I went a little bit insane making this. I don't think I'm a very good writer and I am apparently terrible at being concise, so this may be extremely scatterbrained. Sorry about that! I'm also going to bastardize this page to get around the text limit, and I'm intentionally breaking voting format to reformat it after the list.
Ten. Borderlands 2 - The first Borderlands was a fun shooter that ended up feeling very repetitive by the end. So many guns dropped that ended up not even getting looked at due to many types being so similar. The mechanics wore thin, and there was not really any aspect outside of that to dig into the game. Borderlands 2 effectively ramps up everything. There is an actual coherent plot this time, there is a hub city for downtime and spending all of your money on the slot machine, the shooting mechanics feel much more solid, and theres a greater variety of enemies that actually involve tactics to defeat. More boss encounters, drops seemed more unique, and the extra emphasis on the maker of the gun fleshed out a much needed wrinkle in the overarching game.
The plot can be hit or miss. A lot of it pulls from memes and general insanity, and for the most part it works fine. But if it doesnt, well, people in this game talk a lot. Mostly over coms so there is active gameplay while dialogue is happening
which is good and bad. Obviously great considering co-op keeping everyone doing something, but if you actually want to hear what theyre saying while getting bombarded it gets lost in the shuffle.
Another great remedy for an issue with the first game was the environmental art. Borderlands 1 had deserts, arid dry areas, grassy plains minus the grass and with more sand, and of course the lava level where the lava was sand and the rocks were also sand. Oh, and a snowy area at the end
actual snow, too! Borderlands 2 is a very good looking game and has much more color to the areas.
The classes got mixed up and I havent really tried any of them, I just committed to the Siren again. Phaselock was very fun to use mixed with sniping, perfectly setting up headshots all over the place. Really, the series is always a good co-op romp. It doesnt really set the world on fire for me, but it is a good use of me and my friends time, which is all I really would want to ask for.
Random note: I was Maya while my friend was Zer0.
Nine. XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Rooting for the squad to make it back safely, having go to people in each position, and the feeling of losing them and having to move on is a vital part of what makes this game so enticing. Having your crackshot assault miss vital shots every time they count and imagining the squad ripping into him makes it oddly sad when you see a chryssalid wreck his shit. The ability to create unwritten storylines between characters as they get killed off in tragic fashions on the battlefield is unmatched in XCOM.
Base building is a vital aspect as well, so even if you flawlessly sweep up missions, the overall game can fail if people pull out. Proper management out and in battle puts a lot of power in your hand, and although I feel like theres too much importance on Satellites, it still remains compelling. I succeeded without you, Nigeria. Get fucked.
Plot is whatever, you are here to kill aliens or be killed. Its fun. Get to it.
Random note: Played on Normal trying not to savescum, then Classic Ironman. Play it on Classic Ironman.
Eight. Katawa Shoujo - A visual novel about going to a school for disabled people originating from 4chan. By all accounts, this must be a disaster. Ive been following the game for awhile and couldnt believe it after playing the early Act 1 they released what feels like years ago. It was
good. It tastefully handled the subject matter, actually changed the way I looked at certain things in life, and had a nice calming OST to go with it.
The full release pretty much kept within what I wanted. While the quality of each route differs due to different writers being on each one (which I feel was pretty apparent), they all offered a lot of good moments. Given the years of work that went into this, I felt it all showed. Presentation was very nice, the art was good, OST remained good, it just oozes labor of love. Its a completely free product with a big effort behind it. I respect that a lot.
Seven. ZombiU ; Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, Dead Island, Day Z, the list goes on--Zombie games are not really in short supply, but they are all radically different. ZombiU carves its own little niche in the genre with a much slower paced take on an outbreak, and with the implementation of the pad controller never allowing the game to pause, caution is key. This is a game where 2 enemies on screen is actually a serious threat due to the lack of ammo and melee attacks leaving you vulnerable. A zombie lunge is an instant kill for quite awhile until an item that gives you an out that is one use and must be refilled it used, and the death penalty is somewhat dark souls-esque. There are short panning down cutscenes that show the survivor waking up, the name and occupation pop up on the top left and there is an ingame counter and score each survivor racks up.
