Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis | Gamescom Preview

Delayed, But Looking Better Than Ever

• Previews

Aarsal "SoulBlazerz" Masoodi

36 minutes ago

Become a Member

Join Now!

Tomb Raider is a franchise with decades of history behind it, and it seems like Amazon Games is tapping into exactly that. Originally slated to release this year, the remake of the very first Tomb Raider game, Legacy of Atlantis, is now releasing in February next year, and Crystal Dynamics have been slowly sharing more and more. At Gamescom late last month, I had the opportunity for a sit-down presentation showcasing more of the game, and I came away sufficiently impressed, though still a little cautious.

Keep reading the DayOne Gamescom Hands-Off Preview of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis to find out exactly why.

No Hands-On This Time

Crystal Dynamics decided not to have a hands-on demo this time around, as they did in June earlier this year at Summer Play Days. We were able to play the game back then and you can read what we thought about it here, but the gist of it is that while the game looked great, it felt “floaty” at times. The hope, I suppose, is that they’re working on fixing that, but they still wanted to showcase other parts of the game, which is exactly what they do here.

Rather than a more open or outdoor area, this live demonstration for Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis took place in, well, a tomb. My immediate thought was that yep, this game looks incredible graphically, and it looked smooth too. This is the acrobatic Lara from the original games rather than the more grounded one from the Survivor Trilogy, though they did assure us, once again, that the games are all connected and continue one after the other.

The first thing I noticed was a very slick and minimal-looking UI, which I always appreciate, and, of course, a crafting system. Thankfully, it didn’t seem too tedious and instead was a way to create more healing items and food to provide temporary buffs, such as reduced trap damage in a room for ten minutes.

Scan Everything! Well, If You Want To

Lara also has a scanner that she can pull out at any time for both lore and gameplay related reasons. Lore-wise, you can scan artifacts, or statues, or anything that looks interesting and the game will tell you more about it. Gameplay-wise, the scanner is your hint system if you’re ever trapped on a puzzle and need some help. I did ask them if there was a way to turn the hint feature off but keep the lore stuff, and they told us that the scanner differentiates between lore and hint based on the colour of the lines that appear, so you can absorb the lore while avoiding hints as you please. I think I would have preferred a simple toggle on the hint system but hey, this still works.

After showing some platforming which, again, did look good, a friggen leopard comes out of nowhere, and a fight ensues. I never played the original games so Lara fighting dinosaurs and the like still feels pretty fantastical to me. As for the combat, Lara was using her iconic dual pistols and acrobatic dodges to get away and shoot like 50 bullets into this thing.

Now That’s a Big Cat

The demo felt like it was being played on a decently high difficulty, as the leopard had a decent chunk of health while Lara could maybe take four hits before going down. The enemy would hide and wait behind pillars in the tomb, adding a level of suspense and anticipation I could feel even though the controller wasn’t in my hands. Eventually the player switched to a shotgun and used a slow-mo acrobatic flip, think Matrix, and the leopard went down. They explained this as the “focus” system, allowing Lara to slow down time and line up a precision shot. The player had already upgraded the damage the shotgun did specifically when in this mode, hence the reason why the leopard finally went down.

This was all of the combat they showed, and I have to admit, it looked good. Fun, fast-paced, well animated, and with a decent variety in your arsenal and choices to take an enemy down. The leopard felt unique enough from the usual enemy mob in how it slinked and hid around the arena that I’m very interested in seeing how the other carnivorous creatures in the game will be. And yet, once again, I didn’t actually play any of this, so until we can get our hands on the game again, I can’t say whether they’ve fixed the issues we noticed earlier this year.

Yes, I Walked Into That Trap On Purpose

Back to the demo, Lara does talk to herself, but it felt much more like Indy and less like most modern games, where it feels more like devs are scared of ambient silence. We did see some slow-motion quick-time events when Lara had to jump out of the way of a giant stone sword falling from the ceiling (just Tomb Raider things), and it had me curious how a failed prompt would go, but again it all looked very smooth.

The rest of the demo had Lara navigate a room full of traps in order to obtain an artifact she needs to progress further into the tomb. Puzzles in games can be a bit tricky to nail down, specifically the balance between being simple or too complicated, but the one they showcased felt like a good mix. You had to activate the traps yourself on purpose, dodge out of the way, and utilize the giant swords that survived the drop as platforms to jump on. Emphasis on jump here because wow, her jump looked almost comically big at times.

Lara does have a grapple hook as well, which can be used to make it to hard-to-reach ledges, and they showcased a couple of optional discoveries, “relics”, which are historically accurate and provide cosmetic awards. In this case, the one they found unlocked a new outfit for Lara, and in their own words, “there are a plethora of outfits to use from an over 30-year-old franchise”, so certainly expect to see your favourites throughout the game.

I’ll Go Where I Damn Well Please

One thing that stuck out to me, or rather didn’t stick out to me, was the lack of yellow paint or markers. When asked specifically about this, they said that they “wanted to meet players where players want to be.” In practical terms, this meant that they want to leave it to the player to choose how many visual markers they want, essentially letting them get as immersed as they can. I certainly appreciate this method, as there is an appeal to reading a well-designed room and knowing where to go based on smaller cues.

That was about it for the presentation, though they did reiterate that the game is linear in nature, and so won’t have any wide-open areas à la Shadow. There was a trailer at the end showcasing some pretty fantastical-looking things, skeletons, giant dinosaurs, and more.

Looking Good

I came away from this hands-off preview pretty impressed with what I’d seen. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is looking to be a high-quality remake and hopefully the resurgence of this IP with decades of history. However, we’ll need to wait until we can get our hands on the game again before we can definitively say that they’ve fixed the previous issues, of course. Yet at least for now, this upcoming return to raiding tombs and fighting dinosaurs is one I’d keep my eye on.

Enjoying DayOne? Do us a favour, and make us a ‘Preferred Source on Google‘ – that way, you’ll only be delivered more gaming coverage from our team.

Want to get involved?

There’s plenty of ways to become a part of DayOne.

Head over and let us know your thoughts in the DayOne Forums, the perfect place to chat about games if you’re a little more old-school and prefer things in a longform form, and if you mainly play on PC, join our Steam Community to connect with other members and maybe make some new friends!

Prefer the chaos of live and fast moving conversation? Come and make some noise in the lively DayOne Community Discord Server instead. If you’re rocking a DayOne Membership, both places give special access for our supporters, and you’ll unlock a ton of exclusive content, just for you.