Eighteen months ago, Tomb Raider team members at Crystal Dynamics embarked on their own quest to rediscover Lara Croft. During their soul-searching mission, they unearthed past consumer surveys, conducted new research, re-read every game review, listened to lots of passionate pleas and opinions from gamers and re-played through every Tomb Raider product. From this introspection and open-minded search for a fresh perspective, Tomb Raider: Legend was born.

As a result, Eidos is evolving the brand while building on the original values of compelling character and suspense-filled adventure gameplay. Crystal Dynamics has brought together the biggest and most diverse development team in Tomb Raider history and recruited Lara Croft’s original creator Toby Gard as the lead character designer.

Eidos and Crystal Dynamics shaped Lara’s look and movements to be an inherent extension of her skills, motivation and personality. Lara’s character model features natural structure, realistic textures, detailed facial features, reactive eyes and fluid motion, all of which make her part of a living environment.

New character animations and controls allow her to move through stunning environments with grace and precision, while an understanding of the game’s original appeal reinvigorates the fundamental explore-and-solve adventure experience.

Features :

• Lara comes to life-the dual-pistol-wielding adventurer's polygon count and animation set has been increased significantly, presenting Lara in the finest fidelity to date
• Return to the Tombs: Lara's new quest brings her to lost ancient realms that guard Secrets of the Past
• Fluid movement: the revamped control system provides intuitive and fluid character movement
• Dynamic animation system puts focus on continuous motion, giving Lara the ability to seamlessly handle any obstacle and interact dynamically with any surface
• Move and shoot. Lara uses her physical prowess to combine gunplay with unique signature moves
• Variety of player choice-intelligently use the environment, technical gear and weapons to overcome challenging situations.
• Physics, Water and Fire systems bring the perilous environments of Lara's world alive, and challenge the player to improvise solutions to obstacles
• Visit a vast array of cinematic and exotic locations including ancient tombs, dangerous jungles, snowy mountain ruins and numerous unexpected surprises in between!

Expected in European stores April 7, North America April 11, 2006.