Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness

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Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness

Developed by Core Design

Published by Eidos Interactive

Lead Programmer: Richard Flower

Written by: Murti Schofield

Music by Martin Iveson and Nathan McCree

Platforms PlayStation 2, Windows, Mac

Release date(s): Europe - June 20, 2003 United States - August 1, 2003

Rating: ESRB: T - OFLC: M - PEGI: 12+ - USK: 12+

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is the sixth game in the Tomb Raider series, and is the sequel to Tomb Raider Chronicles. It was developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. The game was originally released in 2003 for PlayStation 2 and PC. It was the last Tomb Raider game to be developed by Core Design. It was one of the most criticised Tomb Raider games, although it also remains a fan favourite throughout the world.

Storyline

Accused of the murder of her one-time mentor, Werner Von Croy, Lara is forced into hiding. Following notes written in a journal by Von Croy, Lara races to recover five hidden paintings before a secret organisation whose ultimate goal is world domination and immortality with the assistance of an ancient biblical race known as the Nephilim.

Pieter Van Eckhardt is the main villain of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. A normal 15th century alchemist, he was contacted later in his mortal life by the Nephilim and entered a blood pact with them in exchange for immortality, and was tasked with the creation of a powerful weapon known as the Sanglyph (literally 'blood-sign'). To keep the Sanglyph safe, Eckhardt split it into five pieces and hid each piece behind five paintings he created depicting evil imagery.

As time went on, Eckhardt grew ever more evil and powerful, and eventually form a group known as the Cabal, four individuals who all shared the same desire for immortality. To attain this immortality, the Cabal prepared to resurrect an extinct race known as the Nephilim (the product of relationships held between fallen angels and humans). Eckhardt believed that by using the Nephilim he would attain immortality and, in the end, dominate over all. However, an order that splintered off of the Knights Templar in the 15th century called the Lux Veritatis (Latin for 'Light of Truth') were able to put a halt on Eckhardt's plans. The Lux Veritatis acquired three ancient weapons of light called the Periapt Shards and, led by Brother Obscura, used them to seal Eckhardt in a deep pit. The seal on Eckhardt would only last if the three Periapt shards were combined. Brother Obscura then confiscated the five paintings that contained the pieces of the Sanglyph, and painted over the previous images of evil with new religious images. These were hidden throughout Europe in locations known only to the Lux Veritatis, and were christened the Obscura Paintings. A copy was made of each, referred to as the Obscura Engravings, with each engraving containing an encoded map to the location of the original painting.

In 1945, something happened and one of the shards became separated from the other two. Eckhardt escaped the pit and vowed revenge against the Lux Veritatis, then revived the Cabal basing it out of Prague. The new Cabal became devoted to hunting down any members of the Lux Veritatis. Eckhardt also managed to obtain the Periapt from the Lux Veritatis. He hid these shards in his old laboratory, deep underground beneath the Strahov, the headquarters of the Cabal. Eckhardt and the Cabal set out to reclaim the five Obscura paintings, in order to acquire the Sanglyph. By the time Lara became involved in the plot, the Cabal had already attained three of the five paintings. Eckhardt then hired Werner Von Croy to find the last two; Von Croy did learn of the location of the fourth painting beneath the Louvre from the Obscura engravings, but he never informed Eckhardt. Von Croy then asked for Lara Croft to assist in finding the paintings, shortly before his murder.

The Sanglyph whose five pieces are hidden behind the Obscura paintings and gives the bearer immense powersLara found the two remaining paintings in Paris and Prague, though Eckhardt reclaimed from her before retreating to his old laboratory, where he started reviving the Nephilim race. The Cabal had retrieved the last Nephilim specimen from Turkey: a Nephilim body which had been named "the Sleeper". During the final confrontation with Lara, Eckhardt starts the process of reviving the Sleeper. He battles Lara using the Sanglyph, but he is eventually killed by Karel, his right-hand man, who stabs Eckhardt with the third Periapt Shard. Karel revealed himself to be the last surviving/living Nephilim and that all the people who have helped Lara died at his hands to avoid the destruction of the Sleeper. He then offers Lara a chance to join him in his resurrection. Lara refuses, and decides to put an end to it by using the Sanglyph on the Sleeper - thus destroying it and Karel.

Gameplay

Much like the Tomb Raider games before it, The Angel of Darkness is a 3rd-person action-adventure-puzzle game that stars Lara Croft. The player controls Lara as she explores 30 levels, maneuvering carefully across traps and solving puzzles to progress. Lara's new moves include a back-flip, a small hop, stealth, army-crawling, rolling out of the crouch position, hand-to-hand combat and the "super-jump" that can be performed whilst sprinting. Unlike other Tomb Raider games, it is sometimes necessary for Lara to acquire a strength upgrade to manage to clear certain jumps. An RPG element was added to the series, with the player choosing what Lara says in conversation, such as polite questions, bribery, or threats. Although this does not affect the main storyline, it does alter the route taken to ultimately reach Lara's goal. For example, she enters the club 'Le Serpent Rouge' differently depending who she talks to, and may be shot by Bouchard by saying the wrong thing. This, however, is mostly the case only at the start of the game (Parisian ghetto); after that, choosing what you say only affects the replies you get when entered in dialogue with another character.

