Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis experience director says 'reimagining' the 1996 game allows Crystal Dynamics to retain 'iconic' moments while still offering 'creative leeway'

• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis experience director Jeff Adams has explained why the game is a "reimagining" instead of a remake
• Adams says it allows Crystal Dynamics to capture "iconic moments" and still make new creative decisions
• Some features will be familiar, while others will be brand new, like the new Focus Mode

Crystal Dynamics has explained why it is treating Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis as more of a "reimagining" than a remake or remaster of the classic 1996 game.

That's according to experience director Jeff Adams, who told TechRadar Gaming at Summer Game Fest 2026 that the approach it's taking allows the studio to stick to what fans are familiar with, whether that be story beats and recognizable puzzles, while also building on that groundwork.

"It allows us to still be able to capture these really iconic moments in the original experience and make sure that that feels recognizable and echoic," Adams said, "but it gives us also the creative leeway to say, 'Hey, can we potentially make a slightly different creative decision here and push the game further?'"

Some of those new creative decisions include a reimagined Lara Croft, played by Dragon Age: Inquisition's Alix Wilton Regan, but who will be just as acrobatic as she was 30 years ago, a gorgeous photorealistic world, and a Focus Mode that fills a combat gauge that can grant a slow-motion bullet time ability.

Crystal Dynamics has also applied ideas from its Tomb Raider Survivor Trilogy, like more intuitive traversal and deeper puzzles, while still keeping memorable moments like the T-Rex boss fight.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was originally slated to launch this year, but will now launch on February 27, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Wilton Regan also spoke to TechRadar Gaming at SGF as well about playing the iconic character in Legacy of Atlantis, saying she feels "incredibly lucky to be bringing Tomb Raider into this new era," and isn't "worried about having to differentiate, because I feel very confident in the choice that we are going back to core Lara."

"Within the context of classic Lara, my job as the actress portraying her is to leave no Laras behind," Wilton Regan said.

"I'm very keen to understand, acknowledge, and respect everything that's been before across the Tomb Raider franchise, take the most important bits, assimilate them, digest them, and then bring them up to speed for modern audiences."