Go Home, Lara, You’re Pointy: Tomb Raider DLC Out Now
Getting a rise out of you
A splurdge of DLC for Rise of the Tomb Raider [official site] has just come out, which means you can now pop back to a decrepit Croft Manor, team up for co-op wilderness endurance, or battle the tough ‘Extreme Survivor’ difficulty mode. But most importantly, you can now control famous archaeologist and murderer Lara Croft the way she was meant to be played – as a conglomeration of poorly-rendered triangles. Yes, Pointy Lara is back. She is as terrifying as always.
Let's run through the substantial stuff first. The new-old Croft Manor can be revisited in one of two modes. ‘Blood Ties’ is a new snippet of story which sees you rummaging in the attic for proof that your pater really did leave the mansion to you and not your uncle, who is a liar. ‘Lara’s Nightmare’, on the other hand, is the obligatory zombie mode, in which you have to fight off an evil presence haunting the old estate. They’re both included in the season pass but also in a new ‘20 Year Celebration’ edition of the game, which costs $60 but also comes with all the rest of the previous DLC, like the creepy Baba Yaga episode in which Lara gets blitzed and hallucinates giant houses on fire with legs.
The co-op Endurance mode is also in there. This lets you team up with a pal to survive, battling the environment during the day and bad things at night. When Alec played the lonely version of this he thought it was the best bit of the new Tomb Raider yet. But if you hate humans, the ‘Extreme Survivor’ difficulty mode will spice up single player for you. This will “severely limit your save points, crafting materials, resources, ammunition, and health”, according to the update notes.
Season pass holders are the real beneficiaries here, getting all this guff and more, including packs of new weapons and items, as well as the old-fashioned model of Lara shown above and four other 'classic' Lara Croft skins. That's funny because usually Lara is the one doing the skinning. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Because she’s a bonafide psychopath.