Tomb Raider Is Officially Switching Genres In The Crypt Of Chronos

Published Sep 27, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. For 30 years, Tomb Raider has been one of gaming's most recognizable adventure franchises, with Lara Croft undergoing major evolutions since her groundbreaking 1990s debut, featured as the star of games, films, animated series, comics, and more. After several different eras and reinventions, the franchise is now entering another particularly busy stretch. Fans have Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a modern reimagining of Lara's original adventure, arriving in February 2027, followed by the all-new Tomb Raider: Catalyst later that year. Prime Video is also developing its live-action Tomb Raider series starring Sophie Turner, giving Lara another major adaptation outside gaming that's being met with cautious optimism among the fanbase. Before those larger projects arrive, however, Lara has another expedition ahead of her. This time, she is heading to the mysterious Isle of Kairos in Tomb Raider: The Crypt of Chronos, an upcoming adventure built around exploration and survival, and will see Lara venture into a new genre in a search for an artifact capable of manipulating time itself. Tomb Raider: The Crypt Of Chronos Takes Lara Into New Territory Tomb Raider is officially switching genres with The Crypt of Chronos, taking Lara Croft out of the traditional action-adventure video game format and onto the tabletop. Developed by Iconiq Studios, the board game still aims to capture the core ingredients of a classic Tomb Raider adventure, including exploration, puzzle-solving, dangerous traps, combat, and ancient mysteries. Lara travels to the Isle of Kairos in pursuit of the Chronos Artifact, a legendary relic supposedly capable of controlling time, while also confronting an enemy from her past. The biggest change is how players experience that adventure. Crypt of Chronos is designed primarily around a single playable Lara, although multiple people can work together to make decisions. Its Adventure Book mode delivers structured story scenarios lasting roughly 20 to 60 minutes apiece, while the Island Campaign creates a more open-ended experience using randomized locations and missions across Kairos, with a complete campaign taking around three hours. After launching through Kickstarter in May 2025, The Crypt of Chronos is now moving toward a wider retail release. Zatu currently lists the base game for preorder at roughly $50 on its U.S. storefront, alongside separate Croft Manor and Dinosaur Enemies expansions. A distributor catalog previously targeted Q3 2026, making this a particularly timely genre detour for Lara while fans await her next major video game adventures. Crypt Of Chronos Continues Tomb Raider's Classic Timeline Exactly where Tomb Raider: The Crypt of Chronos falls in Lara Croft's increasingly complicated timeline has not been officially established, but the available story details strongly connect it to her classic adventures. The biggest clue is Natla Technologies, which sends mercenaries to Kairos in pursuit of the Chronos Artifact. Official material describes Natla Tech as an organization from Lara's past that hopes to use the artifact's control over time to correct its previous mistakes, implying that Lara's original confrontation with Jacqueline Natla has already taken place. That dates back to 1996's Tomb Raider, where Natla hires Lara to recover the Scion before her true Atlantean identity and plans are revealed. Crystal Dynamics still directly associates that storyline with the classic Tomb Raider 1–3 era. The game's Kickstarter, which raised £274,141 from 2,925 backers against a £20,000 goal, presents Crypt of Chronos as an officially licensed adventure developed alongside Crystal Dynamics and Embracer, rather than labeling it a separate non-canon spin-off. Consequently, it constitutes a brad-new adventure rooted in Lara's classic Natla-era history, apparently occurring after the original Natla conflict. Longtime Tomb Raider fans will definitely want to check it out, and can pre-order now.