Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition On Switch 2 Is ‘Cut Back’ Even From The Xbox 360 Version

Last week, Aspyr and Crystal Dynamics rather randomly released the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot on Nintendo Switch & Switch 2, and the results of this port are pretty interesting compared to the existing Xbox and PlayStation versions.

One area that the new version excels in, at least on Switch 2, is frame rate. The game is basically locked to 60FPS on the new Nintendo machine, which is pretty good going considering that even PS4 and Xbox One couldn’t manage that with Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (of course, playing on current-gen via backwards compatibility yields better results).

However, Digital Foundry has now taken a look at a bunch of different versions of this Tomb Raider title, and it’s evident that there’s a reason for this frame rate boost. In short, Switch 2 contains some big visual downgrades compared to 2014’s Definitive Edition release – and even some of the Xbox 360 and PS3 effects are missing here too.

“In a world where developers are delivering Switch 2 ports comparable (and better in some regards) than Series S titles, it’s disappointing to see this game paring back so many of the game’s features that even the original non-Definitive PlayStation 3 has visual effects that this new version does not.

Kicking off with the Switch 2 version stacked up against broadly comparable PS4 hardware, shadow resolution has dropped while foliage-based shadows have either been removed or converted from swaying, branch-tracked shadows to static ones. Ambient occlusion has been pared back too, which doesn’t help. And while some foliage elements have been added, many others have been deleted, leaving some regions looking outright patchy up close while also reducing lines of trees in distant vistas.”

There are some positives to this Switch 2 port — namely 1080p resolution in handheld mode and improved texture quality to go along with the solid frame rate — but yeah, DF seems a little puzzled by this release given some of the Xbox to Switch 2 ports we’ve seen so far. When features from the Xbox 360 version are missing, it’s probably fair to be curious as to why!

Anyway, you can have a look at the video version of this analysis up above, and we’ve linked the text version down below as well. To sum things up here, it looks as though this Switch 2 port is passable for a handheld Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition experience – but Xbox One, Series X|S and maybe even 360 are better for TV play.