Lara Croft has been adventuring across games for thirty years now. She’s one of gaming’s most iconic female characters and her impact has lasted decades. To celebrate the Tomb Raider 3oth anniversary, a full modern remake of Lara Croft’s first outing was announced for this year dubbed, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. Unfortunately, the game has been delayed out of this year and into early next year. However, we got to go hands on with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis at Summer Game Fest, and, from what we played, it will be well worth the wait.
The demo we played consisted of an early area of the game. The game isn’t open world or anything but the areas we got to explore were decently sized with plenty of nooks and crannies to get into and discover secrets. I even found enough upgrade material that I was able to use a skill point. However, that part of the game was blocked off for the demo. As of right now, visually the game looks stunning, especially the water when Lara jumps into it, and when the game is fully optimized running at a higher frame rate will make the game look impeccable.
The demo had us trying to block a waterfall and open up a hidden path to progress her search for the treasure she’s after. Afterwards, we got a series of animated vignettes played to show Lara descent deeper into the jungle. Once we got control again we were in a new area to explore and finally got to experience the game’s combat. Lara encountered hostile raptors, and had to use her trusty dual pistols to contend with them. Combat feels a like it’ll take a little time to get used to, but once you’re in it and are strafing and dodging around it clicks so much better. You also have the ability to slow down time to get more shots in. After dispatching the raptors, we got to see one of the original game’s most iconic moments with the T-Rex chase. It was an intense chase scene of trying not get eaten. Though when we almost got away, it broke the bridge we were running across and the demo ended.
From what we played the game is shaping up really well. The delay definitely feels like it’s just for a little bit of polish and optimization, so no worries about the game itself. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is set to release next year on February 12, 2027.