[Review] Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris

Long time no see, people! I have been busy and as such have not had time to write a review really, so here's a new one for you!

Crystal Dynamics is the developer of this game and Square Enix published the game. Crystal Dynamics is also the developer of the 2013 version of Tomb Raider, which was excellent, and I wish I could do a review for it. Maybe if I ever have the time, one day.

(There were actually people who refused to play the 2013 Tomb Raider game due to the character not having large breasts, which I find outrageous, because the game was great, and you should feel bad for having that opinion. But it's your opinion, so whatever, have fun in la-la land, you chumps.)

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is not what most people thought it was going to be, and it isn't what I thought it was going to be either. I nabbed the game and immediately started playing it, and wouldn't you know it, it was an isometric, almost top-down, slightly role-playing, rooty-tooty-point n' shooty. However, as with all "Tomb Raider" games, there were puzzles galore, and each one harder than the last... sort of. My point here is I was expecting another 2013 "Tomb Raider" when in fact, it was definitely far off the mark from that. But there is quite another mark it landed on, and that's fun factor.

I am not good with puzzles, at all, and had to look to Youtube and Google for help with some of them, but even then I figured out most of them on my own, so it's to say that the game isn't for people looking for hardcore puzzling like some Tomb Raider games have. However, still when I figured out the puzzles, even if I had to look them up, there was definitely a sense of achievement.

The game looks decent for the most part, and definitely does not skimp on any action whatsoever, or particles in the graphics for that matter. While recording, I had some framerate issues unfortunately which you'll see in the video at the end of the post.

So the story for the game basically entails Lara Croft discovering a tomb (of course, because loltombraider) that belongs to the Egyptian god, Osiris. However, they find out that Osiris was killed by Set, his brother, out of jealousy or something, even though Set got all the attention he friggin' wanted from ANYONE. So he trapped Osiris's body in a staff and Lara uses the staff throughout the game to solve many puzzles and the like. Also, upon discovering the staff with an archaeologist she was with at the time, who consequently touched the staff and cursed Lara and himself, they loosed Horus, son of Osiris, and Isis, who was Osiris's wife (is, I guess.). When they touched the staff, they also unleashed Set into the world, but he is trapped in the pyramid's tombs gathering his power, waiting for the right time to strike out into the world of man.

So as Lara Croft you basically have to go around and put Osiris back together, since Set carved up Osiris after killing him at some point in the distant past, and put all of his body parts into several conveniently located tombs in the area. These tombs are gathered around one center focal point, which is where you bring the body parts back to place on pedestals to assist Osiris in the fight against Set. That's pretty much the entire game, but the developers have made a right go of it and have a gem (pun intended, you'll see why in the next section) on their hands, in my opinion.

The RPG mechanics in the game are few and far in-between, but generally the main RPG aspect is the gear you can collect. Most weapons are handed to you on a silver platter extremely easily, but most of the gear you can get is easy to acquire and you can even run through the game just with the dual pistols/pistol and torch combo for some levels, it's fairly easy. There is also a mechanic in the game to break vases with gunfire, as the vases drop gems (rupees from Zelda anyone? Lol. Also, PUN CONNECTION!) and you gather them up and you get points for collecting them, but there is actually a counter for each gem that you collect. That counter goes towards a total, where at the end of each level, or even as you run around the main temple area, you can open chests that have pieces of gear inside. Gear consists of 2 wearable rings, an amulet, and 3 slots for weapons. I'd honestly recommend sticking with the dual pistols where they're at and changing the other two slots, but it's up to other people what they want to do. Chests range from 100 gems a chest, to 1,000 gems a chest. The 1,000 gem chests are at the end of each level besides the first level, and usually have a decent quality item inside, better than the other chests. I believe the scale goes 100, 250, 500, 1,000.

I believe that's all to say about the game, have some gameplay!