The latest one focuses on Egypt’s sentient beings and how they’re designed to threaten Lara in ways that go beyond a possible grisly death. The team isn’t afraid to show off their work, and we’re especially fascinated by the more dangerous enemies in reserve for when you really progress deeper into tombs and the like.

The intent is to make you feel like you’re leaving the familiar world you know behind for one where danger could lurk around every unseen corner. It’s an effective way to communicate progress if you’re optimistic about it, but we’d recommend steeling yourselves once you’re there to mitigate the risk of broken controllers.

Either way, it should be great news considering the combat system has us tackling these threats quite intelligently. We’re more worried about those puzzles, if we’re being honest, as some of them look like serious head-scratchers. We’ve left this peek at Egypt’s creatures below if you’re interested in learning more about how the developers are bringing them to life ahead of Legacy of Atlantis’s launch on February 12th, 2027.

This time, the development team discusses Egypt, an iconic location for the series, and it’s definitely somewhere you want to get to as quickly as you can with Lara. For starters, it’s gorgeous – jaw-droppingly so – with colors that pop so well they make some incredibly detailed environments feel like they’re almost alive. Of course, those environments will have plenty of puzzles and traps for you to help Lara navigate, and if you check out the showcase below, you’ll see how well those intricate mechanisms are woven into the world they’re part of.

The team’s extensive research, and an almost reverential effort at reconstructing things with their unique legends and stories in mind, is a fascinating peek at what goes on in the minds of developers looking to remake a classic.

It’s definitely authentic, and we’re expecting it to be incredibly immersive when we finally get to play through it all. Every place we’ve seen looks like it’s been well-structured to make using the new movement and traversal systems a pleasure when Legacy of Atlantis launches for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The main focus of the gameplay demo is the Peru level, where Lara Croft finds herself as part of her hunt for a tomb and its artifacts. The visual fidelity afforded to the development team is at full display in the gameplay demonstration, as well as the finer attention to detail in the game’s depiction of Peruvian ruins.

Lara finds herself in an area with a large environmental puzzle, the solution to which revolves around changing up the terrain. Along the way, she finds an entirely new area just in the process of exploring, and the developers have noted that this was a deliberate design decision to encourage exploration amongst players. Along with this, the team has also noted that all of the in-game puzzles have been designed to ensure that they make sense within the context of the environment.

Throughout the video, we also get to see Lara’s impressive traversal capabilities, and as the developers have noted, there is quite a bit of emphasis placed on making sure that fans of the original would still find its essence in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, while newcomers also feel welcomed into the franchise.

After showing off more of Lara’s acrobatic moves, the gameplay demo seamlessly transitions into combat against some raptors. The fast-paced third-person shooter gameplay will allow Lara to use her slick dodging animations, and even kick off slow motion with well-timed dodges. We also get to see a set piece when a larger T-Rex pops in, forcing Lara to run for her life.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 12th.

Lara’s quite nimble, and her aim is unerring as she wields her iconic dual pistols. Of course, those aren’t the only weapons she has, and we’re quite interested in letting the SMG do the talking for her once we get our hands on it. A robust progression-based system of upgrades that could make her feel quite powerful by the time her story is fully over.

Most interesting is the addition of a Focus bar, which fills up when you take/dish out damage or avoid it altogether, allowing you to slow down time and get a few well-placed shots at the right moments. We’re also quite intrigued that you can complete the entire game using the dual pistols, as the development team pointed out. It’s quite tempting to try, if we’re being honest.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis arrives on February 12th, 2027, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

That deep dive into movement and traversal was pretty great, and we’ve now got a peek behind the curtain at how puzzles and traps will work. A bunch of the team shows up in the video, each of them enthusiastically highlighting important design elements, such as how a region’s mythology and technology are often interwoven into the puzzles and their solutions. The familiar cog puzzle has been reapproached, with the developers cheekily telling us that things will be different without delving into details.

We’re especially excited to see how their take on Egypt as one large interconnected puzzle will be presented. Of course, those gorgeous visuals are sure to make the entire thing more stunning, but we’ve also been warned to keep a sharp eye out for concealed hazards that could hurt Lara. All in all, this one’s shaping up to be a quintessential Tomb Raider experience with a layer of modern polish that makes it quite immersive indeed.

The Developer Diary’s below if you’re looking to map out a few trap locations and puzzle solutions from the limited glimpses we’ve been given.

