Zadzooks: Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris review

A famed female archeologist gets help from a few deities to stop the Egyptian god of war in the third-person blockbuster Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics, Rated Teen, reviewed with Xbox One, $19.99).

Not to be confused with the gritty as well as pixel-poppingly gorgeous reboot from 2013, Tomb Raider, this top-down shooter/puzzler offers a follow up to the much more cartoony but well-received 2010 game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

Specifically, a player looks over an environment while controlling a traditionally garbed Lara looking more like she did in her early PlayStation days (wearing a pony tail, blue tank top, shorts and holsters strapped to her thighs). She runs, guns, collects, climbs, grapples, solves and escapes from some monstrous foes.

The story finds Lara joining forces with rival raider Carter Bell after he sets off an unwelcomed surprise while moving the mythic Staff of Osiris. The dope accidentally frees the evil Egyptian god Set. Now Lara and Carter, as well as the also-freed gods Isis and Horus, must resurrect Set’s brother Osiris to stop his sibling from enslaving humanity.

Lara will often face an “Indiana Jones” gantlet of dangerous moments on her journey including large rolling boulders, crumbling platforms, spiked rollers, deadly darts and pits of fire as she and her party explore tombs to find pieces of an Osiris statue.

Often, while walking through tombs, she uses guns (including her famed dual pistols and even a rocket launcher), bombs, the magical Staff of Osiris and various collected amulets and rings to help terminate such pests as reanimated skeletons, flaming scarabs, bipedal crocodiles, the Underworld undead and some multistory mythological beasts.

She’ll encounter dynamic weather shifts, sandy terrain, pyramids, smoking precipices, gushing waterways and plenty of crumbling statues, a bevy of delightful location designs look plucked from an active “Mummy” movie set.

The game even has some shocks as witnessed when looking over a cliff only to be greeted by a massive demigod looking to ingest Lara.

When not surviving the environmental obstacle courses, a player will find a steady stream of puzzles, another one of the early Tomb Raider game’s main staples.

It could be pointing mirrors at a right angle to shoot a beam of light and trigger a tomb opening, maneuvering exploding time bombs (disguised as large metallic orbs) to blow open a door or hopping on the correct sequence of pressure-sensitive plates to reveal a passageway. They all take some thought, and success is always satisfying.

However, the Temple of Osiris’ main hook is the option for up to four players (either online or in the same room) to dive into the mix to enjoy maximum benefits of the action.

One controls Lara and the others can choose from Carter, Isis or Horus. Each has special powers such as the gods always wielding the staff and using an energy shield for others to climb on.

The others now work with the heroine in puzzle-solving (the more players, the more complex the conundrums), smiting more monsters and collecting stuff with special treasure chests available for especially proficient, gem-stealing teams.

I’ll bow to the clever developers when watching one player shoot a grapple line and another can tiptoe across a chasm like a tight rope-walker. That’s just brilliant.

Although, it was fun to have multiple friends in a room with me to play, it was a bit confusing onscreen, and friendly arguments ensued. Anyway, I always considered Lara a bit of a loner, so I equally appreciated the adventure all by myself.

Also, I understand this is an action-packed game, but the rampant looting and destruction of some of these supposedly ancient, historically significant areas made me wince.

Lara constantly pilfers gems and artifacts, and she can blow up enough ancient pillars and sacred grounds that I thought I was a watching a Taliban culture-reconditioning seminar.

Still, I really enjoyed Lara’s harrowing, arcade-style journey as she conquered the Temple of Osiris. It’s filled with about six hours of pop-pulp action along with enough nostalgic glints to take me back to the days when video games were a lot less dramatic.