The Lara Croft Collection - Review
In the 2010’s Lara Croft was going through an experimental phase, there was the mobile focused Lara Croft Go, the endless runner Lara Croft: Relic Run and in 2013 the reboot that turned the character from a Tomb Raiding expert, into a noob who was scared of everything and then would become a Tomb Raiding expert. In the early part of the decade however would release a pair of games that offered up something vastly different for the series, multiplayer, with Guardian of Light and Temple of Osiris.
The games were announced for Switch back in 2021 with developer Feral Interactive, who also brought GRID Autosport and Alien Isolation to the platform, taking on the duties from Crystal Dynamics. In the middle of production the owner of the series Square Enix, sold off the brand to Embracer, which seemingly paused the game, but hey its here now. So how does this collection of two of the most unique titles in the Tomb Raider series stack up?
While the games may provide a new perspective and gameplay mechanics, at their core they are still about exploring around old ruins and shooting a lot of things. The first game is Guardian of Light and has Lara and her new bestie Totec, attempt to stop the evil Xolotl from unleashing the power of the Mirror of Smoke and plunging the world into darkness. The second has Lara, Carter Bell and the Egyptian Goddess Isis and her son Horus, attempting to find the pieces of Osiris in order to stop Set from rising from the Duat and enslaving the world. Both games feature similar story beats, the problem is that story is not the strongest aspect of either titles and by that I mean that things are not really explained. Both games offer a few cutscenes, Osiris offers a few more, but the bulk of the story is told via voiceover and it can be easy to ignore or miss them. The stories are fun, but they are mostly a reason to just push forward in both games and not the reason to play them, that reason is the gameplay itself.
As both games feature an isometric viewpoint, there is some adjustment required by players, especially if you are coming from the more recent Tomb Raider series. The isometric viewpoint does allow you to view all the world at once, things are never hidden away behind walls that require a camera rotation to see. Lara has a few basic abilities in both games, her traditional dual pistols, a staff of mystical origins and an infinite supply of remote explosives. Both games do offer up the chance to equip more weapons, should you find them, but for the most part you can get by with the basics. There is no limit to the number of weapons that you can carry, there are however limits to the number of weapons you can equip, which does mean you can swap things out at any given time, with each gun having a perfect time to use them.
Of course, guns are only part of the game, the rest is connected to puzzles, some of them are simple, like standing on a switch and others are highly complex. If you play the game solo, be prepared to deal with a different series of puzzles than if you play with others, this was a design choice by the original developers and I am happy to see it still that way here. What this means is that if you replay the game with a mate after doing it solo, things will be slightly different. Some of the puzzles, when playing solo, are more about getting things into place and some are time based, meaning activating a switch and then getting the next action done before it resets. The games puzzles are not that complicated, thankfully and should be easy to solve for anyone, but there are sometimes when some locations become a little labyrinthian and that could be an issue, but they are rare.
Each of the games stages or tombs you enter, all come with challenges, which is great for those seeking to replay the game. These challenges can be as entertaining as trying to bomb a giant ball onto a skull statue, or as tricky as shooting all enemies on pillars while avoiding a giant lizard. For combat focused puzzles, finding the right weapon can make all the difference, so again replaying is advised. Where things struggle is that the game is usually about pushing forward all the time, the first game is worse for this, but the second has issues with it as well. Some puzzles are blended with combat encounters and trying to balance both can be a frustrating issue at times, but thankfully those are rare.
What is not rare are the performance issues that I encountered, including a number of hard crashes. While the original games were released 4 years apart, the design core was the same, where things changed was in the level of detail in the world, they look similar but Osiris is enhanced a lot more. I don’t know if that original design choice was just poorly thought out or if the Switch just can’t deal with some of the effects happening, but Osiris has moments where it struggles. Guardian is no better at times sadly, enemies will just get stuck on objects or the game buckles randomly. Don’t get me wrong those moments are not frequent, but when they happen you will notice them and sometimes they happen at the worse time. As I mentioned before, I did encounter a number of hard crashes, where the game errored and kicked me back to the Switch home screen. The first time it happened was literally as I completed the first level in the first game, which didn’t bode well for my remaining time with the game.
The performance and visuals were not the only things impacted as there were times when I would lose enemy audio or the music would get stuck on a loop. When you die and respawn during segments where battles are raging, losing the enemy audio is a big deal as it makes it harder to track where they are coming from and stampedes of spiders or scarabs is something you want to keep track of. The music looping was not as common as the loss of audio, but it did happen where the music wouldn’t change from the big fight to the non-fight music. Again this is an important audio cue, to help you understand that the danger has passed for the moment and for it to not stop, means the tension stays elevated.
If you have played either of the games before, then you will know what you are getting into here. Lara Croft is a character that has a few different genres under her belt and its great to reexperience perhaps her most defining one all over again. Both games coming with the DLC mean there is a lot more to enjoy and of course, if you play solo the game will be slightly different compared to when playing with a friend. Guardian of Light is the more technically stable game, but Temple of Osiris is the more gameplay rich. The Lara Croft Collection may not be the perfect way to experience these games, but it still provides a whole lot of fun and crazy moments the series used to be known for.
The Score
8.0
Review code provided by Feral Interactive
The Pros
+Two incredibly fun games, complete with all the extra content
+Playing solo is just as rewarding as playing with friends, though the latter can be more fun
The Cons
-Both games suffer from technical issues, which mar the experience
-The stories seem to feel incomplete at times, given events tend to happen without context
