Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration still functions as a top-notch action-adventure that fantastically combines exploration, tension, and cinematic pacing. Instead of getting lost in an open world and excessive spectacle around it, the game highlights its greatest asset when our protagonist Lara Croft ventures into tombs, hidden passages, and areas where you can explore, making the entire experience feel much more meaningful compared to other games in a similar genre.
This is the Tomb Raider that focuses on exploration and survival. The tombs stand out significantly as they are not just a side activity, but a serious part of the game's identity where there is a certain logical puzzle, an idea of how to progress, etc. The story itself has a certain fluidity, so the adventures are plentiful, and the game's pace is excellent, providing a good sense of progress through a very good learning curve.
Upgrading equipment and unlocking abilities further contribute to the feeling of character development, as does the resource collection system. The action segments of the game are very good, but they are not the key feature of the game; they are there to avoid any potential monotony of the exploration itself. Fortunately, the game beautifully maintains our attention on moving through the environment, climbing, and hiding, so combat does not take up too much emphasis.
The game technically leaves a very good impression on Nintendo Switch 2 since it runs at 1080p resolution in both docked and handheld modes and operates at 30 FPS, with fast loading times, giving the overall impression that it is a very reliable port. Visually, this port looks very good, especially due to the exceptionally good lighting, details, while the characters are very well simulated. Although the focused elements look excellent, there are certain compromises compared to other releases, but this is solely due to the console's limits.
The main feature of the Nintendo Switch 2 version is probably not the top-notch visual experience but the fact that you can take the entire adventure with you in a small and compact form. This version includes everything from the 20 Year Celebration edition as well as Blood Ties, Baba Yaga, Endurance, and other content, which speaks to an excellent content offering of nearly 25 hours.
Rise of the Tomb Raider for Nintendo Switch 2 absolutely deserves a recommendation for anyone who loves this type of adventure and wants a quality and portable version of this game.
