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Lara Croft becomes the Tomb Raider

The reboot game of Tomb Raider came out as far back as 2013 on PS3 and Xbox 360 end-era. It was just the same year when PS4 and Xbox One was released and the game quickly saw a port to those consoles. I did vaguely remember playing Tomb Raider on PS3 before buying a PS4 console. Every since I have played the Definitive Edition on PS4 Pro, PS5 and PS5 Pro consoles. But, just a few months ago Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition was released on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 consoles. I played it through on Nintendo Switch 2 (docked mode).

Plot

Lara goes on her first archaeological expedition, intending to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai. They sails into the Dragon’s Triangle, where the ship is struck by a violent storm and it sinks. The survivors are stranded on a remote island. Lara is separated from the others and quickly attacked by someone. She regains consciousness in a cave and escapes from crazy savages. After Lara regroups with her friends they realise the must leave the island no matter what; away from crazy savages and what seems like an ancient wrath of a goddess.

The story overall was good, very movie-like, very camp, with turning some twists and narrow escapes.

Gameplay, controls, audio and visuals

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is an action-adventure game. Player plays as Lara Croft, an archeologist who must survive against all odds and do whatever it takes to save herself and her friends. The gameplay is based on semi open areas, that can be access again after leaving them (via fast travel in camps). But the reason to go back to previous areas are only to collect everything in the game. Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition has many hidden secrets, that I haven’t found all (even though I have played it many times).

So, what the gameplay consist the most was running to one place to another, killing enemies on the way and collecting items, such as ammunition, scraps (which can be used to upgrade weapons) and gain XP that will eventually give a Skill Point that can be used to upgrade Lara’s stats or get new moves.

Lara has four basic weapons, which she won’t get all in the beginning. They are give to her along the way. The gameplay is fast-paced, lots of jumping and climbing, action-heavy, movie-like with explosions and dire situations.

Controls are good in this game. Lara can jump, run, dodge, hit, shoot… all the basic stuff. One thing she cannot do is healing as the game doesn’t have any healing items or healing system, other than automatically healing after getting hit. Players must avoid enemies and take cover after taking damage for Lara to heal herself.

All the audio in the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is as camp and movie-esque as can be. Little bit over so, but hey, it suits the whole ensemble. The game is naturally voice acted and it is done well.

Graphically the game does look old. Very old. Like 13-years old. I did expect it to be little bit better looking, but at least it runs smoothly in 60fps. There were some pop-ups and bad shadows presented, but they didn’t bother me that much. It was obvious that there were some downgraded visuals in this port.

Last Tomb

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition was a good experience to be played again. It does show its age very well, but nevertheless I kinda like the campiness and fast-paced gameplay. I played it through in about 10 hours. And do I recommend this? Well… yeah, it was fully playable. But I prefer playing this on other consoles like PS5 as it looks better on those hardware.

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition is available on Nintendo Switch 2 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming and Windows.

SCORE:

4/5

“The gameplay is fast-paced, lots of jumping and climbing, action-heavy, movie-like with explosions and dire situations”

RELEASE DATE: November 18, 2025
GENRE: Action / Puzzle / Adventure
DEVELOPER: Crystal Dynamics / Aspyr
PUBLISHER: Aspyr
PLATFORMS: Nintendo switch 2
Nintendo Switch
PS4
Xbox One
Xbox Series X|S
Xbox Cloud Gaming
Windows

 

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