay and storytelling? Well, before I delve into the overall game mechanics and plot, I want to talk about the second thing I noticed almost immediately after I started playing: The controls.

The controls are fucking shit.

Lara never was easily controlled, strong independent woman that she is, and every new entry in the main series merely added a few extra moves she could do but the base set of movement controls were generally always the same, and they always felt the same too; difficult. With AoD one of the new directions they took was (presumably) an attempt to rectify Lara's tank controls so that she didn't feel like you were attempting to maneuver a Sherman tank through a quagmire. To do this they've actually simplified a lot of controls; perhaps thinking console players with controllers weren't smart enough to wrap their silly heads around a simple button layout (I mean given how so many developers these days dumb down controls for console versions of their games, this was perhaps quite forward thinking from Core Design way back in 2003, even if it was stupid).

You no longer have to, for instance, explicitly tell Lara you want her to hop up onto an object that's low enough for her to do so by walking up to it, jumping and grabbing as you did in previous titles. Now she'll just do that all herself as long as you walk up to something and then press forward. You also no longer have to keep holding the action button to keep her hanging onto things either; once she grabs a ledge or a ladder or some other obstacle she can climb on, she stays grabbed onto it until either you tell her to let go by pressing action, or she runs out of stamina (her stamina of which will improve as the game goes on as she "gets stronger" for performing certain physical actions - which you'll know she has because she loudly proclaims it).

So all this might sound OK from the outset, and you may be wondering why I've called the controls shit if they're actually intuitively better (on paper). Well, yes, on paper it sounds great, and the theory often does. It's the practical side of it that's shit, because it's still like maneuvering a Sherman tank through a quagmire, only now the driver's pissed as a cunt and missing several fingers on both hands. The controls are shit because they're buggy as hell. She will stop and start as if she's ignoring your input then completely miss what you're aiming her at and overshoot it, she starts off walking and transitions into a slow jog by herself but it's incredibly inconsistent and if you try cornering while doing this she slows right down as if she couldn't navigate around simple bends without using all her brain power like a drunk on his 17th pint of beer. And the run and jump mechanic's now more difficult than ever to perform correctly (which is ironic given how they simplified the whole system) because you can no longer make her hop back from an edge like in previous titles to make the perfect distance to perform the maneuver, and she also has a nasty habit of apparently randomly shifting to the left or right for no reason when you do manage to land a jump causing her to veer off course completely.

The most annoying aspect above all else is if you drop off from somewhere and decide to turn around at any given moment, Lara will, for completely inexplicable reasons, turn in completely the opposite direction to what you're trying to steer her in and then back step. I lost count of the sheer number of times I climbed up onto a ledge and went to walk forward and off to the left (or right) only for her to face the right (or left) and then nearly walk backwards off the fucking ledge as a result. Luckily if she does walk off ledges backwards she tends to automatically grab them, although if like me you forget about this new mechanic and press action as a knee-jerk reaction to make her grab the ledge, the opposite happens and she lets go. I have watched her do this and end up pancaked on the floor multiple times - in fact the first time it happened I was already half way through the first level and, yep, I hadn't saved the game. Some things clearly never change.

Granted this was while I was using a controller which I had done for every game so far, and even then the only reason I was able to use a modern controller (i.e. one that uses XInput) is because of the mods I'd applied to the game to get it to work. And by get it to work, I mean that in loose terms, as the mods I used only allowed me to control her with the anologue stick and not the D-Pad, and there are several keys that can't be mapped to the controller meaning you still need to use the keyboard for several aspects of gameplay like pausing/saving/loading or opening the inventory. This isn't really anything new with the PC versions of the Tomb Raider games though as none of them have proper controller support and I had to use a tool called AntiMicoX to map keyboard inputs to a controller on all but the first title (due to me using an engine replacement called TR1X), although with a particular mod you don't need to do this in AoD either as the game has had support for controllers injected into it by community modders, but even then it's not perfect. In hindsight it might actually be easier to just play the game with a keyboard and mouse, although from what I could tell the mouse controls are somewhat skewwhiff.

I did eventually (after perhaps an hour of playing) manage to get used to this highly unusual control scheme so it's not all doom and gloom, but I still think it's fucking shit and even after I got used to it, I was still being frustrated by it right up until the end of the game. Indeed, the way Lara moves (which can only be described as drukenly sluggish) and the infuriating quirks (and bugs) of the controls are in fact one of the main and major criticisms of the game and one of the reasons it got scored low in reviews and why many consider it to be one of the worst games in the series. As such there are a few attempts by modders out there that actually go to great lengths to improve the controls and even add a couple of moves Lara can perform that were cut from the game, although I decided not to use them due to them conflicting with other mods I had installed. In future playthroughs though I'll definitely be using some form of mod to fix these issues.

