Our Verdict
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light remains a highlight in the Tomb Raider library, with Feral Interactive’s mobile port featuring fluid controls and great performance, complementing a series of enjoyable levels.
The year is 2010, and Crystal Dynamics tries something a bit different with our beloved Tomb Raider, opting to create an arcade-inspired experience with multiplayer capabilities. Without a doubt, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a highlight in Tomb Raider’s history, shifting more than one million copies across its various platforms. Square Enix released the game on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, iOS, and Android, though the game would leave mobile storefronts in 2016.
However, now, nine years later, Feral Interactive is bringing Lara to the small screen once more in a fresh Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light port, and it thrills me to say that this is a solid rendition of the Tomb Raider game. I had concerns about how finicky Guardian of Light can be with the different methods (and levels) of traversal, thinking it might not translate well to touch controls, but those worries were unfounded.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light boasts fantastic level design, and nothing is lost in this port. The touch controls are incredibly responsive and fluid, and the UI isn’t as intrusive as I feared it would be. Instead, the left side of the screen is blank, the analog stick appearing directly under wherever you place your thumb, while the right-hand side features a series of buttons that are just big enough to tap with ease while not so large as to take over the screen.
Admittedly, it took me a bit of time to come to grips with jumping and dodging, as they require a tap and slide of the thumb, but after rummaging through the options, I quickly found the option to add additional buttons for those movements. I appreciate little things like that, as even though I eventually got the hang of it, it’s nice that there’s an option for those extra buttons, especially as they don’t take up too much room on the screen.
Performance-wise, I have no complaints about Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Having already been on mobile devices, I knew the game worked on the small screen to a degree at least, and Feral Interactive has ensured a smooth experience. I played the game on my iPhone 13 with no issues, so if you have one of the best gaming phones or a more recent smartphone, you can rest easy knowing that this new Tomb Raider game will run just fine.
One of the biggest draws to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is that it’s a multiplayer game, allowing you to work your way through with a friend, and with the number of enemies that can pop up, it sure is handy to have someone watching your back. However, with no one to play with, I didn’t get to test the multiplayer capabilities, but if the performance of the rest of the game is anything to go by, including the solo campaign, it should work just fine.
Having been out for 15 years, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light’s story is likely familiar to you if you’re a longtime fan of the archeologist, but I’ll avoid spoilers in case this is your first time experiencing the action game. The long and short of it is that Miss Croft allies with a Mayan warrior, Totec, to stop the evil schemes of Xolotl, the Aztec god of fire, lightning, and death.
Doing so is no easy task, as you need to fight through 14 levels (in the base game), featuring traversal with a splash of platforming, and use various weapons, artifacts, and relics to survive. The relics and artifacts are especially interesting, with many to collect, but you need to read what they do carefully, for while they might boost the efficiency of your weapons, you, in turn, may take more damage. Then you have the typical puzzles you expect to encounter in a Tomb Raider game.
The puzzles themselves can prove challenging, which is exactly what I want, though they did cause me the occasional issue because I’m an impatient bean who would rather get shot with arrows and force her way through than take her time to deal with any traps and assaults. Poor Lara, she probably hates me at this point.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an enigma in the franchise, but a very enjoyable one, and Feral Interactive does a great job of bringing it back to mobile. Coming in at $9.99 / £7.49, this arcade game is worth the price, especially when you consider that it comes with all of the DLC.
Should you decide this isn’t the adventure for you, our list of the best mobile games has some other fantastic suggestions.