So, I got this game for free when it was on Games with Gold earlier this month. I actually already have on my Itunes account, probably bought it for the Ipad Mini I used to have, but I had never played it until now. I didn’t know what to expect, as I haven’t really played many Tomb Raider games. I’d only played an hour or two of the 2013 Xbox version. This game was so much different than that one in the end, so it didn’t even really matter. You can come into this game without any real experience with Tomb Raider games, and be perfectly fine.
So I was playing this in multiplayer mode. In multiplayer, one person plays as Lara while the other plays as Totec, an ancient Mayan warrior. Lara has a grappling hook that she can use to swing across gaps or climb up a wall. If she has a rope going to another area and she can’t swing over there, Totec can walk on the rope to the other side. Totec has spears that can be embedded in walls. He can’t actually walk on his spears though, as he is too heavy, so Lara must jump on the makeshift “stairs” to get to a higher area. Then they each have weapons, and there are upgrade skills that can be applied to each character. Either way, it is a pretty clean system for a multiplayer puzzle game.
When I got started, I thought that the puzzles were laughably easy. Then we got to this fire thing, and I thought “Oh, things might not be so simple.” We had a few fights with monsters here and there and got through around 2 challenge rooms in a few minutes without being too stumped. Then, we got to the actual difficult part of the game. Walls were moving and trying to push you off like the coin machine at an arcade, enemies were popping up out of nowhere and actually doing damage, and there were no more super-linear corridors. You could explore to find and unlock powerups for your character, you weren’t locked in going directly from one place to the next. You even had choices of where you would explore, which was pretty neat. If I had played this on mobile, I probably would have thought it was the best game ever or something. Rarely do they have games on mobile with this much detail, I am happily surprised! Playing on the Xbox that has so many different games on it probably brings down the excitement level a bit, but if I had to choose between Flappy Bird and this on mobile, I would play this in a heartbeat.
I haven’t completed this game yet, but I am hoping to soon. I must be about an hour in, and there are only about 6-8 hours of gameplay. This seems rather short, but since it is multiplayer, I could imagine this being perfect for siblings to sit down and play. It is entertaining for when you are playing it, but you can put it down and come back to it later without completely forgetting what you are doing. Or you can have an ultimate game weekend or something and beat the game all in one go. Tons of fun to be had here! I can’t wait to see how much more difficult the puzzles get as I progress through the game.
I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a fun and easy-to-learn puzzle game for the 360, PS3, smartphone, or computer!
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 controllers