Lara Croft And The Temple Of Osiris Game Review. Crystal Dynamics announced Rise of the Tomb Raider with an explosive reveal trailer during Microsoft's E3 press conference, but it wasn't the only game at the show that Croft fans should be excited about. The developer is following up its 2010 downloadable hit Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light with another puzzle-filled co-op adventure, and this time up to four players can get in on the temple-looting action.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris takes players to Egypt, a surprisingly underused setting for gaming's leading archeologist. While investigating the titular temple with rival-explorer-turned-partner Carter Bell, the duo becomes marked for death and must resurrect Osiris to break the curse and defeat Set, the god of chaos. The mortal protagonists are accompanied by Horus and Isis, two resurrected gods who harbor their own vendettas against Set after being imprisoned in the temple for centuries.
Both character types sport unique abilities, which players must use to navigate the temple and solve myriad puzzles. Croft and Bell pack dual pistols for dealing with the temple's countless mummies, scarab beetles, and other foes. They also sport grappling hooks for scaling walls, pulling up partners, and creating makeshift tightropes that other players can walk across. Horus and Isis, on the other hand, wield mystical staffs that emit enemy-destroying beams of light. They can also shield themselves in a defensive bubble, which can be used by other players as a stepping-stone to reach higher legends. Finally, Horus and Isis can control objects in the environment marked with glowing hieroglyphs, which in the demo was used to raise and lower certain ledges. Like in Guardian of Light, all players are equipped with unlimited bombs, which can be used to kill enemies, destroy environmental objects, and help/grief your partners.
Puzzles automatically scale based on your player count, ensuring no one feels like a third (or fourth) wheel when it comes time to implement a solution during breaks in the action. Then again, most of the puzzles we encountered during our demo didn't offer much respite; enemies continued to swarm and attack us, requiring our team to split their efforts between defense and solving the tasks at hand. The challenge posed by enemies also scales dynamically, so hopefully Crystal Dynamics can keep everyone in the sweet spot regardless of how many players are involved.
The Temple of Osiris is being developed exclusively for new-gen systems, and as such looks gorgeous. The player models sport an impressive amount of detail and look great even in close-up shots, which Crystal Dynamics says will allow them to create better cutscenes. The developer also says the sequel doesn't have any load times, and features hundreds of gameplay-tweaking weapons, relics, and artifacts for players to fight over.
Those who prefer playing in the same room as their friends will be happy to know that The Temple of Osiris features four-player couch co-op support in addition to online play. The game can also accommodate any combination of the two, so players shouldn't have a problem getting a full crew together. That's great news, as our E3 demo proved raiding tombs is much more fun with friends.
Platform: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC
Style: 1 to 4-Player Action (4-Player Online)
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Release: TBA
