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Old 29-08-18, 14:05   #1
jackraider
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Default Does anyone else think AOD is overly praised?

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Old 29-08-18, 14:25   #2
Samz
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I know AOD has its fans and they will respond in its defense, but I'm really more interested in hearing from the TR fans that share the same opinion as myself. Am I the only TR fan that believes AOD is overly praised with exaggerated grandiose? People treat it like the holy grail of TR games and it's the lowest received main entry TR to date.

Yeah I know AOD was supposed to be great, but it isn't. Even with all the scrapped material leaks — how does all of that still make AOD the best game in the series? I understand the story, the concept, etc all had the "potential" — but that potential was never established.Personally, I think AOD has the worst replay-value because it's so unfinished, sluggish, and gimmicky. Even with fan patches.

So yeah, I don't really want to hear about why AOD is great because I hear it a lot. It still amazes me that fans treat it like the holy grail of Core Design and TR when ultimately it was what destroyed the company. It wasn't a series highlight it was the Sonic The Hedgehog 06' of Tomb Raider franchise. Honestly, Tomb4 should of been the last TR game and was really Core's true swan song to the fans. It was way more epic than AOD IMO and was actually complete and playable.

Does anyone else think AOD is overly praised?
I do think anyone who says its one of the best in the series is stretching it, I do personally enjoy it, but it does feel (I played the GOG PC version I should note, which apparently has better controls/less bugs than the ps2 version) like a step back in alot of ways and the unfinished story, while not too obvious for most of the game, is REALLY evident in the finale with Karel.

I consider it a middle-ish game, not a completely buggy unplayable mess as some make it out to be, but it ain't the best game in the series by a long shot.

I personally consider it one of the somewhat replayable ones, it doesn't have many of the unfair moments that plagued pretty much every Core TR game after 1:

TR3's MANY almost unavoidable first time through instant kill traps, extra points if its on the ps1 version with limited saves.

TR4's complete lack of hints, I don't want Reboot-style hints, but a Underworld-style hint system (which was actually initially planned for TR4) would have greatly helped, since most of the time when you get stuck, you have SEVERAL huge levels to comb through, at least tell me WHICH level I need to still look in.

TR5's sometimes has TR3 style traps, such as the VCI lasers that you can only see by pausing to use the vision mode that kill you instantly (like going right after going through the metal detector, there isn't even any sort of panels in the wall for them to come out of)

AOD really only has Brother Obscura and arguably the bomb part in the Louvre as unfair moments.

it's fun, but its definitely flawed.

Last edited by Samz; 29-08-18 at 14:27.
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Old 29-08-18, 14:43   #3
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It's absolutely normal to have such impression if you use TRF AoD section forumers as your statistical population. But aside from them, who could be counted on the fingers of one hand, almost no one else in the world seems to share the same passion towards the game.
The press destroyed it and sales were under expectations.
Also, Steam reviews speak for themselves.
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Old 29-08-18, 15:09   #4
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Coming from a huge AoD fan myself, I also think it is kind of overly praised, at least by some (emphasis on some).

I find it just a little bit odd when I see people saying it’s the best TR game and it’s almost like an example that all TR games should follow for the most part, and they’re usually going off of what the game would have been and not what it is. It’s their opinion, and they have their right to it obviously, but it does kind of make me scratch my head.

It’s my third favorite TR game and I love it to death, but I think some people lose their crap over the game in an odd way.
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Old 29-08-18, 15:18   #5
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I enjoyed the game with all of the official and fanmade patches applied to it. That way it felt like a decent game. It has a certain charm to it, even with all it's bugs and unfinished things, which I cannot really explain. I agree that it gets a little overpraised here, but every member or player has his own opinion as you can tell by reading some of Shadow's comments for example. I found the game an enjoyable and memorable experience in Tomb Raider history, but I will never blame Eidos or Crystal Dynamics for rebooting the series into a fresh start.
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Old 29-08-18, 15:21   #6
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TR3's MANY almost unavoidable first time through instant kill traps, extra points if its on the ps1 version with limited saves.

TR4's complete lack of hints, I don't want Reboot-style hints, but a Underworld-style hint system (which was actually initially planned for TR4) would have greatly helped, since most of the time when you get stuck, you have SEVERAL huge levels to comb through, at least tell me WHICH level I need to still look in.



AOD really only has Brother Obscura and arguably the bomb part in the Louvre as unfair moments.

