Legacy of Atlantis Previews

0:00 Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis has been previewed twice, both times in early builds: about an hour hands-on in Peru's Lost Valley at Summer Game Fest in June 2026, and a hands-off, behind-closed-doors demo of Greece's Sword of Damocles room in a pre-alpha level at Gamescom in late August. The June players liked the blend of modern design and old-school feel but found the gunplay flimsy, the jump floaty and the spaces hard to read; the Gamescom viewers praised smarter enemies and a careful balance of old and new, and disliked the scanner and crafting. There are no reviews and no review date as of Nov 2, 2026, so whether the game is good is not yet known; these are impressions of unfinished work. The clip is GameRiot's report from the hands-off Gamescom demo.

Quick facts

Sources: PlayStation Blog, Jun 11, 2026; GamesBeat, Sep 2, 2026; Steam store page, Nov 1, 2026.

Every preview by outlet

The PlayStation Blog is run by Sony, which sells the PS5 version, and Amazon Game Studios staff write some of its posts on this game, so it is not independent press.

The June hands-on: the Lost Valley

0:33 Press played about an hour of The Lost Valley at Summer Game Fest: the cog puzzle, fights with raptors, and a T. rex chase that ended the demo. Phil Hornshaw of the PlayStation Blog called it a fun melding of modern game design and old-school game feel, noted a slight floatiness to Lara, and found that the first stretch of the valley has no combat and little guidance on where to find your missing cog. The clip is IGN's own Jun 2026 preview of its hands-on demo.

PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon was the most doubtful. He found the jump hangs a smidge too long, noted that the T. rex is now a scripted chase and that combat and puzzles have difficulty options, and came away thinking the game conventional; his headline argues that Tomb Raider cannot really be remade.

Kotaku's Kenneth Shepard called the gunplay a bit flimsy, found the environments hard to read for what can be climbed, and said the sprint-jump and slow motion were never taught. He thought the move to 2027 was probably for the best given those rough edges. CGMagazine's preview, carried in the game's Steam news feed, was headlined as looking stunning but still feeling unsteady.

21:01 Actors Troy Baker, Nick Apostolides and Ashleigh Morghan also played the demo for an official video; Baker called it the perfect spiritual successor. That was a promotional appearance, not a preview.

The Gamescom demo: the Sword of Damocles

0:00 At Gamescom the press watched developers play the Sword of Damocles room inside St. Francis' Folly, which GamesRadar+ placed in the game's second level, in a pre-alpha build; nobody outside the studio held the controller. GamesRadar+'s Ali Jones wrote that Crystal Dynamics seems to be treading that line between old and new, with Lara's remarks and wall markings guiding the puzzles without taking them over. The clip is ENFANT TERRIBLE's recording of the Gamescom demo's Sword of Damocles room.

2:02 GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi found it pretty polished, and the leopard took so many hits that Siqueira joked about its thick skin. The Sixth Axis saw a pleasing modernization of the classic and noted that Lara now has to sprint for larger gaps, and detailed the room's changes: dodge prompts as swords fall, spread-out spikes, a rethought door puzzle, swords that can be shot down, and crafting in place of medipacks.

4:07 Kotaku's Ash Parrish, rounding up the Gamescom previews, disliked the scanner and the crafting but liked the smarter enemies, and pointed out that a range skill lets Lara shoot the swords down and hop between them, getting round the puzzle.

What the previews agree on

Across both demos, the praise went to the look, the balance between modern help and the original's lack of it, and enemies that behave better than in 1996. The doubts were about how Lara feels to control (the jump, the gunplay), how readable the spaces are, and the Survivor-style systems, the skill tree and crafting, which fans had already reacted against when they were announced. Each change is set out on What's New in Legacy of Atlantis.

Is Legacy of Atlantis good?

Not knowable yet. The only judgments are previews of a June hands-on and an August hands-off demo, both months before release, and Shepard's and Fenlon's doubts were about a build from June 2026. Reviews will come near launch; no embargo date had been announced as of Nov 2, 2026. Kotaku also used its June preview to raise the generative AI disclosure on the Steam page; see Generative AI in Legacy of Atlantis. The game in full is on Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis.

Frequently asked questions

Is Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis good? It is too early to say. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis has only been previewed in pre-release demos from June and August 2026, with mixed impressions, and no reviews as of Nov 2, 2026.

What did previews say about Legacy of Atlantis? Previews of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis praised its mix of modern and old-school design and its smarter enemies, and criticized the floaty jump, flimsy gunplay, the scanner and crafting.

Has anyone played Legacy of Atlantis? Yes, press played about an hour of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis in the Lost Valley at Summer Game Fest in June 2026. The Gamescom demo in August was hands-off.

When do Legacy of Atlantis reviews come out? No review embargo for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis had been announced as of Nov 2, 2026. The game comes out on Feb 12, 2027.

Is there a Legacy of Atlantis demo? No public demo of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis had been announced as of Nov 2, 2026.

Sources

• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, Steam, as of Nov 1, 2026
• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis news, Steam, as of Nov 1, 2026
• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis isn't classic Lara Croft, GamesRadar+, Sep 2, 2026
• In Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, the leopard has a thick skin, GamesBeat, Sep 2, 2026
• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis Preview, Reimagining the Sword of Damocles, The Sixth Axis, Sep 2, 2026
• 5 Things We Just Learned From Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis Previews, Kotaku, Sep 2, 2026
• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis includes crafting and skill trees from the Survivor trilogy, GamesRadar+, Aug 18, 2026
• Summer Game Fest 2026, Amazon Game Studios, Jun 11, 2026
• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis hands-on report, PlayStation Blog, Jun 11, 2026
• After playing the new remake of Tomb Raider, I'm convinced you can't actually remake Tomb Raider, PC Gamer, Jun 11, 2026
• Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis Hands-On: An Awkward Marriage Of Past And Present, Kotaku, Jun 11, 2026
• Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis Exclusive Gameplay & First Look, GameRiot, Sep 2, 2026 (video)
• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis - The First Preview, IGN, Jun 11, 2026 (video)
• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis | First Impressions + Exclusive Preview Gameplay Demo 4K, Champs Network, Jun 13, 2026 (video)
• TOMB RAIDER New Extended Demo Gamescom 2026 | LARA CROFT Legacy of Atlantis Next-Gen Remake, ENFANT TERRIBLE, Sep 2, 2026 (video)