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TOMB RAIDER Full Extended Demo Gamescom 2026 ICONIC NEW LARA CROFT Legacy of Atlantis Adventure
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00:00We will allow it.
00:02And here she is.
00:04Oh, such swagger she's got.
00:07Yeah, you see that familiar silhouette come into the light,
00:10and you just instantly get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.
00:13I mean, speaking about hairs on your neck, this looks absolutely incredible.
00:18Arik, talk to us about, yeah, well done.
00:21And congratulations to you, the whole team.
00:23How is this place?
00:24Yeah, it's the team's work.
00:25But what we're trying to do is being authentic to the place
00:28that we are bringing people in.
00:30Because basically Lara Croft is an archaeologist,
00:32so the places she discovers and she explores, they need to be real.
00:36So in this example, we dive deep into Incans culture
00:39and the architecture in Peru and also the plants and everything
00:43with the idea of bringing back the original feeling.
00:46So we've done what we could.
00:49We've been authentic to the Peruvian culture, but also we bring, you know,
00:53it's a game, so we want to make it fun and beautiful.
00:56Yeah, it's really, when we dove into it, we're like, okay,
01:00the cog puzzle is such an iconic part of that game.
01:02I'm going to say iconic a lot because we are dealing with an icon.
01:06It's true. Yeah.
01:06So, but let's say there are memorable water cooler moments that people remember so well.
01:10But in a modern gaming sense, like, we have an ability to create a higher believability sense of immersion.
01:19And so when we really kind of step back and we look at it for what it is
01:22and how we try to make the gameplay feel naturally seeded and believable in the world,
01:27but just slightly out of place, like, why does this exist?
01:30It sparks a feeling of curiosity.
01:33And curiosity combined with exploration is like what Tomb Raider is at a core.
01:37And so we get it on screen and we hopefully make people happy with it.
01:41Yeah, but also when you look at the cog puzzle, like, wanted to make a sense why it's there.
01:45So we created a whole narration around it.
01:48Like, we created this culture that has this ceremony of bringing the cogs together
01:52to open up the gate to Tomb of Kualopek.
01:55So it was really fun to just build the whole structures and logic and the whole system,
02:00why it would be there and how it would work.
02:02I love that.
02:03Like, here's a perfect example of curiosity on display.
02:05Like, Lara gets a beautiful pencil dive into the water after dislodging the roots.
02:10I don't know.
02:10Ten, all right, by the way.
02:12Oh, thank you.
02:13Awesome.
02:13But along the way she's like, wait a minute, I see something out of the corner of my eye,
02:16the player drives in and they come into this new space.
02:20You may have never missed this unless you took, or you may have never seen it
02:23if you had not taken a chance to actually just look around for a beat.
02:26I mean, speaking about looking around,
02:28is there maybe particular details that you guys are really proud of
02:33or that you want players to really notice in the environment of the game?
02:38From an environment perspective, for me, it was the most important.
02:41I want people to immerse in the game and I don't want to break this immersion.
02:45So I wanted to build everything with the logic.
02:47So everything, all the mechanisms, all the puzzles, they need to be there for a reason.
02:51And me and our team, we really work really hard to make sure that every single puzzle,
02:56every single obstacle that Lara meets, it makes sense.
03:00So when you dive deep into the environment, into the world that we are playing,
03:04it's there because I want to build it, not because the game requires it.
03:08And we don't want the environment to feel like it's a heritage site.
03:12I mean, we're in the wild.
03:14This is a city lost the time that we are discovering.
03:17And as a result, we have the opportunity to kind of do some storytelling tricks
03:24where we can actually say, hey, this is a culture that evolved in isolation for a while.
03:28So how do you preserve what we know about Incan culture?
03:30But at the same time, give it a uniqueness to say, hey, it's unmistakably Tomb Raider,
03:35but it's that way because they just evolved in isolation for a while.
03:39And when you play the game, you're going to find out why.
03:43And then you can have a lot of fun with the overgrown aesthetic as well as,
03:46obviously, some of the dirt that Lara's picked up as she's traversing through these environments.
03:51That's it.
03:51Yeah. I mean, that's the part of just making sure that the environment feels like you are the person
03:56who discovered the first in a very, very long time, because that's what she does.
