Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, like previous Tomb Raider games, is a third-person action-adventure puzzle game. Players control the main series protagonist Lara Croft throughout the majority of the game. The majority of Lara's basic moves are carried over from the previous instalment, such as walking, jumping, climbing, swimming, crawling, swinging on ropes and standard gunplay.[3] Her new moves include a small hop, army-crawling, hand-to-hand combat and a "super-jump" that can be performed while running. Lara can also sneak up on enemies and perform stealth attacks, flatten herself against walls and peer around corners.[3][4][5] Lara's ability to sprint, present in the three previous entries in the series, is only available when the player opens a cabinet containing gas masks in the 'Galleries Under Siege' level.[6] Her weapons arsenal is also modified from previous games, featuring new weapons such as a K2 Impactor stun gun and upgraded versions of weapons like the shotgun.[7]
Unlike previous games in the series, Lara has a stamina meter that depletes while she is performing bouts of climbing: if the bar empties before reaching her destination, she falls. The rate at which the meter decrease slows if the player performs special actions that increase Lara's strength. These actions are also necessary to progress through many of the levels. The game incorporates elements similar to a role-playing game, whereby Lara can talk with various NPCs encountered throughout the environment and choose what kinds of answers to give: early in the game, these answers will directly affect her progress through the story.[5] The game also features a second playable character, Kurtis Trent.[4] Initially appearing to be an antagonist, he becomes controllable by the player late in the game. He features mainly identical moves to Lara, and his sections of the game are more based around combat.