Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness... anyone played? (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy Brown]

I've read the preview (Gamespot) of Tomb Raider, and was wondering if anyone has actually played it yet? It looks intriguing, although I'm not sure I want to drop the $50 on it if it's plagued with problems. So most importantly, is it fun to play, does it have a decent story, etc, etc?

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[BrianB]

Rent before you buy...

 

[Damien]

apparently eidos sent out a bulletin to all the web-sites to not post a review until the game has been availible for a full week. That is a red flag to avoid any contact whatsoever with this game.

 

[Philip_S]

The Gamefaqs board for this game is full of people complaining about terrible slowdown, bad controls, bad camera.

3 years of hype and Core has produced one hell of a turd apparently.

The question is why are all these websites heeding Eidos' requests to delay reviews? Tomb Raider banner advertisements?

 

[Dave F]

Is this for both versions (pc & ps2)?

-Dave

 

[Damien]

should of known, gamers.com is singing a different tune, apparently they and only them were requested to withhold reviews until a week. But why would core/eidos etc. be scared of gamers.com of all websites, they write some of the most worthless reviews I've ever read.

 

[Derrik Draven]

apparently eidos sent out a bulletin to all the web-sites to not post a review until the game has been availible for a full week. That is a red flag to avoid any contact whatsoever with this game.

Amen, chisel that in stone.

If you have a killer, bad ass game; and you know it, and reviewers know it, you want everyone with $50 in their pocket to know it as soon as possible too!

One of you guys need to step up to the plate and buy this and give us a review!

I just bought Mace Griffin so, I'm out!

 

[Peter Manojlovich]

From games.com.

Tomb Raider Reviews Wanted
By: Staff June 20, 2003 4:55 PM PDT

As it turns out, we were wrong to believe that all online game sites were asked to hold reviews of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness until July 26. In fact, it's just us, Gamers.com for reasons which remain difficult to puzzle out. However, that only applies to the guys in this office, not all of you readers out there.

Thus, we ask that as many readers as have played the game feel free to contribute their own reviews, since we assume many of you have rushed out to pick the game up today. If you want to send in a reader review, head directly to the Angel of Darkness games page and hit that big link that says "Submit Your Own Review." We look forward to hearing from you.

July 26th?! Since I don't have a ps2, I only have peripheral interest in this game. However, gamers.com doesn't do their own reviews. For TR, they'll be reprinting a review from either EGM or OPM. Game companies are slitting their own throats with these policies. I don't think they're under any obligation to provide reviewable copies before release dates, but when companies don't, it sends up a red flag to savvy consumers. I've yet to see a stellar game launch with nary a review in site.

Game launch + no reviews = avoid at all costs.

Word gets out quickly enough as it is with the internet if a game is a stinker.

 

[Peter Manojlovich]

One of you guys need to step up to the plate and buy this and give us a review!

I just bought Mace Griffin so, I'm out!

I would, but I don't own a ps2.

Sorry, but, I got bored with Tomb Raider 2, and haven't touched the series since. Here's a link to vgr's viewer review site. The news is not good. The site is painfully slow, so patient is required, but some of these comments are worth the wait.

http://www.videogamereview.com/revie...ction-3578.asp

Some choice bits for those who can't be bothered.

General/Summary: It is hard to explain what makes this game so horrible. Typically just one aspect of a game ruins it, whether it be graphics, story, controls or sound, but this game is a loser in all of the above. Probably the worst Tomb Raider of them all, I bought it this afternoon, played it for five hours (I am a masochist, so I will be going to see from Justin to Kelly tonight to see how much pain a human being can endure in one day), and I will be returning it tomorrow.

General/Summary: ....So many bad things i dont know where to start. Controlling laura feels like driving a tank through an ocean of glue, the slowdown is very unwelcome and breaks up the action pretty regularly. What you have here is a great story surrounded by crap.

General/Summary: Controls are terrible, whoever thought them up needs to be shot, terrible terrible slowdown, which really detracts from the game,...

