Tomb Raider’s New Era Can’t Make The Same Mistake As The Survivor Prequel Trilogy

Tomb Raider is about to reinvent itself yet again with a brand-new era on Unreal Engine 5 for current- and next-gen platforms, beginning with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (which is still slated for a release this year, but is rumored to be delayed to 2027) and Tomb Raider: Catalyst (scheduled to be released in 2027). For many modern-day fans, it is fully possible that Tomb Raider’s Survivor prequel trilogy is all they are familiar with in the franchise.

The last mainline Tomb Raider game to be released before the Survivor trilogy was Tomb Raider: Underworld, nearly 20 years ago, with Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider defining the series for more than 13 years. If Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst decide to inherit the prequel trilogy’s genetic essence in any way, it will hopefully avoid the same pit of spikes that Crystal Dynamics fell into regarding one pivotal feature.

Tomb Raider’s Survival Trilogy Botched NG+

In particular, Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider arguably have much worse replayability due to not featuring New Game Plus after completing the games’ main story campaigns and rolling credits. This would later be corrected for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which was developed by Eidos-Montréal, not Crystal Dynamics.

The linearity and overall relative simplicity of Tomb Raider (2013) make its lack of NG+ not all that egregious, whereas not having NG+ in order to hang onto any of the completion or progress players made in Rise of the Tomb Raider’s weapon upgrade trees and skills is unfortunate (it has Chapter Replay Elite, sure, but no dedicated NG+ option).

Meanwhile, these all carry over in a NG+ playthrough of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, with players then being free to ignore open zones’ map-saturating collectibles checklists if they had swept them clean in a previous playthrough and do not wish to indulge in them again.

What Will Legacy Of Atlantis And Catalyst Play Like?

It is currently unknown how it will play, though we do know Tomb Raider: Catalyst’s Lara Croft will have a wrist-mounted grapple mechanic and her iconic dual pistols. If this upcoming game shares the same level design or skill tree tendencies as the Survivor trilogy, it will hopefully have a NG+ option so that players can immediately revisit it and be satisfied with their accumulated inventory and upgrades intact.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis may not have NG+ based purely on it being a remake of the original Tomb Raider (1996), depending on what this remake’s reimagining of the first game is like, but adopting the Tomb Raider 1–3 Remastered’s NG+ ethos could be interesting. Either way, how Tomb Raider’s new era tackles replayability will be neat to see.

Systems

Released

2026

Developer(s)

Crystal Dynamics, Flying Wild Hog

Number of Players

Single-player

Steam Deck Compatibility

Unknown