The beautiful thing is, this being a Lara Croft game, the bombs can’t just be weapons – they also solve puzzles, a🐼nd it won’t just be through blowing things up. Such is the inventiveness of the puzzles in general: they are paced well, dotted in between battles, and always present new ways to challen𓄧ge your thinking. They’re never terribly difficult, but they’re almost always fun to solve. They’re also different depending on whether you play solo or co-op. See, in co-op, Lara has a grappling hook, while Totec, her ancient guardian buddy, has spears and a shield. The puzzles are still quite good in solo, with Lara able to use the spears, but they’re definitely more interesting in co-op.

Totec can hoist Lara up on his shield to reach greater heights. He can do the same with his spears -by aiming them at walls, he can create rungs that Lara can jump to and balance on. He can’t climb his own spears because his weight breaks them, but Lara handles this problem with her grappling hook, serving as an anchor to pull him up or even as a tightrope for him to walk across. Let’s just say that the inventive ways the puzzles get you to coordinate with your partner to leap up spears, swing across chasms, and pull each other up never run out. It’s just so much fun helping ea💧ch other climb things, recalling childhood memories of helping friends scale fences and trees.

Above: Lara's tight-ropetrick, followed byTotec throwing spears into the wall, creates a kind of leapfrog dynamic to crossing obstacles