Who could have guessed that Lara Croft would take the step over to smartphones with an endless runner? One of the gaming industry’s most famed female icons is now gracing the App Store. Known for being the star in games of high quality, the pressure on Lara in Lara Croft: Relic Run is high and has a great history to live up to. Will its action-pumping take on the genre be enough to make this another one in the line of great games starring this icon of a female action hero?
The Tomb Raider franchise once helped set the standard of explorative aspects of the action adventure genre. It has a long history filled with great titles starring one of the gaming world’s most well-known heroines, Lara Croft. The step over from raiding puzzling tombs to a simple three-lane endless runner might seem strange, and it might sound like an overwhelming task to capture the essence of a Tomb Raider game – the feel of exploring the ancient and unknown within its simple layout – but somehow Simutronics and Square Enix miraculously manages it with this remarkable feat.
Lara Croft: Relic Run plays mostly like any old endless runner on the market. Mostly. There are several creative touches Simutronics has imputed on this title to give it a uniqueness that separates it from the masses of titles in this genre, and to help redefine it from feeling like an average runner to being a real adventure worthy of the action heroine and archaeologist Lara Croft.
Only seconds into the game the first of many shooting sequences are delivered. Here, Lara has to kill the enemies and avoid getting hit by their projectiles – a nice spin on the genre. That is only the beginning, though. Later on, a lot of other neat features are presented, such as driving, climbing, and even boss battles.
All of this, along with great special effects that get the adrenaline pumping as if it was a full-blown action game, ensures that Relic run goes against all odds and lives up to the profile of the franchise, and takes its place as one of the better, if not the best, three-lane free-to-play runner on the market. The promise of more certainly makes this latest incarnation of the Tomb Raider franchise worth a look into for fans of the runner genre.
