The new year has finally seen a game worthy of being nominated for best of the year.

The company Crystal Dynamics released a “Tomb Raider” franchise reboot March 5. The game stands as the best in the series and impresses with its wonderful cinematic presentation and excellent gameplay.

“Tomb Raider” stood as one of gaming’s best franchises since the PlayStation One. However, the series has suffered lately from being too repetitive with each new entry. The reboot changes things by intensifying action and presenting a more compelling and thrilling story than its predecessors.

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Combine this with gameplay that is versatile enough to offer the best from many game genre, including stealth-action, third-person shooter, platforming and puzzle solving.

The new installment brings fresh life to a franchise that needed a makeover. One of the biggest noteable changes this time around is its cinematic presentation, which makes players feel like they are watching an interactive movie. The game’s graphics are gritty, visceral and very violent compared to its predecessors. The result engages players in the game’s storyline better than previous installments.

The story follows Lara Croft, “Tomb Raider’s” main protagonists, as she embarks on an adventure to an island off the coast of Japan. Much like an “Indiana Jones” movie, Croft sets off on a mission to discover some of the island’s darkest secrets by exploring numerous tombs and caverns. The raider game provides the perfect setting for gamers to engage in a lot of exploration, epic gun shoot-outs, puzzle solving and stealth combat.

The island is big and expansive enough for players to explore. Previous “Raider” games did not include a world so detailed or expansive.

 The treasure chests players sometimes find require exploring more terrain to find weapons that will allow them to open certain chests.After collecting enough salvage material from the chests, gamers can upgrade their weapons and skills. The desire to equip Croft with all the best abilities and weapons makes exploration all the more fun.

It also leads to some adrenaline-fueled gunplay. The game’s gun fights deliver all the extravaganza of a Hollywood blockbuster. The moments, which include a scene of Croft being chased by an attacking airplane, are epic enough to make Michael Bay jealous. Gunfire controls are smooth and responsive, so players who are familiar with playing any kind of shooter should feel right at home. The shootouts are bloody and gory, which is a surprise since the series has never received a mature rating until this release.

For players looking to interact with enemies in a different way, the game’s stealth combat is remarkably developed. Players can engage a quieter approach to their combat engagements by either firing a bow and arrow, choking adversaries from behind, stabbing them or even shoulder charging them off cliffs.

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Players have a lot of freedom for how they want to engage combat situations, but the game is versatile enough to change its pace by shifting to more traditional puzzle-solving instances. The puzzles can be challenging. Most involve figuring out ways to get past environmental obstacles that obstacles that prevent the player from getting from point A to point B.

Overall, “Tomb Raider” offers various gameplay styles that make it stick out from many games released in 2013 — at least until “Bioshock Infinite” comes out Tuesday.