Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris: PS4 Review

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by: Square Enix

The Tomb Raider reboot last year was one of the best games to hit the PlayStation.

Gritty, and with a depth of character for an action heroine, it was an engrossing piece that swept you up in the world and gave you something to enjoy.

Equally enjoyable but for different more disposable reasons is Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, an isometric gamer that works better if you play with a group of people rather than solo.

Once again, you get to take hold of Lara in a new adventure that's fairly light in content but simple in execution. Picking up where 2010's Guardian of Light left off, this arcade style game (that's reminiscent of Gauntlet and Dead Nation) is a fairly stylistically simple piece that's not really about graphics, other than in its glorious cut scenes.

Lara's on a journey to the Egyptian pyramids when she inadvertently stirs Set, an Egyptian god of destruction and sets in motion a chain of events that could signal the end of the world. Along with fellow explorer and rival Carter Bell and a couple of gods, Horus and Isis, the group tries to revive Osiris to save the day.

Occasionally a top down view can make judging surroundings hard and climbing things difficult, but for the most part it fuels down some gaming which feels very much of an arcade game at its best. Collecting gems a la God Of War from urns and shooting hordes of enemies with your duel guns (as used by your right stick) the game's mechanics are breezy and easy to accommodate.

Artifacts, relics and weapons can all be collected and equipped; a staff can be used in something like Raiders of the Lost Ark style burning of other creatures and problems, but once in a while you'll have to employ the grey matter to help you as well as the fellow team-mates. While Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris plays fine as solo, it's really more suited to a co-op experience although that can lead to some screen frustrations if characters lag behind or you're desperate to push on.

Perfectly disposable, utterly fun, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is a game suited to the ADD Generation; if you want to invest hours within it, you'll be rewarded. But equally, if you just want to blitz through a few levels to kill some time, you'll also find your lack of patience deeply satiated.

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