One major difference in Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (GoL) is noticeable immediately. The familiar third person view is gone and is replaced by an isometric view of the game world and its inhabitants. This viewpoint works surprisingly well for keeping the player aware of the many traps and enemies surrounding him or her while playing. This viewpoint isn't the most shocking venture away from tradition that GoL takes however.
In the Tomb Raider series it was Lara and her two pistols versus the world. Multiplayer cooperative GoL changes up this familiar formula by introducing Totec, an ancient warrior sworn to protect the Mirror of Smoke. With Totec comes a new aspect of gameplay to Lara Croft, teamwork. Not only does playing cooperatively with another player make the game more fun, it is necessary in order to make any progress in the game. Cooperation is so important in GoL that the game should be repackaged and sold as a relationship building tool. Both Lara and Totec have unique abilities that, when used in conjunction, allow them to make short work of any obstacle the game world.
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| Lara and Totec. Too cool to look at the camera. |
Story is told throughout the game in the form of comicbook-esque cutscenes. The animation in these scenes fits perfectly into the environment that GoL sets up. The story revolves around an ancient relic, the Mirror of Smoke. This mirror acts as a prison for the ancient Keeper of Darkness, Xolotl, as he was defeated and imprisoned centuries before the modern era by the Keeper of Light, Totec. Lara Croft hears rumors of this ancient relic and, of course, can't leave well enough alone and decides to try to find it. Being one of the greatest fictional treasure hunters in the world, Lara succeeds in finding the mirror's resting place only to be betrayed by her hired guides. Unfortunately for the mercenaries, their victory is short lived as removing the mirror from its pedestal releases the ancient evil Xolotl who then proceeds to destroy the mercenary band, ruining their day completely. Xolotl's escape also awakens Totec from his statuesque sleep. As Xolotl runs off with the mirror, Totec explains to Lara that they must recover the artifact and imprison Xolotl once more or else face the destruction of the world. After all, the whole mess is kind of her fault... With that, the unlikely duo set off in chase of Xolotl.
The main element of gameplay in GoL is puzzle solving. As previously mentioned, both characters have unique abilities that can be used to help them solve these puzzles. Lara comes equipped with a grappling hook (as all good adventurers should) that can be used to latch onto rings in the environment to either climb to or swing from in order to clear gaps. On flat land, the grappling hook can also latch on to rings creating a tight-rope bridge for Totec to cross. In a pinch, the grappling hook can be used to latch onto Totec if he accidentally misses his jump, thus saving his life. Totec brings along his ancient spear and shield which both have multiple uses. Not only can his spears be used as a weapon, but they can also be thrown into walls creating a platform for Lara to jump to. Only Lara can jump to or from spears as they shatter if Totec attempts the same. A series of spears in a wall can allow Lara to jump from spear to spear to reach the other side of a wide gap which may otherwise be uncrossable. Totec's shield serves the obvious purpose of protecting himself or Lara behind him from projectiles as well as being able to be held above his head for Lara to jump onto. The two can then jump one after the other to boost Lara higher than normal jumps allow. Puzzle difficulty starts out simple, requiring only the use of one or two abilities, but later in the game will require the use of many abilities in different combinations. These puzzles were my favorite thing about the game. There were a few instances where I had no idea what to do, only to figure it out together with my wife/co-op partner that afterwards I just thought "wow... that really required some thought outside of the box." It was a joy to be given a tool set and set loose on a world where it could be used in so many different ways.
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| Spear throwing while tight-rope walking. Totec must have been part of an ancient circus! |
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light offers a single player mode as well as multiplayer cooperative. I would highly recommend that you play couch co-op with a friend or with a partner over Xbox Live Gold however as this is where GoL really shines. If played on single player, Lara is the only playable character. She gains new abilities that allow her to traverse the game world by herself without the aid of Totec. The game is definitely still worth playing on single player mode, but again, the game really shines when played cooperatively.
The other major element of the game is combat. Lara and Totec start out with a basic weapon which has unlimited ammunition. From the beginning on you will find different weapons throughout the game. Non-basic weapons require ammunition which is represented in-game by a blue bar located beneath your green health bar. Pickups for health and ammo are spread throughout the world as well as dropped by enemies. Combat starts out a little bit awkward as you have to aim with the left stick and fire using the right trigger. You can still move while aiming, albeit at a much slower rate. In addition to the four weapons that you can equip at one time, both Lara and Totec have an infinite supply of bombs that can be used to destroy elements in the environment for extra pickups or towards solving a puzzle.
There are a decent amount of unique enemies throughout the game, thought I didn't find any to be very remarkable. Three of the four bosses found throughout the roughly 6 hours of gameplay offered by GoL can be defeated using either brute force or by utilizing objects in the environment. The fourth (not chronologically in-game) mentioned boss plays out as a chase scene that forces you to think on your feet.
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| Quick! Use the jump onto their bullets attack! |
In addition to the weapons that can be found in-game, GoL has many collectables strewn about its levels. Lara and Totec will find artifacts, which boost their stats; relics, which give special abilities when in a powered up mode gained by dealing damage without taking any; and power-ups which will increase the amount of ammunition and health of the players. Each level contains a set of challenges which, when met, unlock weapons, relics, artifacts, power-ups, and costumes for the characters. The challenges range from collecting 10 red skulls in a level, to time trials, to performing a challenging act in a level. Overall the challenges are relatively fun and easy. True completionists will find the numerous collectibles to be an enjoyable pursuit.
The achievement list for GoL is a short one as most are for Xbox 360 Arcade games. There are three story related achievements and the rest are for performing varied cooperative maneuvers as well as defeating enemies in special ways. The list as a whole is pretty easy with the final achievement of collecting everything in the game and completing every challenge in every level being disproportionately hard and time consuming comparatively.
Overall I found Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light to be an incredibly fun mix of co-op puzzling and combat. I felt that the game is a bit short at 6 hours, though the length is on par with other arcade titles. The game would also last longer for someone who wanted to collect as many items as possible. The story was barely there, but sufficient for the temple/forest crawls to feel important.
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