Cold Darkness Awakened

Cold Darkness Awakened Render

Cold Darkness Awakened is a Downloadable Content for Rise of the Tomb Raider that was released on 29 March 2016. In this additional story level Lara has to face hordes of zombie-like Trinity soldiers that were infected with an illness that is spreading from an abandoned Soviet research facility dating from the Cold War.

The price for this additional download is 9.99€ - it is free for owners of the Season Pass.

Story

A decommissioned Cold War research base has been breached, unleashing a deadly affliction from its Siberian slumber. As the illness seeps into the wilderness surrounding the base, Trinity soldiers transform into bloodthirsty killers who thrive on carnage. To prevent the affliction from spreading, Lara must rely on her wits, physical agility, and crafting abilities to overcome this new enemy and shut down the decommissioned base.

Xbox Wire^[1]

Gameplay

To start Cold Darkness Awakened, choose it from the Expeditions menu.

Lara gets dropped by a chopper into an old Soviet base where Trinity soldiers roam around who have been infected by an biological agent that turned them into fearless predators. Their vision has been impaired but their hearing has become far better; it is therefore important to move as silently as possible through the base. The bio-weapon only seems to affect males, so Lara is in no immediate danger from it.

There are weapons stashes scattered around the base. If the player has not outfitted Lara with additional weapons through Expedition Cards, she can collect them here, or switch them if she already has a weapon in the corresponding slot. (As in the main game Lara can only carry one weapon of every type at any given time.) Also, there are (female) prisoners that Lara can find and rescue, as well as Documents that detail the Trinity incursion into the base.

The main objective is to find the three towers and deactivate the production of the bio-weapon. There are some small puzzles to be solved in each of these towers. Nadia, who is circling the base in the chopper, translates some old manuals and tells Lara how to override the systems. Making mistakes will trigger the alarm that attracts infected soldiers.

After disabling the towers, she has to enter the central structure and destroy it, while the infected are attacking her. To do so she has to shoot at the moving red pistons of the pumps. After that she can escape by jumping towards the helicopter.