Anatomy of a disaster: Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Nov 9th 2007 at 9:58AM }
The piece starts with just how awful Angel of Darkness was, but things really get moving with an anecdote of Core Design's co-founder, Jeremy Heath-Smith, cursing through the game's opening level at a buyers' conference. The story ends with most of Core's staff leaving due to management issues and Eidos taking Lara away. Angel of Darkness is a case study on how a franchise can be run into the ground and yet still find redemption in the hands of another.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phranctoast @ Nov 9th 2007 10:26AM
Angel of darkness tried to go with stealth, which was very popular at that time (mgs2-splinter cell). Didnt seem to work for a game that was popular for its action adventure qualities.
Antonio @ Nov 9th 2007 10:35AM
I'm always interested to hear tales of game development gone bad.
Freelance @ Nov 9th 2007 10:36AM
The problem with tomb Raider started way back when Lara became bigger than the game she was actually in. She is one character who needs an E-Hollywood story spoof.
gonk @ Nov 9th 2007 10:40AM
legend is the only good tomb raider game
Phranctoast @ Nov 9th 2007 10:51AM
try anniversary. I know its a remake, but its better than legend and the puzzles are also different.
Poisoned Al @ Nov 9th 2007 10:51AM
I have to say I feel for these guys. All we see if the hideous final result and the devs get the blame. Not the idiotic management, not the pricks in marketing that promise the moon on a stick. Nope, in their mind those narcissistic bastards are without fault. "It must have been everyone else that caused it to fail" they think. "Not my constant melding or or stupid ideas I demanded to be implemented becuase it was important, even though I forgot about it a week later. I thought of it so it must have been VITAL! Where was I? Golf? Yes! Let's fire all the talent first though for their incompetence! ... Oh we've gone bankrupt. Well it wasn't MY fault, becuase I'm awesome..."
MadMup @ Nov 9th 2007 11:14AM
I am apparently the only person in the world who didn't hate this game. I still don't really understand why everyone else disliked it so much...
Dave Wakefield @ Nov 9th 2007 11:19AM
I too played it from beginning to end about a year after it came out and didn't think it was that bad, more of an average game. It wasn't "terrible," so I don't know why so many reviews portrayed it as such.
WiNG @ Nov 9th 2007 11:41AM
It was terrible compared to previous Tomb Raider classics.
It's like, if a mediocre (scoring 7 on reviews) Metroid or Splinter Cell game came out, it would look horrible considering almost every other one got 9's and 10's.
Tom Whitaker @ Nov 9th 2007 12:04PM
I once spent a day at Core when I was about 8. A friend of my Mum's knew Jeremy Heath-Smith. I played some preview code of Chuck Rock on the Megadrive, and when I left he gave me a copy of Car-vup for the Amiga.
Fact!
Zach S @ Nov 9th 2007 1:18PM
All I can say is, as bad as AOD was, at least that disaster has led to two REALLY GOOD Tomb Raider games, Legend and Anniversary. If they hadn't screwed up, then maybe we would never have gotten these amazing games, and we'd be stuck with the same old same old still...
Didou @ Nov 11th 2007 11:03AM
This reminds me of the Daikatana development diary they had on Gamespot (sorry for linking to another gaming site):
http://www.gamespot.com/features/btg-daikatana/