Ten favorite games played in 2013
We're almost done with 2013 and I don't think I'll manage to finish any more games until December 31st, so I decided to post this today. I thought it was only fair to do it, since I did finish a great amount of games. Nothing compared to professional reviewers or anything like that, but enough to make a Top Ten list.
Now, notice that either for Homefront or any of the following games, I'm only taking the Single Player Campaign into account because, at least for me, this is what matters the most (unless the game is purely Multiplayer, like Team Fortress 2 or Dota 2). I'm not counting games that I have started, but never finished, like Bioshock Infinite, Battlefield 4 or Assassin's Creed IV. These may be left for next year! :)
Worst game: Homefront
Before I mode on to the good stuff, it's important for me to mention the one game I disliked the most this year, which happens to be Homefront. I think this is the clearest proof of how different military shooters can be. Homefront had a really promising beginning of a storyline at the beginning of the game, even with all the cliches of the American hero. It gave you a bizarre vision of a post-apocalyptic world where North Koreans were nearly succeeding with their world-domination plans. It would have been, at the very least, an interesting story if the game wasn't flawed in so many aspects. The story has a very unsatisfactory inconclusive ending that doesn't knot any loose ends. The characters, who had every potential to be great, end up as insipid coadjutors for a main character that is completely forgotten. To make things worse, the gameplay is awfully flawed. The collision detection for enemy bullets fails to detect any walls you might be using for cover, but the opposite does not happen: you may shoot an enemy from behind, point-blank with an AK-47 and it will still take you three to four shots to take him down. Your allies AI is not helpful, the enemies' AI only detects you as the enemy, the event trigger area is so small that you have to step on the exact place to trigger an occurrence and the recorded voices for both allies and enemies have little to no variation (meaning a character will *always* say "Cover me, I'm reloading" in the same tone when they're reloading - which gets VERY annoying when the battle is long). I must have seen other problems in the game to dislike it so much, but these are the ones I can remember for now. If you're looking for a good military FPS, stay away from this game.
Click to viewAnd now, the 10 games I liked the most in 2013.
10. Call of Duty: Ghosts
Last one in the list, and if I had finished either Bioshock Infinite or Black Flag, CoD Ghosts wouldn't make it to the Top Ten. The game overall is actually pretty good, but not by far the best in the series. I had my usual bit of fun with the game, the gameplay had a couple of additions, but the essence remains the same. The game added a new "resource", which is Riley. While I loved Riley both as a character and a new resource, I still kinda missed using two types of grenade in combat, which was kinda bothersome because I don't like to have to choose between using flashbangs and frag grenades. The story was... acceptable, but quite weaker than the Modern Warfare games. I did like the characters, but absolutely despised the way the story ended. Not because it's not a particularly good ending, but because it reinforces the idea that not only you failed, but you'll have to confront the exact same enemy in the next game. Of course, I might be wrong, but this is the impression I was given. I must also add the fact that the game design didn't seem as well-planned as the Modern Warfare games. In several parts of the game, the story seems to be forced on you, unlike MW, where you were thrown right away into action and the story was told naturally as you moved further in the game. I also missed more parts of the story with the sniper (and no, the Remote Sniper doesn't count), but I can leave it that way.
Nevertheless, I haven't faced a single bug in the story mode. Riley's controls are very smooth and respond quite well, and so do your characters' controls. The gameplay additions don't get in your way (even though they don't seem particularly helpful) and overall the game is quite pleasant. I just wish the Single Player mode had a higher replay value.
9. To The Moon
The only reason this game is not in a higher place is because, as a game, it is pretty weak. The puzzles are really simple, which isn't a bad thing since the focus of the game is the story. The parts where To The Moon tries to be a game are rather inefficient though (more specifically the part where you are horse riding and the part of the plants - I'm really trying not to give out many details about this). Still, if you consider To The Moon as an interactive story telling, it is a masterpiece. The story and characters were marvelously well-developed, the soundtrack is absolutely beautiful and during the game you even forget that To The Moon is completely made in pixel art. Loved this game. I wish I could recommend it to more people, even non-gamers, just to see them crying during the story. Twice.
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Bite me, I love the Modern Warfare series, so seeing MW2 should come as surprise to no one. I won't even mention the soundtrack, but am I glad to play the Modern Warfare trilogy in the release order or what? I was originally planning to skip the previous games and only play the third game of the series, but since the Single Player mode is a direct sequel, I think that the best thing I decided to do was to start from the beginning. The first MW was... okay. The second was an amazing experience. The game seems to be slightly more difficult, but it is still offers a pleasant experience and an interesting plot twist. It was also an interesting acknowledgement that Infinity Ward takes no pity on any of their characters.
