Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis hands-on previews proves that delay was necessary

Indulge me for a moment while I get into some inside baseball. Any time I preview a video game before its official release, I’m never seeing the best version of that game. Even the most polished demos have bugs, temporary assets, and performance issues. One skill any previewer needs to have is being able to differentiate foundational problems from routine hitches that will likely be addressed in a game’s final round of polishing.

I’m giving you this peek behind the scenes because it’s crucial to understand where Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is at ahead of its planned Feb. 12, 2027, release. I played an hour of Crystal Dynamics’ full-on Tomb Raider remake at this year’s Summer Game Fest. That was enough to show me a promising action-adventure game filled with smart puzzle design, breathtaking vistas, and all the dinosaurs you can shoot. It was also enough to raise some red flags, as it’s very clear that the next eight months will require some heavy polish to get it across the finish line. If you’re disappointed that the remake isn’t going to make its original 2026 release date, believe me when I say that it’s for the best.

The snippet I played took me to Peru, as Lara Croft tried to find her way into some ruins buried in the jungle. Getting inside would require wrangling with various puzzle contraptions in order to free up some gears and yank them over to a mechanism attached to a lever. The sequence had a lot going for it. For one, it gave me plenty of chances to marvel at the Peruvian landscapes, painted with lush green tones and wisps of fog. It’s a strong look that lends the remake the right sense of globe-trotting adventure.

The puzzle design was noteworthy, too, combining some spatial reasoning and platforming to hit that Uncharted sweet spot. To get one gear, I needed to lower a stone weight, grab on to it before it rose back up, and ride it to a cliff at the top to knock the trapped gear loose. Other puzzles required me to use Lara’s grappling hook to free up swinging points so I could get across chasms. Legacy of Atlantis isn’t doing anything particularly new here, but that feels right given that this is a remake of a PS1 classic. The puzzles I solved in my demo were traditional, but always properly satisfying to crack.

Image: Crystal Dynamics/Flying Wild Hog, Amazon Game Studios

Combat gets just enough of a glow-up to keep the action engaging. After making my way inside the ruins, I was ambushed by a pack of dinosaurs. I started unloading on them with Lara’s dual-wielded pistols, all while dodging their strikes. Once I built up enough energy through my acrobatics, I could spend it to send Lara corkscrewing into the air in slow-motion. It’s a feature ripped right out of Max Payne, and it makes Lara look cool as hell.

And Lara is cool as hell. Alex Wilton Regan (Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition) is clearly having a blast voicing the character, bringing out Croft’s irrepressible confidence in convincing fashion. That’s paired with a tastefully done character model redesign, complete with Lara’s iconic tank top. It’s almost a little surreal to see; it looks like the PS1 original unstuck from time and glossed up into something ‘90s kids always dreamed of.

All of that sets the stage for a solid, if safe, modern remake, but the devil is in the details. My demo wasn’t exactly smooth, and I have to imagine that Crystal Dynamics is fully aware of that — hence the delay to 2027. Some of the problems I experienced were routine issues for a preview, though with varying degrees of gnarliness.

Image: Crystal Dynamics/Flying Wild Hog, Amazon Game Studios

Frame rate hitches are to be expected; collision issues that left Lara unable to climb out of a pool of water are uglier. Those aren’t the kinds of things I’d usually call out in a preview considering how typical they are. They only become red flags when paired next to some larger quirks. For starters, Lara’s movement feels ever so slightly off. Her jump, for instance, almost sees her hovering in the air in an unnatural way. It feels like you’re floating as Princess Peach in Super Smash Bros. I’m not sure how easy that is to tweak, given that the platforming geometry is built around that long-distance jumping. That turned an ending chase sequence, where Lara runs from a rampaging T-Rex, into a clumsy platforming gauntlet that took me a few tries to wrangle.

The level design isn’t terribly intuitive either. I found myself completely lost during my demo as I struggled to find where I was supposed to go next. Part of that is due to some poor signposting. Climbable walls are hard to spot, as the crags hardly stick out and are only marked by a subtle splotch of white paint that’s hardly visible. Others in my demo session seemed to be similarly lost. It was one of those moments that reminds you why yellow paint has become such a design trend in games, even if players complain about it.

Image: Crystal Dynamics/Flying Wild Hog, Amazon Game Studios

Clear signposting might not be necessary if the level design wasn’t misleading at times. To get one gear, I had to complete a platforming gauntlet that had me swinging across some rivers. After one gap, I landed on a stone landing with a water wheel directly in front of me. Naturally, I went towards it and completed a swinging platforming puzzle that sure seemed like it was pointing me towards the gear. It wasn’t, and I was left standing on a cliff with nothing on it. It turned out that I actually needed to turn to my right and a bit behind me when I crossed the gap to notice a climbable wall. Getting back to that point required me to drop into a river and go back to the start of the platforming section. It was one of many small hassles that ballooned into a bigger pain by the end of my time.

Crystal Dynamics has something going for it with Legacy of Atlantis, but it’s imperative that it doesn’t rush it out to meet a release date. The delay to 2027 leaves me hopeful that it already knows that and has built in the few extra months it needs to make the final product sing. I just hope that Amazon, a publisher in need of a big hit, understands the stakes here. Tomb Raider deserves a respectful remake for its 30th anniversary, not a cash-in at any cost.