While the survivors all play the same, they all have very different appearances, cricket bats, and battle cries. One larger nerdier looking guy actually whimpered pretty much every time he attacked and I did not miss him when he died. Its a surprisingly charming part of the game that gets a sense of attachment once a character lasts awhile, and the dark souls area is the way your old survivors are encountered are pretty neat. Depending on how they die, the old survivor is likely a zombie themselves. Once the general location of death is reached, the name and score are seen above a zombie packing a giant backpack and only after a successful kill can the inventory be looted. Of course, depending on WHERE this is can be very hectic. I had a few very close calls where my old survivor was basically where a fairly large pack of zombies were nearby, and the newly spawned one only starts with 6 bullets in their pistol and the cricket bat. Considering the real time aspect of everything and the length of time it takes to fully take out a filled inventory it is impossible to just rush in, fill up and run away. The Souls series, when killed by a very powerful enemy, atleast has the ability to suicide run and grab the bloodstain and book it away, but this does not let that happen. That said, I did mention depending on how they die, which has a pretty neat attention to detail in which dying from another cause just allows you to loot the corpse. Death via explosion happened tragically to me a few times but the pickup was much easier due to the zombie survivor not moving around from the spot into potential trouble.
At the end of the game, things change quite a bit. There is an infamous arena area that based on the OT and general online posts around the web can make people do a complete 180 on the game. Personally? I loved it, and the entire ending sequence following it. The game strips away your items (specifically cricket bat and your pad device) and forces you to fight armored enemies, but there are bullets, health, and explosive canisters strewn about. It has an entirely different but still thrilling caution that must be taken, I had to herd the enemies around as I wanted and make sure to really conserve my ammo now. It was much more combat based but the mechanics at work were handled very well to me.
All in all, a lot of what ZombiU does it does well, but there is also a lot of improvement that can be made. The cricket bat is the sole melee weapon in the game and the actual melee combat is surprisingly simplistic. There is the one overhead swing attack and that is it aside from a damage-less push back. More depth to the melee, different types like bladed items and a condition rate for items would be much appreciated for a potential sequel. Another cool idea would make the survivors different. This may approach some level of unwanted territory due to the random nature and potential for bad rolls persay, but it would add a nice wrinkle to the package and further attach the player to the avatar. ZombiU is a good game, and if it becomes a continued series, is on the cusp of absolute greatness and I very much hope to see it come to fruition.
Random note: I lost 8 survivors during the campaign.
Six. Mass Effect 3 ; From the start, I don't have a gaf-popular opinion on the Mass Effect series. ME1 had bad shooting mechanics and the RPG elements ended up dull because of that. The Mako sucked. The characters, aside from Wrex, were boring to talk to. The story, atmosphere, and music was good, but little else in there was. ME2, then, pretty much blew me away. The core gameplay was much improved; I actually gave a shit about the characters involved even if the story itself was barely present. ME3, continuing off of that, does a lot right for me. Shooting was exciting and changes to the power cooldown made abilities much more useful. Surprisingly, Kinect actually works very well on here as well. Using it to bypass constant menus midcombat actually worked out well and kept the pace quick.
Naturally, I ended up actually really digging the Multiplayer component. The packs they sell are bordering a fine line between genius and gross, but in the end I have spent nothing and it allows me to play the game in January of 2013, 10 months after launch, and have a plethora of new classes, maps, and even a new enemy faction to fight for no cost or userbase splitting bullshit. This is disturbingly rare in gaming nowadays and a huge deterrent to staying up to date with many MP games; quite nice to not have to worry about that for once.