7. Injustice: Gods Among Us
I love fighting games, but I'm no good at them. I usually don't even try to play it on Normal mode, I just set it on Easy to get to know the story better, and this game was no exception. Still, I really liked Injustice and its character selection and the Story Mode. I wish I had more patience to actually pick a character and get better playing with this specific character, but since I'm not aiming for professional gaming, I'm happy only having fun by mashing buttons (at least for now).
Injustice also happens to have a very, very long life for a fighting game. With so many extra challenges and game modes, it's hard to get bored with this game.
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Another FPS. What makes Black Ops 2 any different from its predecessors? Actually, a lot of things. Black Ops 2 is not only limited to different weapons and a story that happens both in the future and in the past, but also certain points of the story allow you to control vehicles remotely (pretty much Riley's predecessor - not that it has not been done before). There is also the Strike Force mode (which sucks, by the way), which is like a Real Time Strategy mode that allows you to position your units in certain points of the scenario to achieve certain objectives, like defending a certain post, attacking a base or finding a VIP. During the Strike Force mode, you can choose one element of one of your units and control this element, be it a soldier, a vehicle or a sentry. Personally, I hated this mode, but it's nice to see that Treyarch tried something different for the game (but seriously, I hope they don't do it again - or at least give the player the choice to either play it as a RTS or as a regular FPS).
Additionally, Black Ops 2 also introduced several different choices and endings for the game, and your decisions affect the game's outcome. Kill the wrong person or fail to save someone and you will find yourself struggling to save the world. Succeed, and you'll get your reward.
It may not seem, but Black Ops 2 was a very refreshing game for Call of Duty's Single Player Campaign. Once again, another game in which you can easily spend a couple of hours and has a high replay value.
5. Bastion
This is another game that surprised me because it is quite different from everything I have played this year. I actually started to play it because I heard that the narrative of the game was very nice, but I'm glad to state that I ended up enjoy pretty much all the aspects of the game, from the gameplay, graphics, story and narrative to the sound track, game progression and replay value. The game is short enough to be entertaining, but long enough to tell a good story.
4. Devil may Cry
Dmc Devil may Cry is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated games of the year. The impression I got from it is that long date Devil May Cry fans avoided the game at any costs and potential fans of the series stayed away from this game because they were afraid to be scorned, which I find awful. I don't have the habit of being hardcore evaluating a game's story (and that's recent - which may be a result of becoming a fan of the Call of Duty series), so I had a lot of fun with this game. I thought that the controls response was very precise and pleasant and, in the end, that's what really makes me keep playing a game. The story was not a big deal, but it wasn't as bad as some people are stating (and you would find it amazing to see how haters can dig up reasons to hate a game).
3. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
There are two things I really didn't like about this game:
I. The story ends abruptly and it feels like the team that was making this game didn't have enough time to finish up what they wanted to develop and
II. You can't choose your play style. There are certain parts in the game in which you HAVE to go Assault and, personally, I hated the direct combat system.
Other than these two, this game is absolutely delicious to play, either alone or with your friends. I basically bought the game for the XBox because of the Kinect compatibility and found it sad that the only moment the game allows you to use the Kinect is while customizing and testing your weapons, because the controls are really nice, so I missed that during the game, or even a simple voice command system, like saying "wait" or "take him down". The ally AI of the game is just... perfect. It's not even funny. In fact, the gameplay overall feels so damn good that I even forgot about the lack of character development.
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
To be honest, I only started to play the Call of Duty games because of this specific one. I was planning on starting directly on 3, but when I started to play the Single Player campaign, I noticed it started right from where MW2 had ended, so I felt like I HAD to start from the beginning, even though I was told that "all the Call of Duty games are exactly the same". As a result, I ended up falling in love with the Modern Warfare trilogy. From the FPS games that I played so far (and there aren't many, really), I felt that Modern Warfare is the one with less bugs. Besides, I really like the Modern Warfare scenario.
1. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
I never finished any Splinter Cell games besides the Blacklist so, for a starter, this is one of the best games I have played so far, and my Game of the Year. It was kinda tough to choose between Modern Warfare 3 and Blacklist, but the variety that Blacklist offers the player got me in the end. Splinter Cell: Blacklist has the features that I thought they were lacking in Future Soldier: a story with a beginning and an end and being able to choose your own gameplay style. The co-op mode is also awfully fun, I remember going through it twice with a good friend of mine before actually starting the Single Player Campaign. I loved this game with every bit of my heart and I'm really looking forward to play the rest of the series in 2014!