Review: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

[CLEVERSLEAZOID]

I'm an old school fan of the Tomb Raider series, I remember pestering my Dad to try the demo in the summer of 96, and in the end he bought the game, and we played it together mostly. I have very fond memories of the original 3 games, even if 2+3 weren't as good as the original [in my opinion anyway]

The games afterwards got progressively bland though, you just felt like you were going through the same motions after a while. I wasn't a fan of The Last Revelation either to be honest. A couple of times I got so far, realised I'd missed a key item somewhere along the lines, and couldn't retrace my steps due to areas becoming impassible, and not having a save game going back as far as I needed to go.

Angel of Darkness was just dire. Less said about it the better.

As for Anniversary, Legend and Underworld, I enjoyed the new gameplay, but didn't think too highly of the plotline. As Susan touched on it, the stuff about dead mothers was kinda meh. Didn't do it for me. I prefered the original canon. Henceforth, I think the movies are crap too >_>

.

Shhhh....we don't talk about the movies. Or Angel of Darkness. Ever.

Wow, I got quoted by a Senior Ed., I feel special!

Anywho, I got this game last night, and my god its fun! The balance between fighting and the puzzles is spot on, and the challenges definately add to the playability.

 

[Susan Arendt]

You said:

The core of Guardian of Light is in keeping with Tomb Raiders of yore, but in most ways is pared way, way down. The controls are elegantly simple: everything you do - jumping, aiming, shooting, using your grappling hook - is done with a single button press. The complexity of the game comes from the brilliantly intricate level design and how Lara's abilities can be combined to solve the environmental puzzles. Throwing a spear into the wall provides a makeshift ladder; detonating a bomb in the right spot will send an enormous boulder flying onto a ledge it couldn't otherwise reach.

Which sounds fantastic except for the 'pared way, way down' which kinda makes me nervous as such a fan of the original games platforming. And I'm asking to what degree this is present in the game, or if puzzles are now more of an occasional encounter rather than the main focus. I ask because gameplay video of this game look very Alien Swarm style, which itself had the occasional puzzle as well but which was more combat focused than anything else. Whereas Tomb Raider has ever been a series about impossible leaps of faith and dodging spinning saw blades like a hot Indiana Jones in Last Crusade.

My question is does this Tomb Raider still give that same sense of high-flying cerebral adventure, or is is now more of an action game with the occasional puzzle to pace things out? Perhaps I should have phrased that better.

Look at it from my perspective: My favorite part of the whole series is by far the Greek temples in the original game (And Anniversary by extension) wherein you don't find a single opponent but are instead faced with a series of ever more elaborate themed rooms based after the elements of whatever Greek God the room is dedicated towards. Death Traps and quick-loads aplenty, but when it was finally all figured out it just felt good. And I loved it!

Good question. The video does lean heavily on the combat, but I would say the game is about 50/50 between puzzle solving and killing things. The puzzles aren't on such a grand scale, I don't think - or perhaps it just seems that way because Lara is so tiny - but I found them to be quite clever and satisfying. You're not fighting for your life every second, there are plenty of occasions when you're just sort of standing there, staring at a switch, trying to figure out how to throw it.

The challenge rooms are all self-contained puzzles as well. They're usually relatively simple - though in some cases the challenge is just figuring out how to reach them.

I'd urge you to at least try the demo, so you can see if the ratio of brain to fingers works for you.

 

[The Madman]

Good question. The video does lean heavily on the combat, but I would say the game is about 50/50 between puzzle solving and killing things. The puzzles aren't on such a grand scale, I don't think - or perhaps it just seems that way because Lara is so tiny - but I found them to be quite clever and satisfying. You're not fighting for your life every second, there are plenty of occasions when you're just sort of standing there, staring at a switch, trying to figure out how to throw it.

The challenge rooms are all self-contained puzzles as well. They're usually relatively simple - though in some cases the challenge is just figuring out how to reach them.

I'd urge you to at least try the demo, so you can see if the ratio of brain to fingers works for you.

My thanks for the reply, that's just what I was wondering and I'll certainly give the game a try when it arrives on the PC. It's nice to visit a site where if you ask a question about a review you actually get a response.

Thank you!

 

[Optimystic]

I know that no online co op is a drawback but given the choice between only online co-op or only local play I'd rather take the latter.

AMEN to that. We need more emphasis on couch co-op, not less. My roommate and I are definitely going to play this.

I'd love "drop-in" style co-op, a la RE5, that can support both online and offline.

Ah, so Lara has apparently moved to the world of Sanctuary...

Yeah it looks very Diablo-ish!

 

[Trogdor1138]

What the HELL??? "The Guardian of Light"? Those bastards!! They stole the title of my freaking script!!! You've got to be KIDDING me!!!

I hate it when that happens too (oh trust me, it's happened a lot).

 

[Miral]

Good question. The video does lean heavily on the combat, but I would say the game is about 50/50 between puzzle solving and killing things. The puzzles aren't on such a grand scale, I don't think - or perhaps it just seems that way because Lara is so tiny - but I found them to be quite clever and satisfying. You're not fighting for your life every second, there are plenty of occasions when you're just sort of standing there, staring at a switch, trying to figure out how to throw it.

That's good to hear. To be honest I'd be happiest with a TR/LC game that had no combat in it at all -- I'm mostly in it for the exploration, puzzle solving, and MacGuffins.

 

[AvsJoe]

I... uh... wait, what? This game looks awesome! A Lara Croft game... looks awesome. What is this, I don't even... zuh? Clearly someone sold their soul or something because this doesn't happen.

Joking aside, I very much want to play this one, but chances are I never will. Which is a shame because of how awesome it looks to be.

 

[mptothedc]

I like your reviews...

and while this does look interesting I'm gonna have to pass and wait out several more years for Diablo 3.

 

[Idlemessiah]

OK, so it looks like Lara is basically raiding Torchlight... F'kin A!

This is the first time I've been tempted to get a Tomb Raider game in about ooh 10 years.

 

[k-ossuburb]

Balder's Gate?

 

[Radelaide]

You know, I'm hearing wonderful things about this game but I'm unsure whether to get it on XBLA or PC?

It's looks KIND of like an RTS (with the overhead camera), but it's a platformer, which is so much better on a console. UGH. D: