I’m not afraid to admit that whispers of frustration escape my lips when spin off titles from popular franchises are announced out of the blue. Successful developers and award winning studios can release one of the greatest titles of the year, yet instead of everyone on the team cracking on with an eagerly anticipated sequel, they’ll announce that half those guys will be working on less impressive spin offs (purely an assumption of course). If that’s not bad enough, fans of said popular franchise will unite and aggressively weep when the incoming spin off is to be a much cheaper, multiplayer based spin off sequel, with cries of “What’s the point?!”, “Who cares?” and “Just make the new Tomb Raider already”… No prizes for guessing what franchise I’m referring to now. The astounding reboot of Miss Croft took the world by storm and critics hailed it as one of the most exciting and brutal games of 2013, so much so that every Tomb Raider fan, new and old, was on the edge of their seats awaiting the news of a follow up … so why go back to a dated character model that has nothing to do with the current story arc? That was the question I asked myself as I loaded Temple of Osiris for the first time, however 10 glorious hours later I’m angry at my past self as to why I ever questioned such a genuinely brilliant game’s release.
Lara Croft & the Temple of Osiris is the follow up to 2010s equally fantastic Guardian of the Light, which was released on PSN and Xbox Live, as well as a successful port to iOS. Steering away from the usual free camera movement and adventure game structure, Guardian of The Light adopted a non linear, arcade inspired puzzler that heavily played on cooperation and multiplayer. Much to most critics’ initial beliefs, Lara Croft and the Guardian of The Light was met with high praise and acclaim, clearly enough for Crystal Dynamics to consider a sequel in the future. Releasing now on PS4 and Xbox One, The Temple of Osiris follows scantily clad Lara Croft and rival Carter as they stumble upon a tomb (duh) and in it is the legendary Staff of Osiris, a most sought out treasure. Upon touching the Staff, which was set as a trap to keep the Egyptian Gods Isis and Horus trapped inside, Lara and Carter are ‘marked for death’ and they must now awaken Osiris and avenge his wife and son’s imprisonment by defeating the evil Set. Through various trials, puzzles and dungeons, the 2 explorers and 2 Gods Isis and Horus must retrieve all the pieces of the late Osiris’ body, in hopes of resurrecting him once more to put an end to Set’s reign of terror. Relying almost entirely on local and online co-op play, you are encouraged to work as a team, solve the many troublesome puzzles together and gradually save an ancient civilisation from destruction. Though encouraging civil and polite cooperation, players are also competing against each other in collecting gems and treasure, which is used for unlocking chests scattered throughout the game and buying special amulets (to incur a special ability) or rings (to boost your stats). So pack your satchel, load your pistols and get that shovel ready for what promises to be an action packed adventure, but does it undo the success of 2013’s incredible reboot?
Luckily I was able to experience the entire game with my better half, a chick who tells me that she doesn’t care for gaming, but wanted to skip our scheduled gym session as she “enjoys shooting the skeletons and crocodiles” … oh what a gal! Having played the whole campaign with a second player, I can’t imagine it being any fun playing it solo, as the fun comes from working side by side with another enthusiastic explorer; it’s also a touching moment for anyone to high five their partner after enduring a particular puzzle for 30 minutes just to unlock a new shotgun. There is a real sense of accomplishment finishing each and every tomb in this game when playing alongside a friend, something which I’ve not experienced since completing Dead Nation’s brutal ‘Road to Devastation’ DLC. After the first few hours however I must admit I was hit with a grim feeling of pessimism, that surely this game’s appeal dwindles after a few levels, that the tombs got less challenging and more boring and that perhaps the boss fights became too predictable, but I can assure you it is quite the opposite. Each tomb is centred on a particular theme, whether that is gas switches, spikes or mirror puzzles, every tomb plays entirely different to the one previously and you’ll find the next one you enter couldn’t be more contrasting to the one you’re currently roaming through. There may only be a dozen or so tombs to explore in game’s campaign but each of them is challenging, unique and hugely enjoyable, which I honestly didn’t expect to find coming into it. Boss fights on the other hand need to be anything but contrasting from one another, which sounds daft to say, but when you think about how successful Mario and Crash Bandicoot’s boss battles were, you can see some similarities here in Osiris. The best kind of boss battles are the ones that take place in a tiny battlefield, follow a simple predictable pattern and get more difficult during the course of the bout, and personally I found all of them following this perfect blueprint. In similar fashion to how the game can’t be much fun playing single player, it also becomes ever so difficult to play with all 4 characters and in some cases I struggled to keep track of what I was doing amongst the chaos. Whereas it’s awesome to be able to play with up to 3 other players locally or otherwise, particularly during these boss battles there’s a little too much going on and the action can be somewhat overwhelming. I enlisted the help from 2 additional strangers online to take down a tricky boss and instead of an invigorating display of power and strategy, I found myself dying constantly from ill placed bombs, looking at the wrong character and being left stranded when an enemy’s attacks and traps were in place. The game does however adapt to the number of players you’re with and you’ll find that a puzzle you tackled with 2 of you will be considerably different to how you tackle it with 4 of you, which is a pretty cool function and offers a genuine appeal of replay value.
