Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light -- All-in-One.

This entry is considerably late. It's a few months late as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was a game released as part of Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade 2010. I bought the game then and messed around with it for a bit. They announced right before the release that the co-op would be patched in a month later. A month later turned into two months later. Well, they patched it last week and Magus and I finally got around to playing the game but I haven't made the entry for it because I've been busy with Fable III. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square-Enix. The game is a drastic departure from the main Tomb Raider series, hence the new naming scheme that drops the Tomb Raider aspect. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an isometric platforming game that loses absolutely nothing in the transfer between genres. Everything you've come to expect from Tomb Raider is there. The combat has shifted to that of an arcade eight-way twin stick shooter. Outside of that you have the series staples of action, intricate platforming, and devious puzzles. The graphics are really impressive for a download. The game was created using the Tomb Raider: Underworld engine which allowed for great lighting and other effects normally associated with a higher budget production. Keeley Hawes does her usual exceptional job voicing the character of Lara. The music is pulled from the previous three Tomb Raider games, Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld so it sounds great if unoriginal. The game has some great puzzles, especially in co-op. Having to work together to figure it out and then actually pull it off proves to be really fun. The controls are great, once you adjust to them, and there is definately an adjustment period. I really enjoyed the game considerably. I hope it does well enough to continue on alongside the standard Tomb Raider series. I'm giving Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light an 8.5.