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.[5][6][7] 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.[5][8]: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.[5][7] In some sections, the player must pass quick time events by reacting to control prompts that appear on screen.[7] 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.[6][8]:19–23 Once completed, a time trial is unlocked for each level, with further bonus features unlocking once the time trial is completed successfully.[7][8]:22