A saying usually applicable to science, it’s now applicable to videogames too. If humanity can build the atom bomb without thinking of the possible consequences, they probably will. You may be thinking, how does this tie into videogames? Well, if a developer can attempt to bring their aging franchise kicking and screaming into the next generation, then they will, without thinking of the possible consequences.

The Tomb Raider series needs no introductions, and this is Lara Crofts sixth foray onto our screens. The previous 5 games bought nothing new to the party, except a couple of new moves, locales, and a more generous polygon allowance for Lara’s assets. Evolution, rather than Revolution. In hindsight, was this a bad idea? What else could be added to the series, or should Lara have been put into the Tomb Raider Retirement Home a long time ago? As is the norm in the video gaming industry, though, if a publisher can milk more money from their franchise, they will.

Realism is the Holy Grail of the developer, and with the power of the current crop of consoles, it’s nigh-on achievable. One should stop and think though: would it be a better idea for eye candy to be forfeited for the benefit of clarity? The reason the original Tomb Raider games worked so well was because of a perception of ability in the game world. Since the whole world was created using uniform quads, rather than non-uniform triangles, the game world implicitly had its own metric system. A player could stand on a cliff-side, have a quick scan of the surroundings, and work out which platforms were reachable, and which were just out of reach. Since the Angel of Darkness has had a total graphics engine overhaul, this metric system is now obsolete, in favour of a more realistic, prettier alternative. All done without thinking of the consequences.

This factor alone needn't cause problems, but it’s not only the graphics engine that has had an overhaul. Compared to modern 3D platformers and adventure games, the movement system in previous Tomb Raider games is now decidedly archaic. The player's movement was relative to the heading of the main character, and wholly independent of the camera position. The favoured technique in modern games is to make the on-screen character move relative to the camera, so pushing the stick or pad left will make the player move leftwards across the screen, as opposed to the old Tomb Raider method of having Lara “steer” upon a left or right push on the pad. To try to revolutionise the series, the developers switched from this slow and unintuitive yet precise, former method of movement to the more intuitive latter method.

Also, instead of Lara moving in discrete numbers of steps, she moves in a more continuous fashion. One of the main reasons that the original worked so well was the consistency of not only the environments, but the movement too. The largest leaps were performed by walking to the edge, tapping backwards once, then executed by pressing forwards followed by jump. It worked every time without fail, and more often than not Lara’s deaths were attributed to the occasionally trial-and-error based puzzles rather than the player's inability to point her in the right direction. In the Angel of Darkness, this consistency doesn’t exist, and timing the larger jumps becomes more an issue of the player's timing, rather than judgement. Another bugbear is that pressing forwards and jump doesn’t actually mean that Lara will perform a frontward jump, which will frustrate and confuse in equal measures.

Combat in the original game is likened to trying to control a racing car from a fixed camera; the camera targets the enemy while the player steered Lara from left to right. In this new iteration, since the movement is relative to the camera, the combat benefits greatly. Fights are quicker, and generally more enthralling than circling an enemy endlessly while holding the fire button down.

In an attempt to possibly make the controls even more accessible to new players, the Angel of Darkness features the Auto Vault – by walking up to a waist-high ledge, pushing the analog stick (there’s no more digital control to be found here) towards the ledge, Lara will vault upon it, and if it's a railing or small fence, she’ll vault over to the other side. Ever wondered why we put railings on the edge of high buildings/walkways? They are there to stop people falling off, and with Lara’s newfound fetish for jumping over anything waist height automatically, they may as well not be there.

The whole pacing of the Angel of Darkness has changed, with the addition of the exploration and plot-furthering sections. Anyone who has played Konami’s cult classic Shadow of Memories will be right at home here. Lara forgets the jumping and athleticism, and plods around town learning more about the murder of Werner van Croy. Interacting with these NPCs is not only a welcome change of pace, but communication is via rather enjoyable multi-threaded conversations. Answering the questions in the wrong manner not only gives you an unpleasant response but also (without giving too much away), they’ll do anything to hinder your progress as well.

Except for the fantastic spinning room in Tomb Raider 4, the puzzles in Tomb Raider were hardly taxing. Going from the accessible end of the puzzling spectrum to the completely obscure takes some doing, but Core have managed it with this release. Picture the scene: you’re stuck in between a load of warehouses, with a helicopter frantically shining it’s lights in an attempt to locate you. You make your way into the dark alleys to find a chickenwire fence with an unlocked door behind it, and thoughts of freedom cross your mind. Any sense of immersion is shattered when Lara stands by the door, not even acknowledging its existence. So, in frustration, you backtrack to see if there’s anything you missed. You find a moveable block, and stop and try to think logically on how you could use it to your advantage. Upon finding no logical use for the block, you decide to move it anyway, and Lara promptly announces that her legs are now stronger, and a previously inaccessible area is now accessible. There are difficult puzzles, and then there are totally random puzzles. The Angel of Darkness covers many elements of the latter quite nicely.

Sadly, not only is the planning and design of the Angel of Darkness flawed, but so is the implementation. After constantly toying with the save system over the series, it is now possible to save at any point in a level, and it’s a good job too. It’s not uncommon to get stuck in the scenery at some points, and not just in tight areas either. Even in wide-open areas, a jump onto an item of furnishing will confuse Lara to the point of her levitating in mid air unable to move, and is another prime indication that the game was given a premature birth by the publishers. While the graphics are mainly satisfactory, a drab colour palette hides the low detail textures, and Core’s technique of shadow casting leaves a lot to be desired, as the shadows project through objects to places where they shouldn’t be seen. And Lara doesn’t quite interact with the light in the way the scenery does, making her appear rather distant from her surroundings. And forget any ideas of a consistent framerate…

Perhaps it’s fortunate that Core Design are no longer developing the series. It’s no surprise that the new movement system caused internal rifts, as it seems half of the team wanted to embrace the new system, while the other half (including the level designers) wanted to keep the old system. The title lacks direction and purpose, throwing a flimsy, unpredictable control system into a game that requires precision control and timing. No longer is scaling incredible heights an impressive and breathtaking experience: it now breeds the almost uncanny instinct to reach for the save button, as certain death can only follow suit. For the sake of an attempt at pushing the series further, they’ve ruined a winning formula. If a man can, he will…

How could a game that rose so high so quickly fall so far so fast? One thing's for sure: Lara’s got some work to do if she wants to be the object of our desire once again.