I am so sad. They’re sold out of codes. 
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It’s kind of a measley deal but it’s $9.77USD ($11.49CAD) at GreenManGaming. If you add the code SIZZLE15 at checkout you get an extra 15% off.
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I think I’ll just go with buying it upfront on Steam. That way if I am not having a good time, I can refund it since I’d only be saving like 50 cents with GMG.
EDIT: Glad I purchased it on Steam because I can’t seem to get the game to run. It immediately force closes itself after I hit Play. Might have to purchase it on one of the consoles. Tried searching solutions to get it to run but so far, no dice.
EDIT EDIT: I apparently own this game on Xbox already lmao. So I’ll be installing it on my Series X.
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After 30 minutes of troubleshooting, I finally managed to download my Xbox 360 profile to my Series X. Turns out you have to grab an app specific password from your account on the website. The universe really tried to prevent me from playing this game tonight but I have won!
Chapter 1 - Temple of Light
The Mirror of Smoke considered lost forever only to be discovered by Lara in a period of weeks is amusing. Xolotl’s name made me wish for an evil goth axolotl (if anyone wants to draw one, please do).
I’m curious how co-op multiplayer works because in single-player, Totec immediately hands his weapon to Lara and promptly disappears. Once Lara has his spear, her guns aren’t usable.
The top-down action gameplay has been fun. I really enjoy these types of games but rarely play them. I played on medium difficulty and breezed through most of the encounters. I only got hit a couple times so it was a fairly relaxing experience. It seems like there are a ton of collectables and challenge/secret objectives for each level. I’m not sure if I’ll replay the levels to 100% them or not but I can see others enjoying trying to beat their score and completion time.
I’m not particularly good at being descriptive about my experiences so hopefully this game club will help me improve that, haha. I’m also looking forward to seeing if my partner is up for playing co-op with me this weekend.
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Posting this here (copied from the main site) just in case there is anyone who wants to play this on Steam Deck. This is how I got it running without issues:
- Set Proton to Experimental
- Choose “Setup Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light” and change the resolution to 1280x720
- Enter the following in launch options to fix shader cache stuttering:
VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json:/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.i686.json %command%
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I just played through the first level and had no idea what kind of game this was going to be, I’ve only ever played the original game and then an hour of one of the newer one. Really enjoying my time with it so far though, I love the physics based stuff! Throwing spears and using the grapple hook is really intuitive and I love that it gives you elements of freedom with it. Also enjoying the top down twin stick style shooter feel, I don’t think I’ve played a mix of genres like this where it’s reminding me of twin stick shooting with lots of puzzle stuff and points / scores mixed in with it all too as well as the story to follow.
This was me venturing out after the first level, on edge waiting for a surprise around every corner lol
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First level and intro talk:
I thought the whole setup / voice over was really amusing, it made me laugh in a cheesy but fun kinda way. Xolotls presence kinda puts me on edge but Laras casual quips and comebacks when he talks about wearing her skin as a cape makes me think ‘yeah maybe I can mess this mf up!’. I like how quickly Totec is introduced, insults Lara by saying this isn’t a job for a woman, and then hands her his ancient weapons and runs off… I’m guessing the multiplayer lets the second person take control of Totec? I’ll have to try it out sometime!
I’m not sure if you’re locked to Totecs spear for a few minutes after he hands it to you, but I started pressing buttons to see if I could switch weapons and found that the D-pad let me switch back to Lara’s pistol and then any other weapons I found later on!
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You know, I never touched the D-pad once during my entire playthrough. I’ll have to mess around with it on the second level. I think I remember seeing that option when I was equipping an artifact and guess I forgot about it. Whoops! Maybe fighting baddies will be easier with the guns, haha.
If I don’t get distracted with IRL stuff, I’ll be running through at least the second level later today.
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Correct, co op player controls totec
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Chapter 2 - Temple Grounds
This level is much different than the previous one. It opens up into a big area with freedom of exploration, though one area across the river I wasn’t able to go back to once I left it. Maybe I just couldn’t find the path back.
I also died a lot here. The difficulty has been amped thanks to the Magic Missile dudes. They killed me as soon as I started the level.
I also learned how to use my guns which is good because there wasn’t any way I would’ve survived with a spear.
I’ll have to figure out how to add a video here to share a moment when I was getting bullied by the baddies.