You’ll be glad to hear that the game features rather a lot of content and challenging rewards without the need of purchasing a season pass. As well as the 11 compulsory tombs and 4 boss battles, scattered throughout the map there are 5 additional optional tombs, that when completed give all players an impressive new weapon and stat booster (health or ammo). Each tomb in the game is packed to the rafters with challenges and incentives that encourage it’s players to replay it over and over again to ensure you collect and do everything, whether it’s a permanent boost to your stats or a rare accessory, you are nicely forced to do better second time round as each challenge is … well challenging, which is actually not the case in most games. Unlocking a particular weapon from a tomb’s optional challenge can make the difference in how easy it is to take down a boss or to complete further tasks in the tombs you may have wimped out on. If all of this wasn’t enough, I was surprised to find a ‘post game’ option that opens up extra missions on the map which are only discoverable once you’ve tweaked the day cycle and weather. It’s safe to say for its low price there is a lot of fun to be had here, and even with almost 12 hours on the meter, there are still at least a dozen challenges I’ve failed to complete, and I am in no way peeved by this.
There’s really not a lot to say about the game’s visuals, the environments look great, the characters look decent enough and it’s not going to win awards any time soon. The title’s presentation is simple yet necessary, as realistically if you’re going for a more arcadey game, you don’t need to go full out graphics wise. I guess the same can be said for the game’s voice acting, which as nice and British as it is, is quite lacklustre and monotone, the only exception being the returning Keeley Hawes, who makes the usually monotone Lara Croft a tad sexy. The only snag I have with Temple of Osiris is that the character models are fairly lazily executed, and though they don’t look bad, I would have liked them more if at least their mouths moved along with the dialogue. During any dialogue, our heroes tend to stand still and usher their words through a closed mouth, which doesn’t take much attention away from the game but it’s supposed to be the next generation of gaming, it’s the least we expect. There’s a similar feel of disappointment from the enemy’s perspective too as even though there are a good variation between types of villains (big bag-like man, small skeleton, fire bug, alligator with a spear etc), but every one of these fire bugs or weapon wielding reptiles look exactly the same as every other one you’ve killed, and they will continue to do so until you stop playing.
Much to my own surprise, Lara Croft and The Temple of Osiris is yet another brilliant game delivered by a consistent and remarkable studio. It’s a game that encourages even the most antisocial cretin (me) to play with a friend and does well in showing me that I would have sucked if I had tried to tackle its perils on my own. Its jam packed with a large variation of difficult puzzles, collectibles and combat challenges, and its incentives to lure you back into a completed level to do it even better are genuinely rewarding. I personally found the game was perfect just co-opping with a second player as the boss fights got a little too crazy for me to keep up with, however the game cleverly rebuilds its puzzles to accommodate the amount of heroes playing, so you’ll enjoy raiding tombs with as many or as little travel companions. The voice acting is a little dull and the game’s visuals are nice and sharp, but nothing that’s going to make an impact in the gaming industry. For £20 (which nicely includes the season pass), Lara Croft and The Temple of Osiris is truly a hidden gem that takes an already critically acclaimed franchise and spin off, and delivers well above its expectations.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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