On the campaign itself...yeah, that ending is fucked. The start and end are both low points, but all inbetween I was incredibly engrossed. The genophage showdown and Quarian/Geth dispute are high points of the entire series. There is a lot of clear pandering with other characters not necessarily having a big role, but it worked for me. There are also a lot of funny moments and humor sprinkled around in general which was appreciated given the otherwise dreary subject matter. What didn't work was the war asset system, which end up basically making a lot of big decisions turn into base numbers that add to a total which ever so slightly affect the patched ending. Not really what I wanted, but I imagine it was too ambitious to do much else. Actually playing out a paragon and renegade run still put mostly the same content for actual gameplay, but the story segments(again, without that shit pile ending) have a surprising amount of variance. There are some very, very hard Renegade actions to actually go through with in this game even if you played like an emotionless douche in previous outings. That honestly says a lot.
Random note: Played on Hardcore then Insanity.
Five. Resident Evil 6 ; There is so much to say about this game that I really don't know where to begin. Something looked off in prerelease gameplay videos, and I was waiting for hands on time to properly judge. Well, then I hated the first demo. The second one was not much better...but something began to click. I replayed the second one a handful of times and began to notice that enemies did react, just not as they did in 4/5. I messed around with the controls, found a lot of useful stuff, nothing beating the incredible ability to slide into cover. Then reviewers ripped the game to shreds, though that didn't faze me--it instead made me much more interested to try the full game.
Gameplay wise, RE6 is honestly phenomenal. There is no other shooter out there like it, but for comparison purposes I would have to use Vanquish. Basically, you see someone play Vanquish as if it is Gears of War: Always in cover, staying out of close range to stay up on health, and you cry deep inside. RE6 is best played always in enemies faces. Countering attacks, quickshot sliding into coup de grace, jumping back and dodging enemies. At its best, RE6 is some white knuckles hectic shit. Mercenaries is simply sublime, and when an upper echelon of enemies slain gets reached they are ridiculously aggressive. You will get swarmed, and you will need to constantly act to thwart them off. It's not as simple to crowd control as a simple head shot -> kick cleared the area in RE4. Many melee moves don't hit too well around them and can leave you in a shitty spot, knowing when to commit is key. When 150 enemies get cleared consistently, it is very empowering. That's to speak nothing of a (solo) 150 full combo, which I still can't even do. Fuck you if you can.
The campaigns are where it gets interesting. Personally, I think Chris has the best one here. Then Jake. Then Leon. Prerelease I would have never believed that, but hey. Piers and Chris actually work together well in co-op and the ending takes his story in an interesting way, and various things like the snake in chapter 3 were very cool. Jake's chapter 3 is my favorite in the entire game, and doesn't let off from there. However, his first 2 chapters honestly suck pretty badly. Leon's is mostly hurt by the boss that will not die. It ends up feeling like half his campaign against a single enemy, and his chapter 1 is very slow paced(in a bad way). Forced slow walking segments, tripping over corpses, and some first time through really cheap deaths you really can't see coming didn't really set a very good mood after the prologue also being stupid as hell. That said, the back half of 1, all of 2-4 were fine to me. His last chapter isn't as bad when you know what to do but there is still a stage of the final boss that just lasts absurdly long. Ada's campaign to top it off, I really didn't like much at all. It's full of more puzzles, but all of them are wonky and not well done. Her encounters are like a gangbang in a small cramped hallway, so I can't even imagine trying it now with co-op added. Overall, clearly some ups and downs all over the place, but I do enjoy what they were going for overall. Areas where characters meet up ingame and it actually connects online to players from different campaigns is a novel idea. I also appreciate the long length, especially given how short most TPS end up.
The most damning aspect of this game to me is very Capcom like, it's something really stupid and should have been easily avoided. Mercenaries mode is painfully screwed up by the preorder bonus maps actually accounting for 50% of the entire game's worth. There are 6 from day one that were clearly done, yet you only got 3, 4 with a preorder. 2 new ones are DLC, and preorder ones themselves are also DLC, but this has another issue with the other new DLC modes-Predator, Survivors, and Onslaught. These pull from the Merc maps, and are already limited by being DLC. I can't even describe the annoyance of being in a lobby trying to switch maps and having 5/8 not available because ONE guy doesn't have them. Basically...get used to Urban Chaos.
