Lara Croft Go... reviewed!

A Lara Croft turn-based puzzle game? Count me in!

I have to start this review off by saying… if you think this is… just like “Hitman Go”, you’re sadly mistaken. Both of these franchises were given a turn-based puzzle game, but the delivery is different enough to notice; Square-Enix Montreal gets a well-deserved… thumbs up for both.

I think the way this game was delivered, was smart. You still get the Tomb Raider adventure, but it’s served up in a way that can be appreciated by strategic players in a turn-based way. You aren’t playing through a board game like set up mirrored off of Hitman Go; you maintain what Lara Croft is known to do… raid tombs in hopes of coming out in one piece.

The challenges in this game are presented as a bit more of a successful chain reaction equaling progression (to me). If you mess up something, you will have to go back in a lot of cases and start the area over again, and you don’t just kill enemies of certain areas, you have to be strategic and use them to your advantage.

You also need a good eye in this game, because there are hidden items throughout the various locations that collectively form treasures… so replay value comes into play via that part of the game alone. I think it was cool to have this seek and find element added to the mix, because that’s usually the purpose of raiding the tombs... but you aren't just obtaining a treasure from that point, you're also unlocking clothing like the bomber jacket. So... get to searching!

Visually, I think the game looks nice, and plays smoothly on mobile. The environments have a lot of depth, and they designed it to definitely immerse you as much as they could via this mobile adventure (which hits the mark). I like when Lara is climbing down a rope and you can see her though the holes in the foreground and it’s very fluid (which really caught my eye with this game). The sound quality can also be appreciated in Lara Croft Go, and I even found myself more often than not... playing it with a pair of headphones.

Could you imagine if this were real? Ahhh!

Price wise I’d probably say it should be a little less… than Hitman Go, but… at $4.99 it doesn’t feel like a rip off either (even if $3.99 would be more of a sweet spot). I still found myself getting in a good amount of play time, and would still recommend at this price.

Overall, Lara Croft Go is an enjoyable experience that gives fans of strategy games… a great game worth checking out for a change of pace... whether for the sake of puzzle, adventure, seek and find or all of the above.

Fun factor: 4
Visually: 5
Replay value: 4
Price: 5

"4.5 / 5 Cool Points"

Hitman Go... reviewed!

This game is a breath of fresh air.

If you’ve had the pleasure of playing this game… then you may have just sat there and looked at how clean and pretty it looks (yes… pretty).

Hitman Go, doesn’t require much elsewhere regarding graphics, so Square-Enix Montreal was able to really lay in on the visuals nicely for mobile.

Hitman Go is a turn-based puzzle game delivering the feel of the board games some of us would pull off the shelf from time to time back in the day. I enjoyed the time with friends and family, and those board games were a great stepping stone to what I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing here.

The game starts out simple enough… giving you the basic feel of moving Agent 47 from point to point, but as you progress through the maps of the various boards… the duh of the day is that the challenge greatly increases.

This is a game for fans of strategy, and since it’s available on mobile it allows for you to enjoy it on the… Go (pun intended). Your moves are challenged by guards, and even things like rocks that produce sound… requiring you to throw them in a strategic way that doesn’t result in you ending up with the short end of the stick. Some guards move, some stand watch, etc. making you think again and again before you make a move (almost like chess with advantages on some boards if you use them to your advantage). So if you’re up to the challenge of a game that was delivered right… don’t sleep on this one.

Replay value is also there, and believe me when I tell you it’s strong, because there are incentives to completing stages in various forms.

Some stages challenge you to:

•         Complete them with the lowest possible moves
•         Complete them without killing any enemies
•         Collect the Briefcase on the board before completing the level

And… there are also achievements, so you may find yourself coming back again and again to take on challenges that slipped through your hands. So whether you’re trying to get from start to finish without losing, trying to take out the boss character on a game board, complete challenges, or obtain achievements… you get more than enough value with this game at its price point (the music's pretty good too for this type of game).

Overall, Hitman Go is an experience i'd recommend for anyone... even if you aren't big on puzzle games, simply based on the feel of the game because it adds something good to your library (at least for me) via a genre that doesn't usually have this type of delivery. I give props to the puzzle genre though, because the innovation tends to be high... and this game was on target (just like this pun).

Fun factor: 4
Visually: 5
Replay value: 5
Price: 5

"4.75 / 5 Cool Points"

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