Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a single-player action-adventure game where the player controls the protagonist, Lara Croft, from a third-person perspective, through fourteen levels set across four locations around the world. Lara can jump, climb and shimmy along ledges and vertical poles or ladders, crawl through small spaces, and swing on ropes and horizontal poles. Other abilities include interacting with objects and switches, using a grappling hook to latch onto special rings for both puzzle solving and environmental traversal, and swim and dive underwater for a limited time. Different button combinations can create more moves such as a roll and swan dive.:9–15
Puzzles block progress through the levels until Lara solves them by activating switches or finding and using keys hidden within the area. These involve avoiding traps and timed environmental elements. In some sections, the player must pass quick time events by reacting to control prompts that appear on screen. While exploring, Lara can find large and small Medipacks that can heal damage suffered during gameplay, items which allow progress through a level or the larger game, and hidden artefacts and relics which unlock rewards such as costumes once collected.:19–23 Once completed, a time trial is unlocked for each level, with further bonus features unlocking once the time trail is completed successfully.:22
During combat, Lara automatically locks on to enemies and fires with her equipped gun, with the player able to switch to another target within range and move freely to avoid enemy attacks. Animal enemies can grab and knock Lara down, leaving her vulnerable to damage until she breaks free or rights herself from a fall. Tougher enemies become enraged and charge at Lara after being shot a number of times. When they close in, time slows and Lara can dodge the incoming attack, allowing her time to counterattack. A special attack triggered during this time is a head shot when two targeting reticles overlap; a head shot kills a standard enemy and deals high damage to boss characters.:16–18 Lara has access to four different weapons in combat; her default twin pistols with infinite ammunition, and three secondary weapons—a shotgun, dual .50 caliber handguns and duel miniature submachine guns—with different attack power and limited ammunition which is picked up during levels.:19–21 Should Lara die during gameplay, she restarts from the previous checkpoint.
The Wii port carries over the levels and general gameplay of the other versions, while incorporating motion controls. Wii-exclusive puzzles include breaking through walls with a pickaxe, using a flash light in dark areas, assembling mechanisms from pieces found around the environment, manipulating symbol-based locks, and using paper and charcoal to take rubbings of puzzle-related symbols. Motion controls are used for puzzle elements unique to the Wii version, some aspects of platforming, and free aiming in combat. In the mobile phone version of Anniversary, Lara navigates side-scrolling 2D levels, platforming, fighting enemies and activating switches to progress.
Plot
British archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft is approached by mercenary Larson Conwey, who is employed by wealthy businesswoman Jacqueline Natla. Natla hires Lara to find the Scion of Atlantis, an ancient artefact originally sought by Lara's father Richard Croft. It is buried in the tomb of Atlantean ruler Qualopec within the lost city of Vilcabamba. Making her way through Vicabamba to Qualopec's tomb, Lara discovers that there are three pieces of the Scion, divided between Atlantis' Triumvirate. Escaping the tomb, she is confronted by Larson, sent by Natla to take Lara's piece of the Scion. After beating him in a fight, he reveals that Natla has sent her rival Pierre Dupont to retrieve the next piece. Breaking into Natla's offices, Lara discovers a video showing the next Scion piece's resting place in Greece beneath a building called St Frances' Folly.
Navigating the catacombs beneath St Frances' Folly, Lara finds the tomb of Tihocan, another member of the Triumvirate, that led the survivors of Atlantis after a betrayal caused the city's destruction. Pierre steals the Scion piece, but he is killed by guardian centaurs outside the tomb. After defeating the centaurs and joining both pieces of the Scion, Lara has a vision which reveals that the third and final piece of the Scion was hidden in Egypt after the third member of the Triumvirate—the traitor which sank Atlantis—was captured by Tihocan and Qualopec. Recovering the third Scion piece, Lara assembles the Scion and sees the rest of the vision, revealing Natla to be the betrayer. Emerging from her vision, Lara is ambushed by Natla, who takes the Scion.
Lara escapes Natla's henchmen—with silent help from Larson—and stows away aboard Natla's boat, which arrives at an uncharted volcanic island holding an Atlantean pyramid filled with her monstrous creations. Lara is forced to kill Larson when he will not back down, which greatly disturbs her. Fighting Natla's remaining henchmen and navigating the pyramid, Lara confronts Natla, who offers her a place in the new Triumvirate and access to the Scion's knowledge to complete Richard's quest for knowledge. Lara instead shoots the Scion and sends Natla plummeting into a pool of lava, triggering a chain reaction that begins destroying the pyramid. After a final confrontation with a severely injured but still powerful Natla, ending after she is crushed by a pillar, Lara escapes the exploding island and sails away in Natla's boat.
