Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris

Crystal Dynamics' flashy reveal trailer for Rise Of The Tomb Raider wowed E3 goers, but it wasn't the only presence Lara Croft had at the show. We got some hands-on time with Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, and walked away with five facts fans should know.

It's A Direct Sequel To Guardians Of The Light
Before Crystal Dynamics rebooted Lara Croft with last year's critically acclaimed Tomb Raider, the developer shook up the series with a smaller downloadable adventure, Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light. The isometric co-op title was well received thanks to its mix of gunplay and puzzles, as well as its focus on cooperative play. For The Temple Of Osiris, Crystal Dynamics is building on the formula with new puzzle mechanics, abilities, and equippable loot such as amulets and rings that can provide buffs to your character and teammates. One amulet we had granted fire damage to all of our attacks, which came in handy when fending off hordes of encroaching enemies.

The Game Sports An Egyptian Theme
As the name suggests, The Temple Of Osiris takes Lara Croft back to Egypt, a surprisingly underutilized setting in the series that's ripe for tomb raiding. The game also taps into Egyptian legends, so you can expect to see plenty of undead mummies, scarab beetles, and booby-trapped tombs. During one particularly tense escape sequence, we were chased by Ammit, a giant crocodile/lion/hippo demon from Egyptian lore. You'll also run into some revived Egyptian gods, but don't worry – they're on your side.

Four-Player Couch Co-op Is Included
The Temple Of Osiris is doubling the player count of Guardians Of Light, allowing four friends to team up for the entire adventure. Don't have three friends? That's sad – but you can play with random Internet folk as well, in any mix of local and online co-op. The game supports drop-in/drop-out play, and automatically scales puzzles to the player count, so everyone has something to do when implementing a solution.

Players Have New Powers
As previously mentioned, Lara is joined by up to three other characters on her adventure. One is a fellow archeologist named Carter Bell, who sports the same powers as her. The two tomb raiders have dual pistols to take down enemies and a grappling hook that they can use to scale walls, pull up other characters, or create a tightrope that others can hop on to cross chasms. The other two characters are Egyptian gods who have been mysteriously resurrected and are adamant about helping Lara. Their powerful staffs can shoot out beams of light, create a bubble shield that other players can hop on top of to reach higher ledges, and can raise and lower ledges marked with glowing hieroglyphs. The level we played mixed up the character powers well, requiring everyone to pitch in to navigate the environment. Every player can also lay down bombs

It's Next-Gen And Beautiful
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is being created exclusively for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and Crystal Dynamics is taking full advantage of the extra power that the new systems provide. The game looks great and features dynamic lighting and shadows (which complement Croft and Bell's torches), and there are plenty of on-screen enemies and destructible objects in the environment. The character models are highly detailed, and still impress even when viewed up close. Crystal Dynamics says the improved models allows them to zoom in on the characters during cutscenes to help convey the story. The narrative wasn't a huge driving force in The Guardian Of Light, but we'll take prettier cutscenes and character models regardless.