After a strong reboot in the form of the Tomb Raider (2013) trilogy, which included one of my all-time favourite Lara adventures in Rise of the Tomb Raider and the also-decent Shadow of the Tomb Raider, everybody was wondering what would be next for the great action hero who inspired many in the late 90s. Now under the publishing umbrella of Amazon Games, with an upcoming TV series led by Sophie Turner also in the works at Amazon, we’re getting double the Lara in the next year. Eventually, a new adventure in Tomb Raider: Catalyst, but before that, a remake of Lara’s original PlayStation adventure in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis.
We got the chance to go hands-on with Legacy of Atlantis at Summer Game Fest, and so far, we’re excited to see Lara back on our screens again, dinosaurs and all.
The slice of Legacy of Atlantis we got to experience started in a large area, requiring you to combine platforming skills, exploration and some light puzzle-solving in order to progress. This combo of platforming and puzzle-solving is a massive part of why I love the Tomb Raider series, and something that was nailed in the 2013 reboot trilogy, so I was eager to get my hands dirty. Here, some gears were missing that prevented a door from being accessed behind a waterfall, so off I went, exploring the area, trying to find the missing gears and putting them in place.
One gear was nearby and simply required knocking into the water before I used Lara’s grappling hook to pull it into the right spot. While a bit fiddly, dragging it through the water, it eventually clicked into place. I explored a bit, finding some collectibles along the way in some hidden paths, before eventually finding the progression path. Moving as Lara feels a little clunky at times; perhaps some residual from the original experience is coming through. Something about her movement doesn’t feel as free-flowing or precise as the reboot trilogy or something like Uncharted, but it works well enough.
“… the dance of firing, dodging and then unleashing Lara’s special ability felt wonderful.”
Still, clamouring from hand-hold to hand-hold as you climb and explore (with the occasional one crumbling as you touch it, requiring a quick recovery), feels just like the jungle-exploring adventure you’d hope for. It’s always gratifying looking ahead of you, seeing where you need to go and then tracing your path to get there, between climbing and perilous grapple-hook leaps. Eventually, I found the second gear I needed and figured out how to dislodge it, sending it down to the puzzle solution waiting for me below. Some of the puzzle-solving in recent Tomb Raider entries was an absolute highlight, so I hope that this is truly just a taste of what’s to come.
Then, I encountered my first enemies, some devilish raptors who moved quickly and were hungry for a bite of Croft. Combat provided the most noticeable difference from the original Tomb Raider; it’s fast, frantic and feels incredibly good, with endlessly reloading handguns. Dodging and landing shots fills up a meter, which allows you to hit a button, temporarily getting Lara to do some acrobatics in slow-motion, so you can really zero in on those headshots for maximum impact. This modern wrinkle to battles is a nice touch, and the dance of firing, dodging and then unleashing this special ability felt wonderful.
After some skirmishes with the little guys, the iconic T-Rex reared his big, ugly head, and the chase was on; the next scene had me sprinting through the jungle, running from the giant dino who was hot on my heels, as I jumped over obstacles, ran alongside the smaller dinos, and at one point dramatically slid under his legs in slow-motion in a neat action-movie moment.
