I am very excited to be able to do a preview of the new board game inspired by the video game franchise “Tomb Raider”. As you may know, this series was created in 2001 by British video game developer Core Design and rapidly became a cult title and media franchise that includes comics, games, movies, and more. The story is centred around the character of Lara Croft, a badass “archaeologist” who travels the world in search of forgotten artefacts and locations, frequently connected to supernatural power. Following her credo “Everything Lost Is Meant To Be Found”, Lara achieves her goals while facing evil organizations, plane crashes, shipwrecks, dinosaur attacks, and pretty much any type of trap and catastrophe you can imagine.
It goes without saying but I am a big fan of Lara Croft and therefore I was excited to hear that Iconiq Studios would be adapting it into a board game. However, I was also quite curious to see what type of game Luke and the team will come up this time. Turning a video game into a boardgame is already quite a challenge and Tomb Raider is an even bigger adventure considering how each video game of this series is filled with adrenaline, fast action and quick decisions. I had the pleasure to meet Luke in person at ZatuCon in London at the end of April and I thought you would be interested in hearing my experience with this game after I played through all the scenarios of demo. Let’s watch the intro and press start!
“Don’t you think you’ve seen enough?!” – Components
In terms of components, Tomb Raider: The Crypt of Chronos is definitely like a treasure chest filled with loot. Within the box you will find everything you need to setup your scenarios including 32 double sided tiles (Jungle/Tomb and Mountain/Desert) and plenty of item tiles to be added to the maps including doors, switches, artefacts, barriers and even a giant boulder. No adventure would be complete without enemies to be faced and items to be found. A bag filled with resource tokens is used to represent the items that players can find while searching through the map, while 18 beautifully sculpted miniatures of wild wolves, tomb protectors, and Natla Tech mercenaries will try to prevent you achieving your goals.
The centre of all staged scenarios is obviously Lara, the hero of this adventure. The gorgeous and very detailed miniature of Lady Croft will be supported by a cleverly designed “Lara Board” to track her inventory and her health together with all actions Lara can take each turn during the game. The board includes a total of 8 actions of which six are always available while 2 will change depending on the different scenarios and challenges. Together with different actions, Lara will also be able to change weapons and outfit to fit the different areas she will need to explore. All outfits and weapons are based on the video game series and are designed to play very differently in the game and provide a strong asymmetric setup for each of the scenarios. Interestingly, weapons, abilities and outfits can also be crafted during the game using resources and a crafty “craft board”. This unique element means that rather than finding medkits and ammunition, you will instead need to find the resources to craft them.
Speaking of bonuses, the box of Tomb Raider: The Crypt of Chronos also includes everything you need in order to play a full campaign. In fact, one of the aspects I found more interesting about the game is that it offers the opportunity to challenge yourself in each scenario as an isolated puzzle, or play them sequentially the same ways you would do in a video game. An adventure board, tokens, location cards, and a “Save box” will help to keep track of your progresses. I don’t want to spoil this part too much but you should also know there will be checkpoints to be used in the eventuality Lara consume all her health and fails a scenario.
“I Make My Own Luck” – Gameplay
Tomb Raider: The Crypt of Chronos follows Lara in her journey through the island of Kairos while she searches for an artefact said to “hold the reins of time”. The adventure includes a number of scenarios that can be played interdependently or, as we mentioned, as a longer campaign. Disregarding which “mode” you set your games on, each scenario has to be setup following the instructions provided by creating the “level” map and by picking Lara’s inventory and abilities. Each scenario also details clear objectives and conditions to be cleared in order to win the game. As per every classic Tomb Raider game, each level includes a few puzzles mostly linked to different ways of opening locked doors or traversing the area.
The game is technically not played in turns, but as a sequence of three different phases that alternates between Lara taking actions, the enemies chasing her, and events taking place. This type of approach is actually quite efficient as it provides a continuous gameplay loop that helps create a sense of tension. To support this fast-pace adventure, the game also offers a very clever way to manage the effect of actions by using dice. At the start of each of her phases, Lara has a pool of 6 dice that she can allocate to any available action. Players can take one action at a time by rolling a certain amount of dice and most actions can be used multiple times as long as you still have dice remaining. The effect of the action is then based on the number of successes rolled using the allocated dice and it varies from action to action. For example, the “Move” action allow Lara to move one square for every dice rolled plus one square for every success obtained while.
Rolling a “Fail” may trigger unwanted effects unless the player decides to turn this result in a success by discarding an event card. Managing your dice pool and planning ahead the actions you want to accomplish is a key aspect of the game. Should you use four dice to be sure you reach the cover 4 space away or should you roll two hoping to get at least 2 successes? These types of decision increase the suspense of the game and build a lot of pressure to take the right strategic approach to the game.
The pressure on the player is also increased by the addition of events that are drafted from an event deck during the Event Phase. Each event card may force the player to face new enemies or traps although some of them may also provide positive advantages to Lara. Enemies enter the board at randomized spawning points and they move through the map toward Lara if they spot her or toward any sounds she may have made by running around. This aspect can be used to send enemies in a goose hunt but the fact that new enemies spawn randomly also means that you can move carefully to keep Lara hidden for turns just to be spotted right away by a newly spawn enemy. Once one of them spots Lara, all other enemies on the map will start chasing her thus sooner or later you will have to face them in combat.
Attacking an enemy is treated as any other action by rolling dice and dealing one damage for every success rolled. In addition, players can consume to add one success for each bullet spent. Ammunition is therefore only consumed if you want to increase the efficacy of your attacks and can then be replenished using the crafting table. The crafting process can be performed at any time and does not require any dice or success although the effect of what is crafted has to be used immediately (i.e. you cannot craft magazines to be kept for later use). Resources also need to be obtained using the “Search” action that can only be performed once per Lara Phase.
What makes this adventure worth to be played?
As a long term fan of Lara Croft, I would say that it is always worth playing any Tomb Raider adventure and, of course, I love the fact that this time it is a board game and not a video game. Interestingly, I personally found the gameplay of Tomb Raider: The Crypt of Chronos to be very evocative of the original video games. The dice roll/success mechanism definitely plays a big part in contributing to the feeling you are managing your time and not just a fixed set of actions. The lack of turns and the Phase model also contribute to this together with the way the scenarios are designed. I don’t want to spoil anything but you will quickly realize that the exit area in a scenario is used as the starting one in the next one in a way similar to when a loading screen pops up in the video game once you reach a new area.
The variety of “levels” and locations add depth to the game and make the adventure quite enjoyable. At first, you can enjoy the Adventure Book that is meant as a structured, story-driven experience that will guide players through various scenarios of 20-60 minutes each. The Island Campaign Mode then offers a different way to approach the game by playing a “vast, free-roaming experience on an expansive island map” using randomized locations and missions to help replayability. Each campaign can be completed in a few hours and it reaches its peak when Lara finds the location and the key to the Crypt of Chronos.
In both modes, Iconiq Studios designed this Tomb Raider boardgame to be centred around Lara. This means the game is essentially a solo game, although multiple players can cooperate to decide the best course of actions to solve each level puzzles. A few friends can also decide to play this boardgame by “passing the controller” to each other at every Lara Phase the same way they can do in a video game. I had a lot of fun by playing both solo and with friends during the demo and I cannot wait to have the final product in my hands to enjoy it at its fullest.
Tomb Raider: The Crypt of Chronos launches on Kickstarter on the 27th of May 2025 at 10am ET/ 3PM BST. You can also try a demo of the game with Luke and the team at UK Games Expo at the Birmingham NEC at the end of the month. Let’s the adventure begin!
