Cold Darkness Awakened

Cold Darkness Awakened
N/A
Metacritic
46
Steam
41.785
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$2.49
Release date
29 March 2016
Steam reviews score
Total
46 (227 votes)

A dormant weapons research base has been breached, unleashing a mysterious affliction into the wild. Lara must overcome increasingly dangerous waves of infected enemies while scavenging their equipment and crafting additional gear on the fly, in kill or be killed survival-combat.

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Cold Darkness Awakened system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7 64bit
  • Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 or AMD equivalent
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 650 2GB or AMD HD7770 2GB
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 700 MB available space
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
418810
Fullgame appid
391220
Platforms
Windows PC
Mac
Linux
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Reviews
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AWPC
AWPC

Pros:
Your supporting the developer/publisher behind the amazing Rise Of The Tomb Raider. Truly one of the best looking PC games ever made & comes with many hours of enjoyable gameplay as well as a decent story. Every PC gamer should buy the full game Rise of The Tomb Raider its well worth your hard earned money due to so much content & true next gen graphics.

Cons:
90-95% of Cold Darkness Awakened graphics are reused assets from the main game Soviet Installation hub & surrounding locations except its all set at night. The budget for this DLC was obviously low.
Gameplay has little variety. Dodge, stealth kill, run, hit buttons & repeat until complete.
Can be completed in around 30 mins if you do not bother with achievements which pad it out to several hours.
Highly confusing mission objectives within the 3 towers you need to destroy. A lot of it is trial and error make the wrong choice you trigger yet another tedious attack wave.
Shader lighting errors whereby the flashlight Lara has on at all times changes colour from blue to white to grey when it clashes with other spotlights like the helicopter circling the main hub.
Laggy FPS even on a GTX 980 Ti + Core i7-980X.
So much of the DLC is copy/pasted from the Soviet Hub from the main campaign of the game it should be free to all players!
Lots of bugs/glitches it was clearly not in QA for long. Control glitches, camera glitches enemies get stuck in walls etc etc

Overall sorry to say I felt its a letdown after the excellent Baba Yaga DLC. Wait for a Steam sale its just not worth buying CDA DLC for full price (I had the Season Pass so it was part of that).

Manguas
Manguas

Baba Yaga - Story mission
Endurance - Survival and exploration.
Cold Darkness Awakened - Three puzzles(?), and some zombies.

Boring, short, unworthy to replay.

Thoradil
Thoradil

HAHA zombies yeaaa ! but against time thing is kinda annoying since infected replaced so fast. I killed one than another appeared near me....was scary :'(

Helifax
Helifax

I really really took my time with this DLC! Finished it in 2hours! I wanted to EXPLORE and find things!
So, I rescued about 6 prisoners, found 5 documents to read to understand what has happened and so on!

I really loved the night + flashlight, but is WEIRD! In main game you don't have a flashlight..but here you do?!?! Oh, well...
While I like the setting and so on the freaking ZOMBIES keep on coming over and over again and basicaly disrupted my exploring! You might think it adds to the "survival" aspect....WRONG! After 15 minutes it became tiresome and annoying!

DEAR DEVELOPERS! HORDE MODE IS NOT A TOMB RAIDER SPECIFIC THING! IT NEVER WAS AND NEVER WILL BE!!!! EXPLORING + PUZZLE SOLVING WAS AND WILL BE!!!!

While I enjoyed it while I played it, I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO PLAY THIS DLC !!!
Endurance Mode was OK/Good, but this is basically Tossing Lara in a Resident Evil type of setup and feels akward and WRONG!

They should have focused this last DLC on STORY ( New region to explore IN THE MAIN GAME) or the likes + PUZZLES!
Instead we get a zombie horde mode...

I can't recommend this...Sorry, EVEN IF THE BASE GAME + BABA YAGA + ENDURANCE MODE DLCS are purely awesome and A VERY GOOD and SOLID GAME!!!!

(This last DLC feels "out of picture" in the Tomb Raider Universe)

C. Black
C. Black

Nowhere near Baba Yaga DLC with both content and idea, all cons are already stated in other reviews.
Not a new area for story map, but just a challenge mode map with very small quality, just a grindfest arena for players who like to play the challenge modes, doesn't add anything new really except zombies and Lara has finally got a flashlight! , the area seems a copy-paste trainyard from story map.
I got it with season pass, but cannot recommend it as a separate purchase, was expecting missions for story mode with new locations to explore, this is just a mode activated from main menu as other challenge modes

Arc
Arc

I quite liked grinding Rise of the Tomb Raider to a full 100%, Endurance mode is a wonderfull addition, and the Baba Yaga content gives you just a tiny bit more of quality time in the main game world. Fun fun fun.

