The camera in the Tomb Raider games has always kept Lara Croft at a distance, varying in its angle but never putting us behind the eyes of its heroine. Now, thanks to a Tomb Raider VR mod, the series takes a daring leap into a first-person perspective for the first time.
First-person platformers are something of a niche both inside and outside of virtual reality, but there’s still every chance one could join the ranks of the best VR games out there. Of all the series to do it, Tomb Raider seems like an obvious choice, but there’s no sign of an official release on the horizon, making mods like this our only hope for now.
The first playable release of Tomb Raider in #VR (BeefRaiderXR) is now in Eearly-Access Beta testing!
🥳🤩🥳Let's start raiding! Let's go! 😎
BTW: Both Original TR and TR Remastered have the files needed to play.#VR #TombRaider #BeefRaiderXR #MetaQuest #Pico4 #StandaloneVR pic.twitter.com/OP3dDEjQjg
— Team Beef VR – We do VR Ports for Standalone & PC (@TeamBeefVR) March 16, 2024
This Tomb Raider VR mod is the work of Team Beef, a group of modders that specialize in making classic games compatible with the best VR headsets. The team previously dazzled us with their Return to Castle Wolfenstein VR mod, and you can find their full list of works here.
Watching the mod, dubbed ‘Beef Raider’, in action, it instantly reminded me of Mirror’s Edge albeit with much blockier graphics. Given how pixel-perfect the platforming in Tomb Raider can be, being able to more freely control your positioning and hands seems like an absolute boon.
Even combat appears transformed thanks to this mod, with enemies of all sizes taking on a new threat level thanks to their enhanced presence and size (the T-Rex especially). There will, however, undoubtedly be bugs to work out, and Team Beef seems to agree, launching the mod in an early access beta state.
As this is a mod, you will need either the original or remastered version of Tomb Raider to try it out for yourself. Conveniently, though, the group has confirmed that the mod works with the remastered demo available on Steam. However, the mod itself is currently only available to Team Beef Patreon subscribers, so you’ll need to part with at least some cash.
If you’re looking for a similar albeit modern experience, check out our Assassin’s Creed Nexus review. You’ll need a Meta headset to play it, though, so give our Quest 3 review a read too.