Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

There's a lot of fun to be had in this port of Tomb Raider, although not for poor Lara who gets smashed around quite a bit. The story, while a bit silly at times, is good enough to hold your attention for its length. The Switch 2 can definitely do more than this, and we’re left with a game that runs great but could look better. At a higher price they wouldn’t get away with it, but for the asking price, it’s not too bad.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is the premiere of this reboot of the Tomb Raider series on a Nintendo platform, and it does so in great style. The game features a very enveloping cinematic quality, and its storytelling features will keep players captivated from the beginning to the end, thanks to its balance between exploration, puzzle solving and frantic combat, while behaving very well on the technical performance side. Its puzzles can feel somewhat simplistic, however, and this version for both Nintendo Switch systems clearly required a graphical compromise that is difficult to understand on the Switch 2.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is another bare minimum remaster from Aspyr, which doesn't give Lara or the Switch 2 the attention they deserve.

If you’ve never played Tomb Raider, then you can grab this and enjoy the ride. It still looks comparable to other modern titles on Switch 2. The action is also taut and, the first time through, exciting. The thing is, though: Tomb Raider just isn’t worth replaying that often. The best games – as works of art – delight over and over, no matter how familiar they become. With Tomb Raider, and so many other blockbusters over the last 15 years, familiarity just makes the lack of creative inspiration behind them and the slavish devotion to risk-free content delivery all the more apparent.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition does a basic job of presenting the 2013 classic on Nintendo’s latest hardware, but expecting anything more than that will lead to disappointment. In fact, expecting exactly that may still be a letdown if you think it’ll look anywhere near as nice as it should. This is a game being pushed on how wonderful it looks, but it just doesn’t look good on the Switch 2 at all.