Tomb Raider: Legend is a 2006 action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the seventh main entry in the Tomb Raider series, and is described as a "reimagining" of the series and its protagonist Lara Croft. The game was released in 2006 for PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and mobile phones. A PlayStation 3 port was released in 2011 as part of The Tomb Raider Trilogy.
Legend details Lara Croft's quest for the mythical sword Excalibur, racing across the world against her former friend Amanda Evert. Gameplay features Lara navigating linear levels, fighting enemies and solving environmental puzzles to progress. The DS and GBA versions share the game's story while sporting gameplay adjusted for the platforms. The mobile version adapts locations from the game into on rails command-based platforming and combat scenarios.
Following the critical failure of Core Design's Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Eidos transferred development of the next Tomb Raider to American developer Crystal Dynamics, who began production in 2004. The aim was to revitalise the franchise, with both the gameplay and Lara herself being redesigned. Lara's creator Toby Gard was brought on board to help with this and was deeply involved with the project. Composer Troels Brun Folmann designed the music to change during levels as the player progresses.
Legend received generally positive reviews, with many praising the game as a return to form for the series, and either won or was nominated for multiple gaming awards. The GBA and DS ports received lower scores due to the impact of hardware limitations on the gameplay. Selling over six million copies worldwide, Legend helped revitalise the Tomb Raider brand and re-established Lara Croft as a gaming icon. The game was followed by two further games set in the same continuity; Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a remake of the first game in the series that released in 2007, while a direct sequel to Legend, Tomb Raider: Underworld, followed in 2008.
Gameplay
Tomb Raider: Legend is a single-player action-adventure game in which the player controls Lara Croft, from a third-person perspective, through eight levels set across seven locations around the world. As Lara Croft, the player can jump, climb and shimmy along ledges and vertical poles or ladders, crawl through small spaces, swing on ropes and horizontal poles, interact with objects and switches, use a grappling line to swing across gaps and pull objects towards her, and swim and dive underwater for a limited time. Different button combinations can create more moves such as a roll and swan dive. Some levels have Lara on a motorbike racing through that part of the level while fighting enemies.
Puzzles can block progress in the level until Lara solves them by activating switches within the area. These and other objectives such as avoiding or jamming traps can involve pushing large blocks around the environment. In some sections, the player must pass quick time events by reacting to control prompts that appear on screen. While exploring, Lara can use her grapple to move and destroy certain objects, use a small torch to illuminate dark areas, identify different environmental characteristics using her binoculars, and pick up a maximum of three Health Packs which can heal damage suffered during gameplay. Collectable Artefacts hidden in each level can be found and unlock extra features, while Time Trials challenge players to complete any level within a time limit.
During combat, Lara automatically locks on to enemies, with the player able to switch to another target within range. She can move around freely to avoid enemy attacks and trigger environmental hazards to aid her in combat. Lara can access up to two weapon types; her default twin pistols with infinite ammunition, and a secondary weapon, which is picked up during a level and has limited ammunition which can be replenished from defeated enemies carrying the same weapon type. Lara can also carry grenades to throw at enemies, perform melee attacks when she is close enough, and use her grapple to briefly stun them. When close to a targeted enemy, Lara can perform a jump attack which slows down time while she is airborne, allowing her more time to dispatch her enemies. If Lara's health is depleted she dies and restarts at a previous checkpoint.
The home console, Windows and PlayStation Portable (PSP) versions share content and level design. The PSP version includes exclusive "Tomb Trials". These missions have players either navigating a series of obstacles within a time limit or hunting treasures within one of the game's levels. Tomb Trials can be completed both in single-playing and multiplayer mode, where two players can compete in one on a local network. The Nintendo DS (DS) version uses a hybrid of 3D environments and 2D sprites. Lara moves through levels as in the main versions and players use the DS's touchscreen and mic functions in gameplay. The Game Boy Advance (GBA) version is a 2D side-scroller. The mobile version uses three of the locations and splits its gameplay into two types per location. In platforming sections players must guide Lara through environmental hazards. In combat sections Lara must dodge enemy fire and kill all enemies to move forward. The gameplay in each stage plays out on rails with limited movement and input from the player.
Synopsis Characters Tomb Raider: Legend retells the story of British archaeologist/adventurer Lara Croft. As a young girl, she and her mother, Amelia, are the only survivors of a plane crash in the Himalayas. Publicly, Lara was the only survivor of the crash, as her mother was apparently killed upon interacting with a magical artifact in a Nepalese temple where they took shelter. After her ordeal, Lara goes on archaeological expeditions with her father Richard before his disappearance and presumed death in Cambodia when she is sixteen. In the years since, she has become both famous and infamous for her work as an archaeologist and explorer, privately driven by the need to understand her mother's fate.
