Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Square Enix
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points ($15)
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade, PSN and PC
Release Date: XBLA - August 18, 2010, PS3 and PC - September 28, 2010
(Note: My review is based mainly on the single player portion of the game, which differs slightly from the co-op campaign in that in co-op Lara only has her grapple, while Totec carries around the spear and shield. In single player, Totec gives Lara the spear, enabling here to complete the puzzles without a partner. I've only played a few levels or so, due to the exclusion of Xbox Live support during the first month of release. Just wanted to clear that up for people who might have been wondering.)
Rounding off this year's Xbox Live Summer of Arcade event, is Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. For Tomb Raider's arcade debut, Crystal Dynamics decided to take a very different approach to the well known, treasure hunting series by pulling the camera back and giving the player a more top down, isometric view of the world. This change of style had many fans and gamers worried, but after finishing the game on single player, and playing a little local co-op, I can definitively say that this is one of the best XBLA titles I've played, right behind last year's Shadow Complex.
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| I've got your mirror, catch me if you can! |
The one thing you'll notice right off the bat, when starting up Lara Croft, is the camera. As I mentioned earlier, Crystal Dynamics decided to go the isometric route and pull the camera up out of the action, giving the player a bigger field of view. Because of this isometric view, the gameplay for Lara Croft had to be completely redesigned from the ground up. Instead of the traditional 3rd person shooter gameplay that's always been associated with Tomb Raider, we now have a very different approach that is more along the lines of something like Geometry Wars. In Guardian of Light, nudging the right stick in a certain direction, will point Lara's guns in that direction, and pressing the right trigger will fire the guns. While it may feel awkward for the first 5 minutes, once you get used to the controls, gunplay becomes extremely fun and fast paced. The game has a pretty big selection of guns ranging from pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, snipers and even a rail gun, and you can select any 3 guns and map them to the D-Pad for quick, on the fly, weapon swapping. Ammo is represented by a blue gauge located underneath your health bar. Different types of guns use up differing amounts of ammo. For instance, your traditional pistol hardly use up any ammo, while an automatic shotgun my take out a significant chunk, which presents a certain level of strategy to the combat as well. Gunplay is just a small part of Guardian of Light though, the real stars, what everyone has come to know and love about the Tomb Raider series, are the puzzles and level design.
Overall, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is one of the best games I've played this year. I haven't gotten this much pure enjoyment out of a game in a while. I spent over 12 hours on the single player alone, replaying levels, trying to find hidden items and complete specific challenges, and I assume once the update comes out, on September 28th, allowing Xbox Live support, I'll play it even more, and probably finish the co-op campaign as well. I'd say the only gripe, is the fact that it didn't come out with Xbox Live support on release date. I was really looking forward to playing online with a lot of my friends and now it seems I'll have to wait about a month, you'd think a game focused on co-op would ship Live ready, but I guess there are somethings I just won't understand.
HOW DOES IT LOOK? Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is one of the best looking Xbox Live Arcade games. The texture's pop out, character models look great and the forest environments are absolutely stunning. Definitely one of the best looking titles to hit the XBLA in a while.
HOW DOES IT SOUND? The sound design in Lara Croft is great. From jungle ambience and explosions, to the Indiana Jones-esque soundtrack, the music in Lara Croft just makes me want to go out and experience my own tomb raiding adventure.
HOW DOES IT PLAY? One of the many high notes of this game, is the gameplay. From the snappy controls, to the challenging platforming and puzzles, the gameplay in Lara Croft is just downright fun and it was a nice change to just pick up something completely unfamiliar and enjoy it as much as I did this game.
HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? This all depends on how fast you play through the game and how much time you spend after you complete it. With all of the level challenges and collectibles, it was easy for me to spend a good 12+ hours on the single player campaign alone. Count in another play-through on co-op, and you could be looking at a good 24+ hour game, pretty good for a $15 downloadable title in my opinion. There are also leaderboards, seeing who can rack up the most points in the shortest amount of time, so it really all comes down to how much time you are willing to put into the game, and how much you want to get out of the game.
HOW IS IT PRESENTED? If there is one flaw with the game, you might say it's the story. It's extremely bare, and the ending, while pretty climactic, left me wanting a little bit more resolution. Like I said though, for what it is trying to accomplish, a top down, puzzle/action adventure game, it excelled in what mattered most, and put in just enough story to drive the action along.
Final Verdict:
Full Price/You Owe It To Yourself
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Its an awesome game, i was disappointed that the live option isnt available yet, but being able to play co-op was awesome, we finished the game in 2 days.
That uncharted 2 background music really went well with the review. Enjoyed reading every bit! Nice job.
Hmm... I'm pretty much a die hard fan of the Tomb Raider franchise and even though some of the games really weren't top notch, this pretty much ends Tomb Raider for me. However fun it may be...
Now it looks like she's actually back in tombs they drop the Tomb Raider name! :)
Looks good tho, will get it once it's downloadable on Steam. There's still no release date stated or price yet on the Steam page. http://store.steampowered.com/app/35130/
happy to see it get a decent score ;)
Tomb Raider? What is this, '98? Care factor ZERO! The only reason geeks (it's always been a geek friendly game) ever played this on the PS was 'cause the main characture was a hot chic, with big titties. Everyone else was playing Tony Hawk, FIFA, and GT. Let the franchise die gracefully, and tell George Lucas too.
I like the tomb raider games too.. thought underworld was really good
this looks like they are trying to sell this to couples.. co op male and female characters- I wonder how many gaming couples there are in the market?
I'm not one of them.. my girl could care less about video games lol
err...is this the sorta co-op game i can play with my missus?
Will get when arrives on Steam.
Thanks for the review! good job.
Clearly it should be "couldn't care less", but if we're going to pick nits, "could care less" doesn't mean the same as "couldn't care more" - if someone cared about something a medium amount, then they could care less or more about it. "Could care less" simply means "cares at least a little bit".
Tomb Raider is my all time favorite franchise, and ONLY for 3rd person games. Following just beind is Half-Life (any of them including the original). Give me more of these, and I'll always be happy. I am really enjoying Tomb Raider Anniversarry (if you haven't botherd d/l it, it's worth it).... but Guardian of Light sounds like it may or may not work... i mean a multiplayer TR? How's that gonna work?
Really awesome review, background music is hilarious. +++ Enjoyed the site, will bookmark to come back for more.
Sites awesome, a little slow on the reviews though but awesome nonetheless.
Great stuff, Fav the site.
Sucks co-op is still in the works. Would have been a dead ringer and a money muncher when it came out but now it's like eh.