Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is a sequel to the successful spin-off Guardian of Light from Crystal Dynamics, once again stepping away from the traditional solo adventures of the Tomb Raider series in favor of cooperative isometric action, this time supporting up to four players simultaneously instead of the original two from the first installment.

The story takes Lara Croft to Egypt, where, in an effort to prevent a catastrophe, she teams up with the god Horus and must also cooperate with his rival Set, as together they face the threat of the awakened god Osiris, imprisoned deep beneath the desert sand. Gameplay-wise, the game expands on its predecessor's tried-and-tested formula with a second pair of characters, allowing for more elaborate cooperative puzzles that require the combined use of four different abilities at once, from shooting through building platforms to manipulating beams of light and ancient mechanisms hidden within the temples. Besides cooperative play, the game also offers a solo mode with adjusted versions of the puzzles, while the core of the gameplay remains built on a combination of shooting, acrobatic jumping, and environmental puzzles set within ancient Egyptian temples and tombs full of traps.

Reviews rated the game positively, if somewhat more reservedly than the previous installment, praising the expanded cooperative options for four players and the well-designed puzzles, with criticism aimed at the fact that the overall concept no longer feels as fresh as it did on its first introduction. Temple of Osiris nonetheless confirmed that the cooperative isometric spin-off has a firm place among players, and it remains a popular choice for playing together in a larger group of friends. The ability to join an ongoing game with unknown teammates via the online mode also broadened the pool of potential players to those who didn't have three friends with the same console on hand in the same room, something the first installment was practically limited to only through same-screen play.