New Tomb Raider, single player fun in a co-op world

I remember having the first Tomb Raider game on the Playstation. I played it to death. It was one of those games you just kept chipping away at until you were done, no distractions. I played through Tomb Raider II as well, but after that sort of lost touch with the franchise until now.

Revisiting an old friend

I have no good reason as to why I gave up on Tomb Raider. If I had to think real had and come up with a reason, it was because it got a little repetitive from title to title. Tomb Raider had the action I love, it looked good, and played well. If nothing else, I just got burned out…or more realistically, a new franchise/game probably came out and I just moved on.

But this week I returned to Lara Croft’s world with the release of an XBL Arcade game, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. It was one of three titles during the Summer of Arcade I was looking forward to playing. Castlevania sucked it up first, leaving Monday Night Combat to take the top spot, but I think Lara Croft might win out this year.

Fighting mystic bad guys is what Lara does best

A lonely gamer’s best friend

Lara Croft was touted as co-op greatness but I haven’t yet played it in co-op, either locally or on-line. But I have attacked the single player campaign with gusto and it’s been a lot of fun. The game looks sharp, plays well, sounds good, and has a near perfect mix of run-n-gun action and classic Tomb Raider-style puzzles.

Then you toss in discovery power-ups that you can equip to improve your character and you have an obscene number of combinations to play with. You’ll find new guns, new artifacts, and new relics that you can all combine together (on-the-fly, I might add) to improve your situation.

Just about everything in this game is fun. The weapons are fun to use and switch, so you’re not using the same one for everything. The levels are well designed and a joy to explore. The satisfaction you get from discovering all the little pick-me-ups are great. And last but not least, there are a lot of optional objectives per stage that motivate you to take your time, or at least play through the level again later.

Lara has balls

It’s hard to argue a well balanced gamed

I’m probably half-way through the campaign now and there is very little to complain about. I’ve found myself being challenged without being frustrated. I’ve had to start a few levels over because I made a poor choice. I’ve died time and time again trying different tactics. And all of that on my own accord because it’s fun to try, not because the game dictates that I need to.

Given the $15 price tag on this puppy and that there are plans for DLC, this is definitely a gem in my arcade library…and that’s without even playing co-op! If there’s anything to nitpick about it’s that I didn’t even need this to be a Tomb Raider title. It could have been branded as any “no name” adventure/puzzle game and it would still be fun. Swap out Lara Croft for Indiana Jones and you don’t lose anything. But I’m not going to argue against it being a Tomb Raider title…it doesn’t hurt it, that’s for sure.

Thing is this is just a fun game, no matter what its called. It doesn’t have to rely on it’s name to sell. Even if you’re not a Tomb Raider fan (I don’t consider myself one) this game is worth your play time. Is it hard? No. Is it easy? No. It’s just fun.