Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft is a platform and third-person shooter game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the third installment in the Tomb Raider series and the sequel to Tomb Raider II. The gameplay system is similar to the one implemented in the previous game. Lara's abilities include running, jumping, climbing, swimming, rolling, crouching, crawling, sprinting, and swinging on bars and vines. A few new types of hazards have been added in this installment, including cold water in which Lara can swim for a limited amount of time, dangerous underwater creatures (such as piranhas), and the treacherous quicksand, which will swallow the heroine if the player isn't careful and fast enough to prevent her from falling into it.

The intrepid archaeologist Lara Croft ventures to India, searching for a legendary stone that once belonged to the tribe of Infada. Shortly after recovering the precious stone, she encounters a Dr. Willard, the head of an organization known as RX Tech. Willard is interested in an ancient Polynesian city built by people of a now defunct civilization, which worshipped a mysterious meteorite that hit the Earth millions of years ago. Willard tells Lara that the Infada Stone is in fact one of the four artifacts the ancient Polynesians fashioned from the material contained in the meteorite's core. Willard suggests Lara should look for the other three, scattered and hidden in various regions of the planet.