Lara's Shadow is much more ambitious than 'Beneath the Ashes', and turns Tomb Raider into a much faster, more fluid game.

'Lara's Shadow' is the second downloadable content pack for Tomb Raider Underworld, following a mere fortnight after 'Beneath the Ashes'. Whereas Lara's first DLC was a short, uninspired trot through familiar territory, Lara's Shadow does far more to justify its 800 Microsoft Point price tag. It has an all-new protagonist, whose new moves and special abilities make the game much faster than before, and imaginative level design that takes advantage of her new skill set. In short, Lara's Shadow delivers what fans have a right to expect from DLC, and it will please Lara die-hards and adventure fans alike.

The story of Lara's Shadow interweaves Beneath the Ashes, and even features some of its cut-scenes. You play Lara's Shadow, the doppleganger who first appeared in Tomb Raider Underworld, and the game revolves around her relationship to both Natla and Lara. As with previous Tomb Raiders, the story and characters are badly written and entirely forgettable, but the introduction of Lara's Shadow does wonders for the gameplay. Her increased agility, stronger powers and new special abilities mean that this is a very different game to Tomb Raider Underworld, and one that fans of the series will really get a kick out of.

The new gameplay feature is the shadow meter, which enhances the standard move set. By holding down either of the bumper buttons to activate these powers, Shadow Lara can free-climb up certain special surfaces, or run along regular ledges a lot quicker than before. She moves at such a pace that she makes the original Lara look like an amateur spelunker, and experienced players will be able to scale the environments in a much more fluid manner than before. The latest Prince of Persia has clearly influenced Shadow Lara's abilities, but thankfully they add to the challenge and sense of exploration, rather than making things too easy.

The other area where the shadow abilities come into play is combat. As long as your shadow meter is at full capacity, holding a shoulder button and pressing a regular attack results in a much more powerful version of that move. Press punch, and Shadow Lara will unleash an almighty blow to her enemy, whereas shooting your guns results in a much faster rate of fire. She can also slow down time and move faster through the environment if you hold the shoulder button, allowing her to pass through some fiendish Indiana-Jones style traps. Finally, her health regenerates, meaning that the old-fashioned system of collecting health packs has gone completely. Combined with the new offensive moves, the health system does make the combat easier, even though the enemies are much bigger.

Given Shadow Lara's new skills and abilities, the levels have had to become even larger and more industrial. There are some huge set-pieces involving mechanical traps and moving objects, and her new skill set comes in handy in moving quickly or slowing down time in order to avoid death. Whereas 'Beneath the Ashes' incorporated a lot of rappelling and puzzle-solving, this has been banished in favour of elaborate exploration in Lara's Shadow. Much of your time will be spent figuring out how to scale a huge environment, and then using the right combination of button presses to navigate it. This is where Lara's Shadow really succeeds, and while the combat still occurs more frequently than we'd like, it's an absolute joy to master the new abilities and see them in action. The only downside is that, like Underworld, there's some back-tracking through the same areas.

Although Lara's Shadow arrives a mere fortnight after Beneath the Ashes, it outshines its predecessor in nearly every way. The new character radically changes the gameplay, making the game much more fast paced than before, while the level design incorporates these changes for a new focus on simple exploration. The combat is still cumbersome, and it's still relatively short at around two hours, but the level design makes this world a joy to explore. This is a great example of novel downloadable content, and it's something that Tomb Raider fans should definitely add to their download queue.