I was hoping this DLC would give the players that were sitting on an arsenal of fully upgraded weapons a new sandbox to play with, something challenging and fun to go out with a bang, play with all your toys, die a few times.
A secret Russian base with experiments on humans gone awry? What could possibly go wrong? (and in the game)
I imagined fighting waves of different zombified enemies, throughout the original game maps, shutting down spawn points, a semi mindless gun toting romp to places you had already been, zombified bears as tanks, zombified birds as.. uh... as birds?
Heck just re-use a lot of assets and animations and make it fun, save on costs, make us run around the whole world again.

Sadly this is not that DLC, what you get is a mode seperate from the main game. A small map that looks a bit too much like a place you have already seen. A very dark enviromnent you can barely illimunate with a flashlight that seems to be glued to your chin. And a tremendously boring and easy to deal with new enemy type that just keeps coming back to annoy you to bits.
But alas like the Russian soldiers experimented on, this DLC did not elavate it's subject to a higher level, instead it ends up being something one would rather put down, or completely ignore.

UnhappyLawbro
UnhappyLawbro

Summary

the good
- the resident evil type of horror. The night is dark and full of terrors, and you move around with a flashnight. The devs nailed the horror atmosphere. The game can be genuinely terrifying, - accompanied by the nerve racking BGM that makes you 10x more scared- when you're assaulted by a swarm of zombies and your flashlight goes out...
- The addition of 15 unique cards for this mode can allow you to customize your experience a little bit (for example make zombies invincible except with headshots, increase frequency of zombie swarms), but they won't change the nature of the game.

the bad
- fails at being a good story expansion, fails at being a good wave-based zombie mode, fails at being a survival mode.
- taking away all the good stuffs from endurance (crafting, skills, survival, small and same map)
- only 1 type of zombie (no zombie beast or big boss) with different ones using 4 different weapons
- boring objectives that get really repetitive. Becomes a huge chore on 2nd playthrough
- Very little replayability

I feel kinda cheated by the description of the DLC prior to its release. It was something like "fight off WAVES of zombies while crafting better weapons and tools to SURVIVE", which made it feel like a fusion of the survival and crafting element from the great endurance mode DLC and a action packed COD zombie mode.

It turns out to be nothing like them. It took away the best aspect of the endurance DLC (no more crafting and upgrading weapons at camp; no more camps; no level up; no more randomly generated map, just a small map that you get bored with fast; no feeling that you're struggling to survive since survival is not even your objective like in endurance mode!).

It also doesn't live up to the COD zombie expectation: you're not trying to survive from waves of zombies coming at you except when you're in the tower, and some small swarms that happen every 10 minutes or so. There is very little action in the action elsewhere as you can avoid most of the zombies by adopting a stealth approach. If you don't do that, you can attract a few zombies to you by making noise, but that's it. No huge wave coming and forcing you onto the defensive expect in the last bit of the game.

You're forced to do some objectives in the mode, after which you extract and done, which makes it feel more like a story DLC, but where story is so thin that you don't care. The mode is not integrated into the main story, even though this seems like it would facilitate replaying it, you probably wouldn't want to...because you will be doing the EXACT same thing as last time, destroy the towers and then extract. No challenge, no change, no good.

The conclusion is that it tries too much, but fails in all aspects. Next time, try focus on one of them instead...

And I really don't appreciate the false advertisement of it being like COD zombies.

Mrbb
Mrbb

If you got this as part of the season pass...BONUS!! If not then I would say £6.99 is a bit steep for this. Still, it's an interesting, if short, concept. But 100% not worth the money. C'mon Square, drop this to £3.99 for the good folks!

[FF5]Zurbaron
[FF5]Zurbaron

Not worth the money. If you like a mix of stealth gameplay with regular (timer based) horde attacks of enemies, then this might be for you. I didn't like it. If I'm stealthy I expect not to raise alarms and geting swarmed by enemies. The basic idea is good, the implementation is not.

Chairman
Chairman

I do not recommend this to anyone. It is short boring and not even really a story dlc. Its a 30 minute expidition. This means you can't take any of your gear from the main game and there is barely any content in it. $10 is way too much for a dlc that has less content than a call of duty map pack.

That Terrible Biscuit
That Terrible …

After completing the main story thought I'd try a hand with the latest DLC.

To be honest I wish I didn't bother. This kind of changes the game style where you had many options on how to play it and deal with enemies.

Cold Darkness Awakend is VERY forceful on how you play.

You are forced to sneak and play it slow

Forced to run & hide if spotted

A very confined area

The zombies work like a Left4Dead style, they are like magnets which is fair enough because thats what zombies do but zombies do NOT fit in with this kind of game especially if its Tomb Raider. It just doesn't add in well with the gameplay style. Because the zombies come at you like packs of wolfs its annoying to fend them off as this isn't quite a melee game.