American tech expert Zip and English research assistant Alister Fletcher support her on missions from her manor house in England, where they live with her butler Winston Smith. During the events of Legend, Lara interacts with multiple supporting characters. These include Anaya Imanu, an old friend who has often helped Lara during her exploits, media tycoon and investigative journalist/reporter Toru Nishimura, who also experienced risks similar to Lara's, and Shogo Takamoto, businessman-turned-yakuza boss whom Lara once confronted over forged antiquities. The main antagonists are Amanda Evert, an old friend of Lara's presumed dead after a catastrophic incident in Peru, and her associate, American playboy James Rutland.
Plot
Lara Croft heads into Bolivia on a tip from Anaya to find a stone dais in the ruined city of Tiwanaku. Lara believes the stone is connected to her mother's disappearance following the plane crash. A flashback shows young Lara activating a similar dais in a Nepalese monastery, creating a magical portal; Amelia vanishes upon drawing an ornate sword from the dais after hearing voices from the portal. Fighting through mercenaries exploring Tiwanaku, Lara confronts their employer, James Rutland, who has a fragment of an identical sword. He also mentions Amanda Evert, a friend Lara presumed dead. During a tomb dig in Peru, a guardian "Entity" killed everyone but Lara and Amanda before vanishing when Amanda retrieved a glowing stone trying to open a door. The tomb flooded, and Lara was forced to abandon Amanda after she was seemingly crushed by falling debris.
Lara meets with Anaya in Peru to discover the truth. Draining the tomb, Lara finds proof of Amanda's survival, a statue of Tiwanaku's last queen—whose life strongly parallels the common legends of King Arthur—and a replica of her sword; the tip resembles an artifact stolen by Takamoto. In Tokyo, Lara's negotiations with Takamoto break down, and she storms his offices before killing him in a final duel. The stolen sword fragment, which has destructive magical abilities, was discovered by an 11th-century crusader said to have been a knight of Arthur. Lara then pursues Rutland to a hidden Ghanaian temple that Richard Croft explored during his career. Rutland is searching for the Ghalali Key, a talisman which can reforge the sword. During her explorations, Lara finds a pendant belonging to Amelia. Confronting Rutland, who assumed Richard found the Ghalali Key, Lara takes his sword fragment, learning that Amanda has ransacked her home in search of it.
Lara pursues Amanda to Kazakhstan, where she discovers a 1950s-era Soviet research base that unsuccessfully tried to weaponise the sword's energies. Amanda, now bitter about the events in Peru, races her to the artifact, eventually unleashing the tamed Entity on Lara using its control stone. Lara avoids the Entity and retrieves the sword fragment as the facility disintegrates. Lara also discovers the shield of the knight who had the fragment, bearing an ancient map. The decoded map leads Lara to a Cornwall-based Arthurian tourist attraction built over a hidden complex housing the tombs of Arthur and his knights around a broken dais. She realises that the sword she is pursuing is the legendary Excalibur—one of many swords forged by an unnamed civilisation that have created a monomyth within multiple later cultures—left in pieces and scattered across the world by Arthur's knights. Retrieving the fragment left with Arthur, she escapes the tomb and its guardian sea serpent.
The group realise that the Ghalali Key was found in Ghana by Richard and given to Amelia to replace the pendant she lost; it now lies with the crashed plane in Nepal. During a talk with Winston, Lara reveals her determination to salvage her father's ruined reputation by using Excalibur to prove his theories about the daises. Returning to Nepal, Lara recovers the Ghalali Key, then travels to the monastery holding the original dais and reforges Excalibur. The broken dais splinters when she tries to use it, forcing her to return to the intact dais in Bolivia. On arriving she is forced to kill Rutland during a fight with his mercenaries and destroys the Entity when Amanda summons and merges with it. Placing the sword in the dais, Lara activates a portal and sees a vision of Amelia. Realising that the portal is a time rift, Lara tries to warn Amelia, but Amanda panics and shouts to remove the sword before the dais explodes, triggering the events of Amelia's apparent death. An enraged Lara almost shoots Amanda, but Amanda says that Amelia was transported to Avalon. Lara knocks Amanda unconscious and sets out to find Amelia.
Development
British-based studio Core Design developed the Tomb Raider series until 2003. Following the successful release of the original game in 1996, they produced four successive sequels between 1997 and 2000. Their sixth and last Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, beset by developmental problems, was rushed to an early release to tie in with the 2003 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life, a sequel to the successful 2001 film. The game was a critical failure due to its technical problems and blamed for the commercial failure of The Cradle of Life by Paramount Pictures. The failure of The Angel of Darkness—in addition to general fatigue with the series among Core Design staff—prompted the cancellation of planned sequels, and Eidos Interactive moved development responsibilities to another studio.