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Welcome to the first Lara Croft adventure that plays best with a band of buddies.
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In single-player mode, Temple of Osiris is a solidly executed, temple-based action-adventure offering with arcade, puzzle, and platform elements that could have used a dose of 2013 Tomb Raider creativity. But as a two-to-four person co-op title, it takes off, offering everything from enemies that grow in size and number to coordination of different abilities.
In this installment, the Egyptian god Osiris has been torn apart by the evil god Set, who imprisoned Osiris’ wife Isis and son Horus. Lara and rival treasure hunter Carter Bell inadvertently free the pair and are cursed. Isis and Horus guide Lara in reassembling the pieces of Osiris while defeating Set and his lieutenants. Players can choose any of the four characters (Lara, Isis, Horus, or Bell) in co-op mode.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris launches Dec. 9 for download on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. A $20 package from publisher Square Enix includes a season pass. I reviewed the Xbox One version.
Above: Beautiful even with guns blazing: The new Lara Croft.
What you’ll like
A believable badass
Crystal Dynamics has nailed the Lara look, assuming you’re willing to play a version without physics- and gravity-defying cleavage. The athletic Lara from 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot remains, though her stretched tank top is a nod to her more-voluptuous days.
Her movements are graceful, though not always perfectly under control, and her voiceover carries the right combination of refinement and sass. She’s pretty and just a touch rough-and-tumble.
This Lara is a believable, albeit extraordinary, character. I love the fact that the game makes nothing of her gender, despite her role as one of the very first (and still most-famous) female action heroes. She’s just a badass.
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Above: Isis and Horus take aim with staves, while Lara and Carter get busy with guns.
A buffet of death-delivery devices
Lara starts the game with her trademark dual pistols (which remain a solid choice throughout the game) and the staff of Osiris, which can interact with marked objects and also has a nifty laser-beam-style attack.
As you adventure, you’ll add a sizable repertoire of alternate firepower, each with its own distinct feel. The game faithfully reproduces the boom and reload of shotguns, the quick bursts of assault rifles, and the continuous rat-a-tat of submachine guns. None of the weapons are particularly powerful, but they all handle and perform surprisingly differently.
Above: In this level, one player is controlling platforms, another is killing bugs, and a third is dropping bombs to blow up the big skeleton.
Co-op to kill for (and with)
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Temple of Osiris supports both couch and online co-op for up to four players. Weapons won’t hurt your fellow players (a blessing when a misplaced staff laser can sweep a room), but bombs you explode will — in the same way they hurt your own character if you get too close.
The game handles co-op in an intelligent way. Enemy number and strength scales depending on how many people are in your party. If Lara would face off against a small pile of flaming scarabs and a giant armored skeleton when solo, she’ll face a horde of scarabs and several skeletons as part of a larger party.
Weapons and abilities are also split between party members. Usually, Lara carries several guns and the staff of Osiris with her when questing. In co-op, Lara will keep her guns, but another party member will get the staff, for example, leading to some fun coordination for the group as the staff wielder raises and lowers platforms or performs other actions in coordination with the team.
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Each character ends up with different abilities. Many items players equip affect only their own power. But amulets boost the group as a whole, leading to another fun bit of coordination as you attempt to stack the maximum amount of buffs on your party. Treasure isn’t split equally, especially as people die, so a friendly element of competition naturally sneaks in.
Above: This boss requires you to fight him while on a giant, rolling ball of doom.
What you won’t like
Running away for the win
Lara isn’t much of a brawler in Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. She has no melee moves, and her ranged weapons have a dead zone at point-blank range (for either enemies or jewel-containing pots), which can be irritating.
The game uses a free-aim system that can be actively frustrating. Pressing the trigger to fire does nothing until you aim using the right analog stick. The system allows you to fire in any direction while moving, though it slows your run speed considerably. It feels clunky.
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The system sometimes makes the right trigger seem like a superfluous button. You’re already having to move the right stick to aim, so why not have the stick also control the firing? Or why not allow firing whenever the trigger is down but continue to allow changing directions of fire by aiming?
Either way, the mechanic feels strange, especially if you’re used to titles that allow the use of the right stick to look. The camera angle is locked here in the game’s three-quarter overhead view.
Most weapons fire relatively weakly, and Lara is squishy and easy to kill. I ended up doing a ton of kiting: running enemies around and around an area while I paused to shoot or blow them up with bombs. This tactic greatly simplified the experience since a Lara on the move tends to be a Lara that stays alive.
Above: Here, Lara demonstrates a nifty wall run … that might take the average player a couple of attempts.
Inaccurate controls lead to a few too many landings on spikes
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Lara’s side objectives include collecting items (usually via some jumping/platforming tests) and getting rid of enemies in particular ways. You might have to lead hostiles into traps or put them in harm’s way with a boss for example (friendly fire is a thing for the bad guys).
The actions require precision in the controls, and Lara doesn’t always live up to that expectation. In particular, I found the lack of accuracy in jumps and rolls to be an issue, and the controls while rappelling up or down a wall — especially when you need to move from side to side — feel smushy and unresponsive.
You probably won’t notice too much as you run through a level, but if you’re trying for the fancy moves, you’ll likely get frustrated.
Above: An Egyptian temple scene, complete with dust, crumbling marble, and video game tropes.
Egyptian temple stereotypes swarm like scarabs
This Lara effort employs every temple-and-tomb trope in the book. Skeletons and scarabs attack. Spikes shoot up from the floor. Pots contain gems familiar in shape and size to anyone who’s ever played a Legend of Zelda adventure. From the circles on the ground at the characters’ feet to the jump, roll, and run of fast platforming sections, many of the elements in this title settle for refining everything that’s come before.
Don’t get me wrong. Nothing is particularly objectionable about Lara Croft’s challenges. Still, despite the twists of things like the weather or day/night (all of which you control) affecting enemies and traps, many of these levels feel a little to similar to each other and what you’ve already played before.
Above: This light-reflecting puzzle can be completed by two characters at once — a nice co-op touch.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for an old-school retro dungeon crawler, Lara’s latest adventure might scratch that itch, though Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is better at the classic smash and grab.
The light puzzles and strong couch and online co-op elements make this game a hoot to play with friends. It’s especially attractive for families or friends of different ages or skill levels who play together. (It’s rated Teen.)
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris gets solid points for execution and beauty, but it could have used an injection of creativity. Still, at $20, this arcade-style title offers great play for the money.
Single-player score: 75/100
Co-op score: 85/100
Lara Croft and The Temple of Osiris launches Dec. 9 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the PC. Square Enix provided GamesBeat with a download code for this review.