Tomb Raider Legend trilogy order: Anniversary, Legend and Underworld
Follow the Legend continuity in a useful story order and understand why release order differs.
Scope: Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Legend and Underworld
Quick answer
For story chronology, play Anniversary, Legend and then Underworld. For release order, Legend came first, followed by Anniversary and Underworld. Anniversary retells Lara’s first adventure inside the Legend-era continuity, while Underworld continues plot threads established in Legend and Anniversary.
Story order: Anniversary → Legend → Underworld
Tomb Raider: Anniversary reimagines Lara’s first Scion expedition within the Crystal Dynamics era. Legend follows Lara’s search connected to her mother and introduces key people and artifacts for this continuity. Underworld continues threads from both games and works best last.
Anniversary first is therefore the clearest chronological route. It also introduces Natla before her later role. Players mainly interested in how this era was developed can instead use release order.
Release order: Legend → Anniversary → Underworld
| Game | Release | Role in the trilogy |
|---|---|---|
| Tomb Raider: Legend | 2006 | Introduced the rebooted continuity and control style |
| Tomb Raider: Anniversary | 2007 | Retold the original adventure for this era |
| Tomb Raider: Underworld | 2008 | Continued and resolved major Legend-era threads |
Why Anniversary belongs here
Anniversary is based on the 1996 game, but it is not simply the untouched PS1 version with new textures. It was made with the Legend-era design and adjusts story presentation to fit that continuity. For the original level lineage, compare it with Tomb Raider (1996) or I–III Remastered; for the Legend story, play it before Underworld.
The Survivor trilogy begins again in 2013 and is not the fourth part of this sequence.
Sources
Official Tomb Raider pages anchor current facts. Historical and continuity details are cross-checked against cited references, and different versions of Lara are kept separate.