Tomb Raider (1996)
Tomb Raider is a 1996 shooter video game made by Core Design and Square Enix.
Lara Croft is a British archaeologist with a taste for dangerous places and no patience for guards. The original Tomb Raider puts her through Peruvian ruins, sunken shipwrecks, an Egyptian pyramid, and Atlantean chambers, all rendered in Core Design's pioneering 3D engine. The game is built on careful movement: every leap over a pit, every pivot to line up a pistol shot at an oncoming bear, demands attention to geometry. The tone is cold and atmospheric, the environments enormous, and the puzzles demand that you treat each room as a spatial problem before you treat it as a combat one.
Quick answers
What is Tomb Raider about?
Lara Croft is a British archaeologist with a taste for dangerous places and no patience for guards. The original Tomb Raider puts her through Peruvian ruins, sunken shipwrecks, an Egyptian pyramid, and Atlantean chambers, all rendered in Core Design's pioneering 3D engine. The game is built on careful movement: every leap over a pit, every pivot to line up a pistol shot at an oncoming bear, demands attention to geometry. The tone is cold and atmospheric, the environments enormous, and the puzzles demand that you treat each room as a spatial problem before you treat it as a combat one.
When was Tomb Raider released?
Tomb Raider was released on 24 October 1996.
Who made Tomb Raider?
Tomb Raider was made by Core Design, Square Enix and Eidos Interactive.
Similar games
Explore Tomb Raider guides
Tomb Raider in our writing
- Companion guide: Archaeology & Lost Tombs
- Companion guide: Eidos Interactive: Lara Croft, Deus Ex and the British Golden Age
- Companion guide: Mummies & Ancient Curses
- Companion guide: Treasure Hunts & Adventure
A few thoughts on Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider reimagines Lara's origin with modern production values and a grittier register, while Lara Croft: Tomb Raider brings the 1996 character's cool confidence to live action. Both extend the same sense of a lone explorer piecing together ancient mysteries under pressure.
The Lara Croft universe across every medium
The original game launched one of the most adapted characters in gaming history. The films, the Netflix animated series, and the tie-in novels all explore different facets of the same archaeologist, making this a rare franchise you can follow across film, TV, book, and game.
Puzzles, traps, and ancient curses
The first Tomb Raider game is as much puzzle box as action game. Timed traps, pressure plates, and lever sequences that take several rooms to solve. These games share that rhythm of exploration followed by a moment where the architecture itself becomes the obstacle.