I liked RE5 a lot. It was only possible due to RE4's framework, and I feel at times they didnt fully get what all people loved about it, but it was still entertaining in its own right. 6, however, is full of bold new ideas. It isnt perfect, but once you get into it there is a damn good time to be had.
Random note: Played on Veteran. Haven't had time to try Pro and No Hope yet.
Four. Spelunky - Randomized levels are not usually a feature that excites or interests me, so rougelikes in general are not something I have much experience with. What Spelunky does exceptionally well is create a hard and punishing set of levels but in a completely fair fashion due to smart level crafting underneath the hood. It is certainly possible for an arrow trap to spawn right below the entrance of a level, but attentive players will pick up a lot of subtle but very helpful tips that make Spelunky much easier to handle. Something small like rocks and pots spawn near the starting door, and the traps dont just cheaply trigger off of you, anything sets them off. A little pebble can be brought through a level just to disarm all the traps you see, and this holds over with enemies as well. Bats flying from the ceiling will get killed when they pass one, enemies can fall into them, etc. This can actually set up some funny sandbox moments where as you traverse a level you see stuff like a spike totem rapidly spiking the dead corpse of an enemy, or a bunch of bodies are littered on normal spikes, letting you know shit went down earlier.
My favorite aspect of Spelunky is how it mixes in a strong sense of risk/reward all throughout. First, there are the altars. Damsels throughout the level can be brought to the exit to get an extra heart, or they can be killed off here and turned into a random item. Theres a behind the scene counter that rewards a very good item so there is a risk of losing out on immediate health vs. potentially getting more down the road due to this. Also great is the way enemies can help/hurt here. Much like them setting off traps, they also work as sacrifices. However, getting them on the altar while theyre stunned can be very hard, though potentially worth it. The shopkeeper himself also works but that is insanity.
Second, there is the ghost. Theres a double purpose served by this, considering it pops up after ~2 and a half minutes on a level. It doesnt allow the player to go at any pace they want to try and plan the safest route and collect everything in the level. But there is almost an entirely different way to play the game if you actually embrace this; ghost runs. The ghost turns gems it passes over into diamonds, which can be used to get a looooot of money if the risk is taking to try and get around it. Leaderboards track based off money earned, so to be a top player there must be effective use of this tactic throughout.
Finally, one of my favorite things in Spelunky: The shopkeeper. Having a random assortment of items, anywhere from a bunch of bombs to jetpacks and a machete, he is the spelunkers greatest ally. And also his worst enemy, if he is fucked with. An angry shopkeeper goes NUTS with constant jumping around at a very sporadic and hard to predict pattern. That said, a successful kill on one gives free reign on all of his wares
and the label of a terrorist, with wanted signs and a guaranteed angry shopkeeper at the exit of every stage from that point on. Still, the prospect of being able to loot every store can seriously set up an entire game and makes it not uncommon to have 40+ bombs in addition to a shotgun and powerful movement based items like the jetpack. My first iron man run, which is basically going from start to finish with no shortcuts, happened at the same time I got the achievement for killing 12 shopkeepers in a single game. I let them all go after me and was able to successfully get around them all to stock my character up for a very satisfying finish. Combining ghost runs with shopkeep killing runs is a very hard but also completely valid way to approach the game.
All in all, Spelunky is a very intelligently designed game that is a lot of fun to tackle. There are many small tricks that set players apart and a plethora of well hidden secrets all throughout the trap filled rooms. The player has a lot of freedom to tackle areas how they see fit, and the game gives credence to caution to avoid cheap deaths. That said, my only real gripe with the game is the existence of dark levels. Pitch black levels in this do have potential to have a drop you cant tell lands right on a deadly enemy, and even if theres an attempt at avoiding this due to stuff like traps getting lit up, sometimes unluckiness can nip you here. That aside, even without dark levels you will still die many times and be very sad deep within each time. That is the wonder of Spelunky.
Random note: It took me 376 attempts to finish the game with no shortcuts.
Finish here.