Well, 2014 may be a weird year, but I still found a whole lot of games to enjoy. From new ideas to tried and true formulas, bold fictional settings to actual history, and plenty more, 2014 managed to bring out more games worth mentioning than I could fit into 10. Alas, here we are with our yearly constraint, so I present my top 10 games of the year. Enjoy!
Shadow of Mordor is not only a game that delivers on its promises of innovation, it also manages to be a consistently fun game to play at almost every turn. The nemesis system is an appropriately applauded system that brings dynamic life to an open world, giving the player infinite enemies and goals to care about and simultaneously making failure a game mechanic that shapes the world as much as success. The progression of Talion’s upgrades and abilities felt meaningful, worth working towards, and actually changed the way I played in multiple ways. Put that on top of very well executed core combat, stealth and traversal mechanics, and you’ve got the best game of 2014.
Super Smash Bros. continues a long tradition of excellence with two great releases this year, and no version of Smash Bros has ever felt as well realized as the newest Wii U release. The character roster and stage list are huge, and the best they have ever been, complemented by the staple fluid and simple controls and some smart mechanical changes. Online play actually works and gives players plenty of options, be it “For Fun” or “For Glory”, guaranteeing that I will be playing this game for years and years to come. Oh, and I didn’t even get to mention how great the game looks and how amazing the selection of music is - and how event mode makes a great return - and…
Dark Souls II is in the unenviable position of being directly compared to one of the greatest games of a generation (if not all time), but thankfully it doesn’t drop the ball. Drangleic is another terrifying and magical world to explore and conquer, giving the player freedom to roam, discover, experiment, fail, and eventually find success. New types of magic open up new possibilities, and some of the game’s settings and encounters are incredible in scope and design, making this adventure another success in the series.
Transistor presents a fantastic and unique sci-fi setting and populates it with some cool characters, lots of interesting concepts, and a combat system that manages to feel fresh and rewarding way longer than expected. The amount of options given with the abilities and modifiers you can equip is impressive, and I never settled on a loadout for long before moving on to experiment with something else. The art and music of Transistor are also exceptional, making a cohesive package with so much to dig into at every turn.
The Evil Within is a totally gross game; picture rotting corpses dragged through a pool of blood and viscera and then chopped up into a runny pile with a chainsaw - that’s basically every scene in this game. It’s a game that constantly demands that you plan ahead, but then be able to quickly and adeptly react when your whole plan goes out the window. This is definitely the most intense experience I had in 2014, and I just kept wanting to come back for more brutal punishment at the hands of the worst kinds of monsters and traps. You could be really reductive and call it Resident Evil 4 with more blood and built in stealth mechanics, but if I said that was actually pretty accurate would that be a bad thing?
Valiant Hearts is part puzzle/adventure game, part history lesson, and all heart. The narrative is smartly focused on a handful of likable characters who are for the most part just trying to survive through the first World War. While the war is the setting and the catalyst for everything that happens, it is not the star. The characters don’t care about winning the war, they just want to survive, to get home, or to help others, and the cute but bleak art style made me want to help them all in whatever way I could. This one is an emotional journey that made me think more about “real” things than any other recent game, and I felt like I came out with something resembling a kind of understanding that I didn’t have before.
I’ve never been big into competitive multiplayer shooters, never wanting to devote the time to play them enough to feel like I can get something out of it. Titanfall eschews things like a separate single player campaign in order to deliver a supremely satisfying and refined multiplayer experience that is probably the best “pick up and play” competitive shooter I’ve ever spent time with. The twists on the long running genre from more mobility to the powerful Titans to the AI controlled grunts give so many options for those who don’t just want to be the best at aiming and shooting, without losing the essence of what makes the genre fun to begin with.
A beautiful fantasy fairy tale lies at the heart of Child of Light, and it is just a joy to experience. The rhymes may be occasionally labored and there isn’t a ton of depth to the strategies needed, but that does little to diminish this compelling adventure. I really enjoyed the combat system’s use of the timeline, and it was always satisfying to choose a fast attack to interrupt a powerful enemy at just the right moment. I also had a lot of fun exploring the incredibly detailed storybook environments, and Child of Light definitely wins best “casual player 2” experience of 2014 with Igniculus, who could grab items and lend a hand in combat by healing my characters or slowing down enemies.
Sunset Overdrive is a weird game, and not always in a likable way, but I grew to love how the game controls and moves. Most of the weapons are effective and fun to use, specifically while grinding, jumping, bouncing, swinging and dashing around the beautiful Sunset City. There are few games that make it this satisfying to push the chaos surrounding you to the next level and ride right on the edge of control, as you’re always working towards a long combo to set off your craziest powers. The “defend this point from waves of enemies” missions are some of the most frantic and fun moments I’ve had with a game this year.
The gods are dead. This is the first statement you get as you start The Banner Saga, and thinking back to it now I still remember how much that one idea pulled me into this bleak fantasy world. There’s something exceptional and subtle about the way the world of The Banner Saga has been crafted that made me never lose interest, always wanting to know more. On top of that this is an exciting tactical strategy game with some fresh ideas and well designed characters (both mechanically and thematically). The Banner Saga is a compelling tale of a world that is quickly plunging towards destruction, and guiding a caravan of warriors and refugees made me hold out for hope, even though there doesn’t seem to be any to be found.
