Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis — How St. Francis' Folly Has Been Reimagined for Greece

The first Tomb Raider game ever made opened with Lara Croft dropping keys into a door at the bottom of St. Francis’ Folly. Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis flips that entirely — the door is now at the top, and getting there is the whole puzzle.

CONFIRMED BY CRYSTAL DYNAMICS / AMAZON GAMES

• Developed by Crystal Dynamics (with Flying Wild Hog), published by Amazon Games
• Releasing February 12, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Windows and Nintendo Switch 2
• Confirmed regions include Greece, alongside Peru, Egypt and a Mediterranean island
• St. Francis’ Folly reimagined as a large, vertical cavern built around Greek mythology-themed puzzle rooms
• The classic Sword of Damocles puzzle returns, reworked so falling swords become traversal platforms rather than obstacles to simply avoid
• The room’s four keys now unlock a door at the top of the space instead of the bottom, followed by a spherical mechanism players rotate to align mirrors with the Ornate Gate

SHOWN IN THE “REIMAGINING GREECE” BREAKDOWN

The official Reimagining Greece overview trailer, posted to the Play Tomb Raider channel, walks through this section directly, showing Lara triggering the Sword of Damocles trap on purpose — turning what was originally an insta-death hazard in the 1996 game into a tool she has to use deliberately to reach higher parts of the room.

From a Single Puzzle Room to a Vertical Level

In the original Tomb Raider, St. Francis’ Folly was one room split into four smaller chambers, each themed after a different figure (Neptune, Atlas, Damocles, Thor), with keys collected from each and slotted into a door. Legacy of Atlantis keeps that basic structure — four keyed puzzle rooms feeding into one larger objective — but expands it into what previews describe as a sprawling, reworked environment. Crystal Dynamics has rebuilt the underground space to look like a fully realized ancient metropolis rather than a set of geometric test chambers, with carved walls and statues filling in detail the original PS1-era game could only imply.

That’s the core of what “reimagined” means here: the same landmark, the same core idea (collect keys, open door), but restructured so the vertical climb itself is the puzzle rather than a backdrop for four smaller ones.

The Sword of Damocles, Reworked as a Tool

The original Sword of Damocles room was built around avoidance — a suspended sword that could kill Lara if she mistimed a jump beneath it. Previews from Gamescom 2026’s hands-off session describe the redesigned version as something closer to a mechanism: players deliberately trigger the swords to fall, then use the fallen swords themselves as platforms to reach otherwise unreachable parts of the chamber. It’s the same iconography — the sword, the myth it’s named for — repurposed as an active traversal puzzle instead of a passive hazard.

Why the Door Moved to the Top

This is a small but telling change. In 1996, the four keys unlocked a door at ground level; you climbed up to collect them, then came back down to finish the puzzle. In Legacy of Atlantis, the keyed door sits at the top of the vertical cavern instead. Once all four keys are placed, the puzzle isn’t over — players then have to rotate a spherical device to align its mirrors with what’s called the Ornate Gate, adding a mechanical, physics-based step on top of the original’s simpler “collect and insert” structure. It’s a clear example of the broader approach previews describe across Legacy of Atlantis: familiar objectives from the original games, expanded into considerably larger environmental puzzles rather than replaced outright.

What’s Still Unknown

Crystal Dynamics hasn’t detailed how St. Francis’ Folly fits into the broader pacing of the Greece region, whether other classic puzzle rooms from the original game appear alongside it, combat encounters tied to this specific space, or how large the reworked cavern actually is relative to the rest of the level. The February 12, 2027 release date is confirmed across all four announced platforms, but platform-specific performance details haven’t been published.

For more upcoming action-adventure and open-world releases, see our coverage of Spyro: A Realm Beyond’s full-flight mechanics and our Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure beginner guide.