Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration Pack Review (Theoran)
The 20 Year Celebration Pack DLC adds a lot to the game. Cosmetics like outfits and weapons, a new difficulty in Extreme Survivor, Lara’s Nightmare (a zombie horde game mode), and Blood Ties (a non-combat point and click story).
Blood Ties takes about 90 minutes to complete and really fills in the details into Lord Croft and Amelia’s first meeting, courtship, birth of Lara, and eventual tragedy. It is a touching and narrative driven story that will pull at your heartstrings as Lara searches the run-down Croft manor for clues to her right of inheritance. My favorite part of the story was exploring the Egyptian themed treasure hunt in the basement that Richard Croft created for Lara’s birthday. I also enjoyed the relationship of the butler, Winston, and a young Lara. All the relics and documents scattered about the manor provide a greater background of Lara’s family and her character/motivations.
As much as I enjoyed Blood Ties, I did not enjoy Lara’s Nightmare. You basically run around your haunted manor looking for floating skulls to shoot before you fight the big floating skull. It’s OK for what it is, its not something I particularly care for or will come back to.
The new difficulty provides a new level of challenge in that you can only save at campfires. Its cool if you want another level of difficulty.
All in all, this is a very nice DLC with a lot to offer. I enjoyed the story, the added outfits and weapons, and the new game mode is an added challenge to tackle.