‘We want to honor the legacy of the original’: Crystal Dynamics explains why it’s remaking Tomb Raider again

Lara Croft is back. At The Game Awards, two new games in the Tomb Raider franchise were announced, as was the new face of Lara Croft.

The first, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, is a “reimagining” of the original Tomb Raider, promising redesigned visuals and modern gameplay, set to release in 2026. The second game, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, is an entirely new adventure set for release in 2027 and will see Lara exploring Northern India.

Alix Wilton Regan, the British actor who was previously set to play Joanna Dark in the now-cancelled Perfect Dark reboot, will step into the role of Lara Croft, taking over from Camilla Luddington.

Following the announcement, Crystal Dynamics sat down for a Q&A session with VGC about both games. Scott Amos, the head of studio at Crystal Dynamics, and Will Kerslake, game director at Crystal Dynamics, spoke about the new Lara and remaking a classic.

Q&A: Crystal Dynamics on Tomb Raider’s next games

Scott Amos: Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a love letter by fans, all of us, for fans. 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.

How to update camera and controls, and how to take things like that signature moment that all of us as gamers played when you got to fight a T.Rex in that original game, and now saying, how is that 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, or if you’re long time fan, you now get to experience it as a first time again.

Is the Lara Croft in Fate of Atlantis the same as the Lara Croft in Catalyst? 

Will Kerslake: Yes. So there are two adventures here, but they’re two adventures of the same character. So, Legacy of Atlantis is a reimagining of that original game, as Scott said. While Tomb Raider Catalyst is a brand new adventure, it’s the top of her game, experienced Lara Croft. So it is the same character, but at two distinct periods in her life.

“We had the privilege of having Alix with us last night when we did the live reveal, which is just a huge deal to see that and see the fan reaction.”

Alix Wilton-Regan is the new Lara Croft. Why did you cast her in the role? 

JA: Alix is just tremendous, like from the very first moment we met with her, from the very first casting calls we did, she loves this character, she was already a fan when we met her, and then being able to talk to her and get a sense that she has that wit, that charm and charisma that is a natural essence and core for Lara, but she also has that confidence and that depth of emotionality that we need for telling these great stories.

We had the privilege of having Alix with us last night when we did the live reveal, which is just a huge deal to see that and see the fan reaction. It was just so exciting. And she’s just been tremendous to work with.

WK: From the very beginning she got what we were trying to do and bring all the confidence of the character forward, but continue to push on the emotional depth that we need for modern storytelling and just was has been enthusiastic and excited about it and the whole time, which has been great.

Is Legacy of Atlantis a remake or a reimagining? Is there a difference?

WK: We want to honor the legacy of that original game, by modernizing it with a gameplay experience and a fidelity that’s now possible in Unreal 5. 30 years of technology have happened since 1996, so that’s not an easy thing to do, but ultimately our goal there is you make it feel like it felt when you played it the first time, but play like a modern game. So there are vital things that we have to keep the same.

I mean, you’ve seen in the trailer what we can do now with modern technology to really push the experience of these places. 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?

Do the new games have any connection to the upcoming Amazon TV series?

JA: So we’re here to talk about the two games that we just announced last night. We will say that certainly our Amazon partners have been tremendous. From the beginning, they’ve gotten the idea of this vision we have for this cross-media franchise across both the live-action things during the series and the two games that we’re making right now.

We’re not here to talk about any details or anything else in the future about the TV series until later on. But certainly, it’s a great opportunity for us to have all of these things going together and having so many things in development for Tomb Raider. The fans benefit from all of it.

The original game was full of instant-death traps and often based on trial and error. Modern games typically avoid this kind of punishing design. Will Atlantis keep this brutal difficulty for authenticity or adopt a more forgiving approach like the QTE moments seen in the 2007 remake?

WK: Part of reimagining a game is adjusting that game, evolving for modern player tastes. But, it is core to the Tomb Raider experience that there are puzzles and combat and traversal and death-defying action. If you look at the trailer that we had for Legacy of Atlantis, you’ll see big rolling balls and the things that you expect in a Tomb Raider game are going to be there.

Is anyone from the original team involved in the legacy of Atlantis remake?

JA: I will say that folks at Crystal who have been part of Tomb Raider for a very long time. We have folks who’ve been at Crystal for 30 years, and so we’ve had folks across the gamut of all the different Tomb Raider games that we’ve ever been part of.

We have kind of an interesting crossbreed of some old blood and some very new blood. For example, Flying Wild Hog had never worked on a Tomb Raider game, so there’s a lot of new blood there, whereas we have a lot of “Crystallites” who’ve come from our past.

So blending together, we have a lot of experience in history, but we also have a lot of new faces and new attitudes that are helping really push into that next generation of what Tomb Raider is going to be.