Tomb Raider (iOS) Review: Feral Brings Lara Croft’s Bloody Adventure to Mobile in a Near Flawless Port

When the Tomb Raider reboot landed again in 2013, it did one thing dangerous. It took an icon who had spent many years as an untouchable, dual-pistol-wielding drive of nature, and broke her. Gone had been Lara Croft’s weapons akimbo and her wink-at-the-camera cockiness in favour of a makeshift bow and a determined, mud-caked wrestle to keep alive on the island of Yamatai. This was an origin story that grounded the rookie raider and made you earn her legendary standing one gruelling encounter at a time. And it wasn’t simply a contemporary coat of paint, fairly a complete mechanical overhaul that dragged the franchise into the trendy period to compete with Naughty Dog’s Uncharted.

Nearly 13 years and a complete lot of cell {hardware} evolution later, Feral Interactive has introduced that precise expertise to the iPhone. As we look ahead to Lara’s subsequent big-budget journey on PC and consoles, this cell port of the “Survivor” origin story is an introspection on whether or not that gritty, immersive high quality of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot nonetheless holds up when performed on the small display.

Tomb Raider (iOS): Price, Supported Devices

Tomb Raider on iOS is accessible by way of the App Store, priced at Rs. 1,349. Feral Interactive has ported the sport for each iPhone and iPad, and it helps a helpful listing of gadgets working iOS 18/ iPadOS 18 or later firmware. As per the writer, it may well run on iPhone and iPad fashions powered by an A12 Bionic chip or later.

The sport itself is round 9.6GB in dimension and requires 11GB of area for set up, however the firm recommends having at the least double that for an optimum gameplay expertise and to keep away from preliminary set up points. I performed the sport on an iPhone 17 working iOS 26.3.

Tomb Raider (iOS): Controls

It shouldn’t be straightforward to convert a complete third-person AAA action-adventure sport like Tomb Raider into a touch-screen-supported title. However, Feral Interactive has achieved it but once more, and this time round, they’ve knocked it out of the park identical to their extremely acclaimed latest launch of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for iOS (evaluation).

The sport defaults to a digital twin stick management scheme, with the left facet of the display used to management motion and the appropriate to management the digital camera. Combat controls are mapped to on-screen triggers that allow gamers purpose, shoot, and change weapons rapidly. Lara’s bow, which turns into probably the most necessary instruments early in the sport, could be drawn utilizing the purpose button whereas adjusting the digital camera to line up photographs. There’s additionally assist for gyro, which I discovered to be surprisingly respectable right here; tilting the telephone to fine-tune a bow shot felt far more pure than swiping my thumb throughout the glass.

Virtual joysticks are the default management choice in Tomb Raider (iOS)
Photo Credit: Feral Interactive/ Screenshot – Shaurya Tomer

Other actions, like melee, survival intuition mode, or reloading, could be achieved by urgent particular buttons designed for these actions. The participant is given the choice of customising the interface, together with the choice of adjusting the dimensions in addition to the diploma of transparency of the on-screen triggers.

The traversal mechanics, corresponding to climbing, leaping from ledges, and even ziplining, are easy and well-implemented thanks to the contextual interplay system. If you are on a smaller display, having a number of buttons crowded into that actual property can lead to some unintentional deaths.

Photo Credit: Feral Interactive

If you like a conventional strategy, the sport has full controller assist. I paired it with the brand new EvoFox Deck 2, and the expertise instantly shifted into one thing a lot nearer to a handheld console. Movement and digital camera work felt considerably extra exact as soon as I had bodily analogue sticks below my thumbs. What’s additionally nice is that when you pair a controller, the digital joysticks robotically vanish, making it a near-seamless plug-and-play expertise.

With a controller related, Feral’s Tomb Raider performs remarkably nicely and feels much less like a cell sport and extra like a handheld console expertise.

Tomb Raider (iOS): Story

Crystal Dynamics’ re-imagining of the Tomb Raider collection is an origin story for Lara Croft; not the robust adventurer that one would have come to anticipate from earlier titles, however a rookie nonetheless attempting to make her approach in the sphere. As an archaeologist attempting to discover the legendary island of Yamatai, which has been misplaced in the Dragon’s Triangle (an space of the Pacific Ocean simply off present-day Japan), Lara begins her journey aboard a analysis vessel known as the “Endurance” together with her mentor and captain Conrad Roth.

Photo Credit: Feral Interactive

Things, nonetheless, go awry. A violent storm hits the island and destroys the ship, scattering crew members throughout the island. Lara wakes up alone and injured with no concept of what she is about to face. The island is a harsh place, dotted with ruins and drenched with the dread of being consistently watched.

A number of the story’s emotional weight is on Camilla Luddington’s shoulders as Lara Croft, and he or she delivers a susceptible efficiency, making you’re feeling the ache she goes by on this island. While some members of her supporting forged could be a little one-dimensional, Lara’s guilt over placing them in a perilous state of affairs is a good emotional centre to maintain on to.

