![]() When you consider that Legend scored 8/10 and B grades all over just a few years later then, it says something about how much Crystal Dynamics had managed to clean up said well. ![]() Whether that’s entirely the heart of the matter is up for debate, of course, but it couldn’t have helped: it at least had helped poison the well. Metacritic scores aren’t everything, of course, but Angel of Darkness scored a 52 out of 100 on PS2 and a 49 on PC in 2003, and was so panned that Paramount blamed it for the poorer than expected domestic box office for the second Tomb Raider film that starred Angelina Jolie. Legend modernized the design of Lara Croft a bit, as well as the gameplay, and everything was just implemented in a much more enjoyable fashion across the board. They began their run with a reboot of the entire series titled Tomb Raider: Legend, which released in 2006. What helped save it - in addition to stopping the production of these games for a few years so the stink of The Angel of Darkness could float away and be forgotten - is that development duties were handed over from Core Design to Crystal Dynamics. Those initial Core Design games - of which there were at least one of them released every year from 1996 through 2003 - went from astounding in their ambition and gameplay to a mess that nearly killed the franchise entirely. ![]() The first adventure of Lara Croft eluded me for years, however - growing up as an N64 kid instead of a Playstation one had a lot to do with that, especially since Tomb Raider had lost much of its cool factor through overexposure and underdeveloped sequels by the time I had a Playstation 2. Tomb Raider isn’t new to me, by any means. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link. This column is “It’s new to me,” in which I’ll play a game I’ve never played before - of which there are still many despite my habits - and then write up my thoughts on the title, hopefully while doing existing fans justice. ![]()
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