Lara Croft GO Reviews

  • AtarunAtarun425,964
    05 Mar 2017
    3 0 0
    Description

    Lara Croft GO, much like Hitman GO, is a reinterpretation of the Tomb Raider game series as a puzzle game. In this turn-based stylized cell-shaded isometric 3D platform game, you'll have to think, try and retry to find the right path. Enemies move and traps activate only when you move and there is no time limit here, so you can take your time and you can retry indefinitely (or bail and use the hint system).

    Pros

    + Cute art style that looks just as nice on PC as it does on tablets
    + Mechanics so self-explanatory there is no tutorial and very little text (and no actual need for either)
    + Hint system alleviates any potential frustration
    + Relaxing atmosphere throughout

    Cons

    - Die and retry is mandatory (though as painless as possible)
    - Awkward mouse controls (sliding in the desired direction is clearly meant for touchscreens, I would advise using a gamepad instead)

    Verdict

    Lara Croft had already embarked on a journey through puzzle-adventure games with the Guardian of Light and Temple of Osiris. Here the logic is taken to the extreme by stripping away all the action... and yet somehow part of the feel of the franchise remains. At times, this game reminded me of the first Tomb Raider more than the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise. To me, it felt more like an answer to the question "What if the first Tomb Raider had actually been a puzzle game?" than to "What other genre can we put Lara Croft into?"

    If you're a fan of Lara Croft or if you enjoy relaxing brain teasers, you'd do yourself a disservice to avoid this game.
    However if all you've ever appreciated in Tomb Raider games is their action, if you despise their puzzle and platform mechanics, stay away.
    4.0
  • Titanium DragonTitanium Dragon154,831
    09 May 2018
    1 0 0
    Lara Croft GO is a very simple puzzle game which was clearly designed for mobile phones. Using a click and swipe interface, it is entirely concerned with navigating Lara Croft through a series of simple-seeming but at times surprisingly complicated puzzles.

    The game is very, very limited mechanically; your commands are to move Lara around an isometric square grid, to have her pull a lever she’s standing on the same square as, and to push or pull a movable column she’s standing next to.

    The overall puzzle mechanics are also quite simple – there are snakes which stand still and kill Lara if she steps in front of them (but which can be killed from the side/back), there are spiders and sawblades that move back and forth on fixed tracks (the only difference being that sawblades run in rivets, which can turn, while spiders will keep walking until they hit a wall and turn around), and salamanders, which will start pursuing Lara if she walks two steps in front of them, but which will immediately kill her if she moves directly in front of them, just like a snake; while in pursuit, they will exactly mirror Lara’s motions, and if the path ahead of them becomes impassable, they will stop where they are.

    These are combined with the level mechanics of buttons you, enemies, or pillars can sit on to active, which generally move parts of the level around, but which will sometimes instead shoot deadly darts out of walls (which will kill Lara or any creature) or will push a section of wall out to block progress and knock anything in front of it away (including over the side, which can be fatal). These are also used to activate boulder traps, where giant boulders roll along a straight line until they smash into a column or wall or fall off the map.

    Finally, there are sections of breakable ground which crack the first time you step on them and form a hole the second time, plunging Lara (or a pursuing salamander) to her death (or, if on a climbable wall instead of level ground, send her falling to the bottom of the wall), but which can also be filled in with columns or boulders.

    All of these things combine together in a number of fairly ingenious ways; the levels start out simple, but do a good job of teaching the player how to play the game and deal with and exploit the various level mechanics. The game gradually introduces the mechanics over time, growing ever more complicated as the game goes on, and requiring the player to figure out how to use them all together by the end.

    This isn’t a bad game – in fact, it is a fairly decent puzzle game that I played while doing other things like chatting with people (my playtime is inflated – it only took me 5-6 hours of actual playtime to beat).

    However, at the same time, it is hard for me to *recommend* this game, especially on the PC platform. It was really a time-waster, not something you’d really sink your teeth into. There’s no story to speak of, and it is hard to really say that I enjoyed the game so much as simply thought it was decent.

    Overall, this is an okay puzzle game, and you can certainly do worse – but at the same time, you can do better, too. After beating the game, I was left thinking "Well, that was a thing," and I doubt I'll ever really think of it again.
    2.5
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