Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Review

Its been nearly 14 years since the first game in the series, and nearly 2 years since the last game in the series. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light brings a new format to the series, with an isometric view, which isn’t too common in games that aren’t strategy.
The Guardian of Light tells the story of an artifact, known as the Mirror of Smoke. In the back story, it’s revealed that, as usual, Lara Croft is pursued to find the such artifact. When her pursuers unleash it’s power, they are killed in an instant by Xolotl, a dark spirit. At the same time, Totec, the guardian of light, also wakens. Xolotl escapes, but Totec knows that if he is not stopped before dawn, it could be the end of the world. As always, Lara Croft tries to stick with an ancient evil/ancient artifact that could destroy the world, and usually Lara is pursued to find it, which isn’t really new. Lara is used to such ancient things but maybe we could have something natural? Perhaps mother nature is trying to take back what she created or something? But of course, Lara Croft wouldn’t be who she is if she didn’t chase down such a thing.

Despite the obvious story, the gameplay is somewhat different. Of course, since Xolotl is an ancient evil, he of course unleashes ancient creatures that try to kill you. Throughout the game, you can unlock new guns which will help greatly to defeat your enemies. You can unlock a rocket launcher, a flamethrower, grenade launcher, dual SMG, shotguns and more. To also help you through the game, you can also equip artifacts, which can give you a nice buff, but can sometimes also give you a mean debuff. Relics also help you, because they don’t deal a debuff, so it’s best to always equip with an relic which would be greater use. The way you unlock weapons, artifacts, and relics is to find them, but sometimes they come at a price. You can find them in chambers, which you have to find your way through a puzzle in order to get to them, defeat enemies that may spawn around it (or just run) or complete level challenges. These challenges can vary from real simple to rather difficult. One that you are guaranteed to find in almost every level is to find 10 red skulls. There is an achievement if you find all 10 red skulls in a single level. Every challenge gives you an unlock, but one of the most difficult ones is a timed run challenge. Basically, in every single level, you will be asked to do a certain thing in a certain amount of time, for example, “find your way to the exit in 6:00 minutes”. Roughly, if you abided by that challenge, you could complete the game in around 1-2 hours. You also venture through some amazing environments, which helps build a nice Croft theme. I didn’t get to try out the co-op as the “multiplayer” co-op isn’t out until when the PS3 and PC versions are released, which is in September. You can however, have a friend over and play co-op with them, but since I only have one controller and nobody comes round my home, I couldn’t. But from what I’ve seen, it really helps if you play in co-op as it makes the fights much easier and of course, it’s always nice to have a friend round.

Really, there are only three characters in the game. Lara, the main protagonist, is of course voiced by Keeley Hawes (as she has since 2006), Totec, who is a half naked ancient Mayan, protector of the Mirror of Smoke, and Xolotl the dark spirit. The voice acting was a little bit lame, as Lara just sounded a little bit too sarcastic, and it didn’t suit her with her full English accent, but maybe that’s just my opinion. Totec also sounded too heroic and just kept reminding the player: “We must stop him before it’s too late” and then says “You do not have to do this”. Well do we have to or don’t we?! And Xolotl just sounded completely evil. End of.
I would normally say the more characters there are, the better, but in this game, you didn’t really need any more than you actually see. You had your sexy lady for the guys, your hunky guy for the girls, and the evil villain. Perfect.

Overall, considering it’s a Lara Croft game, it’s definitely enough of a game to get your tomb raiding fill. The environments are amazing, the gameplay is almost flawless, and the boss fights are rather interesting. The final boss fight shouldn’t be too tough, but be prepared to die a few times, as it’s certainly the most tense one. The collectables and challenges would overwhelm you at first, but they help make the game last just that little bit longer. Upon completing the game, you unlock two avatar awards, and not only that, but you can also unlock some outfits for your in-game character. The voice acting was a little weak, but bare in mind, this is Lara Croft. A superb and challenging game none-the-less.