Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a contemporary, reimagined tackle Lara Croft’s first journey. I lately performed about an hour of Legacy of Atlantis at Summer season Sport Fest 2026, and noticed first-hand how builders Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog are bringing parts from the unique sport and its first remake, 2008’s Tomb Raider Anniversary, into the fashionable period.
The preview took me to the Misplaced Valley space in Peru, the place I used to be tasked with fixing a brand new model of Tomb Raider’s iconic cog puzzle. Right here, two cogs are wanted to reconnect a mechanism that may cease the move of a close-by waterfall, revealing the door that may let her deeper into the hidden jungle. The mechanism sits in a small pond, and whereas the primary cog is simple to return by, you’ll have to find the second by yourself.
This primary portion of the Misplaced Valley accommodates no fight, as a substitute placing an emphasis on discovering your method by way of an space full of facet paths that may lead you to collectibles and hidden gadgets. Pointedly, Legacy of Atlantis supplies little steerage on the place to search out your lacking cog. As an alternative, it’s a must to use clues within the surroundings to determine the place to go for your self. It’s an intentional alternative that performs into Lara’s character as an archaeologist and explorer — and discovering the correct path by way of the realm was, at instances, fairly tough.
“If we put you within the boots of Lara Croft, after which hand you a map, or provide you with Waze instructions on the place to go, you’re going to really feel like, ‘The place’s the problem in that? The place’s the connection to the character and the headspace that she’s at?’” stated Jeff Hays, Expertise Director at Crystal Dynamics, throughout an interview after my session.
However Sport Director Raul Siqueira at Crystal Dynamics additionally famous that the crew didn’t need to give the impression that Legacy of Atlantis is supposed to be a tough sport. As an alternative, he stated, it’s meant to provide gamers the instruments they should create the expertise they get pleasure from, together with the power to extend steerage, and to set the problem of puzzles and fight impartial from each other.
Exploring is its personal reward, too. You will discover caves by diving down into the pool by hitting Circle when you’re swimming, or uncover handholds in partitions that lead into ruined buildings, and extra. Many of the gadgets to be discovered yielded uncommon supplies that urged crafting can be an enormous half of Lara’s expertise, too, though it wasn’t half of the demo.
As previously, Lara is an acrobatic explorer, hanging off and leaping between ledges with X and utilizing a grappling hook to cross massive gaps with Triangle. You’ll even generally swing between horizontal poles, timing when to hit X to let go at simply the correct second.
Although it took some time of looking, I finally discovered my strategy to the final gear, caught to an historical picket contraption. I discovered a path to climb up and swing throughout to the gear so Lara might kick it unfastened, knocking it down into the stream so it will move right down to the mechanism beneath. After aligning the cogs, the traditional machine began working, the waterfall closed off, and Lara made her method by way of the doorways.
Moments later, I stepped again into the jungle — just for velociraptors to leap from the foliage and assault. Right here, I lastly acquired to fireplace away with Lara’s basic twin pistols, which unload as you maintain down R2. You’ll be able to both fireplace the weapons one after the other whereas on the run, or tighten your intention and go full bore by holding L2 when you shoot.
The raptors are fast, fearsome predators, heaving themselves at Lara with vicious assaults, and it rapidly turned clear that the important thing to fight in Legacy of Atlantis is to remain cell and aggressive your self. While you press Circle, Lara will dive, roll, and cartwheel to deftly escape incoming assaults.
Between the exploration parts like swinging from poles, Lara’s lengthy jumps, and the acrobatic dodges and dives in fight, Legacy of Atlantis takes on a bit of a throwback really feel. Lara has a slight floatiness that gives the look of how she felt to manage in older Tomb Raider video games. It’s a enjoyable melding of trendy sport design and old-school sport really feel.
“We did have a look at fight from the lenses of, like, what did we do throughout the Survivor period [during the last three games] that made sense for Laura at the moment in her life, that will not make sense for Lara on the prime of her sport, which is the place we discover her in Legacy of Atlantis?” Siqueira instructed me. “So we have been very aware of, Lara in fight wants to maneuver the identical method that she strikes in traversal, she wants to maneuver the identical method that she does together with her puzzles, it must be distinctively hers, it must have like all of the thrives that you just anticipate, the acrobatics — all the things that you really want that energy fantasy of Lara Croft to be must be current.”
As you assault enemies, you’ll earn Focus, which you’ll then spend by hitting R1. Doing so lets Lara do a gymnastic flip whereas time briefly slows, permitting you to fireplace your weapons whereas dodging. Siqueira stated the builders used Focus to assist in giving gamers a bonus over enemies, so that they wouldn’t really feel like Lara’s distinct, acrobatic actions have been leaving them weak.
After pushing down the trail and combating off a number of extra teams of dinosaurs, issues actually took a flip. An enormous tyrannosaurus rex burst by way of the timber, triggering a chase scene as Lara and the raptors each went sprinting away from its snapping jaws. Whereas this was a set piece second, it was nonetheless difficult, requiring me to make a cautious leap as Lara went sliding down a muddy hill, or to rapidly climb a wall, to keep away from changing into a snack. The demo ended quickly after on a heart-pumping cliffhanger because the T-rex closed in.
Throughout my transient time with it, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis did lots to seize the old-school feeling of the Tomb Raider collection, however with lots of trendy sensibilities. You’ll be able to leap into Lara Croft’s first journey your self when Legacy of Atlantis launches on February 12, 2027.