9 Aug, 2010
Upcoming non-Tomb Raider, Lara Croft and the The Guardian of Light, will ship without it’s vital selling point next week. The First Lady of Gaming’s new downloadable title is an isometric platform adventure, featuring a second playable character, Totec. It also marks Lara’s first foray into the modern world of co-operative gameplay.
However, online capabilities detailed by developers Crystal Dynamics will now not be available from day of release. Only local co-op will be playable, while leaderboards and voice chat will also be locked out. Missing features will apparently be patched in to the timed-exclusive Xbox release as the game goes multi-format.
Gamespot spoke to Crystal Dynamics’ global brand director Karl Stewart about the news.
“Everybody’s disappointed, but we’re also excited. We’re making a stand to say we’re not going to have somebody download the game on August 18, play it, and feel like we came in a little under par on the online portion. It was a tough decision, but I think we made the right decision.”
Luckily, there’s some good news. Crystal Dynamics are planning not one, not two, but five downloadable content packs for The Guardian of Light. Three of the packs will contain new levels and puzzles, while the other two will be additional character packs featuring popular Eidos video game characters.
Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light is released on the Xbox Live Marketplace on August 18th, priced at 1200 Microsoft Points. A patch will be released activating online content on September 28th, the same day the game is released on the PlayStation Store and Steam.
So, which classic Eidos characters would you like to see in The Guardian of Light? I never had Hitman‘s ’47′ down as an acrobat but Legacy of Kain‘s Raziel could probably make the jump. Any other ideas? Leave your comments below!
Personally, I usually play most of my Co-op locally, but it seems wrong to release a game before it is finished (especially wen the missing pieces have been used to attract buyers).
A more honest approach would have been to delay release, but as it is already a digitally downloaded game, a patch fix isn’t as big of a deal.
Hey Alex!
I guess the real issue is the timed-exclusivity contract with Microsoft that’s already signed, sealed and delivered. The same thoughts had crossed my mind as well but this late in the day I don’t think a delay is a viable option. Still, it’s only a month! The more I see of TGoL the more I think it’ll actually be immensely fun.