Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

S'not going to be a review seeing as I only played it for 6-7 hours and it doesn't feel quite right reviewing something I only partially played recently (the save was started over two years ago)

However I finished Demon's Souls last night, putting in an extra hour of game time to beat the remaining three bosses of Maiden Astrea, King Allant and the real King Allant inside the old one

I think it's safe to say the Souls games are probably my most played game series at this point alongside Pokémon.

• I sunk over a hundred hours in this originally when I first played it for reason's I've gone over plenty times already.
• I've played Dark Souls through twice (and I'll be getting Remastered to play it through again soon).
• Dark Souls 2 three times (The original PS3 release once, Partway through the second playthrough of the PS4 Scholar edition)
• Bloodborne twice.
• Dark Souls 3 twice.

And you know what?

Demon's is bit naff after all that.

It's ridiculously unpolished.

• Whilst there's still the nice set pieces and art direction that the Souls series are known for... there are some truly awful PS1/PS2 era textures and graphics in this that even for me are too garish to ignore.
• The balance is rather out of place with the healing items actually being rather plentiful and almost a bit too good. Especially if you're playing entirely at half health with how the tendency system is. Plus the Second chance miracle (I used it only once before dropping it) makes the game a joke with a half health auto revive.
• Whilst the Tendancy system was and is a good idea on paper... It's horribly executed. Who thought that having enemies getting a power increase whilst simultaneously lowering player health was a good idea if the player keeps dying in human form? Being at half health is a penalty enough already in soul form.
• The crystal lizard drops being random chance and only appearing five or so times before disappearing forever was a horrible descision that means your weapons are probably not gonna get upgraded to full at all unless you know where every one of those sparkly buggers are... and the upgrading system itself is again rather borked and unpolished with needing a ridiculous amount of stones.
• The enemy AI really isn't quite good at all for that matter, it's rather easy to cheese them if you like (Hell it's easy to even if you aren't) and the combat as a whole feels particularly quite clunky.

Still there is some good points.

• The Tower Of Latria (well the first part at least) is very well designed. The "Prison of Hope" is still genuinely spooky with the Cthulhu headed guards roaming the halls and the prisoners that you can't quite trust as they'll either shiv you or fall to their knees in thanks of freedom

There's some good bosses too

• Maiden Astrea (more so for the moral quandry) whom became a demon just to help and comfort the poor citizens of the valley of defilement and you either kill the mostly defenceless Saint or kill her bodyguard which causes her to give up .
• The Dragon God for all it's glorified set peicing/puzzleboss-ness is still better then the Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls (though it's way too easy),
• False King Allant is a pretty good final test.
• The Old Hero, Adjudicater, Fool's Idol and Phalanx also stand out of the earlier bosses.
• (The Old Monk was one with the whole face someone else as the boss until the servers shut down years back, the generic phantom offline is far too easy)

All in all though I'm a bit disappointed revisting this... even if I did jump back on it halfway through.

I'm actually hoping that Bluepoint aren't working on a remaster for this... or that if they are... they overhaul it completely.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah I was watching a youtube video of it recently and I was surprised at how shonky it looked (I've not played it since around 2011). When Bluepoint came out the other day and said it will be their "proudest achievement" it made me wonder about it. If it is Demon's Souls, then how much work have they done to make it their best remaster? It would almost have to be a different game entirely.

@Gremio108 @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah I'm hoping it more like a remake than a remaster of Demon Souls. The one game in the series that I've not played due to not having a ps3.

Thanks again for all the kind words people. It felt a bit more of random thoughts for this one as there really isn't much to talk about.

@RogerRoger I am intrigued by the second part and what they do with Joker in particular but it won't be anytime soon.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I haven't seen anything of Demon's Souls but I can't say I'm surprised it feels a bit dated now. For a first foray into such a game though, they must have got something right to be able to come back with Dark Souls. But seeing as each game would have tweaked and improved on the last (mostly), it's not surprising to hear it's a struggle to go back to.

