While Crystal Dynamics has officially revealed the future of the Tomb Raider franchise with its next major title—Tomb Raider: Catalyst—the developer has also decided to go back to the series’ roots with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. In a new interview with VideoGamesChronicle, head of studio Scott Amos and game director Will Kerslake spoke about the latter title, calling it a “love letter by fans, all of us, for fans”, and even discussing whether it will be a faithful remake or a reimagining.
Amos described Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis as being a great way to celebrate the upcoming 30th anniversary of the franchise, since the first game came out all the way back in 1996. He also noted that the game will still honor the design decisions that were made by the original’s development team—Core Design. To achieve this, the game is being developed through Unreal Engine 5, and will feature improvements to fix the things that were criticized in the original.
“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.”
“So being able to have the entire game built from scratch in Unreal 5 is why we call this a reimagining. We’ve taken all of those things that were critical from that first game, and then said, what can we do to push it through a modern-day gamer’s lens and say, this is how we can take areas that might have been a background image in the old game, now completely realized in full 3D.”
As part of these modernisation efforts, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will also feature modern controls and gameplay, while still including some of the more iconic moments from the original, like “when you got to fight a T.Rex in the original game.” These moments have been “reimagined today for an epic action adventure moment that can create a new core memory for players who’ve never gotten to experience it as that first time”. As for long-time fans, Legacy of Atlantis will also be a way to “experience it as a first time again”.
As for whether it will be a faithful remake or a reimagining, Kerslake noted that it will honor the legacy of the original while modernising some aspects. The visuals are a major part of this, he noted, since Unreal Engine 5.30 represents 30 years’ worth of improvements being made in the graphics department. “30 years of technology have happened since 1996, so that’s not an easy thing to do, but ultimately our goal there is to make it feel like it felt when you played it the first time, but play like a modern game.” This also means that there will be some parts that will not be changed from the original.
“I mean, you’ve seen in the trailer what we can do now with modern technology to really push the experience of these places,” continued Kerslake. “You have certain memories, whether it was the bridge and falling into the wolf den or the T. rex, where you go like, ‘That’s what I totally remember from that game,’ and how can we create that same memory again for new players?”
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was announced with a trailer during The Game Awards 2025, and is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2026. For more details, check out what the co-creator of the original Tomb Raider has to say about the announcement.