Going in for a refund the devs shouldn't have joined the Zombie bandwagon.

Taz
Taz

A good survival zombie gamemode. Not really worth the full price... but hey, you get it with the Season pass

It also included an outfit and a shotgun.

HazelnutCheese
HazelnutCheese

It's a short dlc designed to be played over and over again using the card system.

What can I say, I really enjoyed it.

Lopper
Lopper

Repetitive, too short, three boring puzzles about pulling levers and opening valves like seriously who wants to do that, terrible AI, no variety and the story is not explained well at all, just a poor excuse to put zombies into the game. This should be free.

talloyer
talloyer

For starters, only worthy buying in sale deals and as part of the season pass. As standalone, only if it's very cheap.
There's not much of a story in Cold Darkness Awakened: Lara, with her new BFF Nadia (why was she with Lara there, shouldn't she be with her grandparents?), has to shut down a deadly pathogenic gas whilst dealing with infected zombies in her way. So there are 3 towers where you must deactivate the gas to solve this biohazard incident.
What I liked the most is the need to use more stealth, to be more conservative in ammo and using more the enviroment to pass through the enemies, which provides plenty opportunities of navigation, hiding and cover. You have to find your weapons (located by Nadia through air support) and the gear through the level, and if you rescue prisoners you gain a skill for each you save.
On the other hand, the storyline is very thin, there's no real exploration, the puzzles are few and simple and the worst: the enemies, who are supposed to be blind, once they located you act like normal enemies and have no issues at all to find and attack you, even if you are silent and hide afterwards; so stealth here is useful only in silent kills and the combat is more of a hit-and-run, which can be quite irritating. Not to mention the enemies keep spawning, which can be very inconvenient.
So, this game mode is fun to play once or twice, but wasn't very well designed to be truly interesting. As I wanted to like it more, I give it 6,5/10.

KyleKirkpatrick123
KyleKirkpatrick123

A wonderful DLC Pack in my opinion. It consists of a few puzzles, and a load of zombies! Seriously, there are so many of these! You can choose whether you want to go stealthy and avoid them, or if you want to go in guns blazing. There are a load of collectibes and materials to find throughout this DLC which you can use to craft special bullets and regenerate your health. The good thing about this is that you can use up to 5 cards, so regardless of what difficulty you choose, you can choose what weapons you want, what advantages or disavantages you want to suit your need. If I would make a reccomendation of what guns to use if you have it in one of your cards, I would choose the Assault Rifle (or another similar Automatic Weapon) and the Shotgun. Those weapons will should help you in case you get a big swarm of zombies coming at you, and they don't subtract to your multiplier. The gameplay is nice, but it's the same old stuff. Snow, trees, blocked off areas, buildings, and stuff like that. Nothing really new other than the way the puzzles are executed and the zombies. The storyline is simple. You have to shutdown three towers and then a Core Tower to stop the toxic matter from spreading to the rest of the valley. How long it takes you to complete this adventure though is very hard to estimate. It took me about 80 Minutes, but I was also searching around in other places and not just going to the towers right away. If you decide not to go site-seeing and go to the towers, you could have this done in about 30 minutes. But if you decide to go site-seeing, it could take you hours! The land is huge, and I didn't explore near all of it. There aren't really any bugs in this, except the same found in Rise which isn't that many. Rise of the Tomb Raider isn't a buggy game but there are a few instances were Lara might do something odd. So overall, this DLC Tomb is a great add-on! I have the Season Pass, and if you don't, the $10 price-tag can be a bit much since this really isn't like another add-on to the story of Rise of the Tomb Raider. The Graphics are good, the storyline while vague is nice for what this DLC has going for it, and the difficulty and puzzles are pretty well made. The way the puzzles were executed were a little different than usual but I personally liked it. I reccomend this DLC to anyone who liked Rise of the Tomb Raider, to people who like difficult gameplay, and to people who like vast open worlds to search.

METAL
METAL

adds nothing to the story and also does not feel like a TR mission at all. just sneaking around, killing these zombie types of enemies, defuse 3 towers by having a look to answer a yes or no question by turn valves, attach pipes or pull levers and thats it. story is poorly explained as well and its too short. yes, you can explore the map but you dont really want that since nearly every step leads you to an encounter of these zombies. if they are alarmed, then you get a horde coming at you which isnt really good since you dont have much ammo.

besides being stealthy, there is nothing really of value here. waste of money and time to make an actual good dlc that could contribute to the story.

Jules
Jules

Cold Darkness Awakened is not Tomb Raider. I'll say that right off the bat. Tomb Raider is about raiding tombs, right? Well, there's none of them here. There is, however, exploration and puzzles, which are also staples of the franchise.

