365//365: Day 235 – Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light (360)

(Quick note: due to circumstances beyond my control, offline co-op cannot be evaluated at this time. This will be a review based solely off of the single player portion of the game, with a multiplayer review possibly following this single player review once online co-op becomes available. Once again — this is a single player review)

The rise and fall of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider franchise has been well documented. Her debut on the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn garnered critical acclaim not only for the exploration and myriad of moves that she can perform, but it was truly a breath of fresh air, as Tomb Raider provided a core game that wasn’t like any other game before it. With its mix of exploration, maneuvering and suspense, Tomb Raider gave gamers plenty of memorable moments, not to mention a heroine that would be considered a sex symbol. Tomb Raider seemed to have had it all, especially with a sequel that matched just about every positive aspect of the first game.

Then Tomb Raider 3 came out, and it sucked.

Then Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, a next generation debut with Tomb Raider Chronicles, and what could have been the nail in the coffin, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness.

The flourishing Tomb Raider franchise quickly became nothing more than a series of video games that banked off Lara Croft’s chest area while leaving innovation, creativity and gameplay knee deep in it. The series ultimately went on hiatus for several years and experienced a reboot of sorts on the PlayStation 2,  Xbox, Gamecube and Xbox 360, with Tomb Raider: Legend, a commendable release that tried to put more of a focus on graphics and gameplay, rather than how stacked the developers can make Lara Croft’s breasts. While there were two more releases afterward, one being a 10th anniversary remake of the initial installment, with a new release just a half year later, the magic, prestige and sense of grand scale adventure just wasn’t there anymore. It seemed like the adventures of Lara Croft would forever be best told in reruns of her first two outings.

Nearly two years after Tomb Raider Underworld, Lara Croft is brought back to the world of gaming, however this time, she’s in the middle of yet another reboot. Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light, Xbox Live’s season finale of their Summer of Arcade for 2010, takes a drastically altered path from what we’ve known to love (and hate) about the Tomb Raider franchise. Going from a third person perspective, with more of an emphasis on solo navigation and exploration as a whole, to an overhead view with more of a reliance on strict puzzle solving and some mindless (but thrilling) shooting periods, can be considered a drastic change to the formula. Did this change in formula ultimately reinvigorate the franchise, or does it just blow up in our faces?

One thing to keep in mind is that the story is mostly tossed together, and feels like a complete throwaway. Lara Croft, with a slight breast reduction, is hunting down another ancient artifact, she’s apprehended as she’s about to pick it up, evil demon escapes, awakens an amazon partner that magically trusts you, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing substantial, yet nothing that can paint it out as flat out stupid. It’s a flimsy vessel that helps establish what you’ll be encountering throughout The Guardian of Light.

Immediately you’ll see the first major change — the camera perspective. Fixed in a somewhat isometric point of view, you relinquish any control you’ve had over the camera from the previous Lara Croft titles. For the pace and structure of this new adventure, the new camera perspective does work well, allowing you to easily see enemies approaching you from all angles, without having to resort to mashing a 180 degree turn button.  There are however, a few occasions here and there in which your perspective impairs your view, though in truth, the only things being obstructed from your view tend to be gems, which acts as one of many score raising possibilities. You will have a friendly text indicator telling you where your character is in relation to the obstructions blocking your view, though it doesn’t replace the good old transparency gimmick that many other titles with similar predicaments add in.

Which leads to the next big change — more of an emphasis on score. On top of your health bar will be your current score for the stage you are in. You can pick up gems to increase the score, as well as defeat enemies and other odds and ends. This coincides with the fact that not only is this an Xbox Live Arcade title, but the experience as a whole has gone from a slower paced cavern crawl, to a bit more of an action packed pacing. Achieving the highest score for each stage also unlocks a weapon or artifact for you to equip.

That’s not to say that there is an apparent lack of puzzles or puzzling situations. The Guardian of Light has these situations sprinkled throughout the game, most of which have an intelligent structure to it. Unable to reach a red skull artifact by a single jump? Lets toss this mystical javelin into the wall and use it as a means of jumping higher than you normally would without it. How can I get this ammo bonus pack with the constantly firing dart cannons, platforms that drop off if you don’t stand in the right spot, and wooden gates that block your path? While the solution might be elementary in some cases, the delivery can be rather intelligent, with the focal point on quick movement, environmental studying and some rare backtracking on your actions. You’ll pretty much find yourself enjoying the puzzles and puzzling situations, and never feel like they are either out of place or in an over-abundance. In fact, these puzzles are crafted with such thought and care that you’ll not only actively seek out each one in each stage, but you’ll want to find every red door puzzle room as well, which contain some kind of beneficial item or augment to your health or ammunition reserves.

