When Uncharted came out, it was often called “Dude Raider”, as it was obviously taking pages from Lara Croft’s many adventures. When Tomb Raider was at the height of its powers in the late 90s, you really couldn’t escape it. Lara Croft was everywhere. For a hot minute, she was a semi-mascot for the PS1 and represented the leap forward into 3D graphics.
Tomb Raider was so popular and dominated the “exploring ancient places” concept that any third-person game set in ruins or jungles was instantly labeled a Tomb Raider clone. Some time during the seventh console generation, Crystal Dynamics pumped out the solid “Legend” trilogy, and after taking it to its logical conclusion, it was time to give Lara another reboot.
The “Survivor” trilogy began at the tail end of the seventh generation with the simply named Tomb Raider. This grounded and realistic take on Lara was well-received at the time and got eighth-gen console ports, which were pretty good. Over a decade since it first came out, it has never appeared on a Nintendo console… until now. How does it hold up? Find out in our Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition review!
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Developer: Crystal Dynamics, Nixxes Software, Eidos Interactive, United Front Games, Feral Interactive, Eidos Montréal
Publisher: Aspyr, Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics
Platforms: PC, Stadia, Linux, Xbox 360 (as Tomb Raider), Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 3 (as Tomb Raider), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
Release Date: November 18, 2025 / January 23, 2014 / March 5, 2013
Price: $19.99
Tomb Raider begins with Lara and her friends getting shipwrecked on a mysterious island permanently surrounded by storms. Lara, at this stage in her life, is not quite the “Tomb Raider” yet. In fact, she hates tombs, has no weapons experience, and barely has any confidence at all. The idea behind this game is an “origin story” for a grounded and realistic take on the character.
The gameplay unfolds like Uncharted, if it were a metroidvania, thus coming full circle of these two franchises cannibalizing themselves. This does not feel like a Tomb Raider game at all. The platforming and climbing have very dated seventh-gen era automated mechanics, where characters feel like they are magnetized to ledges. This was common back in the day as a result of making action games more casual to non-gamers.
The “survival” mechanics and collectibles are superficial and are scattered around more like a collect-a-thon than a hardcore adventure game. Lara even gets a map, and collectibles get marked when finding a specific item in every area, which makes finding everything too easy. Thankfully, the puzzles are clever and fun and are mostly optional side missions.
Combat and shooting have been refined and feel more visceral than in any prior entry. Lara gets a decent range of combat options and can play stealthily, showing more versatility than Nathan Drake ever had. She gets guns, of course, but her main weapon is her bow and arrows… The Hunger Games films were a crazy popular film at the time, so tons of late seventh and early eighth gen games featured archery.
Tomb Raider gets decent mileage out of the bow by having a flexible upgrade path that expands its utility, as well as having a use for passing unreachable areas. It’s got solid implementation and makes the most sense in a grounded context. On Switch 2, gyro aiming and mouse aiming give this version a slight edge, and there are plenty of options to tweak its settings to make it more comfortable.
The combat still holds up, and the awesome violence still makes me reel back in shock at what the developers came up with. Lara faces some horrific demises that veer close to downright cruelty and even a little bit of black comedy. The savagery is on par with the likes of the original Last of Us, and is just as unrealistic.
Ironically, Crystal Dynamics’ mission to make a more realistic Tomb Raider resulted in the least realistic entry at the time. Lara’s health regenerates now, cutscenes show her taking unbelievable falls and wipeouts, and she suffers injuries that would have caused fatal infections. There is nothing realistic or grounded in this game. Its pretensions only highlight how unrealistic it is compared to the much older PS1 Tomb Raider games.
It may be totally unrealistic, but this Tomb Raider is very cinematic. The visuals and spectacle were some of the best achieved on consoles at the time, and even now, they still look great. How does it translate onto the Nintendo Switch 2 compared to the upgraded PS4 version? Despite what it says on the label, this is not really the “definitive edition”.
The graphical cutbacks are noticeable and resemble a mix of some of the improvements seen on the PS4 version, but also brought back some of the settings from the original PS3 release. Lara’s original hair model from the PS3 version is present, but her face model appears to be the PS4 fidelity. Many of the textures have lower detail, the foliage appears more sparse, and the trees look oddly shiny.
Even with the completely mixed-up levels for the graphics, Tomb Raider is a good-looking game. The art direction is strong enough to carry the aging visuals. The only feature that looks rough is the lighting, which shows rough and noisy-looking shadow quality. One comical omission is real-time reflections, which results in an unintentionally funny scene where Lara looks into a very dull “mirror” that does not work, ruining the scene’s intent.
Why is the Switch 2 version of Tomb Raider such an odd mix of graphical settings? Who knows. Thankfully, the trade-off is a very smooth and stable 60 frames per second. This is a big deal because the Definitive Edition on the PlayStation consoles had some drops in it.
The compromised graphics for a superior frame rate was the right call, especially when it comes to the various controller features for Switch 2. Surprisingly, the multiplayer mode has been left intact. Yeah, that’s right. Tomb Raider had an executive mandate to include an online multiplayer mode like most seventh-gen AAA games. It’s exactly as superfluous as you think, but it’s cool to have and adds some value to an impressively modestly priced game.
Tomb Raider (2013) was very much a misguided product of its time. It’s more enjoyable than any Uncharted game, thanks to the metroidvania progression, fun puzzles, and deeper combat, but its dumbed-down gameplay makes it dull compared to its predecessors. On Switch 2, you’ll enjoy a tight 60FPS and some incongruent graphics, but I think they still look pretty good.
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 using a code provided by Aspyr. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is now available for PC (via STEAM), Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Nintendo Switch 2.
