Lara Croft Temples and Tombs

Lara Croft Temples and Tombs: Review

With a lavish budget, Microgaming went all in at the London iGaming conference in an attempt to bring life into its withering future, frantically pushing its upcoming games that, to us at least, looked about as exciting as the London rain. However, one thing did catch our attention we have to admit - we're talking about the flagship title and third instalment of the Lara Croft franchise, Temples and Tombs.

The task of designing the game fell on one of Microgaming's most committed partners, Triple Edge Studios, also responsible for the sequel to the popular Playboy slot (that failed miserably we shall add). Fundamentally, Lara Croft Temples and Tombs is built like a typical Microgaming slot using 5-reels, 3-rows and 243 ways to win, a setup that has served the company well for many years. Playable across all compatible devices from 0.20 to 20€ per spin, it comes with a Rolling Reels feature where chain-reaction wins can increase the multiplier up to 5x in the base game and boost your wins with a 15x multiplier in the Free Spins feature.

Emerging from a cold, claustrophobic stone cavern into a grand Mayan temple glittering with gold and jade, Temples and Tombs is a visually compelling world that aches to be explored. Set inside a temple, the symbols appear inside stone blocks. On the reels you'll see torches, grapnels, backpacks and water bottles. More lucrative are the two stone statues and Lara herself, depicted in various action contexts -  on a motorcycle, jumping, with a gun and as a portrait, the latter, which yields 50 times your stake for 5 on a full payline, being the most rewarding. The wild symbol is represented by a scarab beetle coin and substitutes for all symbols bar the scatter.

Lara Croft Temples and Tombs: Features

In the base game, you'll benefit from the Rolling Reels feature which is basically a copy-paste straight from Microgaming's 2016 release Jungle Jim: Eld Dorado. If you played it, you know the drill - symbols part of a winning combination break up and gets replaced with new ones falling from the top. It's a popular feature that somewhat extends the play time by allowing for continuous wins from each spin and that, in this case, increases the multiplier to 2x, 3x and 5x. A losing spin will set the multiplier back to its starting point.

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols triggers the Free Spins feature, rewarding you with between 8 and 32 free spins. Starting with a 3x multiplier, just like in Jungle Jim, every consecutive win increases the multiplier to 6x, 9x and 15x. Again, a losing spin will set the multiplier back to the 3x starting point. It's also possible to retrigger the feature to give you 8 more spins every time you land 3 scatters in view. In total, up to 80 free spins can be played with over 7000 times your stake up for grabs in the bonus.

Additionally, there is also a Jackpot feature included in the game. During your session, wilds are collected which increase your chances of winning a jackpot. Randomly triggered, the Minor, Major and Grand jackpots are worth 15, 100 and 5000 times your stake respectively.

Lara Croft Temples and Tombs: Verdict

In Temples and Tombs, team Microgaming played it safe by combining the strength of Triple Edge Studios excellent visual crafting skills with one of Microgaming's old proven mathematical designs. Despite the apparent similarities in gameplay, Temples and Tombs is not a clone of Jungle Jim. With the addition of a jackpot feature, a different set of symbols along with some other things, Temple and Tombs stand on its own two legs.

Overall, there's sufficient incentive to explore the magnificent world that Triple Edge Studios has created in this game that unarguably is their best product to date. It's not like they're splitting atoms here, but this is exactly what Microgaming and its partners should focus more on, which is 243+ ways action with good potential.