10. Binary Domain (PC) ; Preface: Response: Damn!
This is the only game on the list I bought purely on hype and recommendation. First off, the voice stuff was pretty terrible. I’m not even talking about the implementation of the actual voice into microphone part, though that wasn’t great either. I’m referring to the dialogue options you get when you respond to your pals. I suppose we’ll just chalk it up as bad localization.
Up until the point where you find the guy you’ve been looking for nearing the back third or quarter of the game, the game didn’t necessarily grab me. Had it continued along the path it was going, it would just be another mediocre shooter with a seemingly shallow but surprisingly engaging dismemberment mechanic. Then the story started ramping way up and I was definitely engaged. For the lack of a better term in my noggin, shit started to get real. The ramped up story plus some stand out characters with Big Bo and Cain earns this game a spot on my list.
9. Mass Effect 3 (PC) ; Preface: I didn’t think ME2 was that great. Also, played it at release, so no Leviathan/Extended Cut/etc.
At a certain point, what needs to be said on this game? I am most definitely not the well-spoken arbiter(on any subject really) I wish I was, so what ground hasn’t been trodden? Well, how about this? Hows abouts I throw my opinion in the ring at post 1xxx? Great idea.
The biggest problem with the game for me was simply wasted potential. They definitely delivered on some aspects, (the Genophage comes to mind) but for the most part, it fell flat. The dream sequences with the kid really come to mind here. You come to me and tell me for the third game you want to introduce some PTSD-like issues with Shepherd based on his past actions, and I say. “sure, that sounds pretty interesting” What I didn’t green light as the hypothetical manager of the franchise was this terrible, manipulative set of sequences that I couldn’t help but laugh at, at the end. There was so much they could have done with that concept, and that right there is most of this game in a microcosm.
I rarely get out right offended by games; I generally accept the developers’ decisions no matter how off-the-rails the audience finds it sometimes. That combined with my “not love” of Mass Effect 2 combined to result in me not having even close to the vitriol that some had for Mass Effect 3. Sure, I can look back academically on the game and ramble on for more paragraphs than anyone should read, but overall the parts that I did like in ME2 were in here as well. The combat is enjoyable, the dialogue writing has always been stellar, and the overall experience of playing Mass Effect games start to finish, especially when they improved the combat from ME1, is something hard to not like. Even a phoned in version of these games I believe is worth playing.
Also a random thought: something that I never saw being talked about, (though based on the amount of words typed relating to this topic, I’m sure it came up eventually) was the stuff in the overworld. When you’re being chased by the reapers, remember? It was definitely said how terrible the gameplay for it was and how there were ways to game the system that I can’t quite remember. But the reason I bring it up, is because narratively, this was the biggest thing that baffled me. All I could hear was yakkety-sax music when this was happening. This serious, horrific war is going on and we’re on the brink of extinction, but let’s fly around this world map in a ridiculous fashion making a laughing stock of these enemies we’re spending the whole game propping up on this unseeable pedestal. No really, I did like this game, I swear. It just has a lot of problems.
8. Journey (PS3) ; Preface: Haven’t played thatgamecompany’s previous games.
My experience with Journey certainly wasn’t an unique one and based on some of the experiences of others I’ve read in this thread, it definitely wasn’t as transformative. As someone who has spent little time with “artsy” games, it’s hard for me to really grasp how I feel just yet on the genre. I couldn’t help but cynically point out parts in it where I felt the game was just lavishing in its obliqueness. Whatever. That’s just a disagreement with its style. And just as a quick aside, during the infamous “sand surfing” sequence, I couldn’t help imagining the developers screaming “Look how pretty our game is! Look at it!” They were right, it was beautiful. The whole game is, it just lacks substance for me at times.
The key thing in this game for me however, was the co-op. Hell, that was probably the most “artsy” thing about the damn game. (Okay, I’m going to stop saying artsy; I don’t think I even know what it means at this point.) I don’t know if it was because I played it late, (December) or because I was lucky, but I was able to complete the game with one person. And all I had to show for it at the end was his “Gamertag”. This surprised me because having heard of examples of people beating the game and a list of 5+ people showing up when it felt so seamless and they were none the wiser, I was sure there were times when that happened to me.
Travelling the world on an adventure with your buddy was something I absolutely expected; I knew what I was getting into. I just wasn’t ready to find out how much I would love that experience. At first, I was skeptical hearing about the feeling a sense of loss when you possibly lose your partner. But that very thing happened to me. And when the lone name showed up at the end, I smiled at the thought of all the times I had temporarily lost him/her only to reconnect, but with a sense of doubt that it was a different person. The game needs to be played online, I don’t care how pretty it looks.
7. XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PC) ; Preface: First game of the genre I’ve played
I feel like the reception with Enemy Unknown was so favorable because of the expert combination of that old XCOM you know, with an attention to make the game more accessible. Now of course this is me regurgitating that idea as I have no context for this series nor genre, so it could very well be the opposite for some. What I do know is, is that the fervor surrounding this game didn’t hit me nearly as hard as I heard it had for others.
The fact is, that this game is a solidly made, fun, addictive turn-based strategy game. Alright, that sounds awesome; why isn’t this number one? Firstly, the metagame aspect was mediocre for me. It’s akin to glue that is needed to hold everything together. I can’t deny the intensity of having every country in the red, with my first satellites on their way, parts of Africa already gone. And somehow, pulling it together and trekking on despite our lack of African friends. Maybe that’s all I was supposed to get out of it. I just felt that it left something to be desired. Also, the inventory management stuff is terrible.
But my tepid reaction to the metagame isn’t detrimental enough for me to dislike the game. The combat in the game is great and what makes it so addictive. It’s punishing, (not hard, though) at times exhausting, and that feeling of losing that dude/dudette who you worked so hard on is brutal, and at times, I couldn’t help but reset my save if I died because of a 90% shot missing. I loved the interaction between the classes. I loved naming them after friends and sometimes having to inform them that their alter-ego died because of my poor play. The part of the combat that breaks down for me is the “out of combat stuff”. When you’re looking for enemies, it’s really unfortunate. You have to leapfrog your whole team across the map hoping to eventually run into one of them. If you’re one to not reload your saves, you have to be really cautious too, in the early game at least because it can get real rotten. There’s also a certain issue where if you spot the enemies on one of your last squadmates for your turn, as per usual they’ll scatter, but afterwards, if they happen to scatter to surround one of your guys, it’ll be their turn next and they’ll decimate whomever they’ve surrounded. It’s hard for me to hate on a game for anecdotal scenarios and I really wish I could articulate my problems with these parts. I just personally find whenever there’s a lull in combat unfun. But the rest of the game (hell even the metagame portions) is a total strategic joy.
6. Dishonored (PC) ; Preface: Dark Messiah Might and Magic is terrible.
This is the one game on my list that is somewhat of an enigma to me. I have this feeling in the back of my mind that there is a critique out there, I don’t know where but the critique of it would speak to me so well, that I’d be forced to dislike this game.
Everybody confused? Perfect. It’s almost as if I have this idealized idea of what this game is, when the reality is much less remarkable. Putting all that aside, this game makes it on the list because ignoring all dissonance, I still enjoyed the raw experience of exploring the world and playing through the story. No, the story wasn’t great, or even good, but it was enough of a vessel to push me through the world. The best part of the game for me was definitely the non-lethal way of killing the “bosses”. It was an amazing idea and brought light to an infinite possibility within a concept.
Dishonored shares similar problems with other games of the stealthy variety that once shit hits the fan, the gameplay goes with it. Yes, I’ve seen the clips of the insane, super lethal, impressive displays of skill and that brings me to this caveat: I applaud the fact that there are the tools within the game to make lethal fun and that the controls are good/fun enough to not completely hamstring you. The problem is the general swordplay/gunplay isn’t good enough in my opinion despite the fact that it can be used to make you look awesome in the best hands.
So we revert back to the first paragraph and reiterate this odd feeling I have with this game. Maybe it’s just that it’s forgettable or it’s not as good as the sum of it’s parts. It’s similar to XCOM, not on how I feel about it overall, but how the core mechanics and combat are enough to drive this game forward and make it really enjoyable. Yeah...I think that’s a better summation than just saying “I have no fucking idea what is going on, pls send help”
5. Gravity Rush (Token Vita Game) ; Preface: Dusty is the best character of this generation, perhaps ever.
“Sony! Sony! Sony!” The crowd chants as the one Vita game is revealed in the middle of the list. “A Vita game has been rewarded! The Vita is saved!” Okay, not really. If there were complaints to put upon the Vita, they wouldn’t be in this part. I’m not invested enough to care enough one way or the other. Gravity Rush I do care about however. It’s probably my favourite open world game I’ve played ever. Now you may be saying, “Uh, idiot, I can SEE Sleeping Dogs under this, what the hell are you smoking?” You’re right, I don’t like Gravity Rush more than Sleeping Dogs. Hell, I don’t even like it more than Red Dead Redemption, or even the Infamous games. I’m more talking about the actual open world aspect. I love flying around the city and even if there isn’t much to do in it, that really is enough for me to like it over the other games. It was
that fun for me.
G-Rush as nobody calls it is pure cheeriness for me. Even with Kat’s naivety (and that’s being generous) making me roll my eyes throughout the story, I couldn’t help but find it endearing. For god’s sake, Dusty the cat just meows through the whole story. What the fuck is that? Adding ellipses within the sentence does not make it better. Neither do
italics. But I love it. I don’t even care. The Vita probably sucked my brain out and put it back in with the implanted idea of how great this game is. Inception.
