Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for consoles and PC is a great, isometric action-adventure that successfully combines the exploration, the high-octane action sequences, and the puzzle elements of a solid�Tomb Raider title with the combat of a good dual-stick shooter. It's not a perfect game. I think the setup to larger tasks is often are redundant (go here; grab this; repeat) and the crowd control options are lacking, but overall it's a fun game with a satisfying level of depth, especially in its item and equipment systems which allow you to boost Lara's skills by doing optional tasks or finding items scattered throughout the world.

Surprisingly, Guardian of Light will soon be available on the iOS in North America, and it appears to be a faithful port in regards to mechanics and game world, which is why I've mentioned all this. But during my playthrough of this version, I've discovered that the things that don't come across so well are the visuals, sound, frame rate, and control. I know � bummer!

Let's parse this. A lot of textures in the game look terrible, while some needed sound effects simply aren't replicated. Take, for example, the tumbling bridge section right outside the Spider Temple. No crumbling sounds are emitted in the cut-scene that betrays the two muddy bridges' stability. And while that's bothersome, the fact that Lara can clip through the final bridge's geometry and fall to her doom is even worse. I don't even know what to chock that up to other than poor implementation.

This scene, despite all of its action and stupid missteps, manages to hold up well in regards to frame rate, which makes it all the more mystifying whenever frames start dropping during low-octane portions of the game.

You can deal with these things; I can deal with these things. But, I think the real deal-breaker is Guardian of Light's on-screen controls, which make shooting, jumping, rolling, and basic item navigation a nightmare. The game is playable, sure, but it's obvious the game's enemy balance wasn't tweaked, nor were its action sections, for an on-screen UI. Guardian of Light is, essentially, still a game built for users with a controller. That's a problem because the UI �too poorly spaced and and just not responsive enough to replicate the experience and demand of a controller.

The iOS is the first platform that Guardian of Light has successfully launched its fantastic online co-op component alongside, which has one player playing as Lara while the other handles a warrior named Totec. What makes this such a compelling addition is that the game changes in meaningful ways with two people; puzzles that demand interdependence and unique action scenarios are made available in this mode.

Sadly, this iOS version of the co-op appears a bit on the shoddy side. Between Eli and I, our game's crashed a total of five times while starting up a match and our invites to each other didn't work in the first place. We had to, hilariously, use random matchmaking to find each other. I shouldn't say this component is broken exactly , but it's obvious Square Enix needs to take a look at this component's implementation.

What kills me here is that there's a great game buried in�Guardian of Light iOS � a game that has satisfying combat, great loot systems and upgrade paths, a fun story, a good co-op component, and some stellar puzzles. But… these silly problems are killers. The good news is that all this stuff is fixable, particularly the ticky-tacky visuals, sound, and network stuff. The question is, will Square Enix address this stuff? I hope so. Guardian of Light is fantastic and I wish I could enjoy this version just as much as the others. We'll hold our official in-depth review until we see a patch since it's really hard to recommend this game as it is on launch.

App Store Links � Note: This game is currently available internationally, but won't be available in the US App Store until 11:00 PM Eastern.

• Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light, $6.99
• Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light HD, $9.99

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