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After the success that was last year's reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise, it didn't come as much of a surprise to anyone when a follow up game was officially announced at E3 2014 early this week. Just days before the events of E3 kicked off, information leaked that two new Tomb Raider domains had been registered. The first, Rise of the Tomb Raider, was for the expected follow up to last year's rebooted original story, but the second, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, is a sequel to a slightly lesser known adventure.

2010's Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was a spinoff of the primary Tomb Raider series that put the focus on cooperative gameplay and puzzle-solving. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix plan to return to the action and puzzle heavy spinoff series by producing Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The sequel has a lot to live up to considering how well-received its predecessor was, but the first glimpse of gameplay footage seems to suggest that the upcoming game is on the right track.

Temple of Osiris builds on the success of the previous game's co-op mode by raising support to four players. Gamers can take on the role of Lara, a raider named Carter Bell, or one of two Egyptian gods, Horus and Isis. Similar to the first game, the team of players will need to work together, using each character's unique abilities, to solve puzzles and move through rooms. The gameplay preview concentrates on the careful mix between precise physics-based puzzle solving and larger than life action. The new game also borrows from Guardians in that the difficulty and complexity of the puzzles scale depending on how many players are in the game.

Lara Croft Temple of Osiris Concept Art

Players help each other out in moving boulders, avoiding falls to their deaths, and crushing monsters by utilizing their varying functions in the group. The developers opted to not give each character a unique set of abilities, to avoid overly complicated puzzle solutions for larger groups. Although all of the playable characters are capable of taking down supernatural creeps with guns and remote mines, the raiders and gods do have two different strengths. Lara and Carter both carry grappling hooks for getting the team across large gaps and Horus and Isis both have ancient staffs full of magical potential.

The gameplay footage and many hands-on reports from E3 focus on the escape challenges in the game. Running away from giant falling items or monsters is a classic mechanic and from what we've heard, Temple of Osiris pulls off the old trope very well. We'll find out for sure when the Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is released 'soon' for PC, PS4, and Xbox One as download-only content. When asked for more specification on the release date, the team behind the game clarified "soon means soon."

From the looks of the gameplay footage, do you think the upcoming download-only game will live up to the reputation of Guardians of Light? Let us know in the comments.

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Follow Denny on Twitter @The_DFC.