This year marks the 30th anniversary of Tomb Raider, and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was supposed to be the centerpiece of the celebration. Instead, judging by impressions coming out of Gamescom, the upcoming reimagining of Lara Croft’s debut may be digging up the wrong kind of nostalgia – the kind that reminds you how far game design has come, rather than why you fell in love with Lara in the first place.
A Milestone Birthday for a Gaming Icon
The original Tomb Raider launched in 1996 and single-handedly redefined 3D platforming and action-adventure gaming. To mark three decades of gaming’s most famous archaeologist, the minds behind Legacy of Atlantis set out to do something more ambitious than a simple visual facelift – a decision that makes sense on paper. After all, Lara’s debut adventure has been remastered and remade before, and each version has found its own audience.
Two Very Different Ways to Play a Classic
As Eurogamer’s previewer notes, replaying both the superb recent Tomb Raider 1 remaster and Crystal Dynamics’ 2007 remake, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, reveals two enormously enjoyable – but strikingly different – ways to experience the same trailblazing platform adventure. The remaster preserves the original’s demanding, deliberate puzzle design, while Anniversary modernizes it with fluid acrobatics and cinematic flair. Both approaches work, which only sharpens the question of what Legacy of Atlantis actually adds to the formula.
Gamescom Impressions: Ancient in All the Wrong Ways
Unfortunately, the answer appears to be: not enough. According to the preview, Legacy of Atlantis already feels like an old relic – in all the wrong ways. Rather than recapturing the timeless thrill of exploration that made the 1996 original a landmark release, the build on display at Gamescom seems to carry forward design philosophies that modern action-adventure games have long since left behind.
It’s a familiar trap for remakes and reimaginings. Projects that aim to be “more than a remaster” often end up caught between eras: too modern to please purists, too dated to win over newcomers. Anniversary succeeded in 2007 because it understood exactly what to keep and what to discard. Thirty years later, the bar is dramatically higher – the survival-focused 2013 reboot, alongside genre-defining adventures like Uncharted, has completely reshaped player expectations for traversal, combat, and pacing.
Can Legacy of Atlantis Still Find Its Treasure?
It’s worth remembering that Gamescom previews are snapshots of a work in progress, and there’s still time for the development team to polish its tombs before launch. But the pressure is real. With the recent Tomb Raider remasters already offering a fantastic way to revisit the classics – and Anniversary still holding up remarkably well nearly two decades on – Legacy of Atlantis needs a stronger reason to exist than just its legendary name.
For a franchise built on uncovering lost wonders, the irony is hard to miss: the newest Tomb Raider risks becoming the very thing Lara Croft spends her career rescuing from obscurity.
Revisit Lara’s Classics While You Wait
If all this talk of Atlantis has you craving some classic tomb raiding, there’s never been a better time to jump back in. Head over to TURGAME.com to grab Steam gift cards and wallet codes at great prices, and pick up the Tomb Raider remasters, Anniversary, or the 2013 reboot for the ultimate franchise marathon ahead of Legacy of Atlantis‘ launch.
Source: Eurogamer