L'il Lara: Tomb Raider Goes Retro

The next Tomb Raider game won't be a Tomb Raider game. Rather, it's called simply Lara Croft and The Guardian Of Light, it's to be download only, and it looks to be an arcadesome, isometric action-platformer. Albeit one with lots of tomb-raiding. Wuh?

It's a break from the rather exacting puzzles and spiralling narratives of the core Tomb Raider series, in favour of man-killing en masse and high score-hunting. Very much a coin-op mentality, in other words. Stay those gasps of dismay, though, as the lack of the Tomb Raider moniker rather suggests this isn't the direction the series overall is heading in. It's just a fun little thing to enjoy in the downtime between the major games.

Oh, and it's also to be cheerily co-operative, with this weeny version of Lara clearing tombs of bad people with the able assitance of Mayan good egg Totec. She's got pistols and grappling hooks, he's got spears and a shield, and it sounds like they can combine these killing tools in interesting ways - Totec poking a spear into a wall for Lara to use as a ledge, for instance.

More details in this Gamespot preview. I'm quite taken with the idea of this - something simple and silly after this month of exacting strategy games appeals to my worn brain. It's due later this year, and so far seems to have been announced for PC-only. Can't imagine that'll last, but it's nice to feel briefly special.