What a journey it’s been so far for Lara Croft. In 1996, she set out for adventure from Core Design in Derby, England, an industrial town best known as the home of Rolls Royce—until Lara put it on a different map. A string of legendary quests later, she found herself c. 2006 in Palo Alto, California, in the hands of Crystal Dynamics, who have been her guardians ever since. Now, 30 years into one of the most epic game character arcs in history, she’s set to embark on her first new adventure since 2018, and a lot of people are very happy.
The reason for that happiness is that in February 2027, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis launches from Amazon Game Studios, and it’s a top-to-bottom, reverential, 21st-century reimagining of her very first adventure in 1996’s Tomb Raider. The trailers have fans gushing about the character redesign that tips its hat hard in the direction of OG Lara; the reemergence of her sassy spirit in the dialogue; and the improbable but oh so satisfying acrobatics as she dodges dungeon hazards and dino bites. Tomb Raider and Lara Croft played a deeply formative role in an entire generation’s love of video game adventuring, and, heck, it’s good to have her back.
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a co-development between series stewards Crystal Dynamics and storied action game studio Flying Wild Hog, headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. Flying Wild Hog has been responsible for a slew of strong action titles since their 2011 debut Hard Reset put them on the map. Their second game was a successful 2013 remake of the legendary 1997 title Shadow Warrior for Devolver Digital, so reverence and skill in reinventing 90s gaming classics clearly runs in their blood. They went on to create two more games in that series, of which Shadow Warrior 2 has cemented its place in the pantheon of great indie FPS action games.
Fast forward to now, and the Flying Wild Hog team have found themselves in the enviable but no doubt slightly nerve-wracking position of being responsible for what is being widely touted as a possible new pinnacle for one of the most beloved gaming franchises of all time. Pressure much? In one of the studio’s recent HOGmented podcasts, Michał Kuk, creative director on Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, dipped into some of the team’s history with the franchise, what it means to them, and how they set about doing it justice.
“In late 90s Poland it was really difficult to just buy a new game, so a friend of mine lent me a copy of Tomb Raider on PC, the OG one,” Michał recalls in the podcast. “3D games were very uncommon in those days. I think that was the very first third- person game that I ever played. The very first memory that I have is the combat with the bear. It was a huge, dark, and very scary cave, and a huge animal and me, a kid, playing on a mouse and keyboard just trying to survive this moment. The game was hard, it was scary, but it was very real for me. So if you ask me what it meant for me, it’s pure excitement. Every new corner of the game, every undiscovered ruin, everything was super exciting.” .”
Given the sheer impact of the first Tomb Raider experience on Michał (and so many others), he could be forgiven for having nerves about taking on the challenge of its newest iteration, but he was ready to rise to the occasion when he had the chance to become creative director on Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. “It’s awesome,” he says. “It’s awesome because Tomb Raider didn’t just start a series of games. It actually shaped the entire action adventure genre that we know today.”
The need to respect the fans is never far from his thoughts. “At first I was very excited and at the same time I felt a lot of responsibility, because Tomb Raider fans are very passionate and very smart,” he says, at the same time essentially describing the majority of video game fans throughout history. “So the challenge wasn’t just to create an adventure game, it was to keep the core DNA for the millions of people who already loved the game.”
“Together with Crystal Dynamics, we found a really good partnership and a way to collaborate to make sure that whatever we do for the game is, let’s say, ‘approved’ for the fans, or is within the Tomb Raider lore, or within the universe,” he continues, a confirmation that voices are most definitely heard.
Reverence for the source material runs deep in the DNA of the team at Flying Wild Hog. “The entire team spent quite a lot of time making sure that everyone understands what it means working on Tomb Raider. What are the guidelines? What is the vision? And what are the constraints and overall direction?” Michał explains. “What’s more, a lot of people from our team are super fans of Tomb Raider. They’ve played every single game, watched every movie, series, read every comic-book or regular book, so yes, that helped. And we treat those people as a source of truth.” There are real fans at the wheel, folks, everything is going to be fine.
If you’ve felt nerves alongside excitement for when Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis launches next February, hopefully your spirits are buoyed by how seriously the developers take the assignment. Seeing Lara Croft swing into action is already one of the gaming world’s most anticipated moments of 2027. As Lara herself said in one of the game’s recent trailers: “You don’t strike me as someone who walks past a locked door without wondering what’s behind it.” Lara, you’re absolutely right, and we don’t have to wait long to find out what awaits.
Pre-purchase Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis on Steam