/vr/ - Retro Games

The Angel of Darkness very nearly killed Tomb Raider. It effectively condemned the long-running studio behind one of gaming's most lucrative series to an inelegant demise. It went through three years of development hell before it was rushed out unfinished in 2003, to the eternal mockery of an industry weary from grandiose promises after five prior games that all looked, sounded and played much the same.

Yet its devotees insist the game was hard done by in the rush to release, that The Angel of Darkness never got a fair shake because of its myriad launch bugs and glitches and because of the difficulty of developing for the PlayStation 2.

"If you look at everything Angel of Darkness tried to achieve and was mocked for," argues the HD remaster Facebook page owner AJ.R, "most games today actually use what it tried to build from the ground up." Angel of Darkness' dark tone, its RPG mechanics, stamina meter and generous blending of horror, action, adventure and platforming genre conventions have certainly become commonplace in recent years.

"If Core were given only six more months of development time," AJ.R continues, "it would be a completely different Lara Croft on the market today."