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Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
PC (Steam)
Sloppy Second
4/5 stars
“Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris” (“LCTO”) is the 2014 follow-up title to 2010’s “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light,” which took the character(s) and lore of the venerable ‘Tomb Raider’ franchise out of the big-budget “AAA” space and plopped them into a demastered, top-down/isometric environment that focuses more on puzzles than flashy graphics or setpieces. I didn’t know what to think of this demastered take on ‘Tomb Raider’ going in, as someone who quickly grew to despise the series on the PS1, but I am pleased to report that, while it suffers from some technical issues not present in its immediate predecessor, “LCTO” is a very enjoyable experience.
Presentation
“LCTO” is made in Unity. That should give away the fact that it’s not an over-the-top treat for the senses. With its isometric camera and small character models, it looks like a typical cRPG, though it is anything but. The visuals are good enough, though, and I never once found myself thinking that the game would have benefitted from an extra coat of shiny.
The audio is about on par with the visuals, with decently evocative Egyptian tunes and competent voiceacting from the cast of unknowns. I’m certainly glad that Crystal Dynamics had the guts to stick with unknowns instead of blowing a huge wad of the game’s budget on hiring Angelina Jolie or some other celebrity Lara Croft stand-in.
Technically, “LCTO” isn’t nearly as polished at “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.” It has major framerate issues, despite being a relatively simple game that should be able to run on ancient hardware. While we never experienced any overt crashes, I expected better performance from a sequel that is largely similar to the preceding game, which had no technical issues. “LCTO” does somewhat redeem itself, at least, by including native Xinput support in the PC version and seamlessly handling up to 4 Xbox controllers at once.
Story
“LCTO” isn’t the type of Cinematic game fans of ‘Uncharted’ or the rebooted ‘Tomb Raider’ franchises have come to expect. The story is fairly bare-bone and, quite frankly, kind of stupid.
Lara Croft, the formerly-buxom-but-now-modestly-proportioned raider of all things tomb-related is in a race against token Black man, Carter Bell, to acquire some artifact or other from an Egyptian tomb (trust me, archaeology hasn’t worked this way since the 1920s at the latest). In the process of desecrating this ancient burial ground, the duo accidentally releases the ancient god Set, who proceeds to raise an army of undead and reawakens a number of other ancient gods and monsters, which are now under his control. Having conquered Death itself, Set is determined to exert his influence upon the entire world.
Fortunately for Lara and Carter, the gods Isis and Horus are awakened alongside Set, though they have taken the forms of mortal humans instead of giant animal-headed deities. Isis and Horus point out that Lara and Carter have been marked by Set, and the four of them are the only ones who can reassemble the scattered body parts of the late god, Osiris, who will prove a match for Set and allow the rest of the group to seal Set back in the underworld where he belongs.
With that kind of premise, it is unsurprising that “LCTO” isn’t historically or mythologically accurate. It’s not quite the equivalent of an ‘Indiana Jones’ plot, which puts it more in line with the ‘90s B-rate TV show, “Relic Hunter.” The plot does, at least, push the action along nicely, as Lara, Carter, and the two revived Egyptian gods explore the plethora of tombs in the massive temple complex in which the story takes place, but there’s nothing particularly original or memorable about any of it. Clocking in at just under 10 hours, it’s the type of game to play for a weekend, then forget about.
Gameplay
The one way in which “LCTO” improves over its predecessor, “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light,” is the fact that it supports up to 4-player shared-screen or online coop (the previous game only supported 2 players). Everything else about the game is either largely the same or slightly worse.
The basic concept behind “LCTO” is navigating puzzle-filled environments from an isometric/top-down perspective while collecting gems and a handful of other pick-ups. Some pick-ups are simple one-time upgrades that increase Lara’s team’s Health or Ammo Capacity, while other pick-ups are tied to special achievement-like secondary goals within each tomb that unlock a special weapon or other upgrade for any character that achieves them. One of the huge flaws in “LCTO” is that in local coop games, only player one gets to keep their unique progress between play sessions. Any pickups that players 2-4 manage to acquire that player 1 doesn’t are simply lost the next time the game is loaded from the title screen.
“LCTO” also includes a loot system that allows players to spend the gems they collect while exploring tombs in order to open chests of varying size and cost throughout the game’s environments. These chests spit out a random piece of loot, such as a ring or amulet – or very rarely, a special weapon – that provides a number of passive stat changes, both positive and negative. Like any other pick-up, only player 1’s loot is retained across sessions. For the most part, I never found loot from chests to be particularly meaningful or useful.
The bulk of the gameplay in “LCTO” involves navigating puzzles using the tools the team has at their disposal. Lara and Carter both have explorer-themed tools, like a grappling hook, flares, and proximity mines, whereas Isis and Horus have magical-themed tools, like a staff beam, bubble shield, and… proximity mines. In single-player, the player can swap between characters to overcome obstacles, much like an isometric version of the SNES/PC classic, “The Lost Vikings,” but in coop, characters do their thing simultaneously, controlled by discreet players.
In general, the puzzles and traps are well designed and fun to figure-out. Combat encounters supplement the puzzle-solving by giving the team something to shoot at. Unfortunately, all of the gameplay in “LCTO” is hampered by very sloppy controls. The control layout is largely identical to the previous game, yet “LCTO” feels super laggy and generally unresponsive.
Overall
“Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris” is essentially “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light” with the possibility of 4-player coop instead of 2-player. Unfortunately, something went wrong with this sequel, and it has an overall lack of polish that can make it a chore to play at times, whether it’s the choppy framerate or the sloppy controls. It’s still definitely worth playing for Lara Croft fans, especially those who found their interest in the franchise rekindled by these isometric spin-offs.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
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