You realize the lack of hints and increased difficulty was to accommodate for the strategy guides at the time. It was a pretty effective business collaboration between EIDOS and Prima for example. I remember always getting a strategy guide along w/ a TR game every xmas in the 90s because EB games clerk was pretty much required to inform the customer buying the game.

Oh, and you are forgetting the Boaz boss fight and Kurtis levels. That was just utter crap especially the boaz fight. The PS2 manual didn't even explain the most essential mechanic on beating boaz — changing targets! So bad. I can't believe I spent the full $49.99 USD price when that game came out in 2003. AOD was so over-hyped and a small niche of fans still overly praise it. The whole goth approach to Croft was so gimmicky and was popular trend (dark alter egos) at the time. A lot of developers were going the darker route with games like Jak2, SA2 (Shadow), and Mario Sunshine (shadow Mario) just to name a few.

To be honest, Legend was such a breath of fresh air. I remember being pleased w/ the return of zip lines and Lara's Mansion too. Legend has its flaws, but it just felt more in tune w/ the earlier TR games with some obvious homage to the Jolie films.

Last edited by jackraider; 29-08-18 at 15:27.
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Old 29-08-18, 15:23   #7
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You realize the lack of hints and increased difficulty was to accommodate for the strategy guides at the time. It was a pretty effective business collaboration between EIDOS and Prima for example. I remember always getting a strategy guide along w/ a TR game every xmas in the 90s because EB games clerk was pretty much required to inform the customer buying the game.

Oh, and you are forgetting the Boaz boss fight and Kurtis levels. That was just utter crap especially the boaz fight. The PS2 manual didn't even explain the most essential mechanic on beating boaz — changing targets! So bad.

I can't believe I spent the full $49.99 USD price when that game came out in 2003. AOD was so overhyped and a small niche of fans still overly praise it.
I can see what you mean about Boaz ( I don't have the ps2 version so I wasn't aware the ps2 manual didn't mention switching targets) but what exactly is bad with Kurtis? the turning's slow sure but thats really the only problem, I can't remember anything too noticeably bad off the top of my head unless you mean the visual glitches.
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Old 29-08-18, 15:40   #8
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I can see what you mean about Boaz ( I don't have the ps2 version so I wasn't aware the ps2 manual didn't mention switching targets) but what exactly is bad with Kurtis? the turning's slow sure but thats really the only problem, I can't remember anything too noticeably bad off the top of my head unless you mean the visual glitches.
His animations, his sluggish controls. The poor combat. Again, AOD fans will come to its defense saying, "It was unfinished!" Like that is an excuse to claim AOD as the holy grail of TR.
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Old 29-08-18, 15:47   #9
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His animations, his sluggish controls. The poor combat. Again, AOD fans will come to its defense saying, "It was unfinished!" Like that is an excuse to claim AOD as the holy grail of TR.
Never said that as an excuse, The only real problem I had with the combat was the god-awful strafing (its like a worse version of LAU's strafing), otherwise I liked how gun-damage now scaled on distance, added a sort of decision to it, charge in so you both take more damage or stay at a distance to try to save on health but use more ammo, it is either the worst or second worst depending on how you view TR1's Combat, since AOD has slightly more depth due to weapon range while TR1 has an actually working jump shooting. (Since you can do with an bug in AOD I presume it was probably ment to be an upgrade, still doesn't make sense why Core didn't just set Lara to have it at the start.)

Didn't really notice anything wonky with Kurtis's animations last time I got to his part, I do like how even his similar moves are different though, such as using a military-crouch instead of Lara's crawl.

Yeah the slug-ish turning (which I didn't have too much of a problem with) gets worse with Kurtis, its not game-breaking, but it does have an element of "Why would you do this Core?" I didn't die or get stuck on stuff alot because of it, but it was still a bad design choice.

Last edited by Samz; 29-08-18 at 15:50.
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Old 29-08-18, 15:52   #10
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It's incomplete, but I appreciate what the game was going for. Unfortunately it landed in the same trap as KOTOR2, except there weren't enough assets to recreate what once was into the game through mods and patches. Music is great as well, and some levels are a delight to go through (some. a small few. Such as the Sewers and Hall of Seasons hub.) It's a shame what it was released as, it was 5 years ahead of its time in what it wanted to accomplish.

When I say I praise the game, I'm saying I praise the story it was trying to tell (before it was mashed up and cut back and forth), the soundtrack, and the break from grid-based level design (though the grid was still partially there, just smaller squares and introduction of angles).
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