For “Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis,” the developers are adopting an absolute favorite feature from “Shadow of the Tomb Raider,” as game director Raul Siqueira has now revealed. And that should especially make critics of the infamous yellow climbing color rejoice.
After a long dry spell, Lara Croft’s comeback is slowly approaching: as has been officially announced since the Summer Game Fest „Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis“ will appear next spring, after the release was originally planned for 2026 – and therefore in keeping with the 30th anniversary.
But the additional development time at Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog seems to have been well spent. As game director Raul Siqueira has now confirmed, the new edition of Lara’s first adventure will rely on one of the best design decisions in recent series history: the three-part, individual difficulty levels.
The perfect difficulty level for every type of player
Wer „Shadow of the Tomb Raider“ from 2018 will probably remember: Instead of classic levels of difficulty, the action-adventure offers three separate controls for the areas of combat, exploration and puzzles. And it is exactly this system that will return in “Legacy of Atlantis”.
A decision, as Siqueira spoke to GamesRadar stated: “I think the biggest lesson we learned from (the Survivor trilogy) is to align the difficulty level with player expectations. One of the things I think we got really good at toward the end of that trilogy was giving a lot of different options for players who wanted to customize the experience to their liking.”
An important insight that was gained primarily from analyzing player feedback: “Because Tomb Raider combines a number of different elements, we found that there are people who are really into puzzles and want them to be very tricky – but they are not good at combat, so they want the fights to be easy.”
So if you’re good at pulling the trigger and like shooting games, but don’t feel like spending hours pondering in front of locked gates, simply turn the puzzle control down – or vice versa. Because, says Siqueira: “Someone who is good at gunfights is not necessarily skilled in all facets of the Lara Croft fantasy.”
Explore like it was 1996 – without color markings
For die-hard fans, the system should offer a completely different, invaluable advantage. As is well known, it has now become established in modern video games to mark climbable edges with a conspicuous yellow or white color.
But many players find what is intended as an orientation aid annoying, especially since it takes away any opportunity to explore. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, however, turning up the exploration difficulty meant that the color markers were completely hidden – you had to read the environment with your own eyes again.
When asked whether “Legacy of Atlantis” will take over the function one-to-one, Siqueira remained a little reserved, but still gave a hint of what we can look forward to: “That was one of the things that we really wanted to keep, to make sure that the players have a good start. The balance behind it is constantly changing. We’re sort of fine-tuning it until the end.”
As for exactly how it works, he added tellingly that the team will talk more about accessibility and customization options soon, “but, well, you can expect a very similar mode for it.”
So it sounds like purists can take a deep breath and, if desired, exploring the tombs in Peru, Greece and Egypt will feel like it did in 1996 again.
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will be released on February 12, 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and PC.
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