Guardian of Light has proved to be one of my favourite titles of the year. After my initially glowing preview was met with snorts of disbelief, my faith was rewarded in the weeks following its full release into the digital domain as sceptics grasped the impossible had happened: Lara Croft was exciting again.
The delay of online co-op aside, Lara's latest was a breath of fresh air to both developer and audience as it introduced the archaeologist to the isometric shooter genre. Lara's weakest element was now packing as much punch as the revitalised explorative and deadly trap mechanics, and the three combined to give the franchise an adrenaline shot to the arm.
The game managed to offer two modes for the price of one as well. Two-player cooperative saw Lara and new pal Totec having to utilize each other's strength to rapidly solve and survive puzzles within tight time restraints or die trying. This new addition to the Raider universe wasn't at the expense of the classic experience; on solo runs LC:GOL recaptured the sense of adventure that Miss.Croft had originally swiped from Indiana Jones so successfully over a decade ago.
On the original review I landed Lara with a 9, and to be honest, there was some flirtation with the big 1-0 as well, so smitten was I with the game's epic trimmings. Relic upgrades granted you extra firepower and tossed in a light RPG element to gunplay, while the level design, had you ascending multi-leveled tombs and testing yourself in special puzzle rooms. The game's flow barely gave you a chance to breathe such was its ferocity of monster attacks or do-or-die death traps. That's not to mention the score attack system, which dangled multiple optional challenges in each level, offering a reason for multiple playthroughs.
So, you ask as your eyes flit right to the score and your eyebrow is raised, why has the handheld transfer deducted two points off the game's original score?
Well, all the points I've made about the XBLA/PSN versions, of why Guardian of Light was this year's greatest bite-sized treasure stand true here. The iDevice version is a near-perfect port of the big brother versions. However, there are differences and while few, degrade the game's overall quality and affect the experience considerably.
Concessions to the visual quality can be excused, although are slightly irksome given the game comes the week after Epic's Infinity Blade, which showed us what can be achieved on the handheld. Crystal Dynamics utilised Tomb Raider's Underworld engine in Guardian of Light to sublime effect. The port fails to capture that same level of detail, but you'd only notice if you were familiar with the original version.
Field of vision is the biggest problem, and is an issue on two counts, Firstly: the camera angle. It's at points necessary to see the entire layout of a tomb to work out the mechanics of a trap. For example, one of the first puzzle rooms you enter forces you to line up a shot on a switch which lies across a spike-ridden pit in order to open one gateway and close another. On the iPhone the camera doesn't pan back far enough to let you see either switch or Lara. It's only through remembering the tomb in the XBLA version that I even knew a collectable lay beyond the switch and made the trial and error worthwhile. I doubt newcomers would have the patience.
Second: button placement. It's always going to be a thorny issue with the iDevices, and it is a problem here. The developer has tried its best, mapping context-sensitive buttons above the right stick of the dual-stick control, but add that to the weapon menu along the bottom of the screen (most of which, to be fair, is hidden until a button tap is made) and you've simply got too much crowding the screen. It's discouraging when battling monsters that you have to self-consciously keep to left of them to avoid being blind-sided by them breaking from cover under either of your thumbs.
And why the context sensitive buttons couldn't also include levers or grapple points, rather than making them a separate icon which appears by the item in question when you near it is a mystery. When you're encountering death traps that need quick responses to survive, the added icons make them far too fiddly, requiring you to lift your finger and precisely tap mid-screen to make the grab.
In all, it buries unneeded irritations deep into an engrossing puzzle shooter and yanks it away from being a must buy title for your iPhone. Perhaps these issues are lessened with the larger screen granted by the iPad - if so we'll update the review if needed once we try out that version.
If you've the choice we'd stick with the console version. If not though, we'd say Lara is still a decent shooter, but you'll have to weigh your patience against the swiftness of your fingerwork on the touch screen to get the maximum amount of enjoyment out of it.