The Tomb Raider sequence is without doubt one of the longest-lasting within the online game business, going all the best way again to 1996. It has graced many various platforms, together with Nintendo ones. And with the elevated energy of the Swap 2, a number of others are coming over too, together with the lately launched Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 12 months Celebration.
However now, a brand new remake of the primary sport, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, is coming to Swap 2 subsequent 12 months. At Summer season Recreation Fest 2026, I bought to play about 40 minutes of the sport and sit down with the builders to speak about bringing protagonist Lara Croft again to her roots.
To be clear, Lara Croft in Legacy of Atlantis is identical one from the Survivor trilogy (Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider). On this new sequel journey, Lara is way more assured, bringing years of knowledge alongside together with her.
“It’s a re-imagining of the debut journey arising on the thirtieth anniversary, we wished to rejoice that second,” stated Crystal Dynamics expertise director Jeff Adams. “We actually wished to be sure that she’s nonetheless bringing the entire experiences from the Survivor period.”
The connection might not be instantly obvious, provided that the artwork type in Legacy of Atlantis is way more stylised than the gritty tone of the Survivor days. Nonetheless, that was intentional.
We’re making an attempt to satisfy Lara on this part the place she’s unfettered by the previous. It’s a blue sky horizon forward of her.
“Artwork course is all the time speaking in regards to the feelings, so what we’re making an attempt to do is invoke the feelings that folks had after they performed the unique one, which is way more vibrant,” Flying Wild Hog artwork director Arek Tomaszewski stated.
Crystal Dynamics sport director Raul Siqueira added, “The tone in Legacy of Atlantis is meant by design to be extra optimistic. We’re making an attempt to satisfy Lara on this part the place she’s unfettered by the previous. It’s a blue sky horizon forward of her. So she’s simply having enjoyable being the Tomb Raider presently, and so we wished the visible tone to replicate that.”
The elephant within the room, nonetheless, is that Legacy of the Tomb Raider used AI in the course of the improvement course of. Everybody’s opinions about AI differ, however personally, I didn’t detect something that stood out to me as blatantly AI in my demo. That is likely to be by design although, as Crystal Dynamics confirmed that AI-assisted belongings have been changed by or refined by its human builders.
Throughout the PC demo, I used to be in a jungle fixing a puzzle the place I needed to discover gears all through the realm and join them to open up a gate. One factor that was noticeable was Lara’s leap, which was surprisingly far. When enjoying different AAA motion video games, the participant character’s leap usually doesn’t go very far, choosing extra realism. However after I was enjoying as Lara right here, I felt like I may cross any hole.
“You will need to us to remain trustworthy to the unique, the place acrobatics have been a part of her persona and the way she strikes, so we wished to be sure that that was integrated into it,” Siqueira stated. “We wished to point out some form of persona of Lara that’s completely different from the Lara from [Survivor era], who was extra grounded.”
Acrobatics is a big a part of fight now, too. Lara wields two pistols and she will backflip round dinosaurs whereas capturing at them. When touchdown photographs, Lara builds up Focus, which she will then expend to activate a ‘bullet time’ mechanic and decelerate time round her in a cool, cinematic flourish. It’s simply one other method to construct out Lara’s persona.
“It’s additionally a improbable instance of what re-imagining means, as a result of for those who bear in mind in Tomb Raider Anniversary, she did have the adrenaline dodge mechanic, the place it did do a time dilation second for an ideal headshot,” Adams defined. “That was the entire crew mainly saying, ‘Hey, that was a cool factor. How can we form of make it really feel extra trendy?’”
Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider franchise has spent the previous three many years gracing our TV screens and handhelds. Whereas 2027’s Tomb Raider: Catalyst (a sequel to 2008’s Tomb: Raider Underworld) hasn’t been introduced for Swap 2, hopefully Legacy of Atlantis isn’t the tip of her journey but on Nintendo platforms.
“The truth that she will transcend many years, transfer by way of completely different genres and permutations is de facto what makes her such a defining determine in gaming,” Adams stated. “You may make her work in nearly each decade, regardless of the paradigm is, as a result of on the core of it, she’s only a actually participating character.”
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis launches on twelfth February 2027 for Nintendo Swap 2, PS5, Xbox Sequence, and PC.
