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Tomb Raider: Anniversary is an action-adventure game co-developed by Crystal Dynamics and Buzz Monkey Software. It was published by Eidos Interactive in 2007 for the Wii. The eighth entry in the Tomb Raider series, Anniversary is a remake of the first Tomb Raider game released in 1996.
Gameplay[]
Plot[]
In 1945 New Mexico, a bomb explodes, engulfing a town and revealing a strange structure, from which a winged creature flies out. In Calcutta 1996, Lara Croft is approached by Larson Conway, who introduces her to Jacqueline Natla. Natla reveals she has found the location of one of the three pieces that comprise the Atlantean Scion, a mystical artifact buried in the heart of an ancient city, and she wants Lara to retrieve it for her. Lara, sitting back leisurely, leaps from her seat upon hearing this revelation. Lara, having searched unsuccessfully for such an artifact with her father in the past, agrees to go.
Fueled as much by her, and her father's, desires to find the artifact, Lara travels on commission by Natla to the icy mountains of Peru to search for it in the lost city of Vilcabamba. Through the Lost Valley teeming with thought-to-be-extinct dinosaurs and numerous booby traps, she enters a desolate tomb, belonging to the God King Qualopec seemingly undiscovered for millennia. She discovers that he was one of three God Kings (the Triumvirate) who ruled Atlantis before it sank according to inscriptions in the room. As she peers closely in awe, one of the beast-like creatures suddenly roars at her, before falling laboriously to the floor. Realizing this tomb is not uninhabited after all. Lara leaves with a piece of the three-part Scion, but notices movement from what had appeared to be a statue of Qualopec before the tomb collapses. Shortly after surfacing from the pool outside the tomb entrance, Lara confronts Larson, who attempts to take the Scion piece from her as Natla knew she would never part with it. After defeating him, Lara discovers that Natla has sent Pierre Dupont, another archaeologist, to find the next piece. Lara breaks into Natla's office that night and finds evidence that the next piece of the Scion is in Greece.
Lara departs to St.Francis Folly in Greece and solves three puzzles related to the gods Atlas, Damocles, Posidean and Hephaestus in order to navigate past the Colosseum. She then finds the second piece of Scion in the depths of a tomb located under a small cistern and a palace devoted to the Phrygian king Midas. While observing the empty coffin of Tihocan, the second member of the Triumvirate, Lara is told at gun point to give up her piece of the Scion by Pierre. She defeats him, but he runs with the Scion piece in hand, only to be killed by guardian centaurs outside of the tomb. After defeating the centaurs, and assembling both pieces of the Scion, Lara has a vision that reveals the location of the third and final piece of the Scion: Egypt.
Lara travels to Egypt, and successfully retrieves the third piece of the Scion in the Sanctuary of the Scion located in the City of Khamoon in the Valley of the Kings. After assembling all three pieces, Lara's earlier vision becomes much clearer. Two of the three Triumvirates, Tihocan, and Qualopec, are sentencing the third one, revealed to be Natla, to banishment in Lara's vision. Natla, after releasing Atlantis' own army against itself in an attempt to bring about the seventh age, is imprisoned in a crystalline structure for a thousand years before revealing that she will return to carry out her goals.
With Lara in a trance from watching the vision, Natla steals the Scion, and has Lara restrained by her henchmen. Lara escapes and follows the departing Natla on a motorbike, managing to sneak onto Natla's departing boat. They soon dock to an island which is a remnant of Atlantis, where Natla has mining operations. Inside she meets Larson again, holding a key trying to stop her from continuing further. Larson taunts her, betting she will not shoot him. Insistent on impeding her path, he tells her she would never shoot him because, "that's just not who you are." Lara replies, "I'm not who you think I am". This resulted in Lara shooting him three times in the chest. Larson falls to his knees, and lays down to the ground gasping for air, his hand reaching out to Lara for help. Lara rests her hand on his chest and turns him over, taking the key from his pocket. Looking at her hands horrified at what she has done and completely forgetting that she thought that it was for the good of all man, she vigorously dusts off the imaginary blood on her hands, greatly remorseful from her first human kill thus far.
As she continues through, one of Natla's henchmen stands guarding the next chamber wielding a knife. Lara warns him, telling him he will end up like Larson if he does not let her past. Another of Natla's henchmen "Kid" emerges from the shadows with a pair of uzis. Lara shoots them in her defense, however, Kold stabs Kid so he can kill Lara himself. Kold pins Lara against the wall by her throat, but she is saved when Kid kills Kold with his uzis from afar before dying of the stab wound.
Lara finally catches up with Natla who has activated the Scion, along with the pyramid buried beneath it. Natla tells Lara she has reached the top, that it takes three to rule, that Tihocan and Qualopec were too weak to destroy what stands in the way of the Seventh Age, but Lara has the strength to claim the seat beside Natla's rule. Not long into the confrontation with Natla, Lara realizes that Natla's plan is to resurrect the army of Atlantis. Natla attempts to convince Lara to stop opposing her, and become another immortal queen to rule the world alongside her. Lara looks at her hands then apologizes to her father before shooting and destroying the Scion. Natla charges at her in rage, pushing her off the platform, with Lara pulling Natla down with her. Lara grabs the platform on the opposite side with her grapple, Natla falling to her doom beneath the depths of the lava. The pyramid begins to collapse as Lara hurries to escape.
Natla later confronts her in here true scorched appearance, still alive, accusing Lara of having a heart as black as hers, after the blood she has spilled. Natla clutches Lara by her throat, stating she cannot be killed, and that she is immortal. The final boss battle is against Natla herself, which ends with Natla slapping Lara's pistols out of her hands and asking Lara what she has accomplished by coming here, and she has only accomplished "a temporary stay of execution for your kind". Natla tells Lara that this pyramid is only one remnant of Atlantis and that there are others, that she will find another remnant of Atlantis and continue her plan but Lara has lost everything. Lara goes for her pistols, shoots Natla in the eye and pins her under a falling pillar. Natla screeches in agony as Lara looks at the fallen pillar and tells Natla she hasn't lost anything. Lara escapes the now crumbling pyramid, the island violently erupting. Reaching the shore, Lara dives into the sea and gets into the boat she used to get to the Lost City.
Lara looks back at the exploding island, then at her bloodstained hands as she leaves the erupting island behind. Lara smiles, realizing that what she had done really was for the good of man, and that she wasn't what Natla had said she was.
Reception[]
External links[]
- Tomb Raider: Anniversary at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Tomb Raider: Anniversary at GameFAQs
| Tomb Raider series | |
|---|---|
| Main series | I-II-III • GBC • Curse of the Sword • The Prophecy • Legend • Anniversary • Underworld |
| Related | Lara Croft • Toby Gard • Square Enix • Eidos Interactive • Core Design • Crystal Dynamics |
This Wii-related article is a stub. Please help by expanding it.