Lara Croft is going to level up. That’s the part people can’t stomach.
Amazon Game Studios dropped the sixth entry in its behind-the-scenes series on Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and the new video spends its runtime on how the game plays rather than how it looks. The remake of Lara’s 1996 debut arrives next year with modernized systems. Some of those systems have gone over about as well as a spike pit.
The Focus meter is the easy sell
The video, titled “Combat & Progression Reimagined” and posted to the official Tomb Raider YouTube channel, walks through a handful of new mechanics. Game director Raul Siquera opens with the biggest one: Focus.
“When you’re taking damage, dealing damage, dodging attacks, you’re building your Focus meter,” Siquera explained, “Focus allows you to slow down time around you and showcase some of the things that Lara used to do in 1996.” Fill the meter, unlock more of her acrobatic repertoire.
Reaction to Focus has been quiet, which in fan-discourse terms counts as approval. And in the footage shown, it looks pretty good when a player pulls it off cleanly.
The skill tree is where it falls apart
Design director Jason Epps handled the other two additions: a skill tree and herb collecting. Both borrow openly from Crystal Dynamics’ Survivor Trilogy, where Lara scavenged materials and upgraded her abilities.
“When I played the Survivor series and I could suddenly affect and increase Lara’s power in the game, I felt much more engaged,” said Epps. Crafting works on a Resident Evil-style system, producing items that heal Lara and hand her buffs.
Those two got hammered. A ResetEra thread about the video filled up with reactions like “No sir, I don’t like it,” and “I hate it.” One user asked, “Isn’t she supposed to be a veteran treasure hunter in this game? Why would she be learning new skills at her age?”
The complaint has a point buried in it. The 1996 original was a lean game with none of the RPG scaffolding hanging off modern releases, and plenty of people wanted Legacy of Atlantis to stay in that lane.
What the developers are actually building
Read the changes together and the intent is clear enough: fuse the original games with the Survivor Trilogy. Not a shock, given the series is working toward a more unified timeline across new entries.
Even the skill tree comes with a wrinkle. Lara earns skill points by collecting in-game artifacts instead of grinding experience points.
And for anyone convinced this is drifting too far from 1996, the developers say the whole game can be cleared using nothing but Lara’s dual pistols. “If you decide that you want to play with the dual pistols the entire way and be iconic. Absolutely,” Epps said.
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis hits Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X on Feb. 12, 2027.
