Secrets of the Lost Tomb

Secrets of the Lost Tomb is a weird game, that initially piqued my interest for its diversity of gameplay content. It is a free-to-play Action Adventure game, in which every level of its story campaign feels like a different videogame genre. The main goal of the campaign is to explore an ancient tomb and find a mysterious treasure to somehow end a futuristic war with it. The plot is as crazy as it sounds, but I enjoyed the absolutely terrible cutscenes of the game, because they were so awful, that they already got hilarious again. The first level is an autorun instance, in which you have to dodge obstacles and pick up diamonds, because.... (I am sure there is good reason somewhere...). The second level is a terrible maze, which gets randomized every time. You have to run through the maze and fight mummies to reach a mystical waterfall. Sadly the combat is some of the worst I have ever experienced. Your character and the mummies are super slow and stiff. There is no fun to be had here. The problematic aspect of the level randomization is, that you will sometimes get a super easy maze, while other times it will be impossible to complete. Your attacks and dodges are way too slow, so you are completely depended on luck to complete this section. The third level is a riddle chamber, in which you have to solve puzzles to reach the treasure. This is by far the best part of the game, even though the bird puzzle is a bit weird to figure out. Unfortunately there are also a couple of platforming sections in this level, which I would normally like (because I am a big Platformer fan), but they are not well executed here. Movement and jumps are stiff and imprecise, which makes them unnecessarily frustrating. I also experienced some gamebreaking glitches, which could only be fixed by deleting the save file... The fourth level is a super short Platforming level (with an unstable performance) and the fifth level is by far the worst. The game now suddenly switches from third person to first person view and forces you to fight at least 10 waves of Zombies. This could have potentially been fun, unfortunately the execution is a disaster. The gunplay is again very imprecise and the performance is beyond good and evil. You can't even change the mouse sensitivity, because something like game settings simply don't exist in Secrets of the Lost Tomb. FPS vary between 10-20, but are usually closer to 10... The level is pure torture (I didn't even mention how you get high damage from small jumps, but zero damage from big distance jumps...), and I gave up after round 8, in which I ran out of ammo, which can't be collected or replaced... The multiplayer is supposed to feature a Battle Royale (PVP) and a Coop (PVE) part. The Battle Royale however is currently (I highly doubt it ever gets released) not playable. So this only leaves Coop, which is at best average. The Gunplay is at least superior to the last level on the campaign (hard to be worse). Why didn't they use the same gameplay for the last level to at least get closer to mediocrity? You fight yourself through rooms of faceless mannequins and some pieces of artillery to get to the next room and do the same thing again and again. Coop is okay, but certainly not worth installing the game for. Visuals are very simple and outdated, but I have also seen a lot worse in numerous F2P games I reviewed in the last years. The background sound effects at least give a nice ominous vibe, but gameplay sound effects are pretty bad and the soundtracks in the cutscenes are okay. Visuals and Sounds are not terrible, but by no means a strength of this game either. Pro: - Diversity of game genres (- Story campaign and multiplayer coop) - Hilariously awful cutscenes Contra: - Terrible gameplay in most levels - Gamebreaking Glitches - Awful performance in Level 4+5 - BR not playable; Coop average - No game settings Result: The more I played Secrets of the Lost Tomb, the less I liked it. That is not a good sign. The weird mix of Videogame Genres may initially be intriguing, but the game collapses in execution due to its undeniable gameplay flaws, gamebreaking glitches and inexcusable performance. 3.5/10