Cold Darkness Awakened: My Thoughts

These are my thoughts about the DLC after beating it. I am trying to make this as spoiler free as possible. Maybe some minor ones. 

 

Ever feel like you are being watched when you really are not? Ever feel like you’re hearing something just beyond the edge of sight, which could be ready to pounce on you any moment from the shroud of darkness? Well, if you are like me, you have, after I played Cold Darkness Awakened and then walked my dog just after at night. Yikes!

I mentioned it had a strong horror element running through it, and I was not kidding. Scaring the heck out of the audience is an art form, from the setting, lighting, gore level, music and sound effects. Everything was in play in this DLC. They thought of the whole shebang. The very sound the enemies make is chilling. They are in pursuit of Lara constantly.

Nadia is speaking to her a lot and giving her instructions about certain areas, and such. When she does, and then warns Lara to get out fast because all the infected hordes suddenly stopped and looked in Lara’s direction at once! As if being belched from the depths of the earth they swarm her. They are carrying weapons. They have explosives to hurl at Lara, knives, axes, shovels and regalia of other items I have yet to determine.

This journey through terror is intense and makes you think fast. As soon as Lara rests anywhere they usually find her within seconds. You won’t wonder for long where they are. They” being the men from Trinity. They wander about the area and growl, bark and make noises only the completely unhinged would make. Some of the sounds are like monsters approaching. That alone is chilling and makes you flee and never look back. You hear them, you know they are close but do not always see them until they jump out at her.

What I found precarious were the areas where Lara must find something key to completing a segment of the game, and while you are scanning the area in question for where she needs to go, the zombie like things find her and start to hack at her relentlessly. They also appear to not die at times, for they will fall to the ground in what appears to be them dead, and then if you look at where they fell long enough, they stand up again. Rebirth perhaps, but not the kind you would wish for. Yikes!

Visualize this cute little fella, NOT

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Credit Crystal Dynamic, taken by my phone

… multiplied by hundreds like a Flood swarm from Halo showed here.

Flood_halo3
The Flood from the game Halo

The game in itself is dark, foreboding and certainly not for youngsters. I mean it when I say it reminded me of Halo’s Flood. Lara has to fight through the hordes of nightmarish, monstrous men. I didn’t notice any animals just people bent on killing Lara and running at her from every direction. Lara had virtually no sanctuary, and there were times I thought I would not finish this game for it was so difficult to get her through these creepy guys.

Now, I will say it made me work for everything, and I like that aspect. It was a horror DLC that cast its gruesome shadow in a most excellent manner. All in all I enjoyed it. It creeped me out, and that was the point of making a game like this. It hit the mark, and I am satisfied I beat it and had the opportunity to play it. This was another fine DLC to add to the ever-growing Tomb Raider list. Yahoo! I look forward to what is next.

This is Emma signing off until the next update!

2 thoughts on “Cold Darkness Awakened: My Thoughts

  1. Pingback: Yearly Wrap Up!

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