I can't believe there was ever a Souls game that was overly generous with health though!

I've only recently heard of the stories of Shuhei Yoshida calling an early build of Demon's Souls crap @Gremio108 and honestly I can really see why he might've thought that with much clearer eyes on the game.

Demon's isn't terrible... But good lord the Soul series really has gone from strength to strength over the years.

I was a bit disapointed when it was revealed Dark Souls remastered was only going to be an upscale... but I was also rather glad it wasn't going to altered in any way as I do think it's well crafted (At least I hope it is when I return to it soon!)

... Honestly I think this the first time I'm actually more or less ok with someone giving it a serious overhaul in the remake department as @JohnnyShoulder suggests

Ha ha i know it's pretty hard to believe @Thrillho but I had:

• 60 each of Crescent, Half & Late moon grasses
• 80 Full Moon grasses
• 45 New moon grasses
• and about 20 Dark moon grasses

It is rather generous with them (especially if you are in white tendancy)

Plus the second chance miracle (which you can get from the soul of the Old Hero) can apparently even be recast for unlimited auto revives! I thought it was only once per trip... Utterly broken! Mp recovery items are pretty cheap too! 😂

I can't believe this game nearly broke me the first time round!

I enjoyed my time with Dark Souls Remastered @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy, I never did finish it originally when I played it on the 360. The remaster felt pretty good to play, but I'd say it's a step below the Dark Souls 2 remaster. I don't remember struggling with it too much, the hardest bosses for me where all in the DLC. Especially Manus, he is one tough mo fo and you may have heard of him from your time recently in DS2, depending on how much you are into the lore of the series....

And I've just realised I've completed the games backwards starting with the third game. I would usually never do that.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy That's funny. Everything I've heard from people is talk about how brutal Demon's Souls is. Maybe they were just unused to the game design at the time? I do know that Souls games apparently get easier the more of them you play. Your expectations and reflexes probably weren't honed by years of experience with the series when you first got to it.

Anyway, only six hours? Did you beat it, or did you just stop playing out of a lack of interest?

Oh it definitely was/is a mixture of this for most people. 1,000,000% so for me the first time around. I certainly did not get this at all on my first playthrough of this as I've stated plenty of times before 😅

Though I am much more used to the gameplay now... I do think it's also partially that this was FromSoftware's (and Hidetaka Miyazaki's) first attempt at this type of game.

The foundation for the later Souls/Borne games is quite clearly here... Just a bit shakily built with a few gaps here and there and fairly rough round the edges.

I carried it on from a save I had on the PS3 @Ralizah that was already halfway through the game. (I'd previously beaten 10 bosses back in 2017)

I finished the game with a rather ludicrous 17 hours & 48 minutes playtime as I beat the remaining nine bosses (Bloodborne took me 25 hours on a second playthrough which was my shortest Souls experience to date (Without the chalice dungeons mind))

I haven't played the dlc for Dark Souls @JohnnyShoulder (or even seen any footage of it) so I'm looking forward to it, but yes I remember the lore regarding Manus quite well!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yeah, it does take half an hour or so to re-adapt to the first Dark Souls game, at least it did for me. After that though, it's fine. The difference between Dark Souls and Demon's Souls is huge, and I really didn't notice it at the time.

All games have potential at some point in their lives. Whatever the end result at launch (or after a dozen post-launch patches nowadays) there are always indicators of what might've been; signposts leading down unfinished cul-de-sacs, or threads left frayed at the edges of cut content. I love exploring this kind of stuff, and therefore adore a good few games which, as they stand, land somewhere between "mediocre" and "downright awful" because I can see and appreciate the heights they were reaching for. I'll proudly defend such infamous names as Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and those PSone Bond games I recently wrote about.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is yet another of these names. Notorious for nearly destroying the wider franchise, on both small and big screens, its reputation is that of being a rushed, buggy mess of a game.

And therefore, as you've probably guessed, I love it.

