Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness - Croft Generation by SeRmOnGaR

Developer/Editor: CORE Design / Eidos

Plattforms: PC / PS2

Release Date: June 20th, 2003

Game type: Action, adventures

Official Website: www.tombraider.com

It all begins with a terrible storm in the night of Paris, Lara Croft is in a large room, and discusses with her mentor Werner Von Croy; suddenly, a shot sounds in the dark, Von Croy falls to the ground, Lara surprised, looks at his hands stained with blood … while in the streets of Paris sirens are heard, strangely the police soon arrives at the scene of the crime; Lara begins to run while the dogs are on his heels. In the end she escapes them by jumping out of a window. The danger is over… for the moment. Lara stops to reflect, she is the prime suspect in a crime she never committed. Lara must flee from the police as quickly as possible, so it all starts by fleeing across the rooftops of Paris, under a storm.

Soon he discovers, when visiting Margot Carvier, using the note that Von Croy gave him before dying, that he was looking for an obscure painting, Eckhardt commissioned him to recover it, this was in the Louvre, and as he could not do it, was the reason why he called Lara; so Lara goes to the encounter of the painting, where she crosses in her way Kurtis Trent, the last member of Lux Veritatis, and that is only looking for revenge for the murder of his father, his murderer was Eckhardt, an alchemist who tries to revive the Nephilim race; so throughout the game Lara and Kurtis decide to cooperate and stop Eckhardt.

Features

Soundtrack recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.
New graphic engine.
Increased its polygons to 4400, a great amount with respect to previous TRs.
Introduction of a new playable character, called Kurtis.
New visual effects like snow or heat effect.
Double guns removed from the final version of the game.
Introduction of conversations with other characters, that sometimes will influence in the continuation of the game slightly, or even to take us to a situation in which Lara will perish.
The ropes disappear.
Disappear movements that had in previous installments, as the very useful to jump and shoot at the same time.
New melee combat system (although limiting it only to a single combo).
Stealth mode, such as lying on the ground, sticking to the walls or attacking an enemy stealthily from behind and breaking his neck.
Visit cities like Paris and Prague, The Strahov and the crypt of Lux Veritatis.
Development of the force in arms and legs to be able to go advancing in the game.
Limited ammo for the first time.
The Croft Mansion still doesn’t appear.
New more realistic climbing system. You can also go from climbing a wall to go through the roof.
New movements to throw itself of head or to give a somersault backwards to hold on to a ledge.
Development of the sprint from the end of the Louvre level.
Activate by a button the stealth mode, walk or run.
Lara automatically grabs the edge of a ledge.

Artefacts

Find out more behind the artifacts of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (TR AOD). In this installment, the Obscura paintings are very important, which house a piece of the complete artifact, called the Sanglyph. Also very important in the story are the Periapt shards, which are necessary to defeat the Monstrum.

Obscura Paintings

There are 5 Obscura Paintings, created by Pieter Van Eckhardt, using black alchemical magic. Each painting contained a fragment of Sanglyph to protect it.

The original paintings depicted demonic images. Over time, as Eckhardt became more evil, the Lux Veritatis was formed, which fought against the Cabal’s plans. After Eckhardt’s imprisonment, most of the Cabal’s property and assets were confiscated or destroyed, but some, including the paintings, were hidden.

The Church, upon discovering the extreme power of the paintings, decided that destroying them was useless, as this would not affect their power; the only option was to hide them. The original works were painted with religious images by the leader of Lux Veritatis, Brother Obscura. Before hiding them throughout Europe, Brother Obscura also created copies of those paintings, called Obscura Engravings, each with a coded map leading to the location of the original paintings.

In 2003, Mathias Vasiley obtained all the Obscura Engravings, and exchanged this information with Werner Von Croy.

Below you can see the images of each of the Obscura paintings.

Sanglyph

The Sanglyph, also known as the blood sign, is an artifact of great power created by Pieter Van Eckhardt. It consists of five metallic parts hidden in each of the five Obscura paintings. This artifact is necessary in order to revive the Nephilim race, awakening the Sleeper, a Nephilim who had survived.

The Sanglyph gives the power to manipulate energy in the form of lightning or purple flames. It can also create energy barriers that prevent physical passage through them or create identical copies of the wearer and use them as weapons.

Periapt shards

The Periapt shards are dagger-shaped crystalline fragments whose hilt is shaped like a lion’s head, probably referring to the Golden Lion mentioned in the Nephilim prophecy.

Only three Periapt shards exist and they were in the possession of the Lux Veritatis order, who used them to stop Pieter Van Eckhardt for centuries. It is said that only the Periapt shards can definitively stop Eckhardt. They were entrusted to Konstantin Heissturm for a time, but after Pieter Van Eckhardt returned and killed Konstantin, the fragments were sent to Kurtis Trent, though at some point, he lost them.

Weapons

In the game, Lara will be able to carry up to 12 different weapons. On the other hand, the new playable character, Kurtis, will be able to carry only his iconic gun (Boran X) and his Chirugai, which can attack with it and throw it (only in the remaster version of the game).

Outfits

In Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (TR AOD), Lara goes to Paris, Prague and the Strahov and she wears different outfits. In addition, in this story told by CORE Design, the last to be developed for this developer, also appears Kurtis Trent as a playable character.