03:59And we want to make sure that that's how it feels as well.
04:02Yeah. And Lara is not, she's not a delicate flower.
04:05She looks good, but she is going to get her hands dirty.
04:08She's going to dig in. Heck yeah.
04:09She's going to go anywhere and she's going to follow her instincts, similar to how she's doing here.
04:14She's like, I need that cog to get that puzzle moving.
04:17I found one, but that has opened up the path to somewhere else.
04:20So curiosity is driving her.
04:22You're going to be along helping her find that way.
04:25And we get into a beautiful traversal that makes sure that Lara's physical attributes, her abilities, her athleticism is on
04:34full display in these moments.
04:35She's at her peak, right?
04:37She's at her peak.
04:38Yep.
04:39Love that.
04:40Now the puzzles, like you mentioned, they are such an iconic part of Tomb Raider for me as well.
04:46There's so many that I remember from Greece, Egypt, all of the levels.
04:50Can you go a little bit deeper about how you've evolved them for Legacy of Atlantis?
04:55Similar to what we talked about reimagining.
04:57It's about saying, hey, this puzzle as it existed, you know, what was the original intent here?
05:03And if that intent is something that we are like, hey, that's a really strong guiding principle, how do we
05:10take that and make it the ultimate version of what it intends to be?
05:15Sometimes that means sticking very close to the formula.
05:18Sometimes it means deviating into another area.
05:20But we do so in a way that's very thoughtful and very precise because we never want to make it
05:24feel like we're ignoring the history of this adventure that we're reimagining.
05:29We want it to feel like it's the re-debut of this game.
05:34And so adding new details, like giving her gear items that allow her to extract more lore from the world,
05:40preserving some of those classic abilities like push-pull, traversal being fluid and dynamic.
05:47We'll get into combat a little bit later.
05:49But these are all just Tomb Raider things at the core.
05:53Amazing.
05:53Yeah, but just going back to the scanner thing, like you can use the scanner if you are a fan
05:58and just want to, like Jeff said, dig deep into the lore.
06:00You can scan things and find out more, but you can also use the scanner as a clue to the
06:05puzzles.
06:06Cool.
06:06It gives you clues if you want to, if you don't want to, you can just play it your way.
06:10Nice.
06:11And that's us trying to be sensitive to the players because there are those that want to have this full
06:16breadth of systems, but we also have our hardcore players that are like, I want two pistols and no help.
06:21Yeah.
06:21And we're accommodating them as well.
06:23Yeah, I love that.
06:24Giving players way more choice and following their lead as well.
06:28That's so cool.
06:29It sounds like you guys have done a lot of research as well and really respected a lot of the
06:33environments that you're talking about in real life, as well as creating a more fantasy realm for Lara to explore.
06:39That sounds sick.
06:40I mean, research is a massive part of what we've been doing because the cultures that we've been working on
06:45recently is, you know, Incans, Asian Greece, Egypt, and we want to be respectful to those cultures and to the
06:52history that they have.
06:53And also for the players to feel like they are actually archeologists, not just playing the game.
06:58So that's why we've done so, so much research.
07:01And when we decided to partner with the Hogs on this game, you know, co-develop it together, we knew
07:06that they were also fans of the game.
07:08They, I think Maddie is actually one of the designers on the, yeah.
07:13So like we've got a designer on the team who literally used to make Tomb Raider levels for fun.
07:17Yeah.
07:17And he's really well known in the community.
07:19So these are real fans that are making the game.
07:21Wow.
07:21But at the same time, we're also, you know, we have a luxury of very talented developers who ask the
07:26right questions, who push in the right places to make sure we get really cool stuff that's fun to play
07:31on screen.
07:31And watching this whole process unfold over the last few years has just been a treat as a developer.
07:38I bet.
07:38That's so special.
07:40That's so cool.
07:40What we're seeing here is Lara movement in full action there.
07:44She's got a lot of swagger.
07:46Like I said, she's got seas looking.
07:47Can you talk to me a little bit about some of the innovations that Lara's movement can be experienced in
07:54Legacy of Advantis and how it'll feel for players to play as her?
07:58What we hope is, we hope it feels familiar.
