Square Enix announces multiplayer DLC for Tomb Raider

It's not even been two days since Tomb Raider was launched and Square Enix has already announced a DLC for the game. The company will expand the game's multiplayer component with the DLC, as the only things in it are three multiplayer maps. The DLC will be out on March 19 for the Xbox 360, where it will cost 400 Microsoft Points (Rs 273). Square hasn't revealed the release date for other platforms yet.

The maps in the DLC are called Scavenger Caverns, Cliff Shantytown and Burning Village. Scavenger Caverns is set to be an underground map and promises to be more up close and personal than the other maps. The Burning Village, like the name suggests, will probably have fire playing an important role in the map design. Compared to the other maps in the DLC, Cliff Shantytown looks like it'll be more open.

Square Enix wants to expand Tomb Raider's multiplayer

Tomb Raider was released earlier this week and is available at game stores and online retailers for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It costs Rs 2,499 on the PS3 and the Xbox 360, and Rs 999 on the PC. The game is also available on Steam, but for a much higher price of $49.99, which roughly translates to Rs 2,700.

This Tomb Raider game is a reboot of the original series and tells the story of how Lara Croft went from being an ordinary girl to the Tomb Raider we have come to know. The game has her stranded on a fictional, tropical island called Yamatai where she has to survive against bandits and nature.

Unlike the previous Tomb Raider games, Lara's main weapon in this game is a bow. She has three options when confronted by an enemy. She can either go the stealth route and try to sneak around while picking off enemies with the bow; jump in for some toe-to-toe action using mêlée weapons like the pickaxe, or she can just run in guns blazing and murder everyone. You can level up Lara's skills with different weapons, and learn new skills and new ways to use the weapons.

Lara can use her environment to gain an advantage over her enemies; she can shoot a lantern or throw it to start a fire. You can also get different kinds of arrows for the bow, like arrows with a rope attached so you can turn it into a makeshift grappling hook, or a fire arrow that lets you cause explosions and fires. If push comes to shove, Lara can use her arrows to perform an unsuccessful tracheostomy by sticking one into an enemy's throat.

A lot of times, the weapons Lara finds will be in poor condition. So she has to go around scavenging parts to rebuild and eventually improve them. This is basically meant to be an incentive to explore the world more than the story requires.