This DLC differs from the main game in that you can't just run in guns-blazing and clear every area before going back and exploring everything in detail. Zombies are constantly spawning and coming out of the woodwork (often literally) so you really do have to be stealthy. The gameplay is about being strategic, planning your moves carefully so you don't get caught in corner when a horde hits.

And I think it works rather well. You don't have your full arsenal from the main game, instead picking up weapons and upgrades as you explore the map. You need to scavenge for resources to make ammo (you'll mostly be using your bow, at least until you find a silencer). There's also a few collectibles, which are in fixed locations, and some prisoners to rescue, which are in randomised locations.

The atmosphere, at least at the beginning, is one of survival horror. You'll be creeping by zombies hoping they don't hear you, and taking some out silently hoping you don't drawn neighbouring attention. As a general rule, higher ground is safer, but you have to keep scouring the ground for resources as well.

Exploration is fun, because the map is different enough from anything in the main game and you'll have full use of the grappling hook to swing Tarzan-style around trees. There's a good amount of verticality in the level design: you can climb towers, run across rooftops, reach catwalks, and swing through trees.

The puzzles are also well done. You have to shut down three towers, the interiors of which are randomly-generated with a bunch of different machinery to interact with. Nadia (from the Baba Yaga DLC) will give instructions over the radio, but she gets amusingly flustered and makes mistakes as time wears on.

Eventually after exploring a while you'll get to the point where you're a one-woman army, as you do in the main game. You'll probably finish the objectives by that point, but if you decide to keep exploring, the challenges the zombies present can start to wear thin. Thankfully you can always experiment with different Expedition Cards to mix things up, with a slew of cards permanently available for the Cold Darkness mode. Things like a flickering flashlight, fire-resistant zombies, or less resource pickups can really help to make this gamemode more challenging for those that are suckers for punishment.

One final note: gameplay time. If you rush through, you could probably finish the objectives in little over half an hour. But if you're shooting for the achievements, like me, expect to spend a few hours running from zombies to fully exhaust the content. Note that to get the achievements in this mode you must select the associated challenges when starting the game, or the achievements won't unlock. Same goes for Endurance mode. Since you're limited to five challenges per run, it'll take two or three runs to get them all.

In summary, Cold Darkness Awakened uses the main game's mechanics in a fresh way, deviating from the game's run-and-gun gameplay to offer more of a survival horror experience. If you liked the main game already, you'll probably enjoy this. If you thought the main game was too easy, you might enjoy this mode more. In any case, it's definitely worth checking out.

Snayles
Snayles

FYI if you are reading this, this DLC is NOT like Baba Yaga and is NOT integrated into the main campaign world. I figured that out after beating the game. It is an expedition mode item meant to be played seperately from the main game.

My opinion on the DLC is that it's okay.

At first I thought wow this is sort of neat. Sneaking around on a map and killing zombies. I figured it would be a chance to be truly stealthy around an AI who was 'blind' and that I would avoid most fights or at least be tactical about it.

Well these 'zombies' have random 'swarms' where they all suddenly know where you are. You cannot hide from them as they toss grenades at you (grenades really?). If you are up in a tree the grenades fall back down and the swarm then kills itself.

There's three puzzles which are really simple but explained in a really confusing manner. They consist mainly of 'Look for three red lights in the room, if there are less than three red lights pull blue lever, if more than three lights pull green lever." No I'm not kidding.

And the end of course there is a never ending spawning amount of zombies that run twoards you as you just hold the sprint button down and shoot red pipes as you pass under them. I completed this DLC in about 40 minutes.

In my opinion it is a missed oppurtunity. Overall it will make for a good couple runs with cards but I would get it on sale.

Orfeo
Orfeo

Overall, I really enjoyed the challenge. I played/finished the DLC 3 times on Survivor difficulty. And I will come back for more.

+Dark atmosphere
+The zombies are tough, way tougher to beat than humans in story mode.
+Keeps you on the edge the whole time. You're hunted pretty bad & have to keep moving/hiding.
+Good replayability (start with less gear, deadlier enemies, etc...)
+It is skill oriented (aiming & running for your life).

-The zombies can spawn too fast, and out of nowhere.
-Their detection threshold is pretty hard to grasp. Sometimes they don't hear you when they should & sometimes your perfect hidehout gets rushed in 5sec.
-Their accuracy can be a bit too good, for mindless creatures (I'm not talking about guns).
-I would have liked an even bigger map, with more secondary objectives.

The Steam rating of this DLC seems unfair : you have to know what you're getting into.
It is worth it if you liked the combat in the story, and want more challenge. If you just want another Baba Yaga DLC, don't buy it.

Jac
Jac

I'm a fan of Rise of the Tomb Raider. I also enjoyed the DLC but for the first time on Steam I am going to have to give a game a not recommended. Now, that counts for this DLC as a standalone purchase - if you get the game as part of the Season Pass then I would say it is worth playing. I would not pay £7 for Cold Darkness Awakened on its own though...

