Tomb Raider Free DLC Leaves Fans Outraged: 'Lara Deserves Better'

A new free DLC for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered dropped earlier this week, but reception to the update has not gone as well as one would have hoped.

After several days of teasing it, Aspyr released a new challenge mode for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered on all platforms.

The new mode essentially adds modifiers to the game to make it easier or harder, along with new costumes that you can equip for Lara which gives her new abilities. It’s not necessarily an update anyone asked for, but sounds relatively fun, no?

In the last few days, fans have spotted a variety of new bugs, performance issues, and other problems that have been introduced to Tomb Raider I-III Remastered after this patch dropped.

Some players are reporting audio bugs when loading into levels, with the menu music persisting even during gameplay. There are also stuttering issues associated with the audio in the remaster.

Meanwhile, many players are accusing Aspyr of using AI-generated textures to design the new costumes for Lara, claiming that they’re of a much lower quality compared to the costumes that were included in the base game at launch.

Tomb Raider Fans Are Leaving Negative Reviews On Steam After Latest Update

While the game was sitting on a “Very Positive” rating of 86% on Steam, more recent reviews published since the update dropped have given the game a “Mixed” rating of 44%.

It seems that more and more negative reviews are coming in as the week progresses, too, all focused on the issues introduced during the latest patch.

“Keep AI out of Tomb Raider, Lara deserves better than this,” reads one negative review on the Steam store. As of publishing the review, the user in question had 175 hours logged in-game.

“This update is a total let down. It devalues the passion the developers poured into the project and replaces it with low-quality AI work,” reads another review. “Prior to the update on 12th March, this was once my go-to recommendation for fans. Stay away until it's fixed or rolledback.”

“They patched in a bunch of AI slop garbage, introduced a ton of bugs and basically ruined the game retroactively,” reads a third negative review. “Avoid at all costs, do not pick up anything by Aspyr or Crystal Dynamics at all.”

As a big fan of the Tomb Raider series, and this collection in particular, it’s a shame to see the game in this state. Hopefully Crystal Dynamics is able to intervene and fix all of the issues with the patch, while it prepares to release Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis later this year.