For many 90s kids, Tomb Raider was one of the first games that they experienced back in 2003. The iconic character Lara Croft is hard to forget and there was a time when gamers would eagerly wait for the next Tomb Raider game announcement. However, it has been years since we saw a new Tomb Raider game and that is set to change soon. Lara Croft will soon be back and 2025 might be the most exciting year that fans of the franchise have had in a long time. During The Game Awards 2025, Amazon Games and Crystal Dynamics unveiled not one but two Tomb Raider projects.
One is a completely new game that will define the future of the series. The other is a full scale remake of the one game that started it all. Hence, Lara Croft is not just returning; she is returning in style.
The first project is Tomb Raider Catalyst, a brand new single player game set to release in 2027. Crystal Dynamics is once again at the helm and the studio describes Catalyst as its most ambitious Tomb Raider game to date. Lara’s design in the trailer reflects exactly that. She is confident, precise and far more seasoned than the younger incarnation we saw throughout the reboot trilogy.
Catalyst is said to take place across markets, mountains and ancient structures in northern India. Lara is racing against rival treasure hunters to uncover a set of dangerous artefacts and the tone feels somewhere between her classic 90s persona and the more emotional explorer she became in the modern trilogy.
The game’s trailer hints at a massive world, intricate puzzle tombs and a story centred on trust, betrayal and Lara confronting what she is becoming.
The second announcement during The Game Awards was Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a full reimagining of Lara’s first outing from 1996. The remake launches in 2026 and is being developed in collaboration with Flying Wild Hog. Unlike the Catalyst trailer which focuses on storytelling, Legacy of Atlantis leans straight into nostalgia. Lara explores overgrown ruins, tackles redesigned tomb puzzles and even takes on dinosaurs, all with updated combat and modern visuals.
Developers, during The Game Awards, said that the goal is to respect the tone of the original while expanding it into something that feels contemporary. The current technology gives the environments a cinematic scale that simply was not possible at the time.
Despite the series being quiet since 2018, Tomb Raider continues to be one of the most recognisable franchises around, with a TV series and other adaptations already in the works. With Catalyst and Legacy of Atlantis arriving soon, Lara Croft’s comeback era has officially begun.
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