Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - On This Day

Before rebooting the Tomb Raider series, Crystal Dynamics explored some new forms of adventure for Miss Lara Croft. 12 years ago today they released a game that didn't have Tomb Raider in the name but was one of the more fun tomb raiding adventures.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was a game that looked at the action "from the air". It could be played independently, but also cooperatively with another player. The titular Lara Croft is joined by Totec – an ancient Mayan warrior who has awakened to stop the evil spirit Xolotl. Lara and Totec collaborated by combining equipment: Totel's shield, Lara's hook, etc.

The action of the game was an arcade and somewhat similar to older Tomb Raider titles in that the characters had unlimited ammo for certain weapons. Cooperative play was more challenging because the puzzles were solved differently, i.e. in solo mode Lara and Totec could be chosen alternately, and not both characters were present in the level at the same time.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light were initially launched on Xbox 360, and a month later on PC and PlayStation 3. It was well received by gamers and sold more than a million copies. Three years later, it received a sequel, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, which increased the number of players to four. Today, this game is easiest to play on the PC platform, and shortly, we will see it on the Nintendo Switch hybrid console.