A couple of reviewers stated that the game gets better farther along and they like it, but the negative reviews are much funnier to read. Still, the current rating is very low for those boards. This one so far is a bomb, a big bomb!!

 

[Jeremy Brown]

That's unfortunate, as it looked like it could have been promising. The good news is that since I'm not buying it, I can buy 2.5 DVDs!

 

[BrianB]

A couple of reviewers stated that the game gets better farther along and they like it,

I've heard similiar from a mate with a beta to review - that the first hour is painful, but it gets a lot better.

 

[Dave F]

Here's one of the more favorable reviews at the site that Peter linked to:
I hope I don't regret this, but I think I'm going to not cancel my order for the PC version. If it wasn't for the free "Making Of" DVD, I'd cancel and wait a week or so, but I'm a sucker for freebies.

-Dave

 

[Peter Manojlovich]

I still think the capper to all this is the audacity of eidos to tell gamers.com that they can't post a review until what I believe should read june 26th. C'mon, what kind of nonsense is this.

Regardless of the final outcome of this game, there is no way I would pay full price for a game that is coming out in unfinished form. Obviously, there are some serious problems with this title from a technical standpoint. I'm becoming increasingly impatient with technical glitches in games. Brute Force froze up on me, and there were audio problems in the game. A year's delay and the game has glitches?!

Back when I owned a dreamcast at launch, Ready to Rumble was released at launch with some audio problems. Midway recalled the discs and you could get a fixed version. Now, companies don't bother with recalls, ship games with known bugs, and shrug their shoulders when you complain. They don't care, they're sloppy with their product, and they're just looking to turn a quick buck.

A lot of high-profile product as of late seems to be attempting to slip under the review radar. ETM also comes to mind. MS provided copies of BF only a few days prior to launch. A lot of companies seem to be running scared of the reviewers, especially those sites and mags known to be tough sells.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I'm waiting for the final reviews before I decide to buy this or not. Hopefully I will buy it.

 

[Chris Duran]

Well I have the game the PS2 version anyway, as the PC version is not out yet. So far I'm really impressed with the game, I didn't really know what to expect but so far I'm liking it. The story is alot more darker, as it seems to involve a series of murders that are happening all over Paris, Lara get's blamed for the murder and everyone's after her.
Graphics are impressive, lots of weather effects, rain in the first level, there is a club level that is very cool with laser lights re-created perfectly and really give it that club feeling. The outdoor areas a big and look nice, although in the Paris level the main hub there is two or three sections where the game needs to load before you can continue traveling through Paris, milding annoying. Lara has never looked better either.
Controls are kind of frustrating at first but you get used to them, in fact I love the setup now. I think it just takes a little while to get used to how Lara moves. You move with the left analog stick, the right analog stick is for moving the camera, the d-pad lets you switch weapons without having to go to the game menu, press L1 once to switch between walking and running, L2 is stealth, R1 is to draw and holster your weapon, R2 to sprint, have yet to try it out yet though, triangle is to duck/target, circle to jump, x is the action button, and square is to roll.
Sound is amazing. The musical scores so far have been fantastic, I really liked the club music. Overall much more stronger and better then pervious Tomb Raider games. Also the voice acting is top notch, except for some chessey French accents.
Gameplay is more opened ended the the other Tomb Raider games you are given options on to what you want to do and how you want to do it. Lara also gains abilites throughout the game becoming stronger, being able to jump further, run faster ect. Lara can also do stealth moves, and can also do hand to hand combat.
Now for the cons. It does seem that for no reason that I can understand the game slows down really bad in certain areas, it has happened to me twice once in the first training level on the rooftop, and in the club level, Lara almost does a matrix type slow mo for about 2-5 sec before things return to normal. The controls can be frustrating at first, but give it time. The loading could have been improved a bit in the main hub area, but nothing to huge.
Other then that I'm enjoying the game, and looking forword to more levels, and to see how the story pans out.

 

[Allen_Appel]

Sounds like TR might be another BloodRayne, where you had to suffer through a bad beginning before the story and gameplay improved.

This might be an example of what I really dislike about online gaming "journalism". All too often it's obvious from a review that the guy played just a couple of levels before whipping off his review.

Then again, the game might really suck.

 

[paul h]

Interesting interview posted on computerandvideogames.com..

"And you've had enough time to iron out all major bugs before it went Gold?

Heath-Smith: There's fifty hours of gameplay - we're not going to get every bug out of it. How can I emulate two million people playing it differently in a day? I can tell you this: we can't find any crash bugs. Are there times when things may go a bit weird? Yeah, course there are, but you show me a game that doesn't do that. So yes, I'm very, very happy with the quality."

"With the controls, we'd imagine, for example, the Nintendo way of doing things would be to make sure the character controls perfectly, then build the game around that. But by changing the controls so late in the day, that must have caused major problems?

Heath-Smith: Huge. We had to do map changes, we had to do design changes, we had to change the camera, we had slow down issues - oh God: huge. And our number one target for this product was that it would run in a frame [run at 60fps] and it does. Very few PS2 games do that - most opt for 30 frames per second. There was a discussion over whether that would happen, but I said: over my dead body; you've got to make this work.

We said at the start, this will be bigger, better, bolder, everything... And it's going to run in a frame. We told you that three years ago. But it's been tough..."

"So has it been harder than you expected to get to grips with next-gen hardware? Is this one of the reasons it's been so delayed?

Heath-Smith: Yeah, I think the truth of it is, yes it has. We've rewritten everything; we took the engine, threw it away and started again. If you look at the big franchise games, there's only one other title that's done that, and that's Metal Gear Solid. And that took 100 people five years to make. We've done it in about three with 35.

None of the other big franchises have changed their technology and I know why now [laughs]. But we've done it now, and we're in great shape now for the next 10 years, because we knew we were working on a massive licence that would have to go the distance. And we thought about PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 - wherever it goes, we've built it in modular form so we can take it wherever.

But it's taken us three years to do that and it's been a complete git!"

 

[Troy_M]

Alright folks, here is my take on the game.....I'm about 7 hrs into it and I will say this....if the controls in this game were better, this might have been the greatest Tomb Raider of them all. That is my only problem with the game(the controls), other than that, it is almost perfect in every other category(story, graphics, sound, etc). Wait till you see the lighting and stage design in some of the latter stages....amazing. It just seems like Lara just doesn't want to cooperate with my wishes. I will admit, I have gotten used to the controls much more than when I first played, but it seems like some simple things like jumping from ledge to ledge are much more difficult than they should be. Even though the lack of a grid based system is good, it makes calculating certain jumps a little more difficult, but in reality it is more realistic. Also, sometimes, even when Lara is in 'walk' mode, she will just hop a fence to her death...wtf?
At any rate, the positives far outweigh the negatives for me, the sound, the stealth moves, the multiple paths you can take and choices you can make, the graphics, the animation, and the atmosphere make up for the 2 instances of slowdown in 7hrs(that I have seen) and the bad controls(which you get used to after a while). It's as simple as this, if you liked Tomb Raider 1 and 2(I loved them, hated 3, and thought 4 and 5 were just boring rehash) get this game. This is made for the true Tomb Raider fans, as always the diffuculty level is high and the game is long. My girlfriend was hinting for me to cut off my PS2(she isn't too fond of my PS2) so she could have some quality time(you guys know what I'm talkin about) when she got home from work; I told her I just wanted to finish the stage I was on, so she sat next to me and watched.......about an 1 1/2 hrs later I told her I was about to cut it off and she said she wanted to see what the next stage looked like, so to my joy I played about another 30 min. This game has that something that makes you want to keep playing, not too many games have that. Too many knuckle heads are playing an hour or so of the game and throwing in the towel, seriously.....give it a chance, you will be disappointed that you didn't.

 

[Dave F]

The PC version got delayed again - it will be "out in the coming weeks" according to Gamespot. I guess this will give me a chance to rent the PS2 version first...

-Dave

 

[BrianB]

The guys at Eurogamer have their fairly brutal review up.