In an app store full of endless runners, it’s quite difficult to keep up (pun intended) with every single copy of Temple Run out there. In an over-saturated market, does one really need yet another endless runner?
The quick answer to the question is: no.
Lara Croft: Relic Run follows the same basic formula of most runners, and relies heavily on your familiarity with the franchise to keep you hooked – think Pitfall and Sonic Dash and you pretty much have an idea of what Relic Run is about. The major difference between Relic Run and the latter (and all other runners) is Lara Croft herself, who has quite the following and large fanbase to draw gamers in.
But how do you translate a tomb-raiding, puzzle-solving game into a runner? Simply borrow the design elements from similar games and throw in popular action sequences from the franchise.
The controls and mechanics are immediately familiar: swipe left and right to change “lanes”, up and down to jump and slide. You also get a cool wall run, leaping on branches, pillars, and rope swinging to boot. You collect coins in the hopes of earning those expensive upgrades without paying micro-transactions. You die a lot. You buy gems or endure. You know the drill.
What is new to the gameplay are boss fights as well as gunplay dispersed throughout your run. You can buy different guns to fire on the enemies, and boss fights are cool and cruel and add to the challenge. Frustration and endurance are the name of the game.
The controls are solid, but I have noticed that when things get crazy, the game stutters for a bit and the screen doesn’t become as responsive to your swipes, often getting you killed. My main frustrations from the game were not from my lack of skill (and I don’t claim I am skilled in runners) but rather from the game losing responsiveness in the heat of the moment.
Since the game is free, there’s no harm in trying it out. It’s a well known and cool franchise. You see a variety of different sequences in slow-motion (which you can turn off once the cool factor wears off). You endure plenty of deaths and messages to upgrade and buy and invest money. And of course, you get to look at ugly menus and upgrade screens.
Download Links
[button color=”blue” target=”_blank | _self ” url=”https://itunes.apple.com/ae/app/lara-croft-relic-run/id960251959?mt=8″] App Store [/button] [button color=”green” target=”_blank | _self ” url=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareenix.relicrun&hl=en”] Google Play [/button] [button color=”purple” target=”_blank | _self ” url=”http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/lara-croft-relic-run/4bfa010c-2e5f-4da8-86fa-03de83fb1ba3″] Windows Phone [/button]