“Lara had a physicality, acrobatics, and, at least for those of us who were pretty good at the game, we spent quite a bit of time swan diving and doing the different acrobatic moves to look awesome,” explains Epps. Schweiger went on to discuss how the essence of the original Tomb Raider’s movement systems was for the development team to nail in the upcoming game.

Alix Wilton Regan, who plays Lara Croft in Legacy of Atlantis, discussed how she had to do weight training, running, yoga, and rock climbing to ensure that she could pull off the motion capture for the in-game character. Creative director Michal Kuk noted that there are several subtleties that make Lara’s style of climbing a wall identifiably hers.

“What makes the climbing Lara’s climbing, basically? There are multiple super subtle things that make it Lara Croft’s climbing. Not someone else. It’s through animations, it’s through the dynamics of the animation, how fast she’s jumping from one ledge to another, how far her leap of faith is. All of that was the biggest issue for us, because a regular jump doesn’t mean that it’s Lara Croft’s regular jump, right?”

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will give players plenty of ways to move around the world, from climbing and jumping to her grappling hook that gives her additional capabilities to navigate the verticality of the in-game environments.

“When we released the trailer, there was one specific sequence of moves where she’s jumping from a horizontal pole to a ledge, and then she does a handstand, and then there’s a swan dive,” explained principal technical game designer Grzegorz Grywacz. “And people were all, like, screaming at the screen.”

Crystal Dynamics studio head Scott Amos and game director Will Kerslake had previously spoken about how important it is for the development team to ensure that Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis captures the essence of the 1996 original. In an interview from back in December, they described the title as “a love letter by fans, all of us, to fans.”

“Looking at the opportunity we had with this, we knew the 30th anniversary was coming up and wanted to do something special to both celebrate that moment, but still pay an honor to all of Core Design’s original DNA and intent from this amazing title that launched the franchise. That is literally the debut title that’s set up for what we’re doing now, 30 years later, as part of Tomb Raider,” said Amos.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 and is slated for release on February 12th, 2027.

Speaking to GamesRadar at Summer Game Fest, game director Raul Siqueira said, “I think the biggest lesson that we took from [the Survivor Trilogy] is tuning difficulty based on players’ expectations. One of the things I think we got really good at towards the end of that trilogy was we had a lot of different options for players that wanted to tune the experience to their liking. We found, because Tomb Raider blends a bunch of different things together, there are people that are really into puzzles, and they want puzzles to be very difficult, but they’re not great at combat, so they want combat to be easy.”

The result is players having ways to “customize their challenge to their liking” in Legacy of Atlantis. “That was one of the things that we really wanted to preserve and make sure that players had a good foot. The balance of that is an ever-changing thing. We’re tuning it pretty much until the end.”

As a result, Siquiera couldn’t really get into the nitty-gritty of all the available options or how close it would be to, say, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The 2018 title offered three sliders to tune combat, puzzles, and platforming. Of course, you could also pick an overall difficulty setting, including Deadly Obsession, which makes everything very hard and can’t be changed.

The team will have more to share on that in the future, but he promised a “very similar mode” to previous games. So if you’re someone who prefers zero guidance and zero margin for mistakes throughout the experience, it may be worth keeping an eye on.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis launches February 12th, 2027, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The example he provided involved the use of generative AI to help the team visualize objects in the game’s world. Through this, he said that decisions could quickly be made about whether the objects work or they don’t, after which the generated object is moved through the studio’s more traditional game development pipeline, which involves concept art, building it out, and polish. He reiterated that all of the assets in the final release of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis have been human-crafted.

“Let me give you an example of what that looks like. So, say in early level development, we have an idea for an object, but we’re not sure whether or not we want to take the dev time to build it,” explained Adams. “We can use a generative AI tool to help us visualise that object in the world. If it works, we’ll then move it to our traditional pipeline. From there, the team will concept it, they’ll build it, and we’ll make sure that all the finished content in the final game is human-crafted.” Adams added it is “really important for us that our team has the tools to make the highest quality experience possible,” stating “our fans deserve nothing less than that.”

When asked for more details about how this process would actually work, Game Informer was stopped by Crystal Dynamics’ PR representative. Closing out the subject, Adams said, “We just want to make it as easy as possible for us to make high-quality game experiences. That’s really the important thing.”