So what else was there I took away from this? Well, the voice actress for one thing. They brought back Jonell Elliott to voice Lara again, her third time in the roll I believe, although she would later be replaced by Keeley Hawes for Crystal Dynamics' reboot series (I may hate CD, but top marks for that choice of actress as I fucking loved her in Ashes to Ashes). Ehem, anyway, I don't know what it was about this time around; maybe she couldn't be bothered and phoned it in. Maybe the voice acting director didn't have a clue. Maybe she actually just can't act and I hadn't noticed it in TLD or Chronicles. But whatever the reason, she sound likes a plank of wood. I'm almost positive they told her to act as if Lara was cold, withdrawn and generally pissed off with life in general. But she does this by removing emotion and speaking in a fairly monotone, dull voice that sounds like she's trying to be angry at times but doesn't know how to be, and it really just doesn't work. While she doesn't speak like a lump of wood pretending to act 100% of the time, occasionally giving some sassy lines and actually delivering a bit of emotion, it's not very often, and by contrast the other voice actors/actresses do a fairly decent job. Then again I don't think the Tomb Raider series has ever been particularly well-known for it's quality in-depth voice acting.

But anyway, onto the levels: Most of them don't exactly bring about award winning design, but they're OK for the most part. I often found it difficult to see where I was supposed to go because climbable walls are nowhere near as obvious. Lara's ability to clamber across ledges was sometimes hit and miss with her failing to move when she was obviously supposed to, or just outright missing ledges when trying to grab them simply because I hadn't positioned her perfectly. This may also be a result of the clumsy/buggy controls though. I wouldn't say all the levels are badly designed; given that the vast majority of the game takes place inside buildings and streets, I was actually getting a lot of Max Payne vibes from some of them. Having said that the game's buggy nature often reared its ugly head in regards to switches and buttons: Normally when you get to something Lara can interact with you see a hand icon show up on screen but it did seem a bit inconsistent in places with it appearing only when she was standing right in front of the object and other times when she was only standing near-by, and sometimes it didn't appear at all when it probably should have.

Generally though the levels are fairly straight forward and navigatable without much issue. Unlike my experience with TLD, I didn't find that I was having to consult a guide or walkthrough on a regular basis which I always consider to be a positive. Generally I only had to do so because of the aforementioned times when a climable wall was not immediately obvious and I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to progress as a result, but this only happened four of five times in the entire game. Around mid-way through the game the tone of the levels changes considerably as Lara has to traverse some tomb-like underground sections under the Louvre, in which the difficulty is ramped up considerably, and it's made all the more difficult due to, you guessed it, the controls, as you have to perform some tricky jumps in places that require almost perfect timing and precision. As you can imagine, it's not easy to do when Lara's leaping around like a pissed kangaroo with one leg. On this and some areas near the end of the game I found myself raging like a rabid chimp at the computer screen due to my fifteenth+ attempt at making her land a jump failed with her plummeting to her death.

Meanwhile some other interesting and fairly new aspects of the game are the NPCs. While the developers introduced conversing with NPCs in TLD (and didn't really flesh it out much in that title nor did they bring it back in Chronicles), in AoD you pretty much have to have full blown conversations with various NPCs found dotted around certain levels, namely places like the streets of Paris. What is new is the fact you can now pick what you say to certain characters, akin to an RPG, and Lara can usually take either a somewhat sympathetic approach or be rather blunt. Generally this doesn't impact much other than how the characters react and maybe if they provide you with information or not in some cases, although in one particular NPC's case, saying the wrong line actually winds up with Lara getting shot in the face and throwing a game over, although I only seemed to find such a scenario with that one particular NPC and in that one particular situation.

Something else you can do, at least in Paris, is visit some vendors. One of which you can sell items to for money earlier on, which allows you to buy equipment you might otherwise not be able to obtain, although it's somewhat of a 'few and far between' mechanic and doesn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things as you'll find plenty of items to pickup as you go along. Talking of which, I had no issue with guns and ammo, which Lara seemed to be tripping over for the most part. I've seen some opinions that the game's actually slightly unbalanced as a result as the amount of ammo you can acquire is in such ample supply you'll rarely run out of it even in the areas heavy with enemies.

You can of course avoid firefights in some situations by sneaking; a new mechanic for the series in which when you press a button/key and Lara will duck down slightly and move quieter, and if you sneak up on unsuspecting enemies you can grab them and choke them out instead of shooting them, meaning no other enemies are alerted to your presence. However, once again given the amount of ammo you'll likely find along the way, going in guns blazing is probably just as much of an option in any situation as sneaking is. It doesn't help that the stealth mechanic isn't exactly well implimented, as there were a couple of situations I came across where it seemed nigh impossible not to alert the enemy no matter how much I tried to hide and skulk around.