I can definitely see this being frustrating for some, but I loved the feeling of having trouble with the gold challenges during the beginning parts, only to destroy them after I got all the upgrades. It was completely satisfying even if I’m giving it a pass on a questionable design choice. I still don’t even care. It’s just all fun. Fun fun fun fun fun. Also, the finisher cutscenes on bosses reminded me of Sailor Moon. I haven’t even seen that in 10 years, but you know, right?
4. Max Payne 3 (PC) ; Preface: Haven’t played the first two Max Payne games. So y’know, I liked it.
Okay, let’s get a couple things out of the way first. I didn’t hate the number of cutscenes. As I discussed in the Mass Effect portion, (at least I think I mentioned it, it’s been so many words ago) I’m generally pretty amicable when it comes to design choices. If they want to put a bunch of cutscenes in it, good for them. That’s their decision. And likewise, if the people playing it end up hating that portion, well, that’s their decision too. I have this belief that every design choice(okay, maybe not every), no matter how against the grain it is, has a possibility of being amazing. Asura’s Wrath and QTEs is a good example.
With that housekeeping out of the way, we move forward. So beyond the amount of cutscenes, what did I actually think of the cutscenes themselves? Eh... I liked the showing of different angles and such. I’m sure there is a word for it but with the lack of the word in my brain for it, I’ll just say “quartering off the screen to show different stuff at the same time”. It wasn’t impressive or anything, (especially once you keep seeing it) it was just fresh and I thought it was well executed, so I liked it, that’s all. Some of the effects used during the cutscenes however, were incredibly grating. They turned the dial to 11 in some parts with all the flashing and flickering and shtuff.
The shooting is not surprisingly the real draw of the game and it’s probably the best overall gameplay of this year for me. The animations, the feel of the shooting, (other than being forced to kill the guy that “killed” you) the ridiculous moments you can create with the slowdown mechanics. It all leads to an overall package that combined with a story good enough for me to be interested in, allows me the opportunity to hate the game once I embark on trying that Hardcore New York Minute stuff. What will annoy me first, the dying and having to restart the whole thing, or the unskippability of the cutscenes? Trick question: I’m already annoyed at the unskippability.
3. Sleeping Dogs (PC) ; Preface: Witcher 2’s Looker of the Year award. DAT RAIN
I think back on Sleeping Dogs. A game I beat 100%. A game I enjoyed from beginning to end. (Except that gambling achievement part, fuck cock fights) It wasn’t anything amazing, but I guess what I can say of note about the game for me personally, is that I feel it bridged the gap perfectly between Saint’s Row the Third and GTA 4.
Now I could start on how it runs amazing on my PC unlike the other two and on top of that, looks better than both of them combined. That’s just a personal grievance though. The actual gap I’m referring to is more so the story. It has goofy parts, but’s not nearly as stupid as Saint’s Row. (To be clear, I enjoyed it in SR3 for the most part) It feels more organic and led to me enjoying it more than I expected, as a result. It also knows when to take itself more seriously and while I don’t think it deserves any awards for originality or execution of the overall story and tone, as a whole, I can look back on that experience of me roaming through Hong Kong, telling Wei Shen’s story, as a great one. Just maybe not with any specifics.
Speaking of Hong Kong, how about those visuals, huh? Look, I’m not the biggest graphics whore on the planet and while I’m trying my best, it’s hard for me to look at an image of a game, and be able to pinpoint certain graphical effects. I wish I was able to critique graphics at an intellectual level, but I first have to be able to distinguish what tessellation and SSAO does first. Basically, I need to know what looks “bad” in an image. But all that pointless uninteresting blog post about me aside, this game looks amazing. You’ve seen it? Well then you know what I’m talking about, next point.
In terms of the combat in this game I played it at my desk with controller in hand. Whenever there was a shooting sequence? Put the controller on my lap/table, and start Mouse/Keyboarding it. It worked well enough and allowed me to not be annoyed with playing a shooter with a controller. The Arkham-esque combat was well implemented but at the same time, nothing to really praise, other than the fact that most melee combat in these games are garbage so good on ‘em!
Normally, I don’t subscribe to taking issue with the dissonance between how characters act in cutscenes and gameplay but you wanted to make Wei Shen the posterboy for that, I might just start. Man, some of those execution-like kills on your enemies are unbelievably brutal. To be clear, I’m not actually bothered by it, there’s just such a stark contrast between the brutality and literally everything else you can do gameplay wise in Sleeping Dogs. As far as I can remember...
