Tomb Raider Atlantis Ruins offers more flexible difficulty, but reviews are split

---

Following its delay to February 12, 2027, Tomb Raider: The Lost Ruins of Atlantis has made difficulty design a clear development priority. In an interview with GamesRadar during Summer Game Fest, game director Raul Cickerella said Crystal Dynamics is still refining multiple difficulty settings and customization options for the game, one of several titles pushed into early 2027 both to avoid GTA6 and to give the team more time for polish. It is coming to PS5, XSX|S, PC, and Switch2, with Simplified Chinese support.

The key point is not whether the game ends up harder or easier overall. It is that the team is separating challenge into more specific categories. Cickerella said one of the biggest lessons the team took from the Tomb Raider survival trilogy was to tune difficulty around player expectations and to offer different kinds of control. In practice, that means players who want tougher puzzles should not be forced through punishing combat, while players who enjoy the combat should not have to push through dense puzzle sections just to keep moving.

That approach lines up closely with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which in 2018 offered separate difficulty sliders for combat, puzzles, and platforming, alongside an overall difficulty setting. Its Deadly Obsession mode sharply raised the challenge across the board and could not be changed once selected. Cickerella has not yet shared the full list of options for Tomb Raider: The Lost Ruins of Atlantis, and he did not say exactly how close it will be to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but he did promise a structure that will feel "very similar" to past games.

That is where the debate comes in. Some players worry that if the options become too flexible, Tomb Raider could lose the tension that makes tomb exploration work. Others will welcome that layered approach, because Tomb Raider has never been built around just one idea. It blends puzzles, combat, platforming, and exploration, and players naturally value those pieces differently. Based on what the developers are saying now, the team seems to favor that second approach: keep the familiar structure, then keep adjusting the balance until development wraps.

That balance matters even more because of what this project is trying to be. Tomb Raider: The Lost Ruins of Atlantis is described as a high-definition Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original 1996 Tomb Raider, while also incorporating the modern survival trilogy's setting and tone. Its story sends Lara across multiple countries with her classic dual pistols in search of fragments of the Scion, uncovering the secrets of the Atlantean civilization along the way. The feature list points the same way: no navigation guidance, hardcore mechanical puzzles, dinosaur chases, a seamless large-scale map, and improved climbing and combat feel.

That is why the extra focus on difficulty options sounds meaningful rather than cosmetic. If the tuning lands, more players will be able to enter this version of Tomb Raider on their own terms without flattening what makes it tense and distinctive. If it does not, the game risks becoming a beautiful shell whose rhythm never quite holds together.

Two groups, in particular, should keep an eye on it. The first is players who like the feel of the survival trilogy but do not want to be locked into a single high-pressure difficulty profile. The second is long-time Tomb Raider fans who want to see how the classic dual-pistol fantasy, globe-trotting adventure, and Atlantis mystery are being re-lit with modern tech. The real thing to watch next is not the dinosaur footage or the seamless-map promise, but the finer details of those difficulty options, because they will decide whether this version of Tomb Raider is worth playing, not just looking at.