Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness on PS2 was supposed to be the "Citizen Kane" of action-adventure games. It wasn’t. Instead, it became one of the most famous train wrecks in software history, a game so ambitious and so broken that it literally killed off its original developer, Core Design. If you played it back in 2003, you probably remember the frustration of Lara Croft refusing to jump when you pressed the button, or the way she’d suddenly sprint into a wall because the "stealth" mechanics felt like steering a shopping cart with a broken wheel.
Yet, people still talk about it. They still mod it. They still defend it.
There’s something haunting about the atmosphere in The Angel of Darkness. It traded the sun-bleached ruins of Egypt for the rain-slicked back alleys of Paris and the gothic shadows of Prague. It introduced a "dark Lara"—a protagonist framed for the murder of her mentor, Werner Von Croy, and forced to go on the run. This wasn't the untouchable, quipping superhero of the 90s. This was a Lara Croft who looked tired, wore too much eyeliner, and felt significantly more human.
The Messy Reality of the PS2 Launch
Development was a nightmare. That’s the simplest way to put it. Core Design was transitioning from the old-school PlayStation hardware to the complex architecture of the PS2, and they were trying to reinvent the wheel at the same time. They wanted RPG elements. They wanted a stamina system. They wanted complex dialogue trees.
They got a deadline.
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Eidos Interactive, the publisher, needed the game out to align with the release of the second Angelina Jolie movie, The Cradle of Life. Because of that pressure, massive chunks of the game were simply deleted. If you look at the game's files today, you can find traces of entire levels and mechanics that never made it to the final disc. There was meant to be a huge section in Germany. There was supposed to be a more meaningful use for the second playable character, Kurtis Trent.
Instead, we got a game where Lara has to find a specific item to "get stronger" just to push a crate. It’s a bizarre mechanic. You’ll be standing in a room, unable to move a small wooden box, until you find a crowbar or open a specific door, at which point a text box pops up saying: "I feel stronger now." Only then can Lara perform the physical feat. It’s immersion-breaking, honestly. It feels like a leftover idea from a design document that no one had time to polish.
Why the Atmosphere Still Works
Despite the technical disasters, the art direction is staggering. Murti Schofield, the lead writer, crafted a narrative that was leagues ahead of most early 2000s games. The "Nephilim" storyline—revolving around a secret society called the Lux Veritatis and an alchemist named Eckhardt—brought a genuine sense of occult dread to the franchise.
The music deserves its own museum. Composed by Peter Connelly and Martin Iveson and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road, it is arguably the best soundtrack in the entire series. It’s moody, operatic, and grand. It makes walking through a deserted Parisian apartment feel like a high-stakes thriller.
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The Mechanics That Failed
Let’s talk about the controls. The PS2 version of The Angel of Darkness is notorious for input lag. You press 'X' to jump, and Lara takes a full half-second to respond. In a platforming game, that’s a death sentence. The "tank controls" that worked for the grid-based levels of the earlier games were kept for a world that was no longer built on a grid. It was a mismatch of philosophy and execution.
- The Stealth System: Lara can crouch and hug walls, but the enemy AI is so erratic that it rarely matters. Sometimes they see you through walls; sometimes you can stand right in front of them and they won't blink.
- The Strength Upgrades: As mentioned, this was a half-baked RPG element. It was meant to be a non-linear progression system, but in the final game, it’s just a series of mandatory keys disguised as "exercise."
- Kurtis Trent: Playing as Kurtis was meant to be a breath of fresh air. In reality, his segments are often the most frustrating. His "Chirugai"—a spinning bladed disk—was a cool concept, but the combat engine couldn't handle the physics.
The Legacy and the "Restored" Versions
Because the game was released in such a porous state, the fan community has taken it upon themselves to finish it. This is where the game’s true quality starts to shine through. Modern fan patches and "restoration" projects on PC have fixed the controls, re-enabled cut dialogue, and even added back some of the deleted items and areas.
When you play a fixed version, you realize that The Angel of Darkness was actually a visionary project. It anticipated the "gritty reboot" trend by five years. It tried to give Lara Croft an inner life and a murky moral compass long before the 2013 reboot was even a sketch on a whiteboard.
The tragedy of Core Design is that they were fired from their own franchise after this. The keys to the kingdom were handed to Crystal Dynamics, who developed Tomb Raider: Legend. While Legend was a polished, fun game, it stripped away the weirdness and the dark, European edge that made AoD so fascinating.
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Actionable Insights for Retro Enthusiasts
If you are planning to revisit this game or experience it for the first time, don't just grab a PS2 disc and a dusty console. You’ll probably hate it within twenty minutes. To actually appreciate what Core Design was trying to do, you need to approach it with the right tools.
1. Play the PC version with the 'Restoration Project' mod.
The PS2 version is "pure" but painful. The fan-made Restoration Project fixes the input lag and restores the "lost" animations. It makes Lara move like a human being rather than a tank.
2. Focus on the Narrative.
Don't rush the hub areas like the Parisian Ghetto. Talk to the NPCs. The dialogue system, while clunky, reveals a lot of world-building that most players missed.
3. Use the "Save Often" Rule.
The PS2 version has several "soft-lock" bugs where items won't trigger or doors won't open. Keep multiple save files. This isn't just a suggestion; it’s a requirement for finishing the game.
4. Listen to the Soundtrack Separately.
Search for the Abbey Road recordings of the score. Even if you find the gameplay intolerable, the music stands alone as a masterpiece of the era.
The Angel of Darkness remains a beautiful, broken relic. It represents the end of an era for 90s gaming and a glimpse into a darker, more complex future that never quite arrived for the character of Lara Croft. It's a reminder that sometimes, ambition without time is just a recipe for a very expensive heartbreak.