This game was pretty much the final nail in the coffin of Core Designs time with Tomb Raider. People were getting sick of the same game being released over and over again around the time Chronicles was released, and Core Designs entry into the PS2 era was where people finally had enough with the series. Angel of Darkness, while boasting a nice improvement in graphics, removed everything that made early Tomb Raiders enjoyable. The control system in the earlier entries were very cleverly designed in tune with the environment to provide clever jumping puzzles and navigation. This was replaced with a clunky haphazard new control system which left you flinging yourself into chasms as a result of having absolutely no good way to gauge distance or time Lara's jumps. While this game did try and mess with the formula a bit, it pretty much removed all the soul from the series, and just left a terrible mess behind. Early in the game you're left wandering around some Parisian slums, collecting Euro's which never come to much use anyway. For the longest time you're left wondering why this is called Tomb Raider. It takes a stunningly long time to actually reach your first tomb, and when you get there it involves some of the most infuriating string of puzzle rooms ever. While a game like Tomb Raider 3 boasted heavy difficulty, nothing could match the battle the player has to have with the platforming controls in this game. For a series with already pretty poor combat comprised mostly of flipping around with machine guns, holding down the action button until things go dead, I'm shocked this game managed to somehow make that sticky and horrible too. Here it's pretty much stand still and hope everything dies. Fun. Unless you're a die hard Tomb Raider fan, I would pass this one up. The shiny graphics this boasted at the time look dated now. The plot is nothing special (honestly the plot of most Tomb Raider games don't have much to offer).
