![]() There's also a lovely pulpiness to the locations, from the Tomb of the Torturer, which is stained with a lurid blood-red light and littered with endless boobytraps, to the Tomb of the Ferryman, a balmy span of lakes and rivers where you encounter a species of crocodile that has learned to walk upright and lob grenades. New tech grants this rocky landscape a glorious solidity, along with improved character models and some really flappy hair (although the Xbox One code I played had a smattering of minor bugs ranging from glitchy animations to the odd event that wouldn't trigger, requiring a checkpoint restart). More adventurers means more taxing puzzles, basically - and they also give proceedings a wonderful jolt of energising cruelty as you barge friends out of the way to grab the best loot.Įverything works almost as well as it did before. Co-op now allows four players to work together rather than two, and the levels even rearrange themselves in different ways depending on how many people are present. If you're partying up either locally or online, the game's arsenal is divided between players in interesting ways, Lara, or Carter (an archaeologist rival with little personality to speak of), getting control of a torch and the magnetic grapple hook, while Isis and Horus control the magical staff, along with the ability to summon an energy shield that can be used as a platform for allies. Equally, its ability to interact with very specific parts of the environment - raising platforms or slowing spinning cogs so that you can slip past without getting mangled - is a little too prescribed. The staff, by comparison, sizzles quite nicely as it knocks foes back or blasts a path through some neat mirror-based puzzles, but it's not as pleasingly tactile to use as the spear. It offered plenty of nasty feedback once lodged in an enemy's windpipe, and it livened up traversal if used to create makeshift ledges. Bit of a shame, this one: that spear was a classic. Challenge tombs return, as does a simple overworld.Įlsewhere, Totec's spear from Guardian is replaced with a staff that fires a laser beam. This is hardly Diablo, but it's better than it used to be. They'll reveal their secrets as long as you've collected enough gems to open them. Every tomb you raid now concludes by dropping you into a treasure room filled with crates and chests, too. Osiris' loot game is much better than Guardian's was, for example, with a Diablo-style character inventory screen that makes the differences between each perk-providing ring or amulet you pick out more immediately obvious. On top of that, the whole thing remains a breathless rush between one classic Tomb Raider idea and the next: a gentle puzzle (generally involving rolling boulders about or dodging spikes), a quick burst of combat, and then some light platforming and a crazy race over treacherous ground that's just itching to drop away beneath you. The moveset is largely unaltered, right down to the twin-stick controls for running and shooting, and a dodge roll to get out of trouble. The action's still spread across a series of isometric levels that come packed with arcadey challenges. The setting's switched to Egypt, with Lara dropped into a family feud between Isis and Horus (good) and Set (very bad), but the basic formula is unchanged. If you're coming here from Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, you should be right at home. Forget The Dark Knight treatment: Lara's bite-sized adventures are the equivalent of a Saturday morning cartoon, and they're the better for it. Med packs litter the sand and Keeley Hawes is doing her best Poppins impression in a soundbooth somewhere. In the land of download games, however, the classic Lara is still at it, brutalising wildlife, turning ancient ruins to dusty shrapnel, and maintaining an interest only in that which glitters and shines. Bosses fill the screen and often have a neat twist to them. A cut-scene throws in an aside explaining that this new, more human Croft used to work at the local boozer maybe in the sequel we'll see her shopping for home contents insurance. She bleeds as she scrambles over rocks, she cries about all the wolves she has to kill with her bow and arrow, and the best she can hope for at day's rest is the chance to suffer afresh tomorrow morning. ![]() In Crystal Dynamics' big budget Tomb Raider games, Lara is a victim of some serious Nolanisation. Maybe Osiris isn't the only one who finds himself fragmented these days. Now, see if you can find the rest of the body. What's your reward for completing this level? Well done: your reward is a foot. And look at this: several thousand years later, here's a new Lara Croft adventure in search of a handy structural conceit. This was bad news for Osiris, but it was good news for game designers. When the god Osiris was murdered by Set, his body was lopped into pieces and scattered across the land.
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