Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis is real but there’s a second secret game as well, with both new titles due out in the next two years.
It was always known that Tomb Raider was going to be at The Game Awards but officially nothing more was said other than that. Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis leaked a day before the event, but it wasn’t entirely clear if it was legit or, if it was, whether it was a remake or an entirely new game.
We now know for a fact that it’s a ‘reimagining’ of the original 1996 game, and that it’s due out next year in time for the game’s 30th anniversary. The official trailer has more footage than was previously leaked and, as you can see, it’s very impressive – although so graphically advanced it only roughly resembles the old PS1 game.
However, that’s not all. Rumours of a second game also proved to be correct, with Tomb Raider: Catalyst being an entirely new game that will be out in 2027.
There’s clearly going to be a lot of continuity between the two games, with the villain in the Catalyst trailer (assuming the people that Lara Croft callously guns downs are in fact the villains) mentioning Lara’s journey to Atlantis.
Both games are being published by Amazon Game Studios, even though Embracer still owns the licence, but they’ve confirmed that Catalyst is the game that was first announced in 2022, when it was said it will ‘unify’ the timelines of the original and reboot series.
In actual fact, the game was first announced in early 2021, but we’re not sure if that’s a mistake on the part of Amazon or if that original plan was nixed a year in – which would be perfectly normal for this kind of big project.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
Either way, Catalyst will be set primarily in Northern India, in the ‘wake of a mythical cataclysm that has unleashed ancient secrets and awakened the mysterious forces that guard them’.
Apparently this causes the area to be flooded by treasure hunters, with Lara having to work out who to trust and who not, with the latter facing her dual-pistoled brand of justice.
Catalyst is described as ‘the largest Tomb Raider world yet’ and will be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Legacy Of Atlantis will be out on the same formats and is being co-developed by Crystal Dynamics and Evil West studio Flying Wild Hog.
As for Lara herself, she is now being voiced by Alix Wilton Regan, who is primarily a voice actor and plays Samantha Traynor in Mass Effect 3, Alt Cunningham in Cyberpunk 2077, and the female Inquisitor in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
There’s an online press preview for both Tomb Raider games later today, that we’ll be able to report back from on Monday.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