The setting is pretty good, an old abandoned Soviet military/industrial compound at night. Visuals and ambience are good as with all the Rise stuff. The issue is the mechanic itself, namely ever-spawning enemies. You can shoot a thousand of these things in the head and it won't matter because you cannot reduce numbers in the compound. That means you have to creep everywhere which makes progress really tedious. Additionally the 'quiet' mechanic doesn't matter because at certain random points all the enemeis will suddenly become aware of you anyway!

Devs infinite enemies that just pop out of nowhere are just lazy and should never be part of a modern game.

TUmaDO
TUmaDO

This dlc is absolutely horrific,in the pipes puzzle even if i do the correct way,it gets wrong somehow,it becames frustrating,some parts said by nadia make no sence at all,its frustrating and extreamly confusing,this dlc is useless and waste of money.

Anticitizen 1
Anticitizen 1

Rise of the Tomb Raider is good game weighed down by some garbage DLC and this one is the worst of the pack. It is just plain bad. It is a Zombie mode with objectives set in a dark Soviet base. There are some lame "puzzles" that even when solved correctly sometimes produce the wrong result, there are weapons to pick up and collectibles as well. I assume the base is randomly generated but I am only assuming because I have only played through this trash once. It pretty well has no redeaming features, the zombies are not fun to fight in the slightest, it's dark so it's hard to see and nothing you do is enjoyable or satisfying. The developers have somehow managed to take the core ROTTR experience which is good and make it bad. The thought that I have to go back to this mode to finish off its achievements pains me greatly, this is easily the worst part of the Rise of the Tomb Raider experience.

DO NOT BUY THIS EVEN ON A DEEP SALE.

reii
reii

Cold Darkness is an interesting take on a zombie filled soviet research site that requires you to essentially stop a toxic gas from spreading all over the area and infecting everyone. However they of course aren't "official" zombies and are some kind of weird mutated remake of it making it honestly odd as fuck. They are pretty much dazed enemies that only attack when you're make enough noise near them or are seen and just rush you with knives and a couple have heavy armor and bigger melee weapons, then there's 3 chamber puzzles you have to solve to stop the gas which is alright but overall it's just an odd take on a zombie outbreak.

+"Zombies"
+Chamber puzzles are actually cool and challenging
+Definitely gives you the sense of difficulty to survive with it scattering your gear and having 10 to 1 scenarios

-Not really zombies just weird soviet mutations which is just gross, rather this be some sort of nightmare with real zombies
-Also odd how the infection only infects men?? I don't know if this is just a cop out so Lara can't be affected or what but it seems like some Feminist shit

-Super brief with no story, you are just instantly thrown into the facility with the objective and have to..well you could just rush to each chamber and complete them quick as 30 mins or less and get to the final room already. No need to survive really just really short DLC
-Abrupt ending like it was all nothing

Cold Darkness was a cool idea and perhaps if they went off of what they did for the Blood Ties DLC and had it be a nightmare so they could go more crazy that'd be awesome instead of a gender specfic zombie disease that requires you to pretty much run past mindless idiots to 3 different puzzles only to beat it all in 30 mins. If there's any DLC you're looking to skip out on it's this one as the gameplay and story is lacking severely.

Bunny
Bunny

Ill be breif.

+The randomized puzzle and weapon/prisoner locations is a neat feature to make it a bit more replayable.
+The voidhammer is incredible looking and is much more pretty than the games standard break action shotgun

-Even with the randomization, you will likely play this crap a few times just to get the voidhammer and other items bound to it. Its incredibly boring and easy.
-Total time having fun: 5 minutes during tutorial. Total time grinding for weapons and outfits that I wanted :A couple of hours.

So unless you somehow find the content to be diehard fun, you are buying a russian outfit and a nice double barrel that are locked behind a few hours of grinding a boring level over and over.. Yep. Unless you are a psycho and desperately want a pretty double barrel shotgun (like me), run from this like its the plague.

Might be worth it to go back into the "Deathless ones" level in the campain, and blast the everloving crap out of them while screaming "LISTEN UP YOU PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS! THIS.. IS MY BOOMSTICK"

Siu-King**
Siu-King**

This DLC is fricking nonsense. Mutants that can't see, only hear to track you?
So just use the bow, headshots or use the usual cheesy poison arrow, or they just keep coming after your gun shots.

The puzzle mechanism can be quite interesting but there were only 3 and not expanded upon.

The mutants are just random spawned annoyance that you can kill in no time.
I played the tutorial for 15 mins and it's too boring to continue.

