Definition Edition (Switch) Review – A Legendary Adventure, Diminished

Review of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Nobody asked for Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on Switch, but I'm not about to look a gifted tomb in the mouth.

After all, the 2013 reboot of the iconic Tomb Raider franchise is one of the most important games of my life.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition was the first game I bought for my new PlayStation 4. Crammed into a freshman dorm, my best friend and I spent dozens of hours replaying Lara's quest to free herself and her comrades from an insane cult of sun worshipers.

Trapped on a cursed island, Lara encounters a whole gamut of Uncharted-style cinematic adventure stunts that leave her battered, battered, and forced to fight for survival.

As an aspiring gaming journalist, I interview Shadow of the Tomb Raider Senior Gameplay Director Daniel Chayer-Bissonand his senior producer Mario Chabtini at PAX West in 2018, where I earned the wrath of my best friend for exposing them for playing Tomb Raider nine times on easy difficulty.

Since purchasing the first game, I have played most of the older games in the franchise. This is where I fell in love with the original Lara Croft: the unselfconscious thrill-seeking adventurer who does it all for the love of the game.

Despite her storied history of over-sexualization, I loved her as one of the first female video game icons. For almost ten years my license plate was L CROFT.

And all because I saw a woman's face on the cover looking back at me.

So, no pressure, right?

Graphical downgrade

It's been 12 years since this game came out and it looks worse on Switch.

I mentally struggled with how to say this. After all, I'm playing on the original Switch, and the comparison videos show that the Switch 2 version runs at much better frame rates.

But it doesn't look any better.

The cuts appear to be aimed at making the game work on the original Switch console. If you're not going to take advantage of the next-gen Switch 2's specs, why wait so long for a port? Why not just bring it to Switch five to seven years ago?

This decision isn't as baffling as bringing the infamously story-driven Mass Effect 3 to the Wii U, but it's a choice that came to mind.

A truly beautiful Switch 2-only port would give Nintendo another exclusive to promote. Instead, Tomb Raider looks good enough to pass. There's really only one reason to play it.

In the palm of your hand

Tomb Raider is an amazing portable game. Exploring the cursed island of Yamatai is a great option for watching TV shows on a second screen. It's a title that's easy to get carried away with; time disappears in him like sand.

In terms of controls, Tomb Raider feels natural on the Switch handheld. The only downside is that the smaller screen exacerbates the game's graphical issues with hair, shadows, lighting, and water effects. Sometimes this extends to textures not loading.

I would recommend Tomb Raider on Switch for handheld devices only, but that argument falls apart when you remember that Tomb Raider is available on PC and reviewed on Steam Deck.

If you have no other way to play Tomb Raider on a portable computer, or no other way at all, the Switch is a great way to experience the story. But if possible, play it on Steam Deck – it will look better. He'll probably play better too.

Growing pains

It pains me to say this, but I don't like this story anymore.

I still like the setting. An island of raging storms that refuses to allow disaster survivors to leave the island is evocative, and exploring the world remains a fun experience. I love the characters too – as long as we have them.

I'm tempted to return to the underrated sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, which takes all of Lara's most interesting archaeological instincts and codifies them into a simplified version of 2013's already pure Tomb Raider gameplay.

There's a reason why I and many others compared this game to Uncharted. Players jump and crawl through space, fight their way through endless enemies, and react with timed reactions set to elaborate stock cutscenes.

Lara's archery game is just as fun now as it was ten years ago. Progress is blocked by various weapon upgrades, and fast travel allows you to return to earlier regions to unlock more resources. Returning to earlier areas to continuously interact with Tomb Raider mechanics is the best part of the game.

But the specter of ludonarrative dissonance – yes, that’s right, I said it! – still looms over us.

Kill or…

I don't care if Lara kills people. She is certainly justified, given the circumstances! But quickly traveling to find more resources means putting Lara's friends in danger and going on the hunt, collecting artifacts, documents, and those ridiculous GPS caches.

(By the way, are these geocaches? Does Lara give up everything to go geocaching? If so, then that's the most distinctive thing she does in the entire game. Suddenly I love it. Please, no one tells me she doesn't.)

Plot-wise, the game is a merciless bummer. If someone is emotionally important to Lara, don't get attached to them. In fact, don't get attached under any circumstances – Lara's life, hope and meaning of friends are taken away from her at every turn.

Lara is haunted not by death, but by pain. Lara suffers a dark double standard to prove her worth as a badass action hero. For women to commit violence, violence must be used against them.

As women's activism in the media improves, this image has become depressingly common. Time and time again, Lara suffers horrific injuries beyond anything her male counterparts can endure.

The endless death animations carefully eroticize Lara's agony, reminding us that the changes made to modernize Lara's personality only take away the pleasure of her over-sexualization. What's better: a busty, self-actualized heroine or a misery magnet with a smaller cup?

I love tombs!

There's an infamous line early on where Lara states that she hates tombs. While you understand where she's coming from, how can you get further away from the original character than that?

At the time, fans hoped and even expected Lara to grow into the happy-go-lucky Tomb Raider we know and love. She never does. Now, not later. Of course, she gains confidence when she goes on adventures in later games, but it's always for a reason. This Lara never plays sports.

I also wasn't a big fan of Aspyr's recent remasters of the early Tomb Raider games. Either way, I'm tired of looking back. Next I'd like to see a completely new game in the Tomb Raider franchise – a game with the same fresh approach as Tomb Raider in 2013, but with the Lara I know and love.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is no longer suitable.

***Nintendo Switch code provided by the publisher***