Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - The Review!

With any luck you checked out the preview of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light a while back here on Maxim.co.uk. If you didn't, here's the story in a nutshell:

Two thousand years ago, an epic battle was waged between the armies of good and evil for a powerful artifact, The Mirror of Smoke. The fearless leader of the Army of Light, Totec, rose against all odds to defeat the evil overlord Xolotl and gain control over the item. Wielding the great power of the Mirror of Smoke, Totec banished Xolotl from the world. Now known now as The Guardian of Light, Totec entombed himself with the mirror in The Temple of Light with to prevent it from ever falling into sinister hands.

This is Lara Croft's first ever co-op outing (it's also her first appearance in a non-Tomb Raider game), and what a way to do it. This instant classic arcade game is perfect for XBLA and PSN, and the old skool among us will feel moments of other classics coming into play, namely Double Dragon and Smash TV. The top down view with it's expansive and sprawling levels are perfectly handled with the Crystal engine, never seeing a moments slowdown, even when being mobbed by creepy crawlies, being chased by falling flaming boulders, or both.

The control system is rather ingenious, if you've ever played Geometry Wars it's very similar to that, only with the added ability of more accurate aiming. Left stick will move your character, right stick will aim and the right trigger/R2 will shoot. Your special ability is bound to the shoulder buttons and you drop and detonate your bombs with 'Y'. It all fits together quite nicely!

There are huge bosses, that once conquered, join forces with the more common mobs, ensuring that the game will continually challenge you throughout. The detailing of these enemies is quite incredible for a game of it's size, and even without my glasses on (yes, I am a nerd), I never found myself squinting at the screen thinking 'WTF IS THAT'.

In true arcade style, there are various power ups to collect during the course of the game, as well as numerous collectables, all of which boost your performance or just take you closer to that ever tempting 100 percent completion. Weapons are hidden everywhere, and some are awarded for achieving specific tasks, like gaining a certain amount of points or managing to cross a giant river without getting your feet wet.

Many of the powerups are hidden, and even the ones that aren't can often require some serious brain power to figure out the solution. I lost count of the number times I was impaled, set on fire or fell down a chasm to my doom. You'll also find yourself stumped on many occasions by the puzzles that hinder your progress throughout the game itself.

What I feel to be a huge selling point of this particular Lara Croft venture is the aforementioned fact that this is the first ever co-op action/adventure game featuring the lady herself. You can either team up with a buddy and use each others' abilities (Totec and his massive spears and Lara with her grappling hook) to solve incredibly open-ended puzzles, or just be an unsocialable git like myself and play offline single player. If you do stick to single player however, you will not get to know Totec in the slightest, and that sucks, 'cos he's pretty damn cool.

If all that wasn't enough, every single level has set challenges that you are free to either have a go at, or totally ignore. To spur you on though, there are online leaderboards, which will show you how much you suck in comparison to others on each individual level as well as overall score for all levels combined. You can go back and play the levels again for any challenges you missed, or just to show off a bit.

If you're still debating whether or not to buy this on release, let me assure you it's definitely worth checking out. It's easy to pick up, fun to play, and saves your progress constantly throughout the level so you can come back and start again from where you left off. In other words, it's the perfect game for XBLA and PSN.

Be sure to pick up Crystal Dynamics’ first EVER download-only game, out on August 18 on XBLA and September 28 on PSN and PC, ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE!