Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a vivid, high-pace remake of a classic

Tomb Raider is back. Again. Lara Croft is back. Yet again. This time, her character is positioned between the "Survivor" trilogy of the last decade and her iconic debut in 1996. Yes, 30 years ago.

Legacy of Atlantis is a remake of that very first adventure, centered on Atlantean mythology, tomb raiding and, well, a few dinosaurs. At Summer Game Fest 2026, Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog shared the first gameplay demo, with Unreal Engine 5 adding vivid detail and lushness to Lara's travails.

The developers made a clever choice, centering the demo on an early part of the original game. Set in the Peruvian mountainside, my playthrough included a giant cog puzzle I remember from playing the original. There were also several shootouts with a herd of dinosaurs, the same vivid red velociraptor-adjacent creatures from Tomb Raider (1996).

Retreading the original game's ground gives a clear demonstration of how Legacy of Atlantis will elevate the game from the original, making a relatively insipid cog puzzle (find the giant wheels, bring them together, interrupt the waterfall to make a path) into a more exploratory, exciting experience. Yes, you can swan-dive into the waterfall pool whenever you want.

Lara can collect and use healing packs between fights, gathering resources from trees and caves, as well as mythical curios and historical objects. Not all the contemporary gaming changes are welcome: I'm not particularly thrilled with the inclusion of collectible hunting. The Assassin's Creed series has largely moved on and I think a lot of gamers have done the same. Some collectibles, like fangs, can be converted into skill points, meaning I will feel obliged to scour for objects.

Lara's PDA (love it: that's some 1996 nonsense) combines encyclopedia entries for everything you find, along with the current task. It also includes a scanner that can be used intermittently to offer some tips on what to do next. I did get lost at times, and that was due to my not paying enough attention. Legacy of Atlantis leans into verticality a lot, and pretty much each time I lost my way, the route forward was either literally above my head (grappling hooks!) or under my feet. (Of course, there's a cave behind that tiny waterfall.)

A grappling hook and climbing axe round out the equipment loadout, drawing inspiration from more recent Tomb Raider titles. Besides swinging across chasms, the grappling hook can also be used to pull objects towards the player and is crucial to solving the cog puzzle.

After scaling the mountainside and unlocking a route through the waterfall, t