If you've grown tired of wasting away the days at the office with various tower defense games, or the Borderlands de-make has grown a bit stale, then Square Enix has some good news for you.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is now free to play in your browser. Just make sure you're using Google Chrome (which you can download here) to run the game. Internet Explorer or Safari just won't cut it. While technically free, the game does have its share of ads, which can be disabled for $9.99.
Debuting as a downloadable only title from XBLA in 2010, it eventually made its way over to PlayStation 3 and PC, and an iOS version was later made available for all the usual i tech - iPod, iPad, etc.
A departure from the series' usual third person style, Guardian of Light is an isometric shooter. Lara "Indiana Jane" Croft, equipped with her usual dual pistols, teams with the spear chucking Mayan tribesman Totec. Both player can use their equipment to help their partner cross some of the environment's more perilous parts - Lara uses her grappling hook to cross gaps, and lets Totec walk across as a tightrope, while Totec can throw his spear into walls that Lara can step on to similarly cross gaps.
The game was planned as a departure from the main series with a spin-of storyline planned, but future plans were scrapped when developers decided to reboot the series yet again.
Upon release, the title received mostly favorable reviews, especially for a download only title. To date, it holds an average score of 85 out of 100 on Metacritic, and was listed at 14 on IGN's "Top 25 XBox Live Arcade Titles of All Time.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a great game for those who missed the title its first time out, as well as a good way to Tomb Raider fans to kill time on their PC's until the new reboot comes out next year.
You can play Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light in your browser here. Check the trailer below to get an idea of the game.
