Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis Combat Styles & Playstyle Guide: Aggressive vs Methodical Approaches

Tomb Raider isn't an RPG. You don't level up stats or pick character classes. But how you play dramatically changes how the game feels. The original 1996 game had basically one playstyle: shoot and backflip. The remake gives you options that make different encounters feel completely different depending on your approach.

After watching basically every piece of gameplay footage available and comparing it to the original's design, here are the distinct ways you can approach the game and which ones work best in which situations.

The Aggressive Runner

This is what most new players gravitate toward. Run into rooms, start shooting, dodge reactively, keep moving forward. It's fast, exciting, and honestly it works fine for the first half of Peru. Wolves die quick. The platforming is straightforward. There's room for error.

The problem is this falls apart in Egypt. The trap density spikes hard and running into rooms gets you impaled before you even see the spikes. The Atlantean mutants punish reactive play because they're faster than you expect and they coordinate. Running into a room full of mutants and hoping to dodge everything is a quick death.

And the boss fights require patience that pure aggression doesn't develop. You can't rush the T-Rex or Natla. Those fights are about pattern recognition and timing.

If you're naturally aggressive, that's fine. Just learn to slow down when the game signals that you should. Egypt is that signal. The game doesn't force you to commit to one approach for the whole adventure.

The Methodical Explorer

This is the classic 90s Tomb Raider playstyle. Enter a room. Stop. Look up. Check the ceiling for traps and the walls for climbable surfaces. Clear enemies one at a time from safe positions. Move slowly but never die to environmental surprises.

This style is slow but effective. You'll find more secrets because you're actually looking at the environment. You'll die less to traps because you spotted them before triggering them. The downside is combat pacing. If you're too cautious, enemies can group up and overwhelm you. And some of the timed sequences in Egypt demand speed that this style doesn't naturally produce.

Methodical exploration really shines in the puzzle rooms. St. Francis' Folly in Greece is designed for players who stop and think about the space. The interconnected puzzle design rewards observation. If you're methodical, the Folly feels like the game was made specifically for you.

The Acrobat

Some players just love the movement system. Wall-running, slide canceling, ledge grabbing, the full parkour toolkit. These players move through levels like they're speedrunning even on a first playthrough.

The acrobat style is genuinely effective in combat. Enemies can't hit what they can't track, and Lara's movement in UE5 is fluid enough that you can bounce between walls, slide under attacks, pop up behind enemies. It looks incredible.

It's also high risk. One missed input and you're falling into a spike pit. The acrobat style demands precision that the game doesn't always give you room for, especially in tight corridors. But in open arenas and during boss fights, the movement-first approach is arguably optimal.

I think this is the style the game was actually designed around. The movement system is too deep for it to expect players to just run and shoot. The interconnected level design rewards finding traversal paths. Combat feels best when you're using the full toolkit. If you're comfortable with action games, lean into this approach.

The Resource Hoarder

A subset of the methodical style, except the defining trait is never using consumables because what if I need them later. If this is you, I respect the discipline but you're making the game harder than it needs to be.

Medipacks are scarce in this remake. But they're scarce to be used, not hoarded. Boss fights are designed around you having and using them. If you reach Natla with a full inventory, you made the journey harder for no reason. Use them.

One exception: save at least two large medipacks for the final Natla fight. Everything else is fair game as you go. The game gives you enough throughout each region.

Weapon Priority by Region

The game gives you weapons in a specific order and some are better suited to certain regions.

Peru leans toward the shotgun. Wolves and the T-Rex are big targets that take magnified shotgun damage up close. Pistols are fine for smaller enemies.

Greece introduces more ranged combat. Centaurs and Colosseum animals are dangerous up close. The magnums you pick up here are the ideal mid-range weapon.

Egypt demands everything. Pistols for swarms. Shotgun for big mutants. Magnums for priority targets. Rotate constantly. The quick-swap mechanic becomes essential.

Atlantis is a boss rush. Save magnum ammo for Natla. Shotgun the smaller Atlantean enemies. Conserve by landing headshots with pistols.

The Mix Works Best

A blend of styles. Aggressive in straightforward combat, methodical in exploration. The game rewards knowing when to switch. Blast through combat that's simple. Slow down for new rooms. Use full movement in boss fights. Save resources for when needed.

The beauty of this remake: it doesn't force one style. The original sort of did. Backflip and shoot was optimal. The remake lets you play how you want. Just be smart about adapting to each encounter.

One last thing about difficulty: Normal gives subtle audio and visual cues for puzzles. Hard removes most hints entirely. Choose based on whether you want to discover things yourself or have the game occasionally nudge you. Hard mode also reduces medipack spawns and makes enemies more aggressive, so the resource hoarder style becomes genuinely punishing.

If you're on PC, the mouse and keyboard vs controller debate matters with this game. The precision aiming with a mouse is better for headshots, no contest. But the movement system, especially wall-running and slide canceling, feels more natural on a controller with analog sticks. I've seen people play both ways effectively. The Switch 2 version is obviously controller-only but the gyro aiming might actually be the best of both worlds, precision while maintaining analog movement control. Experiment with both if you're on PC before committing to one input method.