Waiting to Visit Japan (^.-)
Waiting to Vis…

Hunt "zombies" that don't see well but can hear (and detect your movement).
So... if you enjoy zombie hunting this is a good distraction.
I like that Lara has a zombie chapter (DLC).
Doing the main mission (shut down source of trouble) is one option.
Another is just racking up stealth zombie kills.
Another is setting up a "Kill Zone" and drawing the zombies into it.
That it is short is a benefit, since I don't always have time to play a full game.
If it gets boring be creative with HOW you kill the zombies.

Majestic
Majestic

DLC items are locked behind a (long) tedious grind of replaying the same level over and over again. If you're buying it for the outfits, just skip it.

The zombie mechanics are incredibly cheap, as even trying to stealth it you get random events where they just swarm you. The zombies also crawl through walls and suddenly appear behind you eventhough it should make no sense.

This DLC has little redeeming factors.

Tehed
Tehed

It's just a pitch black "fight against zombies" mode. Really not what I was looking for in a Tomb Raider DLC. I really liked Baba Yaga, but this one... nope.

borderline
borderline

Remember how great the melee combat was in Tomb Raider? No? Have fun being swarmed by melee enemies who have inconsistent detection rules and repeatedly respawn (sometimes behind you). The final area is just constantly spawning melee enemies ganking you while you try and complete objectives.

Whoever had the stupid thought that Tomb Raider needed a zombie DLC needs to seriously stop designing games.

Thrawn«¦
Thrawn«¦

In Cold Darkness Awakended Lara Croft has to infiltrate an old, abandoned soviet installation where tests on a nervegas that turns soldiers into mindless, obedient killing machines without any pain or remorse went horribly wrong. Now, after years of solitude, the facility begins to fall apart and is endangering to flood the surrounding area with the toxic gas. Together with Nadja (who we know from the Baba Yaga DLC) Lara enters the facility to get the situation under control.

Sounds interesting, right?

Well, sorry to dissappoint you, the overall package really is not.

Gameplay is identical to the base game: You run around, climb towers and buildings to find new gear and weapons in crates and free the occasional prisoner - which has no impact on the outcome.

Enemies are basically blind and only react to sound which makes them more of an annoyance (also they are just zombies) and the "puzzles" required for finishing the DLC are mindnumbingly easy.
Getting through this DLC might take you anywhere from 30 minutes to roughly 1 hour.

In case you got this DLC as a part of the Complete Edition of the game, feel free to check it out - just don't have very high expectations.
For a standalone purchase 9,99€ is just too much to ask - spend your money elsewhere (or wait for a deep, deep sale).

comp9
comp9

I thought the reviews for Rise of the Tomb Raider's: Cold Darkness Awakened DLC were exaggerated but was sadly disappointed. This is a tedious and boring slap in zombie mode only a zombie could love. I dread re-playing this to get 100% of the Steam achievements.

CorvusCorax
CorvusCorax

Tomb Raider With Zombies

We are dropped into an old Soviet installation which is infested with people who have long gone insane. This is Tomb Raider's very own version of a zombie DLC - many games have received such extra content so it was only a matter of time Lara faced the undead in the form of a DLC. The enemies are mainly specialised in melee combat - we have to be careful with those holding a grenade and the ones with a big shield in front of them. Other than that the issue is only with their numbers.

Saving The Day By Puzzle Solving

While the Endurance mode focuses on survival Cold Darkness is more action-oriented. Also, as opposed to Endurance here we have a map as we are given directions as to where we are supposed to go. The idea is to visit 3 different towers and by solving the puzzles hidden there-in we can release the contaminating gas. Our task is, ultimately, to save people (or to minimise exposure considering the already many affected individuals) instead of collecting artifacts.

Looting And Achievement Hunting

Similarly to Endurance completing Cold Darkness fast is a possibility. But by staying and carefully exploring we can find documents that shed more light as to what really happened to this installation. Unlike Endurance Lara gains no experience points here - we can look for weapons or rescue hostages who will eventually reward us with new abilities (codices in Endurance). Weapons chests can also be found so that we can upgrade our existing assortment of weapons.

The card system, too, returns - we can make our job easier or more difficult depending on the bonus we'd like to receive following the evaluation at the end of the stage. For some reason the DLC-related achievements are all considered hidden but the story is kept to a minimum so I do not see their names as spoilers here.

Cold Darkness is a good DLC but alone it is simply too expensive. If you purchase the Season Pass it's worth giving this one a try. I prefer Endurance to this one but I do believe CD can also give us some more hours with Lara just before the next episode is released.

Kingsman Candarian
Kingsman Candarian

It's a terrible DLC unless you find fighting of waves and waves of zombies fun in a tomb raider game

roger3057
roger3057

one boring story+one small map+3 tower with a lot of boring pipe,lever and fuse+a lot of collectibles with random locations(documents,prisoners,safes)+endless blind zombies but they always know where you are ,even you are not moving and no sounds=disaster dlc, by the way "zombies" in tomb raider game??? what are they thinking??? they just ruins this tomb raider game, nice job

Carm3D
Carm3D

Cold Darkness is a fun expansion to Rise of the Tomb Raider.