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I installed the game and went through the first parts. It wasn’t too difficult but as I guessed it is not a game for me. I am constantly fighting with the perspective of it and don’t know which buttons to press to get her moving the right way - it happens in all these games unfortunately and I am not using a controller in a game where I need fast reactions, it gets only worse.
So it goes on the “not for me pile” and that’s also something.
I am curious to read about your adventures with Lara though.
I also installed Deadlight and so far I dig it. The jumping is difficult to do for me, but I can see me go through the game some more in short gaming sessions. I like the art and music. I realized that I have not played a side scrolling game since Limbo a long time ago or I might have forgotten other side scrolling games I did play? Maybe I should look into others too.
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I haven’t tried playing the game with keyboard, especially since I’m playing it on Xbox, but controller feels really good. I don’t think playing with keyboard is the ideal setup experience. Not to say playing with controller will suddenly change your mind, but it may make the aiming and moving easier.
Deadlight looked really fun! I hadn’t heard of it before until this thread. I added it to my Steam wishlist so even if we don’t get around to playing it here in the game club, I’ll be trying it out at some point.
If you’re looking for more side-scrolling games, you might like some of these:
- Inside (spiritual successor to Limbo)
- Kingdom: Two Crowns
- Little Nightmares
- Hoa
- Luna’s Fishing Garden
- Never Alone
- A Memoir Blue
- What Comes After
- Left on Read
- Yes Your Grace
- Gris
- Child of Light
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I followed the recommendation in Ureshi’s review and decided to play the Director’s cut version. Not sure I will see the end for the better ending though, I am not at all a fan of platformers, but it seems to overall be the best version.
I own Luna’s Fishing garden but have not checked it out yet, so that might be something for the near future. Thank you for making the list.
I would probably have tried longer if I did not have an already somewhat diffcult relationship with Lara on top of the difficulties with the keyboard. It has never been an interesting character for me. I played one of the open world games, can’t remember which and it was ok, I reached end credits, but the QTEs were abysmal and I am just not an FPS person and there were not enough interesting caves to explore, the one thing I liked. In top-down-isometric view even the exploration aspects do fall flat for me (I am not at all immersed, while there are a lot of turn-based isometric games where I am immersed in the setting), so it is also nothing that can keep me going here.
I can’t take Lara seriously as a character, but she’s not funny either. At least Indiana Jones went full comedy and that helped the idea of a person who is a tomb raider, kills people left and right, is also an archaeologist and preserves things, but also digs up dangerous artefacts knowing full well that they should stay where they are. Not to mention destroying thousands of years old buildings and anything that might be of interest to archaeologists. She is also always the one who went through a lot to discover the tomb when at the same time some dumb bullies also found it with no problems like it had a blinking sign “secret tomb here” on top of it. It is so nonsensical and unfortunately there is not enough humour to get me over it. Also Lara seems not to have a single weak spot, no real background story I know of. Indy gave himself the name of the family dog, hates snakes, has issues with his father, there is a story for the whip and there are the women. Lara is septic compared to him, at least by what I know of her. The one movie I saw was so bad and boring that I don’t want to remember it. 
Lara Croft Go is the big exception. I really liked it, like all the “GO” games, but even there I found it to be the worst of all of them, with Hitman GO being my favorite.
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I didn’t like it the first time I tried it way back when Sony gave it away as part of PS+ for PS3. I’m going to give it another chance now that many years have passed.
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I agree with many of your points, especially the act of suspending disbelief that something that has been lost for eternity is suddenly found quite easily, whether by Lara or the baddies. I also find it amusing that she has to know, due to the amount of research she’s done, that she shouldn’t be messing with these objects when every single time it causes strife and danger and loss of life.
I like the idea of exploring old mythological or historical locations of importance. I like the idea of solving mysteries and discovering the undiscoverable. But I wish the writing was better.
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I uploaded my clip to my old TikTok account. Not even sure if it was worth this effort but I thought it was funny.
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If youd like, once you finish the game i can tell you about the alternate storyline. I also bet you could find it on youtube
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I am exhausted today so I won’t be playing more tonight. I will try to play a level or two tomorrow.
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Chapter 3 was really good. Loved the theme and visuals, felt very different from the previous level.
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I am not looking forward to the spiders at all.
Also I had an unexpectedly busy weekend while also recovering from work exhaustion. Will try to play some today and tomorrow.
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