14 DAY TRIAL // The Tomb Raider franchise isn't what it once was, and the recent flop of Tomb Raider: Underworld showed that Lara Croft isn't such a money magnet anymore.
Still, its development studio, Crystal Dynamics, decided to take her into a whole new direction, and revealed Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, a small title boasting a lot of firsts for the attractive relic hunter.
As such, we now have a downloadable game, with co-op support, albeit just locally, for the moment, with a unique isometric point of view and many different features.
Are these changes welcome? Let's have a quick look.
At the beginning, at least in my case, you'll notice that the new Lara Croft game is extremely familiar to another famous isometric title, Diablo, and the fact that you search the map for secret caves, battle legions of enemies and try to collect as many things (loot) as possible, this game can seem as some sort of tomb raiding Diablo 2.5.
The story, at least what has transpired up until now, isn't exactly Oscar-worthy, but it does manage to support the gameplay, offering bad guys to kill, areas to explore and tombs to raid, which is exactly what we want from such a game.
You get special challenges at the start of each level, and the game reminds you of them when you're in areas that allow their completion.
This is a great thing, especially if you want to put your skills to the test, and if you're playing with a buddy locally, things are even more fun.
A lot of puzzles are present, and if you want to really put your mind to it, there are special challenge puzzles, that net you upgrades for health or ammo.
Keeping with the subject of weapons, you have a variety of things, ranging from Lara's trademark dual-wielding Berettas to a special golden spear with unlimited ammo, all of which can be used in combat and in special types of puzzles.
To put it bluntly, this isn't the Tomb Raider you once knew from back in the PlayStation 1 days, nor even from recent times, it's a whole new adventure for Lara, and, at least judging from the beginning, a pretty good one.