Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis looks to be an exciting, immersive, and gorgeous archaeological adventure full of danger and mystery, firmly recapturing the story and magic of the original while adding some new, interesting mechanics.
Lara Croft and 1996's Tomb Raider left an indelible mark on the gaming industry, impressing with its revolutionary graphics, expansive worlds, intricate level design, and fluid controls. Beyond that, Lara Croft established herself as one of gaming's biggest icons, especially in the 1990s, becoming beloved for her athleticism, intelligence, and archaeological capability. Since the original run of games under developer Core Design, the series has switched developers multiple times, and the original game was remade in 2007 as Tomb Raider: Anniversary for the series' tenth anniversary. Fast forward two more decades, and yet another remake is here as Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is set to celebrate the series' thirtieth anniversary.
The demo provided a little bit of backstory into the game's plot: Lara Croft is hired by wealthy businesswoman Jacqueline Natla to find a legendary artifact called the Scion of Atlantis. The beginning of her journey brings her to the Tomb of Qualopec, deep in the Peruvian Andes, which is where the curated demo takes place. Immediately upon setting foot into the area, the visuals absolutely stun. The mountains are grand and tall, the jungle foliage lush and thick, and the ancient tomb's ruins are carved with many beautiful hieroglyphs. There's some truly astonishing, high-fidelity detail throughout the environment, and it does wonders at making the tomb feel lost, forgotten, and almost forbidden.
[caption id="attachment_194822" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Lara swan dives from the cliff's heights.[/caption]
The first section of the demo revolves around solving a gear-rotation puzzle that requires players to make good use of Lara's athletic ability to scale the temple, as well as an arm-mounted grappling hook, which seems to be a new, but welcome addition, to the game's traversal tools. There's a dizzying level of verticality, and the game respects the player's intelligence by refusing to give hints or guiding the player with messages or environmental cues like yellow-painted ledges. It feels refreshing and immersive that the game lets the player get a little lost, forcing them to stop, pause, and take in their surroundings. Regarding her surroundings, Lara also has a new gadget in this game: an archaeological scanner that allows her to analyze flora and fauna, archaeological ruins, and artifacts she finds. How much this impacts gameplay wasn't immediately apparent due to the demo's time constraints.
After solving the puzzle, Lara finds herself in a new section and confronted by a surprising threat: dinosaurs, and lots of them. Assailed by hordes of raptors, Lara must make use of her iconic dual pistols and supreme athletic skills to dodge, duck, and evade their jaws. The combat generally felt pretty solid, and the more Lara dodges, the more her Focus ability builds up. Essentially, Lara can activate Focus to slow down time, allowing her to aim and quickly annihilate enemies. While the non-Focus dodging felt a little tough to get down, the Focus mode charged relatively quickly and felt stylishly satisfying, with the overall difficulty level feeling appropriate. The demo ended with a T. rex chasing Lara, and a few of the death scenes from failing were quite brutal, cutting immediately to a black screen as the reptile chomped down on Lara. This helped set the stakes starkly, firmly establishing the danger ahead.
[caption id="attachment_194823" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Lara faces down two raptors, ready to blast away.[/caption]
On the whole, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis looks to be an exciting, immersive, and gorgeous archaeological adventure full of danger and mystery, firmly recapturing the story and magic of the original while adding some new, interesting mechanics. After the demo finished, a few snippets were shown of a snow-covered, mountainous area with a precarious wooden bridge, as well as some other sneak peeks at some later story cutscenes, all of which looked exciting and equally as gorgeous as the demo, leaving me excited to see what the game has in store when it releases next year.
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