The game sold 2.5 million copies globally, yet critics ensured that their negative opinions kept this game frozen in time, a bitter-sweet monument to what could have been. Sure, they praised its narrative, but their fixation on awkward camera angles and the odd bug prevented them from seeing the bigger picture. I played this game, and watched other people play it too, on thePS2, there was nothing dramatically wrong or broken with how it ran. Compared to whenCyberpunk 2077launched,Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darknessbarely had technical issues.
Relive the memories with the officialTR: The Angel of Darknesstrailer!
Narratively, the game took us on a murky journey, placing Lara Croft in the role of potential murderer, the heroine never sure if she killed Von Croy until near the end of the game. Then there’s the betrayal from Kurtis, a character gamers could eventually play as the game progressed towards its shocking conclusions.
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Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that you could choose how Lara responded to certain situations was a new feature that really helped make the game feel like something fresh. Not escaping Margret Carvier’s apartment in time still gives me palpitations now and it’s been 20 years; not only did you need to leave in time, but you also needed to make the right choices in order to successfully clear the level.
Two more games were meant to followAngel of Darkness, explaining and expanding on the story so that we’d have closure. But that never happened, with the game almost struck off the record after Tomb Raider: Legend came bursting onto the scene in 2006. It took the franchise back to what we knew, essentially wiping the slate clean; it was a decent enough game, but it felt so flat after what we got a taste of inAngel of Darkness.I know that contradicts what critics said at the time, but just because a critic said something doesn’t make it automatically true. We lost the chance to see Tomb Raider enter a new age, and it’s a robbery I won’t ever quite get over.
Topics:Tomb Raider,PlayStation,Sony
