Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light review
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light sees famed female protagonist Lara Croft return from a lengthy sojourn to an all-new retro inspired isometric adventure far different than anything else she’s appeared in. Stephen Ebert gets to grips with Miss Croft
The basics
The story has Lara Croft attempting to save the world from evil after a rogue band of mercenaries got their hands on a mystical artefact, unleashing its curse. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an action-packed adventure with ace arcade style co-op play.
The good
Diving into the game for the first time you’ll notice that, unlike the Tomb Raider games, you’re now looking at things from a top down perspective in isometric fashion.
Thankfully, you’ll get used to it in no time thanks to the brilliant, snappy tutorials that get you up to speed in no time. Playing on an Xbox 360, Lara’s super-easy to control.
Where conventional Tomb Raider titles had you do lots of undisturbed exploring, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a little more relentless in giving you less time to explore without enemies coming at you from all angles, running and hurling magic spells at you. There’s always something to do. Occasional boss battles add even more danger to the mix, some of which involve leading giant lizard things into traps to add a mild cerebral element to the action.
The set pieces are also terrific. At times you’ll find yourself having to hot-foot it across crumbling stone bridges, or avoid massive deathly spiked mechanisms, or giant boulders hurtling towards you in some of the games frantic, yet brief and exhilarating short but sweet moments.
Co-op play works tremendously well. Here Lara is joined by Totec – a Mayan tribesman also awoken by the unleashed curse. He’s a good guy. With his shield and spear he’s able to protect Lara and help her to reach obstacles by letting her use his shield to stand on while it’s being held aloft, and throw spears into walls for her to hop and cling onto. Thanks to the brilliant level design co-op play never feels like an afterthought, and just like the single player story is almost worth the cost (1200 Microsoft Points, or £9.99 on PlayStation Network) alone.
The bad
As fun and arcade-y as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is, its story is hardly the most original. That said it doesn’t detract from the game one bit.
Some of the larger boss fights and enemy battles are some of the game’s bright moments, a few more of these would have added even more excitement.
The bottom line
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light takes a radical detour from Lara’s past adventures with aplomb, delivering a title full of action, adventure, puzzles and fun aplenty. Whether you’re planning to play it alone, or with a mate in co-op play, it’s an absolute must-have.
