Once we played with the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL handset, we also felt the need to play some games on it, such as the Lara Croft Relic Run title. The game is available for free in the Windows Store and it’s an endless runner, much with the vibe of Temple Run, but with a hotter protagonist.
The graphics actually look pretty nice and the game is obviously repetitive, but also surprisingly hard and unfair. There are plants placed totally random, covering your view, which becomes annoying when taking a corner with an ATV. You can also hit a rock, that was hidden behind a firm for absolutely no reason. Launched at the end of May, the game features excellent parkour sequences, motorcycle riding and sequences where you have running shootouts with biped reptiles.
You can swipe left, right or up to do the proper actions (jump, slide under and change lane, plus collect coins to unlock new weapons, equipment and obviously clothes. One can also find relics and upgrade equipment, trying to make a dent in this hugely long experience. There are cinematic moments here and there, like the random wall run, jump over a big obstacle or even a dinosaur fight.
Steps crack below you and everything is out to get you. This auto runner apparently also has Facebook integration and lets you spoil the other players’ fun by sending them curses that revert the screen, make the screen 8 bit or make it flicker for 30 seconds. If they die you get rewards. If they survive they’ll send you the curse. Varied gameplay environments are available, including the arctic, desert and jungle.
Vegetation looks nice and so do Lara’s parkour stunts, but in the end everything feels limited by resources, a high difficulty level and random obstacles. We give this game a 6.5 out of 10 and really hope that Lara will never go through this again…
