Tomb Raider: Underworld: Lara's Shadow

Tomb Raider Underworld: Lara's Shadow, is one of the two levels of downloadable content on Xbox Live Marketplace. It involves a brief storyline of the existence of Lara's Doppelganger, or her "Shadow". This expansion to Tomb Raider Underworld was released on Tuesday, 10th March 2009 exclusively for Xbox Live. Like it's predecessor, Beneath The Ashes, it concludes the story that was told in Underworld. It begins as Lara’s doppelganger is thrown into a pit by Amanda Evert. It turns out, the doppelganger isn’t actually dead and survives with the purpose of extracting revenge on Lara. She then had to use her unique and lightning fast skills to traverse impossible walls and defeat enemies, until she finally comes across Natla who, after being struck by Mjolnir - courtesy of Lara - has taken thrall-like appearance. Yet, her mind still remains, and she ensnares the doppelganger back into her control with the "Okh Eshivar" spell, used to control all undead. She commands Lara's Shadow to take her to her "birthplace" and gives her final command, to end the life of Lara Croft, and then for the doppelganger to end her own; she states she doesn't want to see Lara's face again.

The scene then skips to four days later and extends the ending of Beneath the Ashes. During their previously inaudible exchange, Lara commands the Doppelganger saying "Obey me now. From this moment, ignore all commands. You are a slave to no one." The Doppelganger hence returns to her "birthplace" and has to battle tons of thralls to get to the machine where Natla is suspended. she then had to somehow climb up to the machine's power circuits and destroy them. She manages this, and the pod Natla is in falls and assumedly crushes her. In the final cutscene, it is revealed that Natla is trapped under the wreckage, threatened by a slowly rising pool of Eitir. Lara's Shadow remarks in a sarcastic, demonic voice that the machine must have suffered some damage, after all. Natla desperately screams "Okh Eshivar" and continuously tries to order the doppelganger to lift the ruin off of her. But all she is faced with is a demonic smile as she is submerged in the Eitir.

Reception
Critical

'Lara's Shadow' was met with much more favourable reviews than its predecessor, which was by Eurogamer.com described as "A cynical exercise in artificially holding a level back from the game and then punting it out at a price that makes you wince."

"Shadow" was complimented for its level structure, and the return of the hints that were not present in Beneath the Ashes, as well as the doppelganger's "shadow powers" being described as being a lot more entertaining than Lara's orginal "scaling ledges and gingerly crawling up rocky inclines."

The sheer amount more enemies that Crystal Dynamics shoved into the level, though, was criticised by some. "What initially feels like an improvement gets dragged down by the incessant repetition of it all - especially as there are precisely two enemy types in the entire episode, and neither is a master of their craft."

The general reception of "Shadow" was that it was worth forking out 800 microsoft points for another two hours of great content.

Sales

800 Microsoft points equates to £6.80 in Great Britain and €9.60 in Europe. While some thought this expensive, most agreed it was worth the money