‘Tomb Raider’ for PS4 shows how next-gen consoles can beautify your favorite game

When Sony and Microsoft released their latest consoles in November, the thing everyone wanted to know was how much better the games would look. While improvements were immediately noticeable in numerous games straddling the next- and last-gen platfom divide, the truth is that we’re still a fair distance away from seeing the best of the new hardware — which will be delivered by games coded specifically for it.

Occupying the middle ground between fancied-up last-gen titles and tailor-made next-gen games is Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition. Coming out at the end of this month for the Xbox One and PS4, this version of the game recreates the storyline and gameplay in full, but spruces up the graphics dramatically. Executive Producer Scot Amos argues against the idea that it’s a mere facelift, saying that “a lot of development work [was] put in to custom craft it for the new platforms.”

A comparison video from IGN exposes some of the starkest differences, including uncompressed textures, greater draw distances, and sub-surface scattering applied to Lara’s new, more realistic face. This head-to-head is still a mere teaser for what we can expect from a future without the limitations of the older consoles’ aged specs.