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The rebooted Tomb Raider universe has given us two amazing games so far. Whereas the first game introduced a Lara Croft that was still learning her craft, ultimately becoming a hardened survivor, last year’s Rise of the Tomb Raider gave her even more amazing character growth, pitting her in one of the best adventures of 2015. You could tell she had been through hell. The scars might not be visible, but they were portrayed nicely through the acting and writing for the iconic character.
Tomb Raider hasn’t been shy when it comes to dealing with supernatural elements. But with the release of Rise of the Tomb Raider’s first story DLC, titled Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch, the series finds itself knee-deep in horror waters. So, how does it fare?
I was a bit let down with this DLC. While I truly enjoyed the horror elements presented in it, especially its dealings with the myth of Baba Yaga, I still felt like it could’ve been much more. The set up for the story is simple and melds in nicely with the main arc. Lara Croft ventures back to an area previously explored and comes across a woman in need of help (voiced by Ashly Burch). Said woman was looking for her grandfather, who in turn was looking for his wife. It’s a story of a broken family that plays nicely off of Lara’s. Of course, we’re also dealing with the inclusion of Baba Yaga, complete with her chicken-legged house.
The Baba Yaga myth is woven suitably well into this DLC. Throughout it, I kept asking myself if it’s actually real in the context of what’s going on around Lara. Like I said before, the horror elements here were really enjoyable. The hallucinations Lara experiences are pretty creepy and it led to a few memorable moments in the DLC. But there just wasn’t enough of it. One of the standout moments is the first time you start hallucinating, and you see Baba Yaga’s house on chicken legs towering over you in the woods. I was amazed.
It won’t take more than a couple of hours to finish the DLC, but you do get to explore some new territory and face new enemies. There’s also one big puzzle late in the experience that had me stumped for a little while. And the final boss of the piece is a joy to fight. It lets you put all of the skills you’ve learned throughout the main game to the test, combining the seamless platforming, intuitive gunplay and light puzzle solving to create a boss fight I enjoyed more than the main game’s final boss fight.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is already a fantastic game, one of the gems from last year, and this DLC does a great job of expanding that world and flexing more of its supernatural muscles.
(7 / 10)
Good
(7 / 10)