Ballistic combat has the arcade game type feel to it, with the left analog maneuvering Lara Croft around the game world, while holding the right analog in any direction aims your weapons and pressing RT while aiming will fire you weapon. Although the isometric view will lead to some imprecision from time to time, you won’t really come across much of a problem when it comes to defeating your adversaries. If you’re within a reasonable distance from you adversary, you’ll have a lock on that target while shooting, which does help somewhat. Pressing Y will lay down a remote mine, which can be activated with a second press of the Y button. Mines can act as both an offensive tool, and a means of completing certain puzzles that might seem impossible without (one major instance will come towards the end of the Spider Tomb level, which took several attempts before it made sense to me). You’ll have a somewhat versatile lineup of weaponry, but with infinite ammo on our signature dual handgun layout, you won’t really pay too much attention to the other weapons you obtain, other than experimentation here and there.

You’ll also come across artifacts that boost your stats somewhat, whether it be +1 to speed and -1 to defense, powerful shots when a gauge is filled, and so on. While most of these stat changes are subtle, it further focuses on providing more of an action title, with stat boosts aplenty. They are little touches that add up nicely in the overall package.

Lara will have access to a new Grapple item that serves not only as a means of reaching high areas via golden rings, but you can rescue your partner Totec if he were to accidentally fall into a pit (in co-op situations). In general, Lara Croft’s agility seems a bit stilted, as there are not as many jumping, hanging, shimmy shammy options that have been available for over a decade. This coincides with a more action and ground based puzzle structure that The Guardian of Light has established, which isn’t a bad thing at all. You can still catch a ledge before falling down, and shimmy from side to side, but the extravagance that was once apparent has not been eliminated. One beneficial gain is a sort of “smart platform jumping” mechanic, in which jumping from small platform ledges to small platform ledges has an almost homing capability that prevents you from over or undershooting your jump, so long as you don’t hold towards or away for too long when jumping. This ends up being an invaluable asset to your progression, eliminating any kind of stiff or loose platform jumping across areas that barely accommodate Lara’s two feet.

The visual style and quality are quite an eye opener for a downloadable title. Even if whole stages feel a bit repetitive, due to the nature of your surroundings, the animation, explosion quality, character models and texture work all are powerful and pleasant enough to be featured in a full fledged retail release. The lighting is rather impressive as well, from the torches to the natural lighting.

While not stellar, the audio package compliments the rest of the package rather well. The voice acting isn’t bad, but you can tell there wasn’t a real emphasis on emotional delivery with the dialog. Gunshots, explosions, enemies and everything in-between sounds the way they should, with no deviance. While the music available does fit the mood and atmosphere, the beats and performance as a whole sounds like it’s stuck in a tight loop. Mind you that tight loop doesn’t sound deplorable, and still fits the bill with the theme and the world around you, a bit more variety and vibrancy could have helped some.

As mentioned up top, co-op was not possible for this review, due to time constraints, other projects and so on. The ease of online co-op would have negated the outstanding issues holding me back from an offline co-op experience, however this portion was delayed. Supposedly the online component was not ready for the release date deadline, though a 2.2gb Arcade title that’s filled to the brim with retail quality gaming, having such an important piece of the puzzle missing is quite a downer. It won’t be until September 28th that we’ll see online patched into the game, and it should be well worth the wait….

….especially since there’s enough incentive and satisfaction that will keep you playing The Guardian of Light until late September. While there’s fourteen moderately sized stages, there are so many hidden weapons and artifacts, time bonus weaponry and items and so many more incentive laced reasons to keep on playing. Boss battles are a thrilling experience, as it takes more than bullets to put down these baddies. These battles alone are worth the time and effort of replaying a few times as well. It’s a well built game overall, even without these reasons to raid these tombs numerous times after the initial conquering. With these incentives, you have a title that will last you past the summer season, something that almost no other game released over the last few months can claim to possess.

With the rather disappointing Summer of Arcade lineup this year, Lara Croft: The Guardian of Light manages to be the star of not only this five game exhibition, but one of the best games released this year. What would have put The Guardian of Light over the top is being held off until late next month — the online co-op. As a single player title though, the captivating, thought provoking puzzles, clever boss battles, engaging combat and legitimately engrossing game world will have you exploring caverns, jungles and caves with Lara Croft for a while to come. Those on the fence about a 1200 MSP ($15) being “too expensive” need not worry, as Lara Croft: The Guardian of Light packs more replay value and entertainment than most full priced retail games do, regardless if the overall game length.

Rating: 8.7 (Single Player rating)