VIDEO GAMES
Camera, control problems plague new 'Tomb Raider'

By Marc Salzman
Gannett News Service

•	Platform: PlayStation 2, PC Genre: Action/adventure Developer: Core Design Publisher: Eidos Interactive Web Site: eidosinteractive.com Price: $49.99 Rating: "T" for teen Score: out of 5

Unfortunately, this action/adventure suffers from sloppy controls, unwieldy camera angles, and frame-rate issues that can slow the game to a crawl.

The end result is a mediocre title that could've been great with a little more development time.

The game begins in Paris, with Lara witnessing the murder of her one-time mentor, Von Croy. The police believe Lara is the killer, so she becomes a fugitive on the run. While eluding the authorities, our heroine must track down Croy's killer. In the process, she uncovers a more disturbing plot involving a secret society and ancient powers that threaten the free world. This macabre tale has plenty of plot twists and memorable locations and characters.

As "Tomb Raider" series fans know, Lara is an agile explorer who can jump, climb, crawl, roll, swim, shoot weapons and shimmy across ledges. "Angel of Darkness" adds a few new moves, such as hand-to-hand combat, and stealthy maneuvers such as sneaking up on enemies. Other additions include:

• The opportunity later in the game to play as another character who has his or her own set of unique moves.
• A role-playing game mode that makes Lara stronger through experience.
• The ability to chat with game characters using an adventure-game-style dialogue tree.
• A "grip meter," so Lara can't hang onto a ledge for an unlimited amount of time. If the meter runs out and she hasn't reached her destination, Lara will fall to her death.

All of the work to create a fresh adventure — not to mention a more attractive Lara (she is rendered with 10 times more detail, according to the game's producers) — is wasted because the game has too many usability problems.

For one, controlling Lara isn't easy because the game controls aren't responsive. It's also difficult to gauge where Lara must stand to pick up an item or how far she must jump to safely reach the other side of a chasm. What's more, the roving camera angles often shift at inopportune times, leaving Lara vulnerable to attacks. Players can't see threats quickly enough to avoid them. This was a problem with previous "Tomb Raider" titles that still hasn't been corrected.

Finally, a handful of technical bugs can leave Lara in slow motion — and not for dramatic effect. For no reason we could figure out, the frame rate of the game's video can slow to a crawl. Even worse, Lara's body can get stuck in objects and walls.

Overall, "Angel of Darkness" has some excellent elements that could have made it a winner if it weren't for the annoying glitches that should have been addressed before the game hit store shelves.