08:00We hope that you can pick up the sticks and you're like, wow, this is like putting on an old
08:04pair of shoes that are super comfortable.
08:06But at the same time, we've given her a couple of more tricks that she can use to help navigate
08:11the world, such as a grapple cuff that can give her some unique abilities to interact with objects,
08:16to use it to navigate.
08:18Those little touches are additive and are meant to enhance the experience while still preserving that original intent.
08:24Very cool.
08:25But that cog puzzle, I mean, she basically knew she needed to find it.
08:28She used her instinct.
08:29She moved upwards through this beautiful little pocket city that was adjacent to this temple, discovered things about it along
08:37the way, got inside, found this beautiful water clock whose purpose is unknown.
08:42She gets it and look at this.
08:45There she is.
08:46There she is.
08:47That's Lara, baby.
08:48Oh, my God.
08:48Lara never comes in through the front door and she never leaves without style.
08:54Oh, that's sick.
08:57So, yeah, we've got this beautiful landscape around us.
09:01The environment art is stunning.
09:03I know.
09:03Incredible.
09:04I mean, we try, we try to, when you play in this game, like, we want you to explore and
09:10just enjoy exploring the environment apart of doing everything else.
09:13Like, if you just want to walk around and want to figure out what was actually happening in this place
09:18and how we, what the people were doing there hundreds of years ago, you can do so.
09:23And just working on all those vistas, they, it's just so awesome.
09:26Like, our teams put so much heart and passion into building the, exactly, the vistas like this.
09:33Look at that.
09:34This is one of my favorite, one of my favorite moments is the postcard shots where you're alone in the
09:39wilderness, you can hear the birds chirping, the leaves rustling.
09:42There's no time clock.
09:44We want people to slow down when they play the game.
09:47We want them to say, take it in, enjoy it.
09:49You don't have to speed run it, but if you're listening and you do, let us know what your time
09:54is because we'll keep track.
09:56But that's great.
09:57It's the type of audience that we have.
09:59You know, we have people that want to challenge themselves to move through the experience as fast as they can
10:03and those that want to sightsee.
10:05And the game just is welcoming to all.
10:07I'll be sightseeing for sure.
10:08I've got tears in my eyes.
10:10I'm not even joking.
10:11That is absolutely incredible.
10:13Wow.
10:14I wanted to go back a little bit and talk a little bit more about Lara's toolkit and how that's
10:19evolved here.
10:20So we have mentioned her, her grapple hook, her, we saw the scanner in action as well.
10:26How is that really going to affect the gameplay for players and what other tools has she got up her
10:30sleeve?
10:31Well, we've got the, like you said, the two items that we've already discussed.
10:35And as Artic mentioned, the scanner has some dual functionality.
10:38It can not only give you some hints that are optional if you don't want to engage with it, but
10:41it also gives you some world lore.
10:43But on top of that, we've got some things under the hood in her PDA that we can use to
10:47help give her some slightly different skill attributes.
10:51If you want to equip her in a certain way to help meet challenges as you can face them.
10:56We've got our crafting system because we want to make sure that, you know, finding med packs.
11:03In the middle of the jungle.
11:05It's cool.
11:06A little bit old school.
11:07Yeah, in a tomb 10,000 years old.
11:09It's lucky that there's a first aid kit here.
11:11What do you mean?
11:11They're not there all the time?
11:12What the heck?
11:12So we were like, how do we make this still feel like Tomb Raider, but at the same time, like,
11:16not break immersion.
11:17And so that's where, like, crafting is a perfect addition to it.
11:21It lets her scavenge the world for resources, use her knowledge and her ability to craft something useful.
11:27And on top of that, she can use recipes to provide certain gameplay buffs that are going to help give
11:32her short-term advantages.
11:33If you want, you don't have to.
11:35And you can just play the old school way, dual pistol all the way through with healing items if you
11:40want.
11:41If you want to put your heads down and power through it, you can do it, but these things are
11:44available to you and we think they're fun to engage with.
11:47Amazing.
11:47The Tomb of Qualipek waterfall gate is opened.
11:49Done it.
11:50Now here we're advancing to a little bit later in the game.
11:54We're now just on the cusp of a very memorable first encounter.
11:59So, folks, hold on.