PC (version played, with mods) and PS2 / June 2003

At the dawn of the 21st Century, Lara Croft had become a pop culture juggernaut. Her games were less important than her brand; she was a symbol of the late 90s and a poster girl for feminism and the "girl power" movement (albeit a divisive one). Under this pressure, developers Core Design had struggled to release a new Tomb Raider game every single year. There was little time to innovate, and reviews for 1998's Tomb Raider III had started to notice. Overworked and fed up of the monster they'd created, they delivered Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation in 1999, its subtitle not chosen by accident. At the end of the game, Lara Croft appeared to die, falling into the abyss of a crumbling Egyptian pyramid.

Eidos, the game's publisher, were furious. They hated the idea of killing off their golden goose, especially with Angelina Jolie's signature still drying on a movie deal, but had seen the final cutscene too late to pull. Core had hoped to draw a line under Tomb Raider and move on, but instead Eidos doubled their workload; half of them would develop Tomb Raider Chronicles for PC and PSone to that same backbreaking annual schedule, whilst the other half would take brand new PlayStation2 dev kits and drag Lara Croft into the future (whether they wanted to or not).

Chronicles was a quick and dirty affair, criticised for being short and uneven and for betraying the tiredness of its developers. When those same, shattered developers then joined the PS2 team, they found a ship sinking under the weight of too many wild ideas, manned by a crew unable to swim, tangled as they were in the cables of unfamiliar console technology. They nevertheless attempted to preserve some of the ridiculously ambitious scope of the project and set to work. After several high-profile delays and well-documented problems, The Angel of Darkness was forced out "ready or not" a month before Angelina Jolie's second silver screen adventure, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, arrived in theatres. Neither release did the other any favours, and Eidos buried Tomb Raider for a long, crucial chunk of the PS2 era.

Pixel Perfect: Much press was made of the new Lara's increased polygon count, which perhaps speaks to the focus on her cultural status, rather than the game itself.

I find this context invaluable when trying to understand The Angel of Darkness. In spite of everything, against all the exasperation and malaise, there was a genuine, concerted effort to make a new and extraordinary experience. This is immediately evident by the seismic shift in setting and story. Lara Croft, inexplicably back from the dead, is in Paris on a dark and stormy night. She's arguing with her mentor, Werner Von Croy, and it turns nasty. There's a scuffle, and a gunshot, and suddenly Lara is standing over a corpse, blood on her hands. When you're finally given control of the action, you're not in some ancient reliquary or crumbling castle, but a graffiti-covered Parisian alleyway. You shimmy up drainpipes, not vines, and with an absence of wild animals, the trigger-happy Gendarmerie are hot on your tail instead. Lara is no longer the Tomb Raider; she's a film noir murder suspect.

This dramatic change in tone is reflected in her character. Lara still retains echoes of the sarcastic wit which defined her PSone days, but she's an altogether more lethal and, dare I use the word seriously for once, "edgelord" prospect now. There are moments where you'll question whether she's even a nice person any longer. At one point, an innocent reporter asks for a couple Euros in exchange for some information, and Lara can snap "You unsavoury little runt!" in reply, before openly discussing the idea of shooting him and stealing the dossiers she wants from his body. When somebody else asks her whether she killed Von Croy, she answers with a sincere "I don't know" and given how she's acting, at least early on, you could kinda believe she did. Giving this established icon such a murky uncertainty, however briefly, is very brave of Core.

As is the decision to open with so many new gameplay elements. The game's first third lingers in a contemporary Parisian ghetto, an open-world collection of cobbled streets and cafés taking heavy inspiration from (at the time) Shenmue. Lara must wander about, talking to locals, completing tasks for them, earning some money and figuring out the details of a serial killer called the Monstrum, which has a possible connection to Von Croy. There are dialogue trees in many interactions, and characters you won't encounter until making alternate choices in a second playthrough. There's even an RPG-esque level up system, to help Lara become strong enough to perform certain actions.

Stamina Drain: You'll get to the tombs eventually, but not before Core has taken three hours to indulge their blatant love of atmospheric murder mystery yarns.