This is one of those games that I’m glad I played, I’m glad it exists but it didn’t do anything exceptional to top the list. Including Emma Stone doesn’t count.
2. Spec Ops: The Line (PC) ; Preface: Didn’t read Heart of Darkness/no awareness of the parallels until after I beat it and read up on the reactions to the game
Quick, guess what I’m going to say about it. “The story was good, the shooting was bad” This is the part where I hit the buzzer indicating that you were incorrect in your assumption. No, calm down, it’s not reversed, I just didn’t hate the shooting nearly as much as most did. Maybe because I was playing it with mouse and keyboard? I don’t know. I just thought it was a solidly made shooting experience that at no point was holding me back from finishing the story. I even enjoyed the stuff with the squad commands where you have basic commanding control of your teammates’ sniper rifle and grenades.
So now the story. I so wished I had heard nothing on this game before I played it. If I had a regret this year, it would be that. It may have been my game of the year if the surprise of what all goes down was genuine. Though, I probably wouldn’t have bought it had I not heard the enticing things I heard about the game, so I guess I solved that personal issue of mine on my own in this very thread, thanks internet! The whole execution of the spiralling down of the characters is sublime. To really see this, once you’ve beaten the game and seen the credits, immediately restart the game and experience the beginnings parts again. It’s not like it’s so subtle that you absolutely need to do this to understand it, but for me, it really hammered the point home. There are many parts story-wise I loved about this game. The loading screen messages later on the game, the scene after the infamous bombing scene where there’s a close up of the main character with his fellow compatriots arguing in the background, all the stuff with the radio DJ, and perhaps best of all, the ending where you’re being rescued, and you have the option to just gun them all down. Powerful.
And by powerful, maybe I’m overstating it. I don’t think it’s some unbelievable incredible story that will revolutionize the industry. But, the writing had a motivation. They(He?) set their sights on a commentary of the modern military genre, and you know what? They absolutely nail some parts, they falter on others but most importantly for me, they create a much needed breath of fresh air and I hope others carry the torch further at some point. A really promising endeavor.
1. The Darkness II (PC) ; Preface: Didn’t play the first game.
The absolute surprise of the year for me. It wasn’t the actual game that surprised me as much as the fact that not many other people liked or mentioned it. And then it went from surprise to sadness. I applaud anyone who gave it a chance and enjoyed it as much as I did, if only to insure myself that I’m not fucking crazy.
So because this is my number one game, that means I can’t say anything bad about it. Ah, fuck it. Sometimes having to shoot the lights out is irritating, and I’ll gladly accept the argument that it’s too short, though that didn’t bother me. There, done. Okay one more, the sequences with the Darkling were pretty lame and I actually had a bug that impeded me from progressing through the vents. Dammit, at first I was kidding with the one more, but I just remembered that sometimes picking up hearts would be an ordeal when there was a weapon in the way. That was a small one though, on to the good stuff.
The combat in the game is a blast. Controlling the darkness with the mouse is probably suboptimal, especially starting out on the hardest difficulty, which limits your ability to be out in the open that long. But overall, the mixture of the darkness, the guns, and the darkness abilities makes for a fulfilling combat loop that holds it’s own with the best single player shooters out there. This especially holds true when you bump the difficulty down as I did on my New Game+ runthrough to really break loose and allow yourself to explore more of the possibilities the combat offers.
Combat aside, the reason why I fell in love with the game were the characters and the relationship depicted between Jackie and Jenny. At first I thought it was laid on a little thick. Hell, maybe it is, but the point is I didn’t like the fact that it was. It got to the point where I got up after my first play session late at night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and it impeded my sleep. The writing is constantly hammering in the anguish he feels because of what happened in the first game. The writing is really good, and the voice acting is impactful. Now I loved how they executed the relationship between Jackie and Jenny in this game. But then they make it even deeper. So you’re trying to save this girl who you owe your life too, right? But then, they introduce this idea that it’s all in your head and that you’re actually some inmate in a mental hospital.
This concept in theory is pretty stupid, and even though it’s pretty clear that it’s not your true reality, for me, it got a reaction of pure marvel. I loved that they introduced this idea that there’s a psychiatrist in this ward trying to help you, and you’ve created this whole reality within your mind that you need to save her and the reality that she knows is just a construct that she also needs saving from. The whole thing is so tragic, and I can’t do it enough justice with my own words. No, really. I just reread this and I am tempted to erase it.
Two final things on this game before I close out my boring thesis on all the games I played this year. The ending of The Darkness II was the most satisfying thing I’ve experienced all year. And I loved how they split the ending of the game with an addendum to an ending that happens right after that is sort of the obligatory “there could be a sequel” you see in games and movies. I thought that was a great decision. Also, Johnny Powell is the actual best character this year. Sorry, Dusty.