How To Find The Right Tombs

We had a sort of argument over lunch about whether Tomb Raider was a good game or not.

This isn’t actually up for debate. 2013’s reboot of the francise was brilliant, the Internet loved it, and as we know, the Internet is the source of all correct opinion on our little blue-green Earth. Despite this, we had the argument because people got confused about what we were talking about.  Why were some of us confused?

Seems there’s a game coming out today/tomorrow, involving Lara, and tombs. You could be forgiven for thinking that this was a Tomb Raider game, but it’s actually a Lara Croft game.

Wait, what?

Here, let me break it down for you.

• The good games are all called “Tomb Raider” (or derivative now). You’ve got the excellent Tomb Raider from last year, re-released in Definitive Addition format. And you’ve got Rise of the Tomb Raider, coming out late next year. These are reboots of the traditional Tomb Raider francise, with a more believable heroine (and without the huge breasts – possibly these aspects are linked). I really, really like this francise now – and I’m pleased I have an Xbone to keep playing as Microsoft have paid the boatman and own it. It’s no Uncharted, but it’s still pretty shiny.
• The mediocre games (not terrible, but they’re built as arcade games more or less) are called “Lara Croft” or derivative. Last one was Lara Croft and the Guardians of Light; this new one (source of lunchtime arguments) is called Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. These come out on every platform that uses electricity.  You would not want to be buying this one, thinking it was the other one.

Another way of thinking about it is:

1. If it feels like you’re playing a Tomb Raider GTA or Skyrim with a nice open-world map, it’s the good one;
2. If it’s a top-down twin-stick shooter with fucking spiders, it’s the mediocre one.

I don’t mean to be down on the Lara Croft series, they’re actually surprisingly good for the price point. I played the last one for quite a few hours before being distracted, and keep meaning to go back to it – but it’s last gen graphics and it means turning on the 360, which happens less and less.