Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light -- Facts and Features

[Ward Dragon]

List of Previews

List of Reviews





Release Details:

Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, and Steam for PC (Steam has a page for the game already up, and now so does Xbox.com)

Release Date:

• Xbox 360: August 18th
  
• Steam and PSN: September 28th (source)
• As of right now, online co-op is NOT included (will be added later in a patch)
  

Method of Delivery: Digital download (link for release details)

Price: $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points (source)

Download Size: Approximately 2 GB (source)

ESRB Rating: T for Teen (source)



General Game Information:

• Will be a separate game, not an add-on (link)
• Crystal is working on this game in addition to TR9 (link)
• It was intentional to leave "Tomb Raider" out of the title (link)
• The game is intended to be very new and different from the rest of the series (link)
• The game is not a tie-in to the movie (link)
• The game is not an internet mini-game (link)
• In-game there will be a new Lara model (link)
• The game will be approximately six hours long (link)

Gameplay Specifics:

Co-op:

• Will feature two playable characters, Lara and a Mayan warrior named Totec 1
• Can be played single-player or co-op, online or locally, and a second player can jump in "on the fly" 1
• In single-player mode, the player controls Lara with more powerful athletic abilities 3
• In single-player mode, the levels will change a bit and have more items to allow Lara to progress on her own 5
• Lara and Totec each have unique abilities and need to work together to get past obstacles 1
• Lara has her grapple for getting across large gaps and can assist Totec with jumps or he can use her grapple as a tightrope 1
• Totec can throw spears into walls which Lara can then climb on 1
• Totec can hold his shield up as a step for Lara to jump off of 1
• At the end of every level players get points based upon how many items they have each found and how many enemies they have each killed 2
• Points can be used to unlock weapons and other items 2
• There will be leaderboards tracking scores 4

Combat and Controls:

• Controls are meant to be simple and the combat fast-paced -- combat requires aiming at enemies and shooting until they are dead, then moving on to the next enemy 1
• Controls are similar to many other XBLA or PSN games with the left stick moving the character, the right stick aiming the weapons, and the trigger firing the weapons 3
  
• Lara has her dual pistols with infinite ammo 1
• Totec has infinite spears and can also pick up a gun (either a machine gun or a rifle depending upon the source) 2,3
• There will be infinite landmines that players can use against enemies or environmental obstacles 2
• Enemies will include undead tribesmen and giant salamanders, among others 1
• There will be hordes of enemies to fight at once, and points are gained for each enemy killed 1
• The game seems evenly split between combat and puzzles 2
• Players will have a limited time to revive each other if one falls in combat, else that character will be respawned with much lower health 2
• Each level will end with a boss fight of some sort which requires a mix of puzzle-solving and combat to win 4

Visual Style:

• The camera will be isometric with fixed angles providing a semi-top-down view 1
• Despite the arcade feeling of the game, the graphics are realistic and detailed 1
• Vegetation reacts to the characters and sways in the wind 1
• Camera angles give a sense of scale by showing off how far the platforming sequences extend 1
• The camera will pan out if the characters need to split up to solve a puzzle 2
• Uses the same engine as recent TR games, so expect the same level of detail including shadows and in-game physics 2
• Cutscenes are hand-drawn in a comic-book style 2

Locations:

• Will take place in a Central American jungle 1
• Includes tombs to explore in order to break up the fast-paced combat sections 1
• Tombs will contain puzzles and booby-traps that require both characters to get past 1
• The Spider Tomb has nonlinear level design and a map so players can orient themselves if necessary 2
• There exist optional "challenge tombs" with more difficult puzzles for players to solve in order to get bonus artifacts and points 2
• There will apparently be sixteen levels 4

Story:

• Story is done in a lighthearted Hollywood style 1
• Lara will team up with Totec, a Mayan tribesman, in order to fight an evil spirit named Xolotl that was released from the Mirror of Smoke and can control other spirits 2
• Story is set outside the series' main timeline and is independent of the other games 3
• More specific story details are described in the GameInformer article (I'm not sure how much of a spoiler it is so I have not written it all out here)
  

Sources:
1) this Gamespot article
2) this GameInformer article
3) this Kotaku article
4) this JeuxVideo article translated here
5) this IGN article


Important Links:

• Guardian of Light microsite on Tomb Raider Chronicles
• Official Website for Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
• Official Lara Croft Facebook page
• Official Crystal Dynamics Twitter
• Tomb Raider Chronicles Twitter
• Gamespot coverage of the game

[lara c. fan]

Nice collection of info, Jenni

Should set some people right

[ccroft2003]

Excellent idea. Maybe some people in here will now stop posting the same questions! Haha!

[Carbonek_0051]

Great job Jenni, I was going to make the thread but was being lazy.

[Lara Fan 4Life]

Thanks for posting! Can't wait to hear more about the game!

[Drone]

thanks WD

[thevman]

Can you say AoD DVD game??? It was like an arcade game, sequences would play and at the right moment you had to make choices of which animation to play... big whoop! Remember "family friendly TR game??"

[Love2Raid]

Great to see all the facts with their sources together in one place!

[larafan25]

you are awesome, thanks very much

[Ward Dragon]

You're welcome, everyone If there is any information that I missed, feel free to post it here along with the source and I will add it to the list Also let me know if the font/color is hard to read (I tried to pick something nice, but I don't know how it looks on other people's monitors )