Locations

Paris

Lara meets with Werner in his Parisian apartment before he is murdered in front of her. Now a prime suspect, Lara lays low in the back alleys, finding adventure in the most unlikely places: a nightclub called Le Serpent Rouge and the famous Louvre Galleries. Near the end of the Paris section of the game, Lara invades an ancient tomb, overcoming all sorts of obstacles and trials, and ultimately finding and taking an Obscura Painting, only to have it taken from her shortly afterwards by Kurtis Trent.

Prague

Lara hunts for clues in the apartment of an affluent art dealer, known as Mathias Vasiley, who was recently murdered by The Monstrum. The Strahov is the stronghold of the evil organization behind The Monstrum killings, also located in Prague. Lara gains access through a blundering journalist, desperate to expose the organization. The Strahov Fortress is made up of different areas, including a bio-research facility, an underwater research facility, a mental institution (the only areas to be played from another character's perspective) and a secret tomb called The Vault of Trophies. Physically it is a large industrial complex and appears to be fronted by some kind of transport operation.

Characters

Deleted characters

The Shaman: A North African healer and tribal mystic who took care of Lara's recovery after the Egyptian tombs. The Shaman was originally intended to appear in Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness in flashbacks telling of how Lara survived her fate in the ending of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. Although she was cut for unknown reasons, renders of the Shaman can be seen online and in the official strategy guide by Prima Games.

Luther Rouzic: Librarian Honorarium at Prague City Archives. Acknowledged world authority on dead languages and texts. Keeper of the Strahov archives. Little is known about Luther's role in The Angel of Darkness, whether he was a sixth member of The Cabal or simply a civilian in Prague. Like the Shaman, official renders can still be found both online and in the game's strategy guide, while early concept artwork appear in the special features menu in Tomb Raider Chronicles.

Music

The composers are Peter Connelly and Martin Iveson and the orchestra that interpreted was conducted by David Snell.

Peter Wraight was an external musician for this soundtrack, he supported the Core team with his full understanding of orchestral arrangement.

The 6th game combines the Danny Elfman Batman scores with the classic Lara violins. For the first time in the series the game has the score performed by a real orchestra (London Symphony Orchestra) . Although the game hasn't been considered the best of the series, the music of the game was very well appreciated. For the orchestration it was selected the oboe, cor anglais, harp and flute to represent Lara. AoD is the first game to bring constant music.

Very few tracks from TR4 and TR5 has been recomposed for this game.

Reception

The highly anticipated sixth installation in the series was planned to be the most ambitious yet, with improved graphics and a new look for Lara coupled with an involving storyline. However, The Angel of Darkness would prove to be the worst-received game in the series. It was heavily criticized for its flaws which included numerous bugs, drastically different controls from previous releases, and a poor gaming structure.

The overall result suggested that the development of The Angel of Darkness had been rushed, despite numerous delays prior to its release to possibly improve the final product; difficult-to-overlook plot inconsistencies (or leaps) and frequent continuity errors added to the belief that significant 'cuts' were made from the original design. While it was not the first (or last) game to suffer such abridgment, the results were especially jarring and confusing. For example, in the final encounter between Lara and the overall perpetrator, they appear to recognize each other--without it ever being previously established that either even knew of the other.

Criticisms also concerned the lack of actual tombs in the game as the majority of action takes place in large, urban environments (such as a nightclub), as well as abandoning Lara's trademark akimbo pistols and other aspects of the series (although dual pistols are amongst the hidden features that never made it to release, they can be used with cheats).

The amount of criticism the game provoked caused the series' publishers, Eidos Interactive, to replace developer Core Design with Crystal Dynamics who developed the latest three episodes of the series. Core had developed each game of the series since its inception.

An interview with members of Core Design in the August 2006 issue of Edge magazine saw the developers claim that the game was rushed to release by Eidos in order to meet quarterly financial targets, despite it not being completed. As a result, large sections of the game (particularly in Paris) were drastically cut down in scale or removed entirely in order to meet the deadline, and play testing - of the control system in particular - was truncated.

Despite having some mixed reviews the game was praised as having the best storyline in the series along with its Original Soundtrack performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Continuation

Core Design stated there were two more games planned for the series, as well as a spin-off for Kurtis Trent, under the title "Demon Hunter". However, such sequels will most likely never see the light of day, as Core Design no longer exists, and Crystal Dynamics and Eidos have no plans to continue the trilogy. The sequel would have brought Lara to an old German castle and to Cappadocia in a quest to stop Karel.

Playstation 2 Cheat Codes

To get codes to work you must pause the game then enter them.

Effect	Cheat Code
View Credits	Hold R1+R2+L2+Triangle+Circle
Level Skip	Press select on the PS2 controller, hold L1 + R2 + Down + Triangle together, Release and then press the following buttons, Circle, Up, Square, Triangle, Right, Down. Please Note: After releasing L1 + R2 + Down + Triangle. Many people have said that the Level Skip Code does not work. To make it work, you must release the first sequence quickly, then continue on with the cheat as instructed.
Refill O2 Gauge With Ease	When Lara is low on the O2 gauge, simply saved your game then reload it. Your O2 gauge should be back to full.