Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light Review
Much like Tomb Raider‘s far-flung locales, Lara Croft’s career has been filled with both resplendent peaks and austere gorges. Over her fourteen-year reign, the charismatic archeologist has starred in nine games, as well as comic book and film franchises. Yet, like many figures who’ve spend an extended interval in the public eye, Lara has also garnered a fair bit of criticism. Everything from 2003’s bug-laden Angel of Darkness to a reliance on convention has plagued the iconic protagonist.
To answer detractors, recent release Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light has forgone many of the expectations associated with an entry in the Tomb Raider franchise. Beyond the abandonment of a disk-based delivery, the title presents players with an omniscient, overhead isometric perspective. This change in viewpoint isn’t just cosmetic- it allows Guardian of Light to move at an exhilarating pace, elevated combat and adds intriguing cooperative possibilities. It’s been years since Lara’s exploits have felt so charmingly effervescent; perhaps our beloved protagonist uncovered De Leon’s fountain of youth in a post-Underworld venture.
To accommodate the presentational changes, Guardian of Light offers a intuitive new control scheme. Taking a cue from twin stick shooters, players move protagonists around with the left stick while a push of the right stick draws weapons and aims in a direction. Depending on which type of ammo is selected, a push of the right trigger releases a projectile- which range from pistol rounds, penetrating (but limited) machine gun rounds, and even spears. The game’s javelins are particularly useful- when they are shot into a wall they become perches for Lara to climb, allowing players to build precarious pathways to lofty treasure nooks.
In a single player excursion, Lara is granted the use of the spears, whereas in a cooperative game the lances are exclusive to Totec- the impetus for the game’s subtitle. Beyond the two-thousand year old Mayan’s uncanny proficiency with M-16s and flamethrowers, the warrior can also utilizes his trusty shield to protect Lara from incoming fire. Drawing inspiration from another ancient civilization, Totec uses the shield to give the archeologist a slight boost, as well. Currently, joint excursions through Guardian of Light are local-only affairs, although the game promises online matches in September. Although the two player game is undeniably enjoyable and requires a gratifying amount of collaboration, it also presents the game from an even higher perspective forgoing some of the game’s graphical details.
Visually, each of the Guardian‘s fifteen stages are adorned with impressively rendered environments and evocative shadows, while explosions display impressive particles effects. Although the game’s fixed perspective can infrequently obscure small sections of the environment, only rarely did this cause the death of one of the game’s protagonists. Aurally, the title’s soundtrack straddles between tribal rhythms and ambient washes, complementing the game’s exotic locales. Less successful is the voice actor for Totec, who fails to capture a Mayan vibe.
Unlike most downloadable titles which are completed then left to fester on hard drives, Guardian of Light‘s healthy quantity of supplemental content lend the game to multiple playthroughs. With in-game trials, challenge rooms, weapons, and artifacts to tempt gamers hidden in the title, completionists will have their hands full until the three additional content packages go live. The one potential downside is Guardian‘s size- at a whopping two gigabyes, owners on an original 20GB drive, might have to clear some room for Lara.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light isn’t just a great downloadable title- it’s an altogether impressive gaming experience which shouldn’t be missed by series fans. As the concluding entry in Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade, Lara send the series off with an appropriate amount of controller-clinching tension- a task which the adored explorer hasn’t been able to accomplish in the better part of a decade.
First!
This is the only summer of arcade I bought. Worthy of the $15 price.
good review. I’ve been waiting for this game since I first saw screens a few months ago.
So did the dev ever explain why there’s no day 1 online coop?
I tried the demo, do the puzzles get tougher, cause they seemed really easy.
I haven’t played a tomb raider game in like forever. Reminds me of being a kid.
Looks cool. thanks for the review DE!
cool demo but it didn’t feel anything like a tomb raider game.
what worries me is the devs want up to pony up more money for the DLC. How much is this going to be?
Downloading right now. I cant wait to try this.
Wow, a “A-“. I though Lara would never see anything above a C+ anymore.
ok, someone post a deal on MS space bucks, please.
I saw Giant Bomb gave it a 80. I guess they didn’t like it as much as you, deagle.
I don’t know about this change to the game. It seems like the took the brains out of the game and made it for a more casual audience.
I’ll wait for the next real Tomb Raider game.
I’m glad no one has asked, “Can you still see teh boobz”
I wonder what other games would work from the 3/4 perspective?
They were probably rushed to make the Summer of Arcade deadline.
No online and this got an “A-“????
