Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Review – Smooth but Compromised Adventuring

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch 2

When Crystal Dynamics rebooted Tomb Raider in 2013, it arrived as precisely the kind of reinvention the series needed after years of middling follow-ups and Sony’s Uncharted’s meteoric rise. More than a decade later, Lara Croft’s grittiest adventure finally lands on Nintendo Switch 1 and 2 courtesy of Aspyr, a studio whose track record with remasters and ports has been a mixed bag.

Even so, its push to bring modern classics to hardware once thought improbable remains admirable, and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition promises the full last-gen package at a modest price on the portable consoles.

The value proposition is simple. This is not a forgotten relic being restored, nor is it a luxury bundle of extras. It is a chance to carry a modern action-adventure landmark wherever you please. The question is whether this portable version does justice to Lara’s brutal origin story or feels like an excursion worth skipping.

Lara Croft’s Toughest Beginning

Chances are you know who Lara Croft, the legendary pre-Nathan Drake adventurer, is and why she’s been such a huge gaming icon for decades now. “Indiana Jones but make him a woman” might’ve been the original pitch for the character, but she soon became a heroine with her own voice and mythology.

With the 2013 reboot, the powers that be sought to create a new Lara Croft for a different era. If Uncharted was already doing modern AAA blockbusters with heavy doses of Spielbergian DNA excellently, where did that leave Tomb Raider?

The answer, at least in this first entry of the rebooted trilogy, was to go substantially darker and meaner. Tomb Raider aimed to show us Lara’s origins while also freeing itself from the previous canon. Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins would be an apt comparison here, yet that refresh of the Caped Crusader remained family-friendly despite a more serious approach. The new Tomb Raider, meanwhile, upped the gore and horror while retaining the lightweight pacing and adventurous tone of past entries.

On paper, a breezy action-adventure crowd-pleaser with just the right amount of secondary tasks and open exploration is a perfect fit for the Switch consoles, and indeed, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on Switch 2 is largely a winner, but there are some caveats.

A More Mature Descent

If you’ve never played this iteration of Tomb Raider before, here’s where I warn parents and adults who don’t do great with horror and violence about its sombre tone and brutal action.

Whereas Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider made moves towards the original series’ more family-friendly (but occasionally spooky) atmosphere, the 2013 game doesn’t pull any punches. Lara Croft goes through hell in this one and is repeatedly bruised, stabbed, and thrown around unceremoniously.

That’s not even the “worst” part. Tomb Raider is also full of gore, body parts floating in pools of blood, more bones than you can count, and really nasty acts of violence that would make even the Doomguy flinch at times. It all serves a purpose, though.

Lara goes from being terrified to a hardened survivor in the style of John Rambo, while also learning about and exploring the lost island of Yamatai after a shipwreck. As she grows as a character, she gains access to bigger weapons and new abilities. It’s the sort of well-balanced narrative and gameplay mix we rarely find in big-budget linear adventures of the seventh generation of consoles.

Promising Features, Lacking Delivery

That distinct creative vision remained untouched in Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, which mostly aimed to improve the game’s graphical fidelity and polish rough edges. Content-wise, it also packed every DLC released for the competitive multiplayer plus some nice extras. In the Switch 1 and 2 ports, you’re still getting the whole experience, but good luck finding any full online matches.

What about platform-specific features, though? After all, Nintendo’s hybrid consoles are great opportunities to experiment with controls, and too many remasters and ports forget to make the most of the hardware’s uniqueness. I wasn’t expecting a lot on this front, as Aspyr typically keeps things simple, so I was surprised to see mention of gyro controls and touchscreen support, with the neat extra of mouse controls if you’re on Switch 2.

It soon was revealed to me that the gyro and touchscreen features are either half-baked or in dire need of a hotfix, as they don’t affect aiming or physical interactions, and are limited to the in-game menus.

I’m not a big fan of gyro controls on Switch hardware personally, but such a limited implementation is baffling to say the least. Mouse controls, on the other hand, work well enough on Switch 2 and make for a pretty enjoyable experience when combined with the silky smooth 60 FPS gameplay the beefier hardware enables.

Old Content, New Hardware, Mixed Execution

Since there are no content surprises and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition isn’t exactly new, the main question when approaching these Switch 1 and 2 ports will be: How do they run? On Switch 1, there’s a predictable 30 FPS lock in place and sub-1080p res. target.

My experience with the Switch 2 version has been satisfying, if a bit strange; while it consistently hits 1080p and 60 FPS (which makes it more stable than its PS4 and Xbox One counterparts), several visual cutbacks have left me scratching my head.

I’ve gone through this game enough times over the years and across different platforms to notice there was something off about the presentation, and Digital Foundry’s video analysis confirmed my suspicions that rain effects in some areas, tree shadows, and lighting have been cut back to the point they sometimes create a cleaner and flatter presentation than PS3 & 360’s original release.

Needless to say, the advanced (optional) hair physics present in the PC version aren’t present either. It all makes sense to give the Switch 1 version headroom, but Switch 2’s full horsepower isn’t being utilised here.

Overall, there’s nothing straight-up bad about Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch 2, and patches could definitely get it into notable territory, but as it stands, this “definitive edition” of an excellent game feels like a half-hearted effort which needs an extra push to become a must-own. That said, if you’re looking for a well-performing re-release of Lara Croft’s bloodiest adventure you can happily play anywhere, it’s hard not to see it as good bang for the buck.

Aspyr’s port of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is available now on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.