Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is a mere shadow of the Tomb Raider series. BUT! It is very much in the same vein as the dungeon crawler beauty Diablo. Of course, that comparison doesn’t mean that you get the same amount of depth to the gameplay, nor does it mean you get the incredibly complicated story and fighting system that comes with Diablo. Rather, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is just a simple, straightforward, top-down shooting game that has some leveling and equipment upgrade qualities to it ,but mostly Crystal Dynamics keeps the game clean, mean and fast.
That works well within the Lara Croft universe.
Gameplay in Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is pretty simple. Starting with controls, you move with your left stick, aim with your right stick and fire with R2. No matter what’s in your hands, that’s the way it works. You can switch between weapons using the directional pad and lay down bombs using the Y button (you can press the Y button again to detonate them). Besides jumping, and occasionally grappling with the R1 button, there really isn’t much beyond those controls. Again, as I stated above, that’s fine for what this game is trying to be — a quick action game that just wants you to keep going in a dungeon crawling-esque environment.
On the leveling side of things, you collect green ‘+’ icons scattered across the game to upgrade your health. There is a blue ammo icon scattered around as well that upgrades the amount of ammo you can use. The two categories are bars in the lower left side of the screen. This means you don’t actually have a numerical value representing your ammo, rather just a blue bar. Same with your health. That is easy and simple.
In terms of equipment leveling, you will have to work for upgrades to weapons, meaning you will have to go through certain catacomb adventures, which are usually short, to gain access to new weaponry. The first time through the game, I obtained an automatic rifle, sniper rifle, two uzis, a grenade launcher and a rocket launcher. I know there is more out there, but that’s what you should expect on the weapons side of things.
The actual equipment side is a bit more impressive, as you have rings, amulets, body armor and a couple of other categories to collect, mix and match to help Lara through her adventures. For example, there is a ring that allows for a bigger explosion from you bombs that you put down. There is a ring that allows you to change your bombs from fire-based explosions to ice-based explosions. Amulets can power you up and armor can help you get through certain situations a bit easier. All of this is categorized neatly and nicely and, more importantly, it is easy to understand and use.
So, in short, the leveling system is extraordinarily easy to use and understand, but adds some really good depth to an action game like this. Crystal Dynamics knew what they wanted to do and fully understood what Lara Croft’s world, even though it’s a bit mystical in this game, would need for her to survive situations. Nothing more, nothing less was needed to make this portion of the gameplay solid.
Before we shift into the enemies, let’s talk what makes Tomb Raider fans froth at the mouth — THE PUZZLES! The puzzles in Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris are actually kind of better than the recently released Tomb Raider for current generation consoles. If there was a difficult part of the game, the puzzles would certainly be that. For example, there is a puzzle where you have to take an ancient bomb through a series of canals and get it to an upper-tier location before it detonates. This level was incredibly irritating, as it took me about 9-10 tries to even find a pattern that seemed correct. What was neat about this, though, is that the game gives you enough flexibility to go off the beaten path and create your own solution that you think would work better than maybe the game’s solution. It was a little bit of freedom that strayed away from a linear flavor that made the puzzle more interesting than irritating.
The puzzle solving portion of the game is far and away better than Tomb Raider’s. Imagine that, TR fans.
What about the enemies? Well, the enemies do come in a wide variety. You have scarabs at the beginning of the adventure that eventually upgrade to crocodile beasts that eventually turn into some evil Egyptian monsters. There are a large variety of enemies that come at you, but nothing too insane when it comes to handling them in battle. Their variety and their A.I. is impressive, but nothing so impressive that they learn your moves or any nonsense like that. They have patterns, but they also have waves that keep the boredom out of the equation during fighting scenes. So, you might get the same enemy over and over again, but you never get too many enemies at once to make you feel exhausted or bored, or that prevent your progression in the game.
On the boss side of Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, they’re pretty easy, though terrifying nonetheless in certain situations. I never had any issues with taking down a boss during this game until I made it to the end. The final boss is a bitch and a half because of the amount of exterior enemies thrown at you, plus a certain goal you must achieve while trying to battle enemies and then actually battling the last fella. The ending is intense, but everything before that was not too difficult of an obstacle (by the way, I beat this by myself the first time through — multiplayer is much more entertaining, though easier).
Anyway, the gameplay portion of Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is very good, though nothing too special. Crystal Dynamics was right to keep the game moving fast, throw enough enemies at you to keep it interesting (but not too many), put in puzzles that actually tested your brain a bit, and initiate rewards to give you incentive to keep going and go exploring a little.
In the presentation category, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris certainly won’t be an example of current generation power, but there are some visually pretty moments to enjoy. I found the depth of field outside of the dungeons/catacombs to be visually appealing. The game gives you a sense of enormity with the field depth of the environment while you’re traveling from place to place. The environments are only partially seen because of the angle you’re playing on, but what you do see is pretty and detailed, though only slightly above the end of the last generation’s graphical construction. The weather effects in the game help separate the graphical generation gap, but not by much.
When you get inside the dungeons/catacombs all of that changes slightly. The girth of the environments when you’re in these places is pretty evident from the get-go — they are huge. You can see obstacles from far away and you can, at times, see enemies coming before you activate them. The shading and lighting are the most impressive parts of the environments that Lara explores. For example, occasionally in some of the puzzles you’ll have to take a flaming sphere from point A to point B. There are holes that are cut into the sphere and the light that reflects out of the sphere from the fire seems to stretch and move the way it should, if that object was real. Crystal Dynamics did a fantastic job with this portion of the game, which helped to make up for some of the last generation textures.
What’s more impressive than the visuals in Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is the audio. The music is something straight out of Indiana Jones or The Mummy (respectfully). It’s orchestrated very well, as are the sound effects in the game. The dialogue is actually quite good and keeps the story/quest of Lara Croft pushing forward. All in all, you are getting some good presentation from the audio and visual side of this game, though limited due the construction of the game itself.
Having said all of this, is the game fun? I played this game for three days straight, 3-4 hours a day. I beat the game in that timeframe and explored some places I hadn’t been while doing it. I shall continue to play this game once this review season is over, so, in short, it is a fun game and there is some incentive to keep going once you complete it. The price certainly is respectable as well, though this would be an absolute steal if they came down to $14.99. There’s enough in the initial release to warrant the dough, though.
