I played ten new games this year and here they are
The Walking Dead
Technical problems aside, The Walking Dead is a masterclass on how to build player relationships with NPCs. As tired, wornout, and dogwhistle-y as zombie media and zombies in general are, the Walking Dead sets all that baggage aside and creates something very unique and very important in today's landscape.
Rock Band Blitz
Thousands of dollars later, Harmonix is still supplying addictive ways to interact with the DLC from their Rock Band franchise.
Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami is one of the most vile, disgusting video games I have ever played. I almost feel bad about recommending it. Watching someone else play Hotline Miami is an experience not unlike running a high fever. Its disorienting and pulsing and confusing and it makes you feel awful in a physical way. The soundtrack and playscape are grueling, tearing at you with its thumping neon. Playing the game is an entirely different experience. Its exhilarating. Every single encounter with every single enemy has to be thought out and analyzed but the game rewards you for pressing ahead and rarely punishes you thanks to the instant reload, super meat boy style. The music rips and tears but this time its cheering you on, helping you press ahead. Until you reach the end and have to walk back through what you did, alone. Hotline Miami is the most violent game I've ever played and every ounce of comparison to Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive is absolutely earned.
Sleeping Dogs
The combat feels fluid and dynamic, the protagonist is compelling, and the open world feels alive. Sleeping Dogs is the correct way to make a GTA clone in a post-Saints Row 2/3 world.
FTL
I've seen FTL described as "Firefly meets Spelunky" and I disagree. It's JJ Abram's Star Trek meets Spelunky. Its flashy, stuff is constantly popping off, and every single encounter is different and challenging in its own way. The game is criminally short however, deciding to just have an extended, fairly repetitive, boss battle as the end game. Which is fine! FTL is fun!
The Darkness 2
Competent first person shooter in an interesting setting with interesting, if underutilized, concepts.
Spec Ops: The Line
The Line is a game that asks to be taken seriously, as something more than just a shooter, and suffers because of it. As a video game, its perfectly fine. The interactive environments and ai kill commands are enough to make it sufficiently compelling to play, even if it isn't exactly treading any new ground. The setting, and especially the soundscape, set the game above its peers. At one point early on, a story beat brings you into a wartorn Dubai skyscraper covered in homemade speakers. The game forces you to shoot your way out while being berated by the antagonist and listening to an endless loop of Hush by Deep Purple. This is maybe the most effective moment of both storytelling and gameplay. The story, however, pretends at serious commentary of the horrors of war and fails completely. The twists and turns the story takes are forgettable. It batters its morality over your head while contradicting itself through the gameplay. The narrative on its own is little more than Apocalypse Now fanfiction and taken together with the gameplay strikes completely hollow. A good try at least.
Fez
A lot like Lost, the game is pretty bad and smeared pretty thin. The appeal of the game resides entirely in the cultural zeitgeist that spawned immediately upon release and dissipated a week later.
The Amazing Spider-Man
A huge step forward in Licensed Super Hero Games That Arent Batman. Takes systems wholesale from Arkham Asylum/City, implements them competently. Leaves a lot to ask for in depth and scale re: combat and open world.
Assassin's Creed 3
More Assassin's Creed except the excuses used to rationalize AC1-5 have run out. Broken controls, boring story, boring cities, boring combat, boring, boring, frustrating, boring. To say one good thing about the game, at least it isn't as racist as i was expecting.
Games I wanted to play this year but couldn't get around to:
WWE '13
007 Legends
Halo 4
Black Ops 2
Far Cry 3
Darksiders 2
Hitman Absolution
Forza Horizon
NFS: Most Wanted
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP
Dragon's Dogma
Legend of Grimrock
Xenoblade Chronicles
Syndicate
Crusader Kings 2
Borderlands 2
No comments:
Post a Comment