Even by 2003 standards, however, all of these elements have the depth of a puddle. Levelling up Lara just means you have to push a certain crate, or shimmy along a particular ledge, until she says "I feel stronger now!" and it's usually right beside the thing you needed to upgrade for. A stamina bar adds a timer to certain climbs, but this can actually lessen the challenge when you realise that it's designed to deplete just as you reach your destination, meaning that it acts more like a guide. The notion of picking from multiple side quests is enticing, right up until the moment you realise that they all lead to the same hidden box in the same nightclub (and you never find out what it contains, either) and those dialogue trees? Only one of them can result in two different outcomes; you're either given a package, or have to take it from a drawer once the conversation ends. It was never going to be Mass Effect, but none of these new mechanics ever evolve beyond their pitch document bullet-point. Which is a real shame, as the idea of putting Lara in such unfamiliar circumstances holds fascinating promise. It may be ten years before "a survivor is born" but just seeing Lady Croft wake up in a disused Metro train is jarringly cool.

Ghetto-ver Here! Scratch the urban surface and not much lies beneath, at least not in this specific section of the game's digital Paris.

When things become more linear, the game improves, comfortable in its own tried-and-tested skin whilst still feeling fresh. Lara is tasked with a late-night infiltration of the Louvre, and this distinctly Mission: Impossible flavour of change makes for a proper treat. The reason for a European setting also becomes clear, too, as the history of the continent's cities continually being built on over the centuries, layer upon layer, allows for a cute contrivance to get players back raiding tombs; sneak through the museum itself, and you'll discover an archaeological dig into a vast subterranean ruin, packed with puzzles and traps and (suddenly, out of nowhere) supernatural enemies. This is such traditional fare that, when I later had to escape said ruin and found myself running back through a now-SWAT-filled Louvre in search of a gas mask, I had a moment of "Oh yeah, I was underneath Paris this whole time!" before having to recall where I'd seen that gas mask cabinet on my way in.

This Belongs in a Museum: If only the Louvre knew what archaic treasures it was sitting atop, it could fund itself for years (providing the undead knight skeletons don't kill all the tourists).

Thankfully, navigation was easy enough, given the game's clean, simplistic art style. Even when measured on the non-generational PC platform, the graphical improvement over previous Tomb Raider games is considerable, and yet nothing ever feels visually cluttered. Surface details vary from smooth to heavily pixelated, but none are offensively bad (although that's partly thanks to the fan mods I installed; more on them later). When standing back and surveying a new area for a path or puzzle solution, there's less of a need to aggressively hunt for key scraps of visual design language hidden amidst muddy, samey textures; despite this, there's a handy interaction icon (I mean, quite literally, a picture of a hand) which flashes up whenever Lara nears a switch or item so, at worst, you're doing a quick lap of the walls and desks, searching for a prompt.

That's providing you can actually control her, of course. Being able to re-map keyboard commands helps a little, because otherwise the default layout would require Olympic-level finger gymnastics for the most basic of inputs, but nothing can completely save the ever-present detachment from button to action. New stealth gameplay is unwieldy and rarely viable, with a painfully slow crouch-walk speed and takedowns only executable on stationary guards, and the hugging of walls is more useful as a periodic traversal method than a combat tactic. Meanwhile, the auto-lock system for weapon handling leads to animations that have to be seen to be believed; stand too far back from your target and Lara will awkwardly shuffle around as though recovering from hip surgery, whilst getting too close makes her flail about like a cat in a paper bag. The worst part? All four varieties of jumping are imprecise, which is an oft-lethal flaw in a platforming adventure game. Get ready to see Lara fall off things. A lot.

Thar She Blows: Those hoping for a more conventional raiding of tombs will eventually uncover frustrating jump-centric nightmares with which to test their patience.

