Mobile puzzle game Lara Croft GO will be coming out on August 27. It was first announced at E3, and it will be available for mobile phones and tablets.
The GO games, which include Lara Croft GO and Hitman GO, are published by Square Enix. They’re highly stylized puzzle games based on titanic M-rated franchises. Hitman GO was a critically appraised mobile game that played like a board game with assassination and stealth tactics.
Lara Croft GO will focus on puzzles and loses the board game aesthetic. Instead it takes on a clean, cel-shaded look, almost like Monument Valley (but less geometric). In her preview for GameSpot, Alexa Ray Correia describes environmental puzzles where Lara has to pick a path over dangerous terrain and trick dangerous creatures into misstepping.
Lara Croft GO is a separate story from the Tomb Raider reboot. The next game in that series is Rise of the Tomb Raider, which will come out for consoles later this year. These games have another spin-off series of isometric puzzle games, the latest of which was Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. This game had couch co-op and a T rating, making it a friendlier choice for families than the M-rated gorefest that was the (admittedly awesome) Tomb Raider reboot of 2013. Lara Croft GO will most definitely have more in common with Temple of Osiris and its predecessor, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.
To celebrate the release, Square Enix is partnering with the charity Child’s Play to hold a fanart contest. If you’re in the United States or Canada, you can submit Lara Croft GO fanart to info@square-enix-montreal.com until August 21. If you’re in the top 10, your art will be exhibited at PAX Prime in Seattle on August 28, during the official party for Lara Croft GO. Three chosen art pieces will be auctioned off, and the proceeds donated to Child’s Play, a charity which provides games and toys for hospitalized children.
You can learn more about the art contest here.
