A Very Decent Port for a Legend: Shadow of the Tomb Raider on Nintendo Switch 2
I’ve been a fan of Lara Croft since I first played Tomb Raider on my childhood PC. If you told me then that she would become one of the most recognizable video game characters in the world, I think I would have believed it. Tomb Raider was a huge deal when it came out, and it was surprising to me that what felt like a console port turned out to be such a good PC game.
The fact that we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the original game’s release blows my mind a bit. And what better way to do that than checking out Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which recently dropped on the Nintendo Switch 2?
When Shadow of the Tomb Raider originally launched to close out the Survivor era of Lara’s adventures, it earned mostly positive reviews. Shadow leaned far more heavily on exploration and puzzle-solving than the frequent firefights of the previous two games in the Survivor Trilogy.
There were also some great new stealth mechanics that helped it stand out—like Lara’s ability to cover herself in mud à la Arnold in Predator, and utilizing the jungle canopy to hide. It also had incredible graphical fidelity, which I honestly thought the Switch 2 would handle a bit better than it does. While the same great game remains underneath, playing on Nintendo's new hardware means playing with a bit of a compromise.
Let's start with the bad: the graphics took a noticeable hit in the jump to the Switch 2. It outputs at 1080p and targets 30 FPS, which isn’t great for a game that’s nearly a decade old. There is no HDR support either, meaning those ancient jungle ruins and underwater sections won’t visually pop quite as much as they do on other platforms. Since you are playing on what is essentially a handheld system, the compromise here isn’t exactly surprising—but it is notable.
On the plus side, you are getting the true Definitive Edition of Shadow of the Tomb Raider here. That means you get all seven DLC Challenge Tombs, plus all previously released DLC weapons, outfits, and skills. You can even play two-player co-op in the Challenge Tombs, though I haven’t had the chance to test that out myself.
I can’t believe Tomb Raider is 30 years old, but I can easily believe Lara will be around for another 30. I guess we’ll have to see how her upcoming games are received, but Shadow of the Tomb Raider remains a solid entry in the series. If you only have a Switch 2 and have never played it before, this is a great time to pick it up. Otherwise, you might have better options elsewhere—but if you absolutely want to take it on the go, it’s a decent port.
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