As Tomb Raider games go, Rise of the Tomb Raider was and still is an absolute banger of a game. It’s not without some major flaws, but it is one of the best Tomb Raider experiences to date. Because of which, and with a sense of inevitability due to the previous games already being re-released for the Switch 2, Rise of the Tomb Raider has been given its chance to shine to a new audience on the Nintendo platform.
For £26.99, what do you get for your money for a game originally released all the way back on November the 10th, 2015? The 20 Year Celebration version comes with the base game alongside all the additional DLC and mouse support for the Switch 2. The amount of DLC is not to be sniffed at as there is a lot of extra content. Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch, Cold Darkness Awakened, Blood Ties, Lara’s Nightmare, Endurance Mode and even an online co-op Endurance Mode too.
I played this game originally on the Xbox One, alongside all of the DLC. The game has aged really well, and I can’t believe it’s been over a decade since this was originally released.
Then, like now, I was amazed at the glorious artwork, extremely detailed environments, excellent gameplay, and the superb presentation. This game really does remember to put the ‘Tomb’ back into the ‘Tomb Raider’ name. One of the game’s highlights was the level designs and the puzzles to solve some of the tombs. Each was clever and managed to dance this side of the line of tricky, but they were not frustrating. It always felt rewarding when you figured a puzzle out, and it still does.
With such detailed graphics, wonderful and very varied environments, great puzzles and lots to explore, it really is a game you can get lost in and have a great time. I have to be honest: I enjoy the environments of this Tomb Raider game more than many of the Uncharted games.
There is one huge elephant in the room, though, where the Uncharted series excels, but this series continues to fall utterly flat: the storytelling.
The story here, the narrative, and in some parts, the acting, is as dull and as boring as can possibly be. The vague outline of the story is that Lara is determined to follow the trail of her dead dad’s lead of a “Divine Source” that could change the world with immortality. However, a shadowy organization called Trinity is following in her footsteps to find it first for their own purposes. The race is on, but that’s really about as exciting and safe as it is.
What makes the whole story worse is the mind-numbing narrative that, to be honest, even paints Lara into a not very likeable, extremely self-obsessed corner. She also contradicts herself in that she says she cares for her friends, but at the same time, is happy to put them in danger and on occasion has lost a few. I even find the monotony of Camilla Luddington’ s performance of Lara, especially her attempts at wispy, slowly delivered lines to try and make it sound more epic, laughable. The way some of her lines and monologues are delivered made me feel like she was talking to an old person with bad hearing! Slow, deliberate and condescending.
Jonah, one of the characters who travelled with Lara in the previous game, again, is written poorly. I never really understand or find out why he’s really there or what he gets out of being part of Lara’s life, apart from he seems to be there for no other reason than for Lara to have a chat with someone. At worst, he comes across as a bit of a simp!
Crystal Dynamics just can’t put together a Tomb Raider game with great gameplay alongside an excellent story. It’s frustrating because one of the most simple aspects of making a game, the writing, is the thing that really lets them down the most.
Be that as it may, the story, or lack thereof, is lost in the greatness of everything else the game delivered. This is one of the few times I enjoyed a game that didn’t have a great story to pull me through. The sense of adventure and gameplay is magnificent enough to make you want to keep playing until the bitter end. The story and the action sequences do have their moments, but they are, sadly, few and very far between.
But that neatly brings us to the game that’s been delivered on the Switch 2. I had recently been talking to my editor about Nintendo bringing a lot of older games to the new system, but none of them really felt worth the effort other than they could. As nice as it is to see Stray, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and many others landing on a new system, a lot seemed to be struggling to improve the game visually with faster frame rates or sharper graphics, or both. For those of us that have played these games before, the Switch 2 versions always feel like a step down.
While we’re talking about that, thinking that the Switch 2 may not be as capable of a console as we would have hoped, Devil May Cry 5: Devil Hunter Edition dropped and said to the doubters like us, “Hold my beer!”.
Devil May Cry 5, an old game, is not only fast-paced and full of on-screen action, but it can manage 60 fps in docked mode, alongside a whopping 90 to 120 fps in handheld.
Knowing that and realizing that the Switch 2 IS a capable console after all, I then looked back at this game and sighed. Rise of the Tomb Raider in both docked and handheld can only manage a very poor 30 fps. For games like Stray, a slow-paced third-person game, 30 fps isn’t a deal-breaker or much of an issue. It’s not really the end of the world that this game can’t reach high fps either. The issue is, you CAN play Rise of the Tomb Raider at 60 fps with the option for better visuals on much older, much cheaper hardware, i.e.: the PS4 Pro. That means the best, most definitive way to play this game is, unfortunately, not the Switch 2 version.
It’s so disappointing Aspyr didn’t up the game on the Switch 2 to 60 fps. I tested the Switch 2 version with my copy of the game on my PS4 via backwards compatibility on my PS5. On the same TV, the 60 fps version on PlayStation is easily the better experience.
Huge negatives aside, if you have never played this game at all, don’t have the old tech, and have only bought Nintendo consoles, then this game is a very easy and simple recommendation of a must-play game. The 30 fps is disappointing but not game breaking. In fact, it’s perfectly serviceable. When playing the game in handheld mode, because the screen is smaller, the effect of the lower frame rates to what I am used to is actually much less noticeable as well. Either way, you’ll still get to experience one of the best games of the last decade, just not the best version of it.
It’s really exciting that Nintendo is getting more of these Western-developed, big hitting games to its library. The Nintendo store lacks games like this one and is in a class of its own for those thirsty for amazing, high-quality, exciting adventure games.
The base game alone is worth the time, and the game’s replayability with the challenge modes, online leaderboards, and modifiers will keep you playing each level over and over again, long after you have finished the adventure.
The game is one update, one patch of improved frame rates away from utter greatness, but it is still worth the time for anyone new to Lara Croft as it is.
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Aspyr
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2
Release Date: 9th June 2026
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration for Nintendo Switch 2 was provided by the publisher.