Wheres grumpy NOLA when you need him?
Well, not Sonic. Thats for sure.
Well they gave it 4/5 stars. Blame Metacritic for the 80%
So when the PS3 version drops with online co-op it gets a “A” right?
The last couple of games where cool, IMO. Nothing less than a B.
I’ll have to try this out. Last TR game I played was on the PS2.
You just did!
I’ve heard nothing but good things for the game. I might have to pick it up!
I haven’t seen any worthwhile ones in a while. A dollar off here and there, tops.
I heard it about 4-5 hours long. Do they pad that time at all?
Cool, but I really wanted a K&L 2 review. Are you guys going to play through that one?
Really cool game. I didn’t think twice about hitting the buy button.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. I mean, on the one hand, it’s a coop puzzler without online coop at launch, but on the other hand, they announced before launch are patching it in (unlike SP). I think I’d still ding it, but not too harshly.
It raises questions of whether or not reviewers should be asked to give an opinion on an unfinished product, or at what point a game truly becomes “finished.” Honestly, I would have liked to wait until the patch dropped so we could play the game “as intended,” but as Vega pointed out, we’re competing against other sites and against internet relevancy, so we kinda have to roll with the punches.
This seems to gettting some good scores. But how much of it is from Lara Croft fanboys?
I’d say unlike Scott Pilgrim, this game is just as much fun by yourself then with two people.
To emulate the experience of Kane & Lynch 2, it is best advised that you take TV’s power cable and jiggle it in and out while watching a muted episode of That’s So Raven while listening to the Wu Tang Clan. It has all of the gore and language a crime game will have, while pixelating the female body and some of the more grotesque head shots as if you were a twelve year old. Perhaps I missed the part about a game where you can wield automatic weapons, swear like a sailor, and shoot cops being kid-friendly. You can see all the violence in the world but nudity is out of the question. I half expected a death penalty to have been me getting sent to my room to time out. The game has no problem treating you like a child on the otherwise case anyway. It’s like watching Godfather on Cartoon Network. This isn’t a game for kids, quit acting like we’re kids. I only just got through two hours of Kane and Lynch before turning it off and possibly never touching it again. Two hours, only because this brilliantly refined game froze on me and my brand new copy. Usually you’re supposed to tweak the bugs out before you release it so your buyers can get more than two hours packed in it. In my short-lived two hours, I was already overwhelmed by a pretty major bug: audio. It’s not there. If there’s important audio in a cut scene, I’d like to hear it. Couldn’t at least make the characters use sign language to guide me? What about pop-up cards to act as a visual cue? Clearly this game is intended for the deaf-lip reading gamer. The controls are clunky. It feels like I need to add half a pound of WD-40 to my controller just to get my character to move. The whole cover system is schizophrenic and only works when it’s in a good mood to, on the otherwise case, it decides it wants to ping pong the player between walls of cover while you’re trying to get off of it. In terms of level design, the game is like this. Linear corridor, random obstacle, linear corridor. Yeah, that’s basically it. Every now and then, I get to kick in some random door off the main path that led me into a — get this — linear corridor. Since I didn’t get to finish it due to my glitch-messed copy, the plot will be summarized like this. “Hey, want to chillax in China?” “Sure.” “Wait, let’s shoot this guy’s girlfriend.” “Okay.” “Oh hi weird British friend whom I’ve known for 12 seconds.” “You killed a mob boss’s daughter.” “Damn!” Then it froze on me. To end, maybe I would be easier on it if this weren’t my very first impressions. The first game was spectacular. A gameplay nightmare, but plot gold held together with great dialogue and brilliant character progression. This game froze on me within the first two hours, had audio out of synch (sound travels over 700 MPH, I know that if I’m 10 feet from the guy and he axes a door, I shouldn’t hear the sound 4 seconds later), and had no audio at all during important a cutscene. I can’t read lips. I can’t control my idiot character from running smack into a wall.
Man, WTF is this?
Your funny and all, but the wall of text has got to go.
Didn’t you guys do that with Sniper: Ghost Warrior?
Great review deagle.
I need to give this a try. How big is the demo?
I always liked the TR games. I was worried this one wouldn’t be fun.
I think with that one they asked them to hold the review.
They have to put the name of the game in EVERY friggin screenshot?
Good review, desert.
I liked it, but I’d rather have a real Tomb Raider game.
Is there a tomb raider collection for 360?
Looking forward to co-op Tomb Raider!
When does the co-op patch come out?
glad to see the series is making a comeback.