When comparing Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris vs Overcooked 2, the Slant community recommends Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris for most people. In the question“What are the best couch/local co-op games for PS4?” Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is ranked 15th while Overcooked 2 is ranked 28th. The most important reason people chose Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is:
Sometimes the boss battles incorporate elements of the puzzles from the level you just played, and build on them a bit. This makes the boss battles more strategic. Instead of just pumping lead into them and mashing buttons, you have to strategically alter the environment to take them down. For example, there is a snake boss that requires you to arrange mirrors and shoot lasers to expose the weak areas of the boss. Your friend may be arranging the mirrors while you're shooting the lasers. Discovering the trick to defeating each boss is highly rewarding as each encounter incorporates a clever, satisfying mix of action, teamwork, and puzzles.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Boss fights incorporate puzzles
Sometimes the boss battles incorporate elements of the puzzles from the level you just played, and build on them a bit. This makes the boss battles more strategic. Instead of just pumping lead into them and mashing buttons, you have to strategically alter the environment to take them down. For example, there is a snake boss that requires you to arrange mirrors and shoot lasers to expose the weak areas of the boss. Your friend may be arranging the mirrors while you're shooting the lasers. Discovering the trick to defeating each boss is highly rewarding as each encounter incorporates a clever, satisfying mix of action, teamwork, and puzzles.
Pro Good balance between action and puzzle solving
You'll do your fair share of running and gunning through hordes of scarabs and skeletons, but the action is offset nicely by numerous environmental puzzles. There's just enough action so that you stay on your toes, but it's never overbearing to the point you'll ever feel overwhelmed by enemies. The puzzles are spaced liberally to give a break from the action and let your brain do the heavy lifting for a while. Every so often, you'll put your weapons down and instead pull levers, throw down rope lines, shoot lasers at mirrors, and change the flow of waterways in an attempt to continue down your path.
Pro Various loot adds a bit of an RPG element
While this is not a loot-based dungeon crawler, there's still a variety of different weapons to discover and blast your foes with, as well as gems and treasure chests scattered around the levels. The gems are used to open treasure chests that contain rings and amulets. This loot provides combat bonuses such as extra fire damage, a leech effect to steal health from enemies, or provide a bigger blast radius for your bombs.
Finding these gems and treasure chests will require some exploration into hard to reach areas, oftentimes by utilizing the help of your friends, but looting a new ring or amulet to increase your combat capabilities makes it a worthy endeavor and gives the game a light RPG element.
Pro Co-op play encourages strong teamwork and coordination
In order to overcome obstacles in your path, get at loot in hard to reach places, or use teamwork to solve a variety of puzzles, the game encourages a deep level of coordination and communication between players that isn't required in most other isometric dungeon crawlers. This makes it a great co-op game to play with friends.
Boost a friend to the top of a column for hard to reach loot, pull a switch so they can access a locked gate in another area, or even lay down a rope line to help your friends cross a perilous chasm. Almost everything in co-op play will require multiple people working together to advance throughout the level.
Additionally, the puzzles scale based on the number of players, oftentimes adding new mechanics such as switches, levers, and walls that aren't present in solo play. Nobody will ever feel left out as there's always a way for players to contribute to solving puzzles whether you're playing with 2 or 4 friends.
Pro Simple to pick up and learn
Whether you played the first Overcooked or not, Overcooked 2 is easy to figure out right from the get-go. The recipes for each dish are familiar even if you're not much of a chef, so you can remember which raw ingredients you need as you make your way around the kitchen and work with your co-op partner(s). Once you play a few rounds, you should have a good handle on things, helping you focus on getting everything done as quickly as possible from there on out.
Pro Hilariously fun couch and online co-op for up to four players
Playing Overcooked 2 with friends is the best. There's so much going on at once in the kitchen, with barriers moving in your way, hazards popping up like cars in the middle of the road separating the two halves of your area, and ingredients, dishes, and half-prepared dishes to move from one place to another. Working together and communicating with your friends through couch co-op or online play is a constant stream of laughter and excited shouting as you mess up, learn, and hopefully get things done. If you don't have anyone to play with, then you can hop online for matchmaking instead.
Pro Fast and frantic cooking action
Overcooked 2 is really fast-paced and keeps you on your toes. You play as a chef in a crazy kitchen with a ton of things going on all at once, with you mixing, preparing, and cooking in between the chaos of moving platforms and environmental obstacles. There's a time limit constantly ticking down at the bottom of the screen; finishing your tasks on time or ahead of schedule earns you a better score in the end. Tossing ingredients to your teammates across the kitchen, or across the moving platforms or obstacles like bodies of water, is a fresh new addition in this game that wasn't in the first Overcooked, making things even faster this time around. It's such a manic yet well-done mix of many different genres and ideas that all come together in the best ways.
Cons
Con The story is generic and simple
If you're looking for a deep and intricate story, you won't find it here. The plot revolves around Lara and friends finding all the pieces of Osiris and putting him back together to stop the evil god Set from enslaving all humanity. There's not much depth or character development.
Con Online co-op with strangers can be frustrating
Most of the intricate and complex puzzles require intense cooperation and communication between players. Achieving that level of coordination playing online with strangers is difficult and frustrating in some situations.
Con Can be incredibly frustrating
Trying to work at such a fast pace with so many obstacles and general mayhem going on at once can wear on you after a while. There's a lot to keep track of at once, and it's easy for things to spiral out of control as your mistakes pile up. If your group isn't doing well and you're running out of time, you might find yourself losing your patience with your team and yelling at them. This might not be the game for you if you don't have a team that's willing to be patient and cooperative with each other, even when you're not doing so well during a particular round.
Con Single-player isn't as fun as co-op
If you only want to play alone, then Overcooked 2 might not be the best game to pick. All the fast-paced fun from co-op mostly comes from communicating with your team and trying to pull off your task together before the time runs out. You control two characters at once while playing alone, but this still lacks the team-based chaos that makes the game so addicting. You could instead go online for matchmaking, though you might get paired with people who don't want to talk or work as an actual team.
Con The controls are a bit sluggish
There's something about the controls that feels heavy and deliberate, and not necessarily in a good way. The feeling goes against the fast-paced nature of the gameplay that demands you in one place and then the next. If you played the first Overcooked, you may notice the difference right away. This change shouldn't be too much of a hassle, though it's still noticeable.