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This game defined my childhood in far reaching manner. So much about the setting and story of this game i find hauntingly beautiful. This game more than any other encapsulates a dark fantasy world I would love to explore more than any other. The sound design and soundtrack are among the most influential of any game ever released, cementing Koji Kondo as a soundtrack GOD.
There is no amount of appraise I can levy towards this game that could communicate how much I love it. I'll just cover the basics of why it is brilliant. Minimalist design focused on enacting thematic battles with godlike beasts roaming an empty painted landscape. Best soundtrack in a game, ever, by Ko Otani. Thoughtful pacing that distinctly lacks superficial trappings of conventional game design favoring a very focused objective. Plenty of time to explore portraits and crenelated valleys in a world no other game has managed to so thoughtfully paint. No kill rooms, endless henchmen to enact genocide upon, or contrived puzzles. No combos, points, tallies, head shots, awards, ratings, gold stars or other bullshit. I also need to mention how Shadow of the Colossus is yet another book of the game developers Bible.
I have always preferred to explore more than to be narrowly guided through an adventure, and Metroid Prime rewarded that part of me more than any other game save Zelda had done before. I also absolutely love the how Retro studios is able to manage so much exposition through so minimal effort, relying on Environmental design, art assets, and very brief journal entries to build a believable setting. I can also appreciate the wonderful steam-punk Brian Froud inspired art design more than most.
Half-Life 2 is yet another book in the game developers Bible. Valve teaches us how to include exposition for your story within the game, rather than including it as a separate entity in the form of a cinematic, codec conversation, or Otacon. Valve also teaches us how teach the gamer how to play the game by instilling basic principles of the games design, expanding upon them in the form of tier challenges reinforcing these principles, and then appexing the principal and pacing of the game by having the concept be taught in a climactic watershed setting that then effortlessly shifts to the next bread crumb trail. Valve also teaches us how to embrace the input of the gamer, and to not become to beholden to your own craft.
Exploring the mind and its layered, symbolic archives of inadequacies, tortured memories, hidden and forbidden desires and complex emotions, Psychonauts is one of the few games to ever climb the imposing heights of Character development and live to tell the tale. Few games have denizens so fully fleshed out and uniquely bizzare, and almost no games are quite as hilarious. Consider Psychonauts a game for the Psychoanalyst, or rather, any person with a keen interest in inhabiting the mind of all but the most disturbed individual. To understand a person is to inhabit the space of existence fabricated by their fleshly lobes, nestled within the 'crenellated caverns of nerves and neurons' so to speak. This game spins a yarn and speaks a language that games to this day have yet to speak. It is because of this that I eagerly anticipate the announcement of a sequel, without bated breath.
With a unique setting and the tried and true Bioware formula laid out as foundation, Jade Empire makes for an excellent and approachable RPG for an audience unfamiliar or even disinterested in the traditional RPG. Dispelling antiquated mechanics like turn based excel spreadsheet battles for a more simplistic Rock/Paper/Scissors system that is easy to understand, Jade Empire still manages to offer an intelligent and challenging game for any who play. The story is interesting, takes the appropriate turns it should, and is filled with an ensemble cast of Bioware archetypes. What this means for you is back-story's to explore, dialog tree's to pursue and romantic entanglements to be tangled. This is a strongly recommended game for those who do not like to play the traditional 'game', but yearn for an interesting and unique fantasy story. This does not come with the baggage of a starwars game based in a Dungeons and Dragons rule set AKA Kotor, or the trappings of a Star Trek inspired Gears of War lite such as Mass Effect.
This game is one of Books of the Game Developers Bible, this book teaches developers to make a good control mechanic that is simple to learn, and dynamic in its utility. It teaches developers to allow the player to interact with their environment in more meaningful and expanded ways. It also teaches developers to grant the player forgiveness for their sins, for they know not what they do, so give them a fucking rewind mechanic.
With a grim premise, bleak setting, and disturbing plot for you to follow you would think Fallout 3 would be a drag to play. Somehow, the promise of an immense irradiated landscape to explore manages to pull you in more than you would think, and the depressingly bleak backdrop serves as a great narrative tool to portray scenarios and stories usually reserved for more heavy hitting sci-fi stories than your average game. Exploring the wasteland and reenacting a steampunk/sci-fi Western version of The Road meets Mad Max creates a unique world that allows the designers to layer exposition toying with iconic and familiar imagery one moment, and yet also portray a completely abstract setting the next moment without missing a beat. The game is full of bugs, unpolished assets, control issues, terrible animation, disgusting character models and various other video game misdemeanors, yet it also manages to thoroughly establish a setting and narrative better than any other. It does this by creating a seamless, open ended world for you to explore however you wish. It is because of this there are the aforementioned bugs and felonies, yet I am willing to take the good with the bad. More than willing, as this is something of a recurring theme with the setting as well, as you find yourself placed in situations where there are no clearly good outcomes, and you are forced to paint a world with shades of grey, and other unsavory yet beautiful colors.
I can imagine most Silent Hill fans would rather put one of the Newer Silent Hill American clones on a favorite list sooner than place this entry, but I have a rather soft spot for this game. While I can understand most fans complaints with the gameplay elements, I believe that the core concept of the game is able to carry this game above any other Silent Hill game for me. The idea of a Horror game centered around a man trapped in his room, peering out of his confined psyche into the outside world desperately trying to communicate to any one is simply terrifying. The subtlety and depth of the setting work on a psychological level that no other Silent Hill game except for the second operate on. So desperately alone, removed from society, trapped within the memories of a man he has never met. Reliving his troubled life, reliving moments as if flipping the pages of a disturbed religious tomb. There are so many wonderful ideas bottled within this game that I am willing to forgive the rather mediocre gameplay elements to favor the excellent narrative. Also, the Soundtrack for this game ranks amongst my favorites. Akira Yamaoka is a supremely talented musician who's tastes draw from a similar pool to my own. I can easily imagine Radiohead, Scott Walker and Tangerine Dream as being inspiration for the sound.
Admittedly, the setting might not have an instant appeal. Balancing heavy dystopian themes with a lighter Miyazaki Porko Rosso like artistic design and setting, the elements can seem to be at odds. This might have worked against the game had they focused more heavily on the darker elements of the dystopian world, but instead Michele Ancel chose to favor a more abstract approach to the overtones and a more detailed approach to the fantastic, which makes this game both deep and subtle without coming off as superfluous and faux-precocious.