12:00Here we go.
12:01Oh, I remember this, I think.
12:02But we've got to do it with style.
12:04Yes!
12:07I'm so worried you were going to include us on that.
12:09That's so sick.
12:10Oh, she's so cool.
12:11You know, early stages of the project, we were like, hey, you know, if we're really going to do this,
12:15we want to represent Lara in a way that she's fully recognizable.
12:18And part of that is the acrobatics.
12:19Lara without the acrobatics is still cool Lara, but not classic Lara.
12:25And here they're on full display.
12:26But what I hope people appreciate is that there's more grounding, more believability to it in how she moves.
12:32She's still having fun, but...
12:35It's synonymous to her, but yeah.
12:37Yeah.
12:37Like you mentioned, the more grounded when she was kicking the cold puzzle, that looked sick.
12:41It was so cool, but yeah.
12:42Those little interactive moments add a sense of cinematic spectacle time to time, which is nice.
12:47It allows the game to still feel like a summer blockbuster.
12:50Yeah.
12:51And speaking of...
12:52Hello!
12:53Who are these guys?
12:55Hello!
12:56The Rauker design looks really cool, Arik, as well.
12:59Brilliant, thank you.
13:00I love the addition of the feathers.
13:02Yeah, I mean, we wanted to keep the red color, you know, which you remember from the original one.
13:07Of course.
13:07But obviously our knowledge about the dinosaurs evolved so much since 1996.
13:12So we wanted, like with everything in this game, we want to add on top of what's been done already.
13:17So we kept the color, we added our own silhouette designs and we added the feathers to make it unique
13:22for the Legacy of Atlantis.
13:24Nice.
13:25And their combat has been, like, dramatically overhauled.
13:28They're no longer just charging at you and just taking bullets.
13:30They're thinking.
13:31Yeah.
13:31They're evading.
13:32You have the ability to use the health reticle when an aim downside to be able to kind of assess
13:37where they're at so you can target your shots.
13:38And with Laura's combat, love seeing the axe make a little appearance.
13:44Yep.
13:45Utility gear for the win.
13:46But when she's actually in combat, she's got a loop of, you know, assessing the situation, responding and then moving
13:54to make sure she can then reassess.
13:56And that's, Laura's always in motion.
13:58Her combat is fluid.
13:59It's organic.
14:00Yeah.
14:01But at the same time, it helps her kind of overcome challenges and get the upper hand.
14:05Yeah.
14:05Yeah.
14:06Basically, she needs to keep moving all the time.
14:08It's like a dance for them.
14:09Yeah.
14:09That's sick.
14:10And you can see a little blue dot on the bottom, which enables you to go into the focus mode,
14:16which slows down time, which is one of my favorite features in our game.
14:20For sure.
14:21Yeah. When that fills up, she can go into hyper focus, slow down time and really pull up those precision
14:26shots.
14:27But if you're going to do that, like give her some style when she does it.
14:30Absolutely.
14:31Let those acrobatics shine.
14:32Hello.
14:33There's our girl.
14:34That's the girl.
14:35Yeah.
14:36Yay.
14:36Oh my gosh.
14:38What was it like reimagining such an iconic boss fight here as well as the other ones in Atlantis?
14:44How was that?
14:45From our perspective, it was just an honor to work on a T-Rex, but like we've worked for such
14:51a long time to just make sure it's perfect from our perspective.
14:54And we were trying to be respectful to the OG one, you know, the moment when she's coming out like
14:58throughout the corner and you see the T-Rex.
15:01We couldn't do exactly this, but we wanted to have the same emotions when people see her for the first
15:06time.
15:07And then just working on her design, it was such a blast.
15:09Yeah.
15:09And when you see her, it's like she still has some of those classic DNAs.
15:13She's got that beautiful green with that yellow pockets under her eyes, but we've also got some added elements in
15:19the feathers that also provide a little bit more of a reason.
15:21She's in a geothermal valley.
15:23I mean, she's going to have a little bit of plumage that feels like it matches that environment.
15:27And it just gives her this really recognizable signature look.
15:30I just love that we added those red feathers because there's so...
15:33a little michael.
15:52There's aungkinan tint that gives you our eye to wear flags.