Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is quite the enjoyable spin-off. The game delivered an entertaining experience rife with fun puzzles and great co-op play. According to Creative Director Noah Hughes, however, that game will likely remain a one-off entry in Ms. Croft's brand of adventuring.
"No, Guardian was a great opportunity to explore things that we may not have done in the pillar franchise titles, but in that case it was co-op," explained Hughes. "There are no plans to do anything in that series but it was a great opportunity to do something a little bit outside of the core."
When asked about any ideas for co-op during the development of the latest Tomb Raider, the creative director stated that Crystal Dynamics is constantly looking into ways for players to engage in the action together. Ultimately, however, Tomb Raider was better suited toward a solo play direction.
"We're anxious to continue to play with ways that people could tomb raid together," said Hughes. "With Guardian of Light, the tone and the story supported side-by-side play in the campaign; this time around, it's less appropriate and we tried to do more of a complementary experience, hoping it would have a lot of replay ability and people can just jump in and have fun."
If you've played the Tomb Raider reboot, it's hard to imagine a competent co-op mode that wouldn't feel tacked on, so Crystal Dynamics' decision to keep that element out of the game is certainly justified. Still, it's kind of a bummer that we'll likely never get a new Guardian of Light game.
[OXM]
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