by legalbagel
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
An amazing experience. The short time I spent with this game was more affecting than any game I've played this generation. The gameplay, music, visuals, and multiplayer all work together to create a compelling whole that shows the promise of the medium more than any game I've seen. Unlike everything else on this list, I can't come up with a single complaint or improvement. Every part is impeccably designed and creates a game that rises above and is difficult to critique.
In a year filled with impressive, expensive stealth action games designed to create attachment to characters and stories, it's telling that this and FTL created the tensest gaming experiences of the year. XCOM in particular since it's a turn-based strategy game. But when lives, the mission, and potentially your entire game hangs on a rookie making a 60% shot, that's real tension. Difficult enough to make you pay for mistakes, but by no means unfair. The kind of difficulty and attention to strategy I wished more games had.
I loved JRPGs back in the day, but have fallen off them as of late. Xenoblade dragged me back in for a 100+ hour adventure that occupied most of my gaming time for several months. A JRPG mashed together with an MMO - expansive areas, tons of side missions and collectables, and interesting combat with varying strategies to try. Streamlining or eliminating lots of the annoyances that plague the genre also kept me hooked, though the game isn't without its unnecessary timesinks and filler.
The first "puzzle" game I've ever played where I came away crazily impressed by the puzzles. Puzzle games normally tread familiar ground and require similar skills to get through - some degree of logic and the standard set of puzzles. Fez's puzzles go above and beyond. Add in a fun platformer with an interesting mechanic, great visual style, an amazing soundtrack, and a large world to explore with tons of secrets. You can see where the time went developing this.
Another game that shows the importance of great design. Stealth done right. All the information is presented to you, the controls allow you to easily pull off moves and use items, and the ability to pause and assess creates a very strategic gameplay experience. Of the many, many stealth games this year, this is by far the best at making stealth play rewarding.
Another game that leaves you amazed at what one guy with a vision can do, with lots of moving parts that come together. Amazing style, great combat, RPG mechanics and equipment, sidequests, exploration, hidden items, and a story that's surprisingly deep and dark. A game made by a guy who obviously loves games.
FTL creates situations more intense and manic than XCOM, though the fact that you can and will die, repeatedly, makes the tension more of a resigned amusement as your ship goes down in flames again. The game is not that deep as the roster of items, races, and random events repeat fairly regularly. But the game still succeeds in allowing the player to create amazing stories. The tales I told in my mind like a lone soldier handling three stations to survive, or a lowly mechanic forced to take over piloting a ship during the pivotal final battle after a missile killed the captain, connected with me more than the stories put together by huge teams in other games.
A great spin on the GTA formula, with fun driving, hand to hand combat, open world features, and some compelling characters. First open-world crime story I've played through the whole way in a while. My only complaint is that the disconnect between the character of the undercover cop and the ultra-violent murder-fest the game becomes was very jarring. Through the gun-less beginning I had hoped they were taking the "cop" side of the game seriously, with Wei not going on nightly killing sprees in his missions and being more haunted by the idea of having to take a life for his job, or avoiding doing so at all costs. While the story somewhat goes for this and shows the wear on Wei, the gameplay itself doesn't reflect this conflict at all towards the end. Maybe too much to expect, but I think a game that pulled that off would easily be top of my list.
Everything I loved about the old PS2 games was brought back to life here, and the new challenges and features added some interesting twists. Tricking your way down a mountain at high speed creating a perfect combo still is amazing as ever, and the community features and challenges gave me more reasons to come back. Though I'm now resigned to the fact that I'm not as good at the game as I thought I was after seeing videos and scores of others.
Despite being profoundly disappointed with the ending and unenthusiastic about the future of the series, this game still had more good than bad. The resolution of the Krogan's future and the Quarian/Geth conflict in particular made good on what the series had built up to that point in terms of characters and storylines. The mix of combat and chatting was still fun to run through. The end doesn't take that away, though the absolute collapse of the last three hours prevent it from being much higher on my list. Not just the ending, but the entire last few missions were downright terrible and an unfitting end to an amazing set of characters and setting.