Aspyr outsourced the patch to another team, and the result was not positive. It’s rare for an old game like the legendary Tomb Raider to receive an update, so one might think it’s cause for celebration. However, that’s not necessarily the case with the latest update to Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, which was released on Thursday and introduced a new challenge mode and 10 new, somewhat odd-looking costumes.

What’s more, the collection has also been released on iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch 2. The mobile release is no coincidence; the new team behind the updates is Magic Media, which specializes in developing for these platforms.

As fans and customers, we can’t accept this level of quality.
byu/deleted inTombRaider

The costumes are certainly not fully polished yet, as evidenced by the Reddit post. Steam user reviews have also been critical of the update, citing issues with the sound, visual elements, and enemy AI. For example, the texture of a bridge over lava was replaced by a passport, which is an interesting metaphor but also a glitch. The update even tends to undo all previous saves.

Hey folks, just to clarify. I was not involved in the art direction of this new patch with the Challenge Mode for Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered. Nome of the original developers at Saber was involvement in it.

— Giovanni Lucca (@playeroldskool) March 12, 2026

Although it seems likely that generative AI was used to create the new assets, we cannot definitively confirm it. Giovanni Lucca, the original lead artist on the remaster, tweeted about the update. He stated that he was not involved in the art direction for the new update featuring the Tomb Raider I-II-III Remastered challenge mode and that none of the original developers from Saber Interactive were involved either. Two days later, he retweeted a video showing the new costumes and calling the patch a “disaster,” accompanied by a clown emoji.

Lucca also said the development of the game only turned out as good as it did because they opposed a bunch of asinine requests from Aspyr, and they were also planning to fix the games even further including fixing more beta cut elements from Angel of Darkness (from the IV-VI collection), but Aspyr always stopped them for no reason. The development grounds were very hostile and all the developers at Saber Interactive genuinely never wish to work with Aspyr ever again, if possible.

According to someone on Reddit who claims to have insider information from Embracer Group, Crystal Dynamics greenlit this patch and was apparently making life difficult for Saber Interactive to release more fixes. The user doesn’t know much about the new developers, except that they used a lot of AI. In fact, he’s not even sure if they’re affiliated with Embracer in any meaningful way, which is strange considering that Saber had a history with Embracer before separating. At least seven of the old developers weren’t hired for this patch. Some speculation: Dallas, the franchise director, was allegedly quite upset and considered the Tomb Raider reboot a failure. He might also be promoting things internally that make the Classic era look bad.

Clearly, the update is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Concerns about the use of AI are nothing new for Aspyr‘s Tomb Raider remasters. They had to remove AI-generated voice-overs last September. In the second video below, the person mentioned that, upon hearing the news about the update, they decided to buy the physical edition of the collection to avoid the garbage update.

Source: PCGamer, Steam, TombRaiderForums, Reddit