Lara Croft is at it again with a whole new adventure into the macabre and unknown. Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness is the first game of the series to hit PlayStation 2 and it has never looked better. The story takes place following the events in Eqypt where it was believed that Lara had been killed and left behind by her mentor Professor Van Croy. The story opens in Van Croy's apartment where Lara has come back to confer with her former mentor about the five Obscura paintings. He wants her to find them and bring them to him, but out of nowhere Lara hears a gun go off and the next thing she remembers is seeing Von Croy's blood on her hands. Now, pursued by the police, the mafia and killers known as the Monstrum, it is up to her to unravel the mystery of the paintings before it's too late. The prospect of a new Tomb Raider game was so enticing that I could hardly wait for it to come out. Sadly, after playing the game I realised I probably could've waited longer.

Angel Of Darkness plays like an action adventure game with elements of RPG, which is all you need to make a great game. For the first time in the Tomb Raider series, Lara can talk to and interact with other characters and these interactions can change the course of the game, making the action much more engaging and really moving the story along. Lara also raises her strength throughout the game, allowing her to access new areas and perform new moves (hence the RPG elements). It also plays like an adventure game in that Lara must solve puzzles and collect items along her journey to help her advance. And the action sequences are, as always, one of the trademarks of the series. Weapons galore coupled with hand-to-hand combat allow Lara to kick some serious butt.

But as great as the hype made it out to be, you had to know it was too good to be true. Although the story is as engaging as any Tomb Raider game, the controls are what ruin the game. I found myself cursing at the television screen more often than not, frustrated when Lara couldn't even make a simple jump. Imagine having to make several consecutive jumps only to have the camera angle suddenly switch on you, so you lose sight of where you are jumping to and Lara ends up crumpled at the bottom of some pit. At least her dying sequences are different each time and can raise a few laughs, because believe me, you'll be dying so much laughs will be needed. And there are so many bugs in the game; at certain points Lara can walk through walls and boxes, and even fall through floors!

Another frustrating thing is that although she can climb on walls, hang from poles and shimmy across walls, there's only a limited amount of time that she can do this before she gets tired and lets go. This is not a problem and it actually makes things more challenging in a good way. However, there are points where the camera causes problems yet again, because while she's climbing or shimmying the angle changes so you lose sight of where you are heading. This throws your whole rhythm off and again causes you to fall to your death. Once you get over these small hurdles (okay, so they are actually massive hurdles taken straight from the Beanstalk Olympics that all the giants compete in), the controls aren't that bad. No, that's not true, they really are awful.

The graphics are much nicer than previous Tomb Raider titles and they should be considering the game is now on the PlayStation 2. The environments are rendered with plenty of detail and the animation on Lara is better than ever. The cinema sequences are done well and are woven into the game very nicely, moving the story along and really adding to the drama of the situation. The sound effects are also pretty good and everything sounds as you would expect, with the music enhancing the atmosphere of the game and the excellent voice acting lending credence to the adventure.

New to the series is the ability to play as another character later on in the game, which reminds me of the Resident Evil series and is a worthwhile addition here. However, the replay value is low because once you play the game, that's it. Many video games have secret endings or special bonus games but here once the game is over, it's over. And thank goodness you only have to play through it once, as with controls as bad as these I think I'd be pulling my hair out having to play through it again just to see the secret ending and it probably wouldn't even be worth it [Oh, I know the pain of the unrewarded completist all too well - Ed].

Whether you're a fan of the series or not, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness should definitely be rented before you commit to buying it. It's an enjoyable, classy game with an engaging story, lovely graphics and some brilliantly designed levels but it is also almost single-handedly ruined by the implementation of the controls. If you can get over that then there is a lot of entertainment to be had here, but if you find yourself yelling at the screen all the time, don't say I didn't warn you.

Reviewed by AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).