E3 (#E3) Reflections – Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

After years of traveling the world, and hunting down some of the world’s most treasured and lost relics, Lara Croft has come across hundreds of leads towards other artifacts. She’s compiled these leads, stories and facts in a journal and the time has finally come to track down these elusive objects of desire. The game begins with Lara discovering the lost Temple of Light, a resting place for an ancient artifact called the Mirror of Smoke. When she finally reaches the mirror, she is ambushed by an army led by a devious mercenary named Vasco. Vasco steals the mirror and releases Xolotl, an evil entity imprisoned in the mirror. Xolotl proceeds to kill Vasco and escapes with the Mirror of Smoke. Totec, The Guardian of Light, is awakened by the incident and confronts Lara, explaining the evil that has just been unleashed. Totec and Lara must join forces to track down Xolotl and defeat him and retrieve the mirror before the world is plunged into a never-ending age of darkness.

This is the first Lara Croft that is a digital download, so the old girl is keeping up with the times.  The game is presented in a top down view which is new for Lara. This view reminds me of Smash TV, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and similar games. This lends itself to classic arcade action found in those previous titles. The environments I saw went from lush jungle to cold rocky tombs. Character models looked good and the special effects from explosions and magic (yes magic) looked convincing.  Playing at the booth there was practically no load time. The game  just flowed smooth as we went from one area to the next. The graphics of this game aren’t going to beat out other more recent Lara Croft titles that are on disc, but they are pretty good considering what you’re getting.

The game is very run-and-gun but there is item management and some puzzles that can be solved with teamwork. For instance, Totec can throw spears which Lara can jump onto in order to reach higher ground, or Totec can hold a shield over his head which allows Lara to jump off of  it. There are ‘leaps of faith’ where one player makes it to the other side of a large chasm and the other has to jump across and trust that they will be caught by the waiting player.  This adds to the dynamic of  ‘Coop-petition’ which is at the root of some co-op games what have a score system or items that could be picked up. (Not to go off on a rant but there have been times when I was playing arcade games back in the day, yes I am that old, and people kept picking up the health that they didn’t need. What really irks someone has a 95% full health bar and 2 lives and I am on my last legs and they really pick up the  health). The controls are extremely easy to pick  up which is a huge plus so you can play this game with someone who isn’t that good of a player.  There are multiple paths and different ways to solve puzzles so you do have the freedom to get creative in your game play.

The game itself is very fun. It’s a good pick up and play with a buddy to unwind. I’m pretty sure you could probably trick your significant other into playing it because it’s so easy to play. I only played the multi-player during my time at E3. However, this game also supports a single player campaign.  I love Lara, I’ve always loved her but there are other games out there and quite honestly I can’t invest as much time into our relationship as I would like to. This game is helps our relationship because I can squeeze in my Tomb Raiding-fetish and not interrupt the heavier gaming that I’m currently doing.  The game looks to be about  1200 Microsoft Points / $14.99 PlayStation Network, PC respectively.