Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis Dev Clarifies Its Use Of AI In The Game, Saying It Uses It To ‘Get To The Right Answers Faster’

Jeff Adams, Director of Experience on Crystal Dynamics’ upcoming Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, has moved to clarify the studio’s use of AI in the game’s development during an interview with Game Informer.

In case you missed it, following the game’s latest trailer at Summer Game Fest it was revealed that Crystal Dynamics and co-developer Flying Wild Hog had utilised AI in production. Now, Adams has expounded the teams’ use of the technology, stating it was implemented to create placehoulder assets to help with visualisation. This, he said, allows the team to “get to [the] right answers faster.”

Let me give you an example of what that looks like. So, say in early level development, we have an idea for an object, but we’re not sure whether or not we want to take the dev time to build it. We can use a generative AI tool to help us visualise that object in the world. If it works, we’ll then move it to our traditional pipeline. From there, the team will concept it, they’ll build it, and we’ll make sure that all the finished content in the final game is human-crafted.

Adams went on to note that it’s “really important for us that our team has the tools to make the highest quality experience possible,” adding “our fans deserve nothing less than that.”

Adams revealed in a separate interview with IGN that Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis takes place in the same universe as the Survivor trilogy, only we’re finding Lara Croft in her prime at this point.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is scheduled to launch for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S on February 12, 2027. The game is a ground-up overhaul of the original 1996 Tomb Raider, and sees Lara Croft embarking on a globetrotting hunt for the Scion, taking her to locations including Peru, Egypt, and more while facing off against everything from ruthless mercenaries to hulking T-Rex.

[Source – Game Informer via Eurogamer]