Post-Paris, you journey to Prague for the last third of the game, and it's here where, similar to its heroine, the game continually starts to fling itself into the yawning chasm created by a rushed development schedule. It was supposed to share the same structure as the French capital (bury down beneath a contemporary surface to uncover ancient and mysterious secrets) but upon arrival, its unfinished state is immediately betrayed by a large invisible wall. It sits in front of an archway clearly designed to lead elsewhere, so instead you're forced to turn back towards a small, minimalistic square and its single enterable building. There is one NPC standing out in the open who, regardless of how you treat, will end up driving you to the villain's lair (the majestic-sounding "Strahov Fortress" which, alas, turns out to be a warehouse full of shipping containers). It's not exactly Christmas.

You also start to notice a lot of Turkey talk, as characters reference how they were shipping in artefacts from there, and unmissable crates strategically placed in your eyeline are emblazoned with Turkish port authority stamps. This is because The Angel of Darkness was originally supposed to have three city hubs in total; instead, only about 75% of Paris and 25% of Prague made the grade. The truncation rapidly becomes blatant, as cutscenes stuffed with exposition double in length and the opportunity for optional dialogue disappears. The speed of the story's conclusion is breakneck, defying the slow-burn nature of the premise by compressing its script and throwing twist after twist at you.

It also throws something else at you, too, something much-hyped in pre-launch press which, unfortunately, lands with all the grace and subtlety of a skydiving whale.

Everybody, meet the only other playable character in Tomb Raider history.

This is Kurtis Trent.

Man Up: Because of course, just what the flagging franchise needed was Poochie the Rockin' Dog over here (blimey, the developers really were fed up with Lara, weren't they?).

Right from the get-go, Kurtis is introduced as an enigmatic frenemy, a likely rival boasting paranormal Force powers and a cocky demeanour. Problem is, that's all he ever remains, and a hurried revelation about his father being killed by the Monstrum isn't enough to flesh him out, or even justify his continued presence. Now, flimsy two-dimensional characters are gaming's bread and butter, so I don't judge him too harshly for being undercooked (or for being a victim of the panicked development's hasty cuts) but when you pair him with his fourth-quarter gameplay, the damage becomes critical. Not only are his levels linear, combat-heavy trudges through some of the most unsettling and dingy locations in the game, he is even worse to control than Lara; despite sharing her move set, his animations are all his own, feeling heavy and cumbersome as a result. If the classic PSone Lara is remembered for controlling like a tank, then Kurtis should be remembered for controlling like three tanks, tethered together, all trying to steer in different directions. At half speed. In a bog. A really deep one.

Gone is the gothic horror of the faux-historical Parisian underground. Now you're in sanitoriums and aquatic research labs, with Kurtis used as the muscle to laboriously face off against a menagerie of shuffling nightmare fuel which, when viewed today, look like sketches plucked from the discard pile of a Dark Souls creature designer. The franchise may have a long-standing association with giant boss monsters, something the newer reboot games have forgotten, but the grotesque crescendo of them which rounds out The Angel of Darkness feels like a lot, and corrupts the interesting promise of a secret society with a half-hearted, campy endgame.

Creature Feature: Had these gorgeous things set the standard for Lara's next two decades of enemies, maybe PETA wouldn't have had as much to complain about.

It isn't all wasted effort, mind. You eventually get Lara back for a handful of brief, customary areas and she's the one who delivers the final coup de grâce before the credits roll. These constant morsels of excellence peppered throughout are what sustained me; at its most atmospheric, the game is a potent dose of derring-do served on a unique goth-noir plate. This is mostly achieved by the sound design and, specifically, the music. Everything you'll hear during The Angel of Darkness is flawless, from the mournful ambience of a long-forgotten tomb to its suspenseful, note-perfect score composed by Peter Connelly (for whom the word "genius" would not be hyperbole).