When it actually comes to shooting, similarly to previous titles when Lara's guns are drawn she will automatically lock onto a target that's fairly close by, and she even now has a new movement style while doing this in so much as she'll bob and weave around, which is a nice touch. Generally the system works well enough although the camera does occasionally go a bit bonkers and I found that unless it is actually showing the target, Lara's weapon accuracy seems to become non-existent and she'll miss every hit. There was also a boss towards the end of the game where you have to target particular parts of it to kill it, but Kurtis (who you play as in that section instead of Lara), doesn't automatically aim at the correct place. I spent a good twenty minutes trying to kill that boss before I started to suspect something wasn't right. It turned out that a mechanic I hadn't figured out up until then was that you could quickly tape the roll or weapon draw button while targeting to switch targets which was necessary to target the correct parts of the boss to kill it. The fact this mechanic isn't explained to you at any point (or if it is, it's incredibly vague and early in the game to the point where you'll quickly forget about it) makes this boss needlessly difficult until you figure out how to do it, and as such it is considered one of the hardest bosses in the entire game.

Kurtis (full name Kurtis Trent), whom as I say you play as while fighting that boss, initially starts off as a mysterious NPC that pops up every now and then early on but says nothing and quickly vanishes, and eventually nearly gooses Lara when they meet up close and personal and finally speaks some lines. Later in the game, Lara gets locked in a room by him and he ventures off to sort out some problems she caused, at which point and a first for the series, he goes from 'Non-Playable Character' to 'Playable Character' and you take control of him instead of Lara. His section of the game is fairly straight forward, and I even found that he seemed a bit more easy to control oddly enough, as he didn't exhibit the irritating issue of turning around and walking backwards in the opposite direction I was pushing the analogue stick like Lara seemed to do so often. Once you get through his levels you regain control of Lara again and you only control Kurtis one more time in the boss battle.

It's clear Core Design were trying all sorts of new angles with this game, by providing Kurtis as another playable character. Although they didn't seem to really flesh out the character or his portion of the game. He remains to this day somewhat mysterious, as after some vague conversation with Lara about who he actually is which doesn't really explain anything, and the boss fight, he vanishes again after apparently being mortally wounded, never to be seen again. Based on what we know now about the game's development, Core Design planned on having Kurtis be a major character in subsequent entries in the series as well as even giving him his own spin-off game(s). Although the failure of AoD sealing both the sequels fate and any spin-off titles (i.e. they got scrapped) meant we never saw Kurtis again, not even in Crystal Dynamics run of the series. Ultimately Kurtis' inclusion in the game didn't really come as a detriment to anything, and in fact it did seem a bit like a breath of fresh air being able to control a different character in a game that had up until this point being firmly about the eponymous Miss Croft. Then again his lack of utilisation or much explanation about him or his backstory left a lot to be desired; a common theme with AoD.

The actual plot of AoD is for the most part fairly good I thought. Lara's initial introduction to the game is that of mystery and intrigue as she's implicated in her mentor turned rival turned 'dick head she despises' murder, and it leaves players guessing as to if she actually did bump off Von Croy but couldn't remember. As you progress, and find out more about the serial killer nicknamed the Monstrum, the weirdo Von Croy was dealing with and the shady cabal he apparently belongs to, and what exactly is going on behind the scenes, it all begins to make more sense. In true Tomb Raider fashion it eventually starts to get really weird as the more modern, gritty and somewhat more realistic nature of the plot and its set pieces make way for a typical bonkers Tomb Raider storyline, but that's what we love about the series, isn't it? If anything one consistent aspect of all the Tomb Raider games has always been the plot; while it started off a bit on the vague side in the first entry, Core Design got better at storytelling as they went on, and AoD doesn't detract from anything they learned in previous entries. If anything the addition of NPCs you can talk to and glean information from as well as the more elaborate (if a bit wonky at times) level design makes for an entertaining experience.

Ultimately, despite all it's (many) flaws, the controls and buggys nature being the biggest ones (though of course as previously mentioned a lot of these horrendous shortfalls have been fixed or at least worked around by a fantastic modding community), I actually quite enjoyed Angel of Darkness, and I truly don't believe it deserved quite as much hate as it got (and still gets). It might be quite a departure in terms of how it actually plays compared to previous titles which may also be a major reason it garners hate from the die hard fans of the series, but if anything (and based on my limited experience with them) it seemed to actually have a lot of features and aspiration that inspires a fair amount of Crystal Dynamics' TR games before they basically remade it into Uncharted: Drake's Sex Change.

It might not be perfect by any stretch of the imagination (in fact in its vanilla state it's bloody terrible), but fixed up with the help of modders, Angel of Darkness can provide you with a new and generally pleasing experience that most fans of the series will probably appreciate to some degree in part at least due to the effort that clearly went into it, even if the end result wasn't exactly stellar and almost spelled the end of the franchise and definitely the end of Core Design. 6/10

Video Games Tomb Raider Review