GOTY 2014
This was a really weird year in gaming for a whole lot of reasons. Nearly every high profile release for the new consoles was a flop, and the only thing that made them worth owning were some relatively underhyped games.
List items
-
Everyone hypes the nemesis system, for obviously good reasons in terms of making your individual encounters and strategies to take down the orc army individualized and awesome. But for me the actual gameplay stands out better to make this game amazing. The combination of stealth, ranged combat, and hack-and-slash combat - all extremely well executed with cool powers to augment and empower all three. Stealth murder some guys, fire off an arrow to start an explosion, slash my way into a combo, execute that annoying shield guy, focus arrow some spear-throwing assholes, then isolate the captain and bend him to my will. Every battle was fun, it never got old, and the challenges only served to further force you to try out new strategies. Far more than just Batman / Assassin's Creed with the nemesis system, this game is a refinement of the combat and open world systems that came before, creating the most enjoyable open world game of its type I've played in years.
-
I liked the original Isaac and grew to love it after continuing to play it for years and going through the new updates. This re-release adds a ton to the original, fixes some of the more glaring faults, and creates a whole new addictive experience. I've put in dozens of hours in both the PS4 and PC versions, beaten every boss, taken on a good amount of the challenges, and still have unlocked only half of the items and expect to put dozens more hours into the game over the coming years. Just a perfect game to drop in and play, greatly rewarding to develop your skill and knowledge, and fun either in getting an overpowered combination of items and blazing through or eeking out a victory and overcoming what the game throws at you.
-
I'm going to be honest. I probably spent more time watching Hearthstone in tournaments and on Twitch than I did playing it. But either way this game revived my interest in CCGs in a big way. I mainly stick to Arena runs now and have largely given up maintaining a collection or competitive deck, but I still dive back in every week or two to play.
-
Sure, it wasn't the revelation that the first Dark Souls was. That doesn't make it a bad game though. The satisfying combat, character development, strategizing builds, and exploration still make this a better game than most. I'm definitely interested to see if this game takes another leap forward with Bloodborne, but in the mean time I'm perfectly fine playing through the Souls games we have.
-
Quite the follow up to Bastion. Supergiant still has the ability to build a completely new world and fill it with amazing art, music, and great writing. That alone would make for a great game, but adding on top a completely revamped combat system with a huge degree of customization and strategy are what put this game in my top ten. I spent the whole game trying out new combinations of character builds and every time was amazed by the wide variety of different strategies the game supported.
-
And add another game that made it on my list because of the combat and strategy systems. Purely on that basis in this case, because otherwise the game is a fairly pedestrian JRPG. But a revival of the classic job systems with an interesting take on saving/spending turns made for a perfect game. And yes, the game does feel padded through the latter half getting to the "real" ending, but I didn't mind that as much given that the game used that as an excuse to throw crazy boss challenges at you and test your ability to develop new party and job combinations to beat them.
-
I absolutely hated the original Diablo 3, for the same reasons everyone else did. But the updates and Reaper of Souls got me back in and have completely redeemed this game. Building a character up is fun as hell, the loot system actually works now, and the new modes add a ton of variety.
-
The "new" Mega Man games that recently came out reminded me that those games are awesome, but I could never play a pure classic version of them again. Shovel Knight solves all that by making a classic platformer with modern sensibilities to make it fully playable today. Add in great retro art, music, and perfect level design and you've got a great game.
-
I've fallen off shooters hard in the last few years. But somehow a game with Wolfenstein on the cover got me back in. Fun combat with a good combination of stealth and gunplay, an interesting set of levels that swings between surreal comedy and dramatic, and making you actually care about BJ and his band of misfits.
-
Completing the remake triumverate for me, I had a great time playing the original Curtain Call and this game improves on that in every way. A huge set of songs, some new modes that are interesting, and streamlining and improvement of a lot of the surrounding systems. It might rely heavily on nostalgia and love of the Final Fantasy soundtracks, but it's still a damn good rhythm game.
Load Comments