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When it was first announced that a new Lara Croft game would be released for console and PC, the world just shrugged and said, “Yeah, it happens every year”.  However, eyes and heads turned when it was mentioned that the Lara Croft game would be coming to XBLA, and be the first of several new episodes of content for the lovely Lara Croft.  Some said it was a crazy gamble, and others said it would be a flop.  All I can say is that after several hours of playing, I have found the new Lara to be solid, fun filled action romp with a healthy heaping spoonful of puzzles to keep things fresh. 

The biggest change this time around for Lara is the camera perspective.  Gone is trapping Lara in a corner and then spinning the camera around to check her out.  Now you are put on a new isometric camera view that pulls us out from the action, and now allows for us to see more of the landscape, which is very valuable when it comes to solving the aforementioned puzzles.  But it is not just wider aspect of view that makes this a well designed choice – the game also seems to move a lot faster than in previous Tomb Raider/Lara Croft games.  Lara leaps, runs and dives like she has been implanted with a host of bionic limbs.  Again, the speed of the game was a refreshing change of pace from what I would normally expect from a Lara Croft adventure.

Lara cannot live on gunplay alone, because let’s face it – she never seems to find the tombs or dungeons that are completely unprotected with treasure lying right out on the floor.  Nope.  Instead it is all about puzzles, jumps, switches and more, and The Guardian of Light does not disappoint in this matter.  The game starts you with some mind numbingly easy puzzles, but slowly over time starts to ratchet up the difficulty, and several puzzles left me struggling for answers.  However, the hardest puzzles are normally left to challenge tombs, which are optional areas that normally have rare treasure, but need to be solved with the wits of Stephen Hawking. 

While Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light look to separate them from the traditional Tomb Raider game, they do keep a few little touches here and there that hearken back to the old school Lara Croft games.  Most notably with the ambient noises in the game, and the voice work which all use sound and voices from the last few Tomb Raider games.  Picking up treasures makes that nice little mysterious bling sound, while Lara seems to still be voiced by the same proper English lady that has taken up voice acting for the last few titles in the Tomb Raider series.

The lack of an online co-op component for the new XBLA version at launch is a huge disappointment, and a head scratcher to be certain.  Same couch co-op is nice, and it made for a great few hours with my son while we played, but I would have loved to have jumped into a game with my friends down the freeway from me, or even in another country.  Yes, the online co-op is scheduled to hit XBLA at the same time that the game finally releases on PC and PS3, but that just seems like an asinine decision to make in regards to getting a game on your system earlier than the others.  Totec is an interesting character, and he does offer a far different fighting style to Lara, but I just had more fun playing as Lara Croft over Totec.  Also, Totec’s voice acting sounds a little stilted at times.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light pack in a huge amount of game time, both with high energy action and well thought out and creatively designed puzzles.  For some, the price might rule their wallet, but they would be missing out on an extraordinary new chapter for Lara Croft.  After all of my time with this refreshing, new experience, I have to wonder if I want an old school Tomb Raider game.  Of course, if I didn’t get that, someone at Crystal Dynamics would have to show me out to back isometric Lara into a corner.  Some things never change.  Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light get a 4.5 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.
Check out Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and other XBLA reviews at Test Freaks