Hokey supernatural silliness is undeniably a key part of Tomb Raider's DNA. Just as nobody dare question the science in things like Indiana Jones or Big Trouble In Little China. Lara's games have a way of presenting impossible situations without feeling the need to justify or explain them. It's what allows the games to introduce dinosaurs without needing to go into how or why they have miraculously survived until now only to be shot in the face, or what lets magic and alchemy masquerade as real things without having to get bogged down in logic and other such boring stuff and nonsense. There's certainly an argument to be made though, that Lara's latest outing might take things a step or ten too far - it's one thing to allude to myths and legends to make artefacts and lore cooler than they actually are, but it’s quite another to bring them to life and offer two playable Ancient Egyptian deities who run around with machine guns, endlessly pushing blocks and balls into the correct places because videogames.
In case you failed to gather from that previous statement. Temple Of Osiris is a silly game. A verу silly game indeed, in fact - one where you'll fight giant beetle gods on rolling spheres and run away from rampaging bosses not because you're actually scared of them (it's hard to find a crocodile with a mane anything other than amusing, if we're honest) but simply because the screen won't stop moving and you need to keep up. But being silly is by no means a negative - it’s just not all that easy to work out what this surprise sequel actually is.
The template has changed little since Guardian Of Light, so the isometric viewpoint, twin-stick shooter mechanics and co-op focus will all be somewhat familiar to many players. The problems lies, however, in the fact that juggling so many different gameplay elements leaves the game feeling like a bit of a Lara-of-all-trades. Shooting is passable at best but never really manages to satisfy, platforming is weak for the same reason the Lego series (and its characters) fall down - depth perception is a nightmare and judging any jump is more luck and experience than skill - and puzzles are only as enjoyable as your current player count allows them to be.
Played solo, it’s actually pretty dull. Lara gets all the abilities she needs to waltz through the world with ease from the off, so there’s little thinking to do on your way to the credits. Invite a friend and things vastly improve, with obstacles that require both participants to work together to use both the practical and the magical in harmony in order to progress.
Even so, there are no real Portal 2 ‘Eureka!’ moments to be found and solutions are generally either pretty simple or somewhat contrived. But even when you do manage to figure them out, execution isn’t always as easy as you might hope. Physics-based tasks can be frustrating when objects don’t behave as they obviously should, something only exacerbated when timers come into play. This trial-and-error method of blasting things into holes feels more like a Nineties golf game than a modern videogame puzzle and there’s little in the way of accomplishment to take away from a boss battle where something just happened to fall into the right place at the right time.
We’re not entirely sure what the random loot drops really add to the game, either. Rings offer personal buffs while amulets convey team-wide benefits for an ill-explained period, and both can be grabbed from chests of varying quality throughout the game. Gems seem to be better saved for the more expensive ones, since the RNG here makes Destiny's Cryptarch seem positively generous in comparison. It’s far from difficult in the first place but a lucky drop can turn this into a cakewalk. And while you'll need a suite of top-notch gear to get through on harder difficulties, the fact that tuck is the only way to earn these items feels like just another nail in Skill’s coffin.
It'd be remiss to not acknowledge the ingenious way in which puzzles and layouts are altered based on the number of players, with obstacles that require complete team cooperation often the most fun to figure out and overcome. You’ll need to grind for gems anyway if you want anything half-decent out of the random loot chests, so at least this offers a degree of variety for when you do so - bring a friend or three to a level you previously played solo and you’ll have a different (and most likely better) experience as you fill your pockets with shiny things for another roll of the loot dice.
It’s often said that co-op makes any game better but in this case, co-op is the only way to glean any enjoyment from the game at all. Played alone, Temple Of Osiris struggles to evade box-ticking tedium and it’s only when confusion and banter come into play that it’s even worth considering. And even then, you’re going to want to be playing with headset-equipped allies (in lieu of any in-game visual communication method) to make sure that you're all on the same page. Where Guardian Of Light made a good case for playing with friends, its sequel positively demands it and if you aren’t planning on playing with friends, you're probably better off not playing at all.