In Cold Darkness you play the female heroine Lara Croft; you know her very well by now. She is dropped into an island with an elaborate soviet installation where something has gone terribly wrong. All of the men working in the installation have been exposed to a terrible toxin. This toxin was developed by an evil-sounding man that you listen to during the introduction narration.

Hovering above Lara for the entire mission is a helicopter. Riding inside it is Lara's female friend who provides overwatch, narration and warnings. The helicopter is piloted by Sophia, a female.

Lara's main goal is to shut down three nodes of the faciliary and rerout the toxin to the central location where you destroy it before the toxin is released out into the air and makes a big mess.

While Lara is on her way to fix the island's problems, her female friend explains to her that this toxin has no effect on females. The males, however were effected. All of these "toxic men" are mindless brutes and will try to kill Lara as soon as they notice her. Their vision is poor but they are attracted to sound.

Lara's female friend will inform Lara when she has spotted weapons and prisoners to rescue. All of these prisoners are female. Occasionally Lara will be warned that a horde of toxic men have suddenly begun moving towards Lara. When this happens I suggest you find a place you can climb up; higher the better.

If any of this sounds complicated just remember; Males = bad, Females = good. Got it?

Once Lara reaches each of the three nodes her female friend in the helicopter reads Lara instructions. Lara must follow the instructions correctly to shut each node down. If the instructions are not followed correctly, the area will be invaded by a horde of toxic men and then you have to kill them and solve the simple puzzle again.

After completing all three nodes you move straight away to the final challenge. Shutting down the main chamber while toxic males tumble in after you and attack you constantly. After Lara shoots all of the things, the place starts to explode and Lara heroically...heroinely leaps to the helicopter to meet her two female friends and they fly off to safety.

Cold Darkness is a lot of fun. Nearly as good as the Endurance expansion. I like it because it feels close to being a story-driven campaign. It has great replay value and is a longer time investment than Endurance in my opinion.

I know some of you may suspect there is some kind of subtextual message encoded into this DLC. Don't be ridiculous.

Recommended.

Julien
Julien

The base game is great, the other DLCs are okay, but this DLC is not.
The infiltration around dumb/blind zombies is not very interesting, but the puzzles are really the main weak point: they just make you follow some mechanical rules without much thinking, that's nothing but a hassle, and on top of that there are plenty of things which are not explained correctly in the tutorial.

MGRza
MGRza

Rise of the Tomb Raider™: Cold Darkness Awakened Review

It’s Zombies man!

Please note that this Review may contain spoilers from the Base game

Some key points that this game add on has to offer:

1. New game play mode
2. New enemy types
3. New area

Replayability:

Just like Endurance Mode, Cold Darkness Awakened offers a new type of Expedition for us to experience. It can be replayed just like any other Expeditions; however, it lacks content that makes it replayable.

MGR Gaming’s Conclusions:

Cold Darkness Awakened introduces a Zombie Type enemy into the game. Lara explores an avoided installation where terrible experiments were performed. These experiments transform men into these mindless Zombies. Trinity got into the facility and managed to get it up and running again, however things went awry and they have all been transformed into these monsters.

This DLC also takes place in a brand new map that you get to explore. With it comes a new outfit, a new weapon and card pack.

Although this DLC is fun to play, it certainly is overpriced for what it offers. The entire goal of this expedition is to stop and perhaps reverse the process of this experiment. There is not a lot to explore or enjoy. The game’s map is rather small and simply lacks fun and enjoyment. The night mode does add to the ‘jump scare’ atmosphere which is a plus.
Unfortunately, the DLC lacks actual content that makes it fun to experience, there are but three puzzles involved and nothing else. You do start with nothing and have to loot and craft your way to better gear, but that hardly makes it more fun.

Grab it when it goes on sale or perhaps in a bundle.

Score 5
By: MGRza
Date: 2 April 2016

Additional Info:

Platforms: PC: Xbox 360: Xbox One: PlayStation 4: Mac: Linux: Stadia: Steam OS
Genre: Tomb Raider: Adventure: Lara Croft: Open World: Survival: Exploration: Story Rich
Censor Rating: Mature
Age Rating: 17+
Developer: Crystal Dynamics: Eidos-Montréal: Feral Interactive (Mac): Feral Interactive
Publisher: Square Enix: Feral Interactive (Mac): Feral Interactive (Linux)
Release Date: 29 March 2016

MGR Gaming Steam Curator:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32364038/
MGR Gaming:
https://www.mgrgaming.co.za

RebelHeart
RebelHeart

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Cold Darkness Awakened DLC review:

It's Cold & Dark for sure. I really enjoyed this mode, I liked the atmosphere & the development of Nadia's character, It fits well with the main story of the game, however, I hoped there would be more than just do 3 puzzles/rescue prisoners.

there's some unlocked potential in this mode to be more than what it offers, a new story, side quests etc but this is what we got.

