劳拉·克劳馥的遗产：为何《古墓丽影》三十年后依然令人激动

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Tomb Raider, the seminal action-adventure platformer that debuted on the Sega Saturn, PC, and PlayStation in 1996. Protagonist Lara Croft quickly became an industry icon, receiving a whole line of sequels, revivals, and reboots, with games gracing virtually every major platform in the decades following. The franchise has spread to all kinds of merchandising and multimedia, including three theatrical films, two animated series, and an upcoming live-action show for Prime Video. Simply put, even if you’re not a gamer, there’s a good chance that you know who Lara Croft is.

Aside from the occasional remaster collection, the gaming side of the Tomb Raider franchise had been relatively dormant since 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Fortunately, publisher Amazon Game Studios and developers Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog have been hard at work on the next era of Tomb Raider by looking at the series’ celebrated roots. The upcoming game Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis serves as a remake of the 1996 original, but also connects it to the Survivor trilogy that unveiled the modern origin of Lara Croft while welcoming newcomers to the franchise.

We got to play an early preview build of Legacy of Atlantis at Summer Game Fest 2026 and speak with some of the developers behind the eagerly anticipated project. Based on that conversation and what we experienced for ourselves, the game definitely evokes the classic environments from the 1996 title, right down to that intense first encounter with a T-Rex, reimagined for modern players. Given where the franchise is currently at in this moment of its extensive history, a remake of the first game makes sense, with Lara revisiting her past before forging her future.

The original Tomb Raider debuted four months after Super Mario 64, which revolutionized how we played video games with its true 3D presentation and tight platforming controls. But whereas the Nintendo franchise had its usual family-friendly sheen, Tomb Raider proved that 3D platforming could be a bit more mature and action-packed, combining acrobatic platforming and exploration with third-person shooter spectacle years before Metal Gear Solid or Prince of Persia ventured into similar territory. With her action-adventure credentials, Lara Croft felt like the heir apparent to the archetype popularized by Indiana Jones while providing much more entertaining gaming thrills than the venerable archaeologist’s own video game tie-ins.

Lara Croft broke through the male-dominated hegemony of video game protagonists, dual-wielding matching pistols before The Matrix made it cool. And while Lara certainly turned heads compared to other protagonists, if it was just about polygonal good looks, we wouldn’t still be talking about the character and excited about her games 30 years later. Lara was moving and fighting more intuitively than most of the 3D platformers on the market at the time, with the games’ success leading Eidos Interactive to release a new project annually for much of the PlayStation’s lifecycle, with the console receiving five games in all.

In the 21st century, Tomb Raider faltered a little bit as it tried to find its place in an industry that had since mastered 3D platforming action in plenty of other franchises. The lukewarm response to 2003’s Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness prompted Crystal Dynamics to take the creative helm and reimagine the series with 2006’s Tomb Raider: Legend. This led to a new line of games, but the franchise grew dormant again, leading an even more ambitious reboot to take shape, something that brought a real grit to the series.

The Survivor trilogy, as it became known as, started with 2013’s Tomb Raider, providing gamers with an updated origin story as they guided Lara following her being caught in a shipwreck while searching for a lost fabled kingdom in the Pacific Ocean. The platforming and action was still there, but with much more brutally consequential violence, including gruesome ways for Lara to be killed, rather than the more escapist action. Tomb Raider had grown up to seemingly match the times, reinvigorating the series and with the franchise’s 2018 movie reboot drawing heavily from the 2013 game’s sensibilities.

In response to criticism about the game’s more graphic brutality, subsequent entries in the Survivor trilogy struck a better balance with tone and gameplay, mitigating the more grounded on-screen carnage. Even now, eight years after Shadow of the Tomb Raider debuted, it and its predecessor Rise of the Tomb Raider, feel like the perfect balance between the franchise’s defining ethos and its modernized elements to coalesce into the ultimate Tomb Raider experience. While I still revisit the original games through the excellent remastered collections put in 2024 and 2025, I crown Rise of the Tomb Raider as the best in the series to date.

And I really want to emphasize that I mentioned “to date” because we have at least two Tomb Raider games to come, with Legacy of Atlantis and the announced 2028 title Tomb Raider: Catalyst. Whereas Legacy of Atlantis reimagines and updates the 1996 title while connecting it to a Lara Croft coming out of the Survivor trilogy, effectively bridging those two eras, Catalyst offers an intriguing premise for longtime fans. The 2028 game is a sequel to 2008’s Tomb Raider: Underworld, the last mainline game released in that run of games, offering a big step into Lara’s future. As a fan of the franchise since the ‘90s, color me excited and I’m certainly not alone.

Happy 30th, Lara Croft. For being a multi-generational gaming icon, you haven’t lost a step.

Developed by Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog and published by Amazon Game Studios, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will be released February 12 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

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