The fact that developers Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog used generative AI for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was discovered when the title’s Steam store page went live. The AI Generated Content Disclosure of the store page revealed that the companies used AI-assisted tools for “early exploration” and “temporary development”. When asked for more clarity, Crystal Dynamics said that it makes use of AI tools to help its teams iterate on ideas more quickly and efficiently.

“At Crystal Dynamics, we leverage AI tools to help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently, while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human-crafted,” said the studio. “Our goal is to empower the creativity and flexibility of our developers to deliver the highest-quality experiences for players everywhere.”

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release on February 10th, 2027. In the meantime, check out its most recent gameplay trailer.

The company also offered assurances that, while generative AI was used to create early art, all finished content that players will actually experience in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is human-crafted.

“At Crystal Dynamics, we leverage AI tools to help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently, while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human-crafted,” said the studio. “Our goal is to empower the creativity and flexibility of our developers to deliver the highest-quality experiences for players everywhere.”

The studio’s statement came just a few hours after it was revealed through the Steam store page for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis that generative AI was used for its development. In the “AI Generated Content Disclosure” section of the store page, the studio said that the tools were used for “early exploration” and “temporary development”.

“AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content,” reads the disclosure. “Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team.”

This disclosure indicated that generative AI was used for things like early concept art and placeholder assets while the development teams were figuring out things like level design and the game’s overall structure. However, Crystal Dynamics hasn’t really gone into deeper detail about the use of these tools.

The use of generative AI in game development has been a major point of discussion in recent times, with many studios falling on either side of the debate. Some, like Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic developer Arcanaut Studios, have said that it won’t use generative AI tools. Others, on the other hand, like Lies of P’s NEOWIZ, have spoken about using generative AI tools to create visuals that can then be used “strictly as internal reference”.

Even larger companies like PlayStation have been using these tools to some extent, ranging from more efficient QA work to streamlining the processes for 3D modelling and animations. Owlcat Games has also confirmed that it is using generative AI for the development of The Expanse: Osiris Reborn for prototypes and placeholder assets.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has also spoken about the technology, noting that, while it has its uses for some things, generative AI isn’t really capable of creating something on the scale of Grand Theft Auto 6.

Following up on a statement about the potential uses of generative AI, Zelnick said, “Do I think tools by themselves create great entertainment properties? No, there’s no evidence that that’s the case and it won’t be the case in the future,” he explained. “Specifically with regards to GTA 6, generative AI has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building. Their worlds are handcrafted. That’s what differentiates them. They’re built from the ground up, building by building, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood. They’re not procedurally generated; they shouldn’t be. That’s what makes great entertainment.”

In the meantime, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and will be out on February 10th, 2027.

“AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content,” wrote the developers. “Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team.”

As for exactly what kind of content was generated using AI during development, details are currently unknown. The wording implies that the use of AI tools was largely relegated to the earlier parts of development, when the teams were likely going through rapid prototyping to figure out things like level layouts.

The response to this disclosure has been quite mixed. While there are plenty of posts on the Tomb Raider subreddit thread discussing the use of generative AI in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, others have noted that the fact that these tools were only used in early parts of development seems reasonable. Along with this, some have also posited that using generative AI was likely “mandated by suits” rather than an actual choice by the developers themselves.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. While originally slated for a 2026 release window, Crystal Dynamics confirmed today that the title has in fact been pushed back to February 10th, 2027. While the studio didn’t elaborate on this decision too much, it might have been delayed in order to avoid the splash zone of Grand Theft Auto 6’s November 19th release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The new release date announcement was made with a new trailer showcasing some gameplay, blending combat and traversal. Starting off in the snowy mountains of Peru, the trailer showcased Lara taking on an enemy before then partaking in some platforming sections. Eventually, she finds a tomb, which she has to explore carefully since there are plenty of environmental hazards and traps. The trailer wraps things up with an intense chase sequence, with a T-Rex chasing down Lara, before giving us a look at how she can make use of her grapples to escape a collapsing structure.

Head of studio Scott Amos and game director Will Kerslake had previously spoken about how Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will be a love letter to fans of the original Tomb Raider.

“Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a love letter by fans, all of us, for fans,” he said. “Looking at the opportunity we had with this, we knew the 30th anniversary was coming up and wanted to do something special to both celebrate that moment, but still pay an honor to all of Core Design’s original DNA and intent from this amazing title that launched the franchise. That is literally the debut title that’s set up for what we’re doing now, 30 years later, as part of Tomb Raider.”