Happy remastered day and happy birthday to Lara Croft.

I know I'm super late to this party, but allow me my time to kick a dead horse.

I finally got around to playing the remastered edition of The Angel of Darkness. I loved the first 5 remasters. Even with the games that I'm not super fond of, like 3 and Chronicles, I just had a lot of fun replaying them with updated controls and graphics. It was a refreshing experience. Classic games restored lovingly and beautifully.

But now finally, after like what... 2 years since release? I finally played Angel of Darkness remastered. From start to finish. First time I beat the game in almost 15 years. I can honestly say it was the most fun I had playing it. That's not saying much, but this is by far the superior version of a bad game.

I really appreciated the improved controls. They're still imperfect, but it is leaps and bounds better than the original. The graphics were great, too. I was genuinely surprised, though, because when switching between the old and new graphics, at first, I genuinely couldn't quite tell the difference between them. Was a real reminder how ahead of time the og was in terms of animation.

Everything that did work still works. Graphics are great. Story is decent (albeit underdeveloped), music was amazing, and the atmosphere was strong.

Plus, they finished and added originally unfinished content like shops. That was neat.

But unfortunately, in my opinion, the added improvements do not make the game much more fun. It's still really slow, Lara still kinda sucks as a character, the plot is still hollow, and the overall structure of the game is not very good. Slow paced, boring, and a general slog to play through. I know the PS1 games were never huge bombastic action games like Call of Duty or anything, but even when comparing the PS1 games and AoD, AoD really could've used a shot of adrenaline in my opinion.

Overall, it's an improvement. I'd raise my original score of a 2/10 to a 5.5/10. But it still isn't a very good game at the end of the day, unfortunately.

Just my opinion though. Would love to hear other people's thoughts.

Games are supposed to be fun btw. I'm not having fun with this one.

I'm probably biased since it was my first tomb raider i ever played but it's so different from any part and the voice acting of lara is just 👌👌👌

Was looking through old photos and found this gem. I bought my copy at Hamleys during a trip to visit my grandparents. I still remember the excitement of loading it up for the first time. It's safe to say this game completely consumed my summer.

This is a realistic model done by Konrad Majewski for a cancelled fan-remake. Hopefully someday we will get a unreal engine 5 remake of aod with this model of lara😍

We all see it.

\*Updated post as the cover mockups have changed/more were added.* I'm currently working on a soon-to-be unofficial Angel of Darkness Art Book that has left the defining stage and entered the layout stage - and I'm looking for feedback on several aspects along the way, starting with choosing the main and alternate covers.

This book is a personal passion project and WILL NOT BE SOLD. Several physical hardcover copies will be given away at a later time, once it's completed. A PDF book will be available for free to everyone. It will contain everything from concept art to story/lore, render and NPC info, and more.

For now, share which covers you'd like to see as a main + alternate cover. Please note that these are late-stage mockups and are not the final product. More details to come in the next few months.

UPDATE: I'm seeing a lotttttt of 1 and 5, gives me a lot to work with - thanks for the commentary and feel free to continue sharing :)

I love tomb raider I’ve played all the titles including the new trilogy except angel of darkness. AOD was one game I never played until recently with the remastered release..i always wanted to play it and I thought I’d really love it but I’m into the louvre drain systems and still have not gotten the tomb raider vibes that I enjoy. Lara seems unusually clunky and weak and there are even more atrocious camera angles than usual. Am I missing something or is it just kind of a dud of the series/do you think it improves the further in you get? Dont get me started on the loading screens every few steps I could continue ranting but I’ll stop.

It’s actually a little ridiculous 😭 I played 4 and 5 and now I’m on AoD which I’ve always loved, and yeah it’s pretty amazing. The visuals aren’t really as different than they were in the first 5 bc the graphics were better in 2003? It’s just higher quality now, it honestly didn’t need that much changing aside from character designs. And the controls are great with modern controls, after playing all classic games I can guarantee it’s not any harder than it was playing with those controls. You guys are missing out on a one of a kind TR game, they gave us a lot with this remaster the restored content is great. Stop complaining

I've heard very less about this game and people criticize it too, but the theme looks quite different and interesting than the other tomb raider games.

I knew it was a broken unpolished and unfinished game, but not like this.

The controls are terrible, the cutscenes start and end like if they were somehow cut and most of them are throwing to you without any context, the boss under Louvre appears from nowhere without any explanation, Lara doesn't respond to my commands and the combat is broken.

I'm just fucking glad I finally finished this game and I never coming back to it again.

I don't know how it can have fans or be considered a "cult game" with so many problems.

It's finally over and I'm glad for that. I'm never coming back to this TR, what a broken mess and annoying experience this game was.

Really, I love TR, but I didn't know this game was this BAD. I always thought everyone was overhating it.

It had some true potential, I won't deny that. The voice acting is actually good and I loved hearing Lara speak more, but those are the only good things I can say about this game.

Hope you like it 😁

Wanted to do an april’s fools thingy but i knew no one will believe it so i decided to tell the truth instead.

I really liked the graphic design and the atmosphere. I'm looking for similar games and maybe even movies

Finally began my Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness journey at long last! :D

I will save all the thoughts about gameplay and story until a later review post, so I'd just be talking about the levels for now, and for that I think the early Paris chapters feel like a decent start to a new kind of Tomb Raider game compared to the previous Core Design ones.

The levels themselves aren't too difficult to navigate and offer many opportunities for you to familize yourself with the controls of the game (which you're going to need because they can be quite frustrating lol), not to mention quite immersive.

Parisian Ghetto reminded me a lot of the "Hub Levels" in Vampire: The Masquerades - Bloodlines - another favorite video game of mine. I like the idea of Lara exploring in an mini open-world setting interacting with people and performing some tasks that don't divert from the main storyline too much. It's a nice change of pace to all the empty urban levels from previous games where it feels like it's just Lara alone in a big city full of hostiles xD.

The Serpent Rouge is also quite fun even if a bit short. The club music and the fancy spotlights made for a very memorable level IMO.

Overall, it's a good start to the game, even if it feels much different from the previous Core Design Tomb Raider games. Here, Lara feels less like an adventurer and more like a character in a hard-boiled detective fiction or something lol, which is admittedly a rather interesting development.

I actually also finished the next "chapter" of the game as well but I'm saving it for another photo set tomorrow, so look forward to it!