Legend details Lara Croft's quest for the mythical sword Excalibur, racing across the world against her former friend Amanda Evert.

Selling over three million copies worldwide, Legend helped revitalise the Tomb Raider brand and re-established Lara Croft as a gaming icon.

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.

[7] 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.

[16][17] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[16][18][20] 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.

[34] They incorporated elements of her original background and earlier adventures into her new backstory and overworld setting as a homage to Core Design's work and the general fan base.

[29] The team initially used Lara's model from The Angel of Darkness as a base and made adjustments such as slimming her down and removing harsh lines from her face.

Keeley Hawes, a British movie and television actress known for her work on Spooks, replaced Jonell Elliott who had voiced the character from Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation to The Angel of Darkness.

[26] Folmann had worked previously with Crystal Dynamics on the score of Project Snowblind after joining the company to complete research for a PhD thesis.

[41] While other games at the time, and in previous years, had used relatively few static music tracks for a level which looped continuously, Folmann sought to create a varied score which would adapt to player actions.

For example, he used calming music for the Croft Manor level, and the epic orchestra sound for Lara's escape from the Sea Serpent guarding King Arthur's tomb.

[45] After the success of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game on the GameCube, Eidos decided to port Tomb Raider: Legend to that platform, marking the series' first appearance on a Nintendo home console.

Developed by Fathammer and Sixela Productions,[5] the game broke away from earlier Tomb Raider mobile titles by using full 3D graphics and emulating the gameplay of its console counterparts.

[52][53] With a large team of 20 people working on the port, the game was developed in close collaboration with Crystal Dynamics so it would scale to a variety of mobiles which could support 3D graphics.

Multiple websites called Legend a return to form for the Tomb Raider series following a string of below-average sequels after the original game.

The magazine also highlighted Lara's reliable controls and acrobatic movements, comparing them favourably to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but criticized the superficial combat system.

A common point of praise was its improved controls compared to previous entries, which made navigating the game's environments much easier and more enjoyable.

[11][12][78] Some reviewers pointed out its short length, lack of variety in puzzle design, and occasional technical issues such as frame rate drops.

[84][93] The PSP port was acclaimed for its added content compared to the versions released up to that point, but several reviewers faulted its controls and poorer graphics.

[109][110] To mark the 25th anniversary of Tomb Raider, Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics celebrated the franchise with community features, nostalgic and unseen contents throughout 2021.

[119] In later articles discussing the Tomb Raider series, Legend is generally cited as having restored fans' faith in its brand and its lead character.

[124][125][126] Legend was remastered by Buzz Monkey Software and re-released as part of a PlayStation 3 collection, The Tomb Raider Trilogy, alongside Anniversary and Underworld in March 2011 worldwide.