Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an isometric, fixed camera 3rd person action game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix in 2010. The game story revolves around Lara and a 2,000 year old Mayan warrior named Totec stopping a vengeful Mayan spirit named Xolotl from using a magical artifact called the Mirror of Smoke to unleash his horde demons upon the world. It's up to Lara and Totec to pursue and stop him. Here are my thoughts on Lara croft and the Guardian of Light;



Pros



+ Fantastic graphics.



+ Fun and challenging puzzles.



+ Excellent co-op play.



+ Great soundtrack.



+ Optional tombs are always a welcome addition to solve and explore.



+ Non-linear gameplay.



Cons <Contains SPOILERS>



- Keyboard controls can be very awkward and troublesome, especially with regards to jumping, tumbling and moving objects.



- Optional tombs can only be solved in co-op.



- Camera can sometimes zoom out too far causing your characters to become almost miniscule on the screen. You can also accidentally drag the other play to their death by being too far apart on the screen.



- Some puzzles can trap players if they're done out of order or in an unorthodox way causing one player to be stuck. The only way to get around this is for both of the characters to die and restart at the last checkpoint.



- Totec's Spear of Light made the final boss fight much too easy.



- Uses Steam (May or may not be a Con to some)



- Gems are often very difficult to see and all items have a 1-2 second delay when picking them up. This constantly leaves you wondering, "Did I get the item or not?" which can sometimes get you killed if you go back for it just to make sure.



- Some exploration and item pickups are only available during fights which you lose access to if you finish the encounter. This is always annoying.



- Totec has very limited use of his traditional weapons and is instead forced to adopt the use of firearms. This feels out of place and could easily have been remedied with upgraded magical throwing axes, daggers and other items. In fact all of the artifact upgrades that Lara and Totec find throughout the game are traditional relics.



- Some graphical glitches, hitching and frame-rate issues. For example ceiling graphic glitches can cause viewing problems.



- Plenty of instant deaths. Expect to die a lot from jumping, falling and incineration.



Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was a fun game, especially as a co-op title but limitations really show in the single player mode. There's no AI partner to go with you and solving optional puzzles is not an option so you really start to feel like you missing half the fun of the game. Combine that with periodic bugs and glitches, awkward keyboard controls and plenty of instant deaths and you'll start to find you have a love hate relationship with Lara in this installment. Despite the frustrations there's quite a bit a replay value with all the weapons, costumes, relics and challenges to unlock. Even though Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is quite the departure from previous Tomb Raider titles all in all it's good at what it does.