Just listen to the first three minutes of this ornate ear candy, which features one of the boldest and most sweeping reinterpretations of multiple established themes that I've ever heard:

And yet, what people most remember are the myriad of comedic issues riddled throughout, like how Lara has all her weapons taken away from her midway through, yet keeps all their exclusive types of ammunition, making her inventory look like an MoD procurement office for the entire second half. Or how you'll risk life and limb to reach a glistening secret item, only to discover that it's an aqualung which would've been really helpful twenty minutes ago, when you cleared the last underwater section of the game. Or how Lara keeps brandishing her trademark dual HK USP Match pistols in cutscenes, yet they're not available for in-game use without inputting a cheat. Maybe she keeps them in the same place she keeps her cavalcade of new outfits, which she randomly changes into during simple perspective edits or doorway transitions.

This is why I chose to replay on PC, because members of the incredible Tomb Raider fan community have slaved over quality-of-life improvements and patches for years, with more still being released to this day. They've reactivated original features found lying dormant in the game's code, like snowfall in Prague, and polished the rough edges of a port which was even more rushed to market than the primary PS2 version. Two of the biggest heroes, Nakamichi680 and Sasho648, have given a much-needed overhaul to major aspects, like control responsiveness and texture resolution, whereas others have completed smaller tasks, such as cleaning up the typo-stricken subtitles and journal entries. The end result is still The Angel of Darkness, and gamers who made up their minds already are unlikely to be swayed because the shiny floors in the Louvre actually shine now, but those quiet voices asking for a remaster can rest easy. There's practically one out there now, freely available for those with the patience to do a little tweaking.

Queen of the Swingers: It may not be a jungle out there, but you'll still find plenty of opportunity to hang around in some peculiar places.

It's therefore thanks to the fans that this budding tale of woe, threatening to dwell on so much wasted potential, has a slightly happier ending but, when all is said and done, the reality remains less-than-ideal. Given the previous demands placed upon Core to pump out Tomb Raider games, I will forever be impressed with the scope of their ambition displayed here, and I can't blame them for expecting a sequel; nevertheless, as we all know, the best trilogies start with a standalone story, and I can't help but think that an extra six months of development time wouldn't have changed the audience reaction to such a radical departure for Lara Croft and her carefree, adventurous ways.

As eight hours of interactive entertainment, it remains buried on that aforementioned scale between "mediocre" and "downright awful" and yet, for students of gaming history, The Angel of Darkness is a captivating case study worthy of excavation.

@RogerRoger See, this is why I like your posts. You don't just discuss a game. You take the reader on a journey!

The music is pretty adventurous and cinematic, although, I'll confess, having next to no familiarity with the franchise, I wouldn't recognize any of the tracks from previous games even if they smacked me across the face.

Looks like you're discovering the magic of the PC modding scene. So many games are vastly improved by user mods. Skyrim, for example: it looks alright on PS4, but, if your system can run it, there's mods that make the game look like a demanding modern-gen title.

Best. Line. Ever.

I have to admit my knowledge of Lara like Ralizah is extremely limited... to the very first alone and that's really remembering the T-Rex bit if I'm honest and the final boss... thing 😅

But from what I have heard I thought her moral compass was a lot more shady in the reboot trilogy... In fact it's the one thing I heard many a reviewer going on about that she was kinda unlikable.

Being on the run for murder... I'd be on edge, manners out the window and rather hostile too. I'd certainly say worse then "You unsavoury little runt!" 😂

I think that was your best review yet for me @RogerRoger. Exceedingly well written in your signature style and was very enlightening too about the development woven all the way through. Well done

@RogerRoger Great read. It certainly has its issues, but I did love Angel of Darkness as well. There's lots of interesting facts in your post that I didn't know about, such as originally planning three hub cities.

Thank you for your responses, guys! Glad you enjoyed reading my ramble (which admittedly got away from me a little there; I don't usually write so much).

@Ralizah Most kind... too kind, almost! If you're vaguely interested about the music, there's a (somewhat belaboured, although it's mercifully under five minutes) video analysis revealing all of the recurring work heard in that opening theme from The Angel of Darkness. Whilst the value of the fan service is dependent on your adoration of the franchise, Peter Connelly's talent is pretty self-evident.

And yes, I've been a silent, somewhat-awestruck observer of PC modding for many years. There aren't that many games I'm interested in that'd benefit from them, at least not yet, but the Tomb Raider modding community is pretty active and well-stocked. It was daunting, but I'm a little more confident now (especially since I was able to play through The Angel of Darkness, beginning to end, without the game collapsing in on itself or reformating my hard drive, or any other number of disasters I imagine befalling me whenever I tinker with settings).

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy High praise, thank you! I'm not blushing or anything. Honest.

Yeah, the modern take on Lara pushes the edgelord envelope quite far, but then tastes in entertainment have evolved somewhat over the years, particularly after 9/11. Classic Lara was never cruel or nasty; teasing perhaps, and more than a little sassy, but outright insulting or threatening innocents was never her deal. The trilogy which followed The Angel of Darkness, starring Keeley Hawes, had its moments of pure badassery (at one point, she looms over a fallen villain and shouts "Start making sense right now, or I'll execute you where you stand!") but again, context is everything. I'm hoping for a return to a more heroic, snarky Lara. She's fun when she's like that.

@crimsontadpoles Yay, another fan! We do exist, it isn't just me! Thanks for that and yeah, since Core collapsed a couple years after Tomb Raider was taken away from them, many of the developers have since given honest accounts of how it all went down. It's tragic, yet compelling, stuff to read through.

@RogerRoger

Absolutely must agree with @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy there. Laughed out loud right here at my desk.

I’d been holding off reading the review until the end of my day and once I finished up my work I simply couldn’t wait any longer until I got home — I just had to sit here in the silence of an empty workplace and enjoy the review as soon as I could. Bravo.

It helps that I love all things Tomb Raider, but I must say it was a wonderfully written piece. The opening recount of the development is a splendid intro to place the game in context. It’s easy to judge these games in a vacuum, but when one realizes that each game’s development (and in this case, post release modification) is a story in and of itself.

I remember enjoying The Angel of Darkness when I played it, although I’m sure the rose-tinted glasses that I see the game through now would not hold up if I replayed it. But your review makes me want to play it again. If only I knew which box my PS2 was stored in...

@RogerRoger Awesome review dude. I doubt I will play the game, but a very fascinating read. It's certainly interesting to ponder what could have been if the development hadn't been so pained and if the project's potential had been fully realised. Glad that the PC mods have ironed out a few of the kinks. I wonder if anyone would ever attempt a fan remake.

All preach in the church of @RogerRoger

@Th3solution I'm beyond flattered you made such an event of my review, thank you! Glad it lived up to the hype for you. You've all been way too generous; this has really made my week!

Yeah, were this game not Tomb Raider, I'm not certain I'd be as kind. It's telling how all the average-to-bad games I like come from established franchises of which I'm a fan (Sonic, Bond, Star Wars, etc.) and maybe that speaks to wanting to like something, and really searching for any scrap of goodness to praise. I try to be fair (in this case, the controls really are awful, and the signs of truncated development too blatant to ignore) but I agree with you, I think somebody who didn't love all things Lara would be far less forgiving, which perhaps explains the game's reputation.

The PS2 version, at least out-of-the-box, is the preferred game. Things like the snow in Prague were left switched on, and although it still has weird issues which can never be fixed, it's considered the better way to play it without patches. Just not sure it'd be worth you going to the effort; there's nothing wrong leaving your memories wallowing in rose-tinted nostalgic ignorance!

@mookysam Much obliged, buddy! Given that it's taken fans sixteen years to mod the game to its current level of acceptance, I can only imagine the volume of work that'd go into a ground-up remake. I'm sure some might've tried a de-make (there was a level creator included in the PC version of Tomb Raider Chronicles, which has led to all sorts of wacky fan projects) but never say never. Right now, there's a lot of buzz around a fan remake of 1997's Tomb Raider II using the Anniversary engine, so give it another decade or two!

@JohnnyShoulder

@RogerRoger A good read that. Placing Lara in an urban setting but keeping the tomb raiding mechanics sounds like it could have been really neat, even if it wasn't.