It would not take lengthy earlier than Lara meets the Solarii, a fanatic cult led by a full lunatic named Mathias, who believes Lara’s buddy Samantha is the important thing to unleashing the traditional “Sun Queen” named Himiko. The premise is darkish and occult. And it makes the sport really feel weirdly private. The sport’s pacing mirrors Lara’s psychological improvement, though, very similar to Uncharted, you are quickly hit with ludonarrative dissonance. While her first kill is a massive, dramatic crescendo, she rapidly strikes on from the expertise to changing into a headshot-dealing killing machine. A minor gripe, however a legitimate one in her character improvement.

Photo Credit: Feral Interactive

What works significantly nicely is how the story tracks Lara’s transformation. Early encounters really feel tense and unsure, with Lara consistently scrambling to keep alive. Over time, although, she turns into extra succesful and decided. By the tip, the frightened survivor we meet in the beginning begins to resemble the Tomb Raider gamers recognise in the present day.

Feral Interactive, notably, has bundled the bottom sport with all 12 authentic DLC packs, which means you get the total suite of weapon upgrades and abilities proper from the bounce, together with a number of skins that allow you to change Lara’s look as she evolves. This makes Tomb Raider (iOS) primarily the “Definitive Edition” in all however identify.

Tomb Raider (iOS): Gameplay and Performance

Tomb Raider is the traditional mixture of third-person taking pictures, climbing, and head-scratching puzzles, all wrapped in a cinematic bow. You’ll spend more often than not making an attempt to survive Yamatai’s numerous terrain, from rotting army bunkers to cliffside shrines. Thankfully, traversal is generally contextual, which suggests Lara sort of “sticks” to ledges and surfaces robotically, as a substitute of requiring precision grabs. While purists may miss the precision of handbook grabs, I did not miss combating the controls simply to make a fundamental bounce. It makes the verticality really feel far more fluid than I anticipated for a cell port.

Photo Credit: Feral Interactive

Exploration is admittedly the place Tomb Raider breathes, and though the primary path is a little linear, the sport contains hidden optionally available tombs, which had been simply my spotlight of the sport. They’re not large, however they require you to take into consideration physics, like messing round with wind, ropes, and counterweights to seize some loot. It’s a good change of tempo from all the extreme fight segments.

Oh, and if you happen to’re ever caught, simply use Croft’s Survival Instinct, as it’ll spotlight something interactive. This was a large assist for me in many cases, particularly when, visually, the display bought busy with numerous components.

You play as a hunter with a bow, which is nice for silent headshots, however finally, the sport simply provides you a shotgun and allows you to go to city. It’s often in these messy outposts the place you possibly can both be a ghost or simply kick the entrance door down. I discovered myself consistently scavenging for “salvage” at campfires to increase my gear, which really provides you an incentive to discover each nook of the map.

Photo Credit: Feral Interactive

And as soon as the credit roll, there’s extra stuff for completionists to seek out. The island is teeming with paperwork, relics, and trinkets that assist flesh out the world, and looking out for these things with out the specter of a shotgun to your again is surprisingly gratifying. What’s additionally good about this port is that it is solely for the single-player expertise, eradicating all the extraneous and admittedly pointless multiplayer element from the 2013 authentic.

In phrases of graphics, Tomb Raider on iOS holds up very well visually, regardless of the core sport being practically 13 years previous, largely as a result of this port seems to use belongings from the later “Definitive Edition.” Yamatai nonetheless seems atmospheric, particularly when rain begins lashing in opposition to jagged cliffs in the sport.

Croft’s character mannequin seems gorgeous on the small display, even up shut
Photo Credit: Feral Interactive/ Screenshot – Shaurya Tomer

On my iPhone 17, the lighting through the nighttime storms seemed trendy, not like some dusty port. The stage of element in the character mannequin for Lara is astonishing; the variety of polygons used in her face and gear seems to be considerably greater than in the unique 2013 console sport. You may even see particular person beads of sweat and filth build up on her pores and skin as the sport goes on, and the hair physics, whereas a luxurious on the PC platform in the unique sport, work fantastically right here.

On the efficiency facet, Feral provides you three presets to play with: Performance, Graphics, and Battery Saver. Unless you are obsessive about counting pixels, the Performance mode needs to be the way in which to go. Graphics mode seems attractive with the high-res textures, positive, however the body fee hit makes the fight a bit difficult. The Performance mode, alternatively, is buttery easy, with solely a slight lower in a number of the eerie environmental element. I did not see any main stutters, even when issues began blowing up throughout massive scripted sequences. Feral clearly put the work into the iOS port.

It’s additionally price noting that, though the iPhone 17 stays cool all through, it is best to regulate your battery share if you happen to’re planning on spending an prolonged time frame in the Dragon’s Triangle.

Tomb Raider (iOS): Verdict

Feral Interactive’s port of Tomb Raider to iOS is a masterclass in how to revive a console traditional for the trendy cell period. It brings the visceral, high-stakes authentic story of Lara Croft to a pocket powerhouse that doesn’t compromise on graphics or depth in the slightest. On trendy cell silicon, the sport strips off its decade-old pores and skin to reveal a “Definitive” model, full with silky easy efficiency and intuitive controls which might be excellent for each new and previous followers alike.

With Tomb Raider’s glorious new iOS port, Feral Interactive has as soon as once more proved that the hole between cell and console gaming could be bridged with the appropriate arms on the helm.