Simple 'roll the ball into that conveniently sized hole' puzzles won't delay you and your friends' rampage through levels, and neither will the game's floods of scarabs and skeletons. The early stages we played were fairly straightforward, and I get the sense that Crystal Dynamics doesn't want to leave you hanging around too long scratching your head. The game will also include community events, although we weren't told what form these might take. Or you can work through the dungeon as team. You can choose to let your friends fall down pits of spikes, you can collect all the stat-buffing rings and snatch up all of the score-boosting gems. Both players need to make it through rooms to progress, but there's nothing to stop you griefing your fellow players along the way. Just like in Guardian of Light there's a good balance of being both a co-operative experience and a competitive one.
When playing as a pair, previous grapple points had moved and we needed to rely on Isis' block power to reach areas that had been raised, then use our grapple hook to pull up the other player in return. On our own we could clamber around as Lara and activate switches ourselves with the staff. We ran through a room a couple of times with different numbers of characters. Entire rooms will alter to become puzzles requiring multiple characters to solve, if said characters are there.
Third and fourth players, as Carter and Horus, get other weaponry to choose from.īut it's not just your load-outs that will change. She does all this using her beam staff, which is instead awarded to Lara while playing by yourself. She's your default character if you want to play through the game by yourself.Īdd a second person and they'll control Isis, who can use her handy Egyptian magic to operate platforms and create a block of energy that other players can stand upon. On her own, Lara is armed with a torch, grapple hook, bombs and dual pistols. It means that up to four players can now team-up and play cooperatively, and the game has a neat way of rejigging itself to fit the number of players along for the ride. Joining you in this quest are, naturally, Osiris' wife Isis (also his sister - those naughty Egyptians!) and their son Horus (yep.). The story is your usual Tomb Raider fare - an argument among ancient gods 2000 years ago has somehow trapped Lara and fellow explorer Carter Bell inside the tomb of Osiris, whose remains have been scattered and somehow need to be found. Rather than having optional tombs, it looks like the entire game is set inside one.
Think health packs rather than health regeneration, lunatic Egyptian gods rather than salty human islanders, plus the unmistakable tones of Keeley Hawes, who returns to the franchise to voice Osiris' classic Croft. Not only does Temple of Osiris mirror much from that title - its twin-stick controls for moving and shooting plus an isometric camera - it is also a nostalgic return to the series' origins in general. But in the meantime, and for those wanting a more classic-feeling Tomb Raider title, there's Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, a sequel to 2010's successful platformer Guardian of Light. Rise of the Tomb Raider, a sequel to the reboot, is due next year. So, credit to developer Crystal Dynamics, you are now able to choose which Lara you prefer. I also despaired at the game's brief, "optional" tombs. That version of Lara Croft was a dinosaur battler, an explorer of Atlantis, a wielder of Thor's hammer. But I missed something of the older, more confident Lara - the one who had brushed off twice the crap Indiana Jones had faced, at half the age, while still maintaining a fearsomely British accent. The reboot did a decent job of placing you in the shoes of its rookie heroine, of guiding her through the brutal island of Yamatai and proving herself a capable survivor. But not everyone preferred the game's pared back approach. It was a smart, modern revamp for the slightly dated franchise from a developer keen to cast off a decade of baggage.
Last year's Tomb Raider reboot understandably earned itself plenty of fans.