Bob
Bob

This had some potential but feel like it could have been more. It adds a nice new map but unfortunately it is tucked away in the disappointing expeditions part of the game. I feel this could have been great if it had been fleshed out into a longer story with more collectables and integrated into the main game rather than as an expedition. It does not take very long to complete so it is probably not worth the money, however since it appears you can’t buy the base game without the season pass you might as well give it a go.

TVD
TVD

Added EOS almost a decade after launch to the entire reboot trilogy. This has rendered the games to be unplayable without dealing with Epic Games' service. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is also a single player game that needs it for nothing and it was even shoved over there. Square Enix on their usual foolishness.

wanda
wanda

I can understand why there are so many different opinions about this DLC, but I can't quite understand why this has so many negative reviews (note: when i wrote this, only 44% were positive). I played and replayed this and I would repeat it again without thinking twice! Sure, it has nothing to do with the main story and the puzzles can be a little bit annoying if you don't like to spend more time on the same challenge, but it is quite enjoyable as well and tricky! I prefer to play difficult quests rather than plain & simples ones, that may be why I did not mind it.
This DLC is a little bit different from the gameplay that Tomb Raider players are used to and that may be why only a certain amount of people enjoy this. New map, zombies, a different gameplay - a mix that went wrong for some and was a blast for others. You'll only find out if you like it if you try it first!

DavEv0010
DavEv0010

Completely uninspired and out of place zombie hoard mode. Annoying radio dialogue - they clearly think they've been cleaver but it is always just tiresome and you can't progress until it finishes. Did I mention the never ending streams of zombies?

Abysmal from start to finish. I think there may be a reason only 1% of players have completed this.

CV-6 Supremacy
CV-6 Supremacy

Perfectly good DLC for ROTR. This is less story based and basically just running around shooting zombies. Its arcadey in ways and pretty simple which isnt a huge issue for me when there are more story-based DLC like Baba Yaga and Croft Manor. Plus the achievements are pretty fun to get and can mix the gameplay up a bit. I got it along with the other DLC and base game in one package (and on sale) and I would recommend getting it that way. Its possible some of the people who disliked this bought it by itself and although its good its not $10 good. So get it with the rest of the game, the other DLC or if its on sale is my recommendation.

Jazm
Jazm

Thoroughly not fun at any point and only serves to painfully highlight the flaws in the game with Lara constantly not gripping ledges/ropes/branches and falling to her death, melee/dodging/counters COMPLETELY RANDOMLY deciding to bother working and the fact that the gunplay is tediously slow/clunky with projectiles not registering due to what appears to be either horrible RNG mechanics or just trash programing.

It's supposed to be horror themed but the immersion gets broken pretty much instantly due to how bad it all plays, it's not spooky or thrilling, just aggravatingly frustrating when the game constantly decides to ignore your input and game-world rules causing you heaps of unintended grief to grind through over and over again.

Also forget about playing with stealth/survival style approaches, after sneaking around meticulously gathering resources and getting in position to rescue prisoners the game suddenly tells you every enemy on the map knows EXACTLY where you are for some reason and rushes your position forcing you to expend resources while having to run far away and start the process of sneaking back all over again, this happens completely at random over and over again and you have absolutely no agency or possibility to prevent it.

Unlike the "Baba Yaga" DLC that is integrated in the main game, this one is cheaply hidden away in the tacked-on MTX mode complete with "cards" you can buy in randomized/gambling packs to make the experience be over with quicker and less painfully. Yes, it's insulting and dirty. Only reason to play this is to unlock the DLC shotgun and costume for the main-game, but the problem is that you HAVE to play through this fecal-fest of a DLC at least 3 times to completion to have that happen!

Sara
Sara

Bad map, enemies keep spawning randomly and excessively, no challenge - just frustration. You would be better of playing doom on nightmare mode. Made me lose my mind and act a fool. Do not recommend.

Theoran
Theoran

This is not what I want in a Tomb Raider game or DLC. I don't want to play a horror/survival game shooting blind infected enemies while I am trying to explore a very small map and solve small puzzles that Nadia literally tells you how to complete. This is a small game mode I played to finish out the achievements, save prisoners to get the Voidhammer skin for the Break-Action Shotgun, and save even more prisoners to get the Ushanka outfit. There’s no other reason to play this game mode unless you like shooting infected/zombies, and if that’s the case, play Left 4 Dead 2, a game that’s good at that kind of thing.