Is Rise of the Tomb Raider on Nintendo Switch 2 Actually Good?
Lara Croft’s trek through the freezing wilds of Siberia lands with a massive impact, bringing a brutal, high-stakes hunt for immortality right into the palm of your hands. The atmospheric world grips you right from the explosive opening, plunging you into dangerous tombs and stunning landscapes that feel completely alive. It is a cinematic rollercoaster where survival is everything, and the seamless transition between chaotic action and quiet exploration keeps your hands glued to the controller.
QUICK NAV: [Specs] [Gameplay] [Performance] [Settings]
Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration Nintendo Switch 2 Review
- Developer: Crystal Dynamics
- Publisher: Embracer Group
- Official Store Link: Nintendo eShop UK
- Download Size: 18.4GB download size.
- EULA: One of the longest EULA scrolls I have had.
- Game Registration: Game registration option with Crystal Dynamics via the QR code.
- Save Slots: 3 save slots.
- Content Included: Includes the Blood Ties and Lara’s Nightmare DLC, and you unlock it in-game after playing the main game for a few locations.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration Nintendo Switch 2 Review
Action-adventure gameplay shines here in a third-person view, where you have full 360-degree camera control in the glorious full 3D game world. The camera does a much better job of making you feel like you are in the game and going through it as you hunt down secrets. The map fills in as you discover events, missions, and points of interest, featuring a handy filter for seeing just events or story-based sequences, and you can place your own markers to stay on track. You will actively find map fragments to add locations to your map, which are usually secrets or other bonus-laden adventures, while finding ancient coins to trade for new equipment at the shop. Base camps are your main hub where you can save, craft weapons, change outfits, fast travel between camps, and spend your skill points. Outfits give buffs, so it’s always worth looking at them as they can improve stealth or give you better resources, while regular materials and resources can be gotten from the world or from hunting down animals. Lootable objects are scattered all over the world, and you can loot killed enemies to keep your stockpiles high.
The skills are split into three distinct trees consisting of brawler, hunter, and survivor to let you build Lara how you want. Combat can be as creative and manic as you like, giving you solid shooting mechanics where you can go into cover or go full melee when things get loud. Stealth is in the game and works OK, though it’s not as tight and responsive as I would like, but you can eventually get the job done, and it successfully turns combat encounters into puzzles. Survival instincts are tied to a simple button press that will highlight points of interest for a short time to guide you forward. Any exp you earn pops up right as you earn it, and murals can be found and interacted with, which increases your ability to understand the language and levels them up over time. Tutorial pop-ups appear as you play, along with helpful button prompts, a deep help menu, and the ability to bring up the controls in the pause menu at any point. The cutscenes and gameplay seamlessly transition into one another, backed up by the game’s achievements system. When you earn them, they pop up on screen with no noise and just a clean text pop-up. Unfortunately, you do not have a hard save button, which is a bit crazy as all handheld games should have it, but whatever, and you simply get told when exiting that it was saved at camp, so you have to remember how long ago that was.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration Nintendo Switch 2 Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Visual Quality: Awesome graphics, and it’s such a beautiful-looking game that looks every bit as good as the big boy consoles.
- Cutscenes: Amazing in-game cutscenes and character interactions with amazing voice work and a powerful soundtrack.
- Docked Performance: The performance on docked is surprisingly good and solid for the most part, though you get slowdown in built-up areas or when a lot of fire is around.
- Load Times: I am very surprised by how fast the game loads and that includes respawning after death.
- Background Restrictions: Games won’t download when you are playing this game, regardless of the mode.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Mouse Controls: The game supports mouse control and has multiple layouts and a sensitivity slider.
- Gyroscope Input: Gyroscope controls support, and you have a sensitivity slider.
- Touchscreen Support: Touchscreen support can actually be turned on and off.
- Controller Settings: Controller settings feature invert axis and sensitivity sliders, alongside an HD rumble 2 toggle.
- Video Options: Video settings are just a brightness slider; that’s it.
- Audio Options: Audio settings for SFX, dialogue, music, voice-over language, voice chat toggle with voice chat volume, and subtitles, which can be set to off, on with colour, and on without colour.
- Combat Difficulties: Five combat difficulties which directly affect health, aim assist, and how campfires work.
- Game Settings toggles: Auto centre camera, reduce camera shake, broadcast frame, online features, survival instinct glows, and survival instinct Beacons.
- Leaderboards: Full online leaderboards for the expeditions game mode, for each stage/location, show completed challenges, missions, artefacts found, and have a friends filter.
- Accessibility Limits: There are no accessibility options like dyslexic font, colourblind support, or help with the quick time events.
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Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration Nintendo Switch 2 Review
Summary
What Makes Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Anniversary Worth Playing?
The package is an absolutely fantastic experience, and having it running portably is just insane. They have spared no expense and kept it tight, ensuring all the functions and modes you expect are here. The game loads incredibly fast, including when you respawn after death, and it looks every bit as good as the big boy consoles, with awesome graphics and a beautiful presentation. Between the solid shooting, creative melee combat, and the seamless way cutscenes transition into gameplay, it truly delivers a complete package that keeps you hooked.
The Biggest Frustrations In Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Anniversary:
The menus did feel a bit slow and laggy when going in and out of them, and the leaderboards’ generation of names was indeed slow to load up. The stealth mechanics work OK, but they are honestly not as tight and responsive as I would like them to be. You also have to deal with one of the longest EULA scrolls I have ever had to sit through. To make matters worse, you do not have a hard save button, which is a bit crazy as all handheld games should have it, but whatever, meaning you just have to trust the camp autosaves, and there are absolutely no accessibility options like a dyslexic font, colorblind support, or any extra help with the quick time events.
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Anniversary Overall Verdict: Is It Worth Playing?
Having a game as high quality as this running smoothly on a handheld system absolutely blows my mind. Despite a few laggy menus and some clunky stealth mechanics, the brilliant visuals and fast loading speeds make this port incredibly impressive. It is the absolute complete package for action-adventure fans looking to explore on the go. This version is an absolute must-play. Tomb Raider is and remains one of the best adventure games out there, and to have this game on hand held na dplays so well is just mind-blowing. From locations to combat, the puzzles are more the focus, but it’s just such a rollercoaster you can’t help but fall in love with it.
