Tomb Raider remake reworks Lara Croft for modern era

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a remake of the first Tomb Raider game, is scheduled for release on February 12 after a preview at the Gamescom video game convention in Cologne, Germany.

The new game revisits Lara Croft’s original adventure 30 years after the character first appeared in 1996. In a 20-minute gameplay sequence shown to journalists and influencers, Croft explores an abandoned tomb in Greece, fights panthers and avoids giant falling swords.

Raul Siqueira, director of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, said the team had adapted some lines but had not gone so far as to change the story. He said the game aims to revisit the original “through a modern lens”.

Art director Arek Tomaszewski said the team was trying to rebuild Lara as a powerful character rather than “an object of sexual attraction”.

The game is published by Amazon’s video game division and was developed by Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog, both owned by Embracer. The project took more than three years of work, including a complete rewrite of the script and Croft’s dialogue, now voiced by British actress Alix Wilton Regan.

Siqueira said the Lara Croft in Legacy of Atlantis is the same character seen in the Survivor trilogy, but later in life and “at the top of her game”.