---
title: 'Tomb Raider: Behind the Scenes of Greece'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=HJN6eIJriiA'
video_id: 'HJN6eIJriiA'
date: 2026-09-08
duration_sec: 372
channel: 'IGN'
---

# Tomb Raider: Behind the Scenes of Greece

> Source: [Tomb Raider: Behind the Scenes of Greece](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HJN6eIJriiA)

## Summary

In this behind-the-scenes look at Tomb Raider, the developers discuss the design and inspiration behind the Greek levels. They emphasize the importance of mythology, architecture, and creating a coherent, purposeful world that blends historical elements with fictional lore.

### Key Points

- **Greece as a hidden city** [00:00] — Greece is presented as a buried city within a cavern, with the transition from modern to historical visually shown to the player.
- **Greek-themed puzzles and architecture** [00:21] — The game features puzzles and ruins themed around Greek mythology, with architecture ranging from natural biomes to acropolises and domes.
- **Fusion of architectural styles** [01:15] — The environment changes as you progress, fusing old Greek temples with Byzantine elements to create a believable aesthetic.
- **Recontextualization of myths** [02:08] — Greek myths are recontextualized to fit the game's lore, making the world coherent and purposeful.
- **Iconic locations reimagined** [03:15] — Iconic locations like St. Francis Folly and Midas Temple are reimagined, with layers of history expressed in the design.
- **Dynamic gameplay elements** [03:42] — Timed areas add dynamic gameplay, punctuating the quiet exploration with moments of frenzy.
- **Character dynamics** [04:20] — Pierre Dupont is introduced as a rival who is impressed by Lara but annoyed by her rise, adding narrative depth.

## Transcript

As you go into Greece, essentially a buried city within a cavern, the history of how it got to be that is something fans get to experience while they play. Walking from the modern world into history, this is a way of showing that visually to the player.
One of the cool things about Tomb Raider is that you travel all around the world. You're going to Greece, you're going to solve puzzles that are themed around Greek mythology. You're going to go to ruins that are themed around you. You're going to see a lot more architecture than you're going to see something in Peru.
A natural biome, caves, valleys, and waterfalls to massive acropolises and different dome structures that you can really only get from that Greek architecture.
I'm really excited for Greece. It's one of my favorite levels. One of the reasons why is that it's very magnificent to look at. It definitely feels like there's a Grecian city that's hidden.
and that no one ever found, and you're the first to flower crop to find it. We wanted Greece to feel like a real, hidden place you slowly uncover. One cohesive valley and hidden deserted city built into the mountains.
The mythology of the world is very important to Tomb Raider, and if we're just doing ruins for the sake of ruins, it gets repetitive. So one of the things that Greece does really well is we change the environment a lot as you progress It is ruined but it is themed around a deity or an important figure of that time You actually created an aesthetic that basically fuses an old Greek temple with more modern Byzantine elements to create something that feels very believable
because you see this in the real world. Recontextualization of Greek myths to make sure that it fits the lore, the fictional world that we build. But also we use, you know, the Greek myths, the architectures,
and everything there that will be familiar to the player, to the audience. And we take it and we recontextualize it to be more connected with our story.
The experience is intended to kind of charge you up and get you excited, but at the same time also make you very curious about looking around and finding secrets within the world. Because at the end of the day, Laura is an archaeologist, and so she always is hunting for things that others might miss.
Greece is not accidental there. It has a purpose. It has an intention to be exactly Greece. This exactly ruins of, you know, San Francisco Monastery
and the underground city there. It's all connected right now because we took it and we adapted it. We changed it so every detail has a meaning right now and it refers to something, to the story,
to make it coherent, to make the player feel that it's on purpose. There's clearly iconic locations that people know, St. Francis Folly being one of them. Our St Francis Folly is going to be rooted in something that people can see in the real world It essentially an old Greek temple that has had layers built on top of it that lean more toward Byzantine era That layers of history are something that people can see in the real world It essentially an old Greek temple that has had layers built on top of it that lean more toward Byzantine era That layers of history is something we always try to express in tomb experiences
because that's part of the fun. When you go there, you see this massive hidden corridor going down with all those rules and puzzles on the sides and you have this feeling like this being left alone for hundreds of years but someone built it.
it's the most beautiful and then of course iconic locations like the Midas Temple which are basically reimagined and expressed in ways that I think everyone saw it in their head as being when they played the
originals. We've included things like timed areas where you now have to move across a climbing section within a time to really give the feeling of a more dynamic environment
while we keep the overall feeling that the original Tolkien writer had quiet exploration. We start to punctuate it more in Greece with moments of frenzy
to really offer variety in the feeling and the journey. We have two characters that are very different. Pierre Dupont is actually a guy whose main focus on mine.
He's kind of afraid of Lara. He knows she's not a match for her. And he doesn't care about anything connected with ancient history, artifacts, ruins, anything like that. A game, a performance, when they are talking to each other,
counting each other Lara I think led Pierre to be in this game Pierre is the Lara of another era At one point he was the best of the best
He was the person that people came to when they needed to find something that was impossible to locate. Now that Lara has started to come up, he's found his stature diminish a little bit. And so as a result, he's both impressed by Lara and maybe a little annoyed.
He's a little litterbug, as the fans would say, retired to keep an eye on Lara and help to find the pieces of the artifact that she's looking for. So you'll see him throughout the levels in Grease.
And again, no one's really a match for Lara. There's some really, really incredible set pieces in Grease that I think fans are going to love seeing as beautiful as they've ever looked.
Every time I see a new area of Grease in particular, I'm just awestruck. It's incredible. How do you approach solving something that you've never seen before?
Put your instincts to the test in Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis. Pre-order today.
Now if you enjoyed this look behind the scenes, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on the socials at PlayTombRaider. Thank you.