Video Games I Loved In 2009
5. Mass Effect (PC / 2008 / Demiurge Studios)
As soon as you start the game you feel overwhelmed by everything that is happening around you. Five minutes ago you were eating your breakfast cereal and now the fate of the entire universe rests in your hand. You play as Commander Shephard (the character is completely customizable) on a spaceship called SSV Normandy. As soon as you land on Eden Prime to recover an unearthed Prothean beacon you are attacked by aliens led by Saren, who is your nemesis throughout the game and thus the story of “Mass Effect” begins - and I mean that in every sense of the word, because as the space saga progresses the plot gets more and more complicated. That is what makes this game so incredibly engaging. Every single thing seems to be important even if it’s not, all the characters have an interesting past you want to learn all the details about and you rarely get to catch your breath. As fun and entertaining as the story is, the other aspect of the game, which is the exploration of uncharted worlds, is at least as exciting. However, the main attraction of “Mass Effect” is the unbelievably stunning graphic design. The cutscenes feel and look more like very expensive short films than anything else. The truth is that the gameplay gets a little bit repetitive after you are halfway through, but the beautifully designed environments, the engaging (sometimes too epic for its own good) plot and the well-written characters more than make up for it, which is why “Mass Effect” made it on this list.
4. Dead Space (PC / 2008 / EA Redwood Shores)
It rarely happens that I am terrified by the events in a video game, but “Dead Space” managed to scare the living shit out of me more than once. You play as Isaac Clark who has to fight so-called Necromorphs, human corpses reanimated by an alien organism, in order to escape the spaceship from hell. Sounds simple enough, though my sugar-coated description of the game doesn’t even begin to describe how goddamn terrifying those monsters are. They can be anywhere, at any time and the worst thing is that their behavior is completely unpredictable. One minute they are walking around like retarded zombies and the next minute they’re running towards you in light speed. But what’s even worse than seeing those crippled ex-humans (who sometimes look an awful lot like liposuctioned fat) chasing after you is hearing them. Often you enter a room and all you can hear are alarming noises that send cold shivers up and down your spine. However, the visual horror is nothing compared to the psychological torture you and your character are exposed to during the course of “Dead Space”. Except for very few occasions Isaac is completely on his own and has no contact whatsoever to any of his other crew members. This creates an incredibly dense atmosphere that sometimes makes you turn on the light in your room, just so you can make sure that there is nothing scary sitting behind you. So basically you pay a decent amount of money for a game that gives you nightmares, but it is money well spent - that I can promise you. If you haven’t played “Dead Space” you don’t know what true horror is.
3. The Sims 3 (PC / 2009 / EA Black Box)
I don’t think that it is possible to make a “best games of whenever” list without including “The Sims” in one way or the other. Steve Jablonsky’s masterpiece has set new and incredibly high standards in the simulation genre and I believe that every attempt to copy its success will fail miserably. There’s just nothing like it. When I was a teenager I used to stay up all night, just so I could spend some time with my Sims. Then “The Sims 2” came along and I didn’t like it as much. I thought the franchise was over now, but boy was I wrong: as soon as I turned on the third part of the series I just knew that I was part of something special. A lot of people don’t like #3, but I think that it’s the best “Sims” game to date. There are a million things to do and the achievement system pretty much keeps you occupied all the time and rarely let’s the game become boring. The only drawback I can think of is the limitation of custom content you can import into the game. I have a pretty strong computer that can do million memory hogging tasks at once, but as soon as I put more than ten or twenty new hairstyles into the mods folder “The Sims 3” is pretty much unplayable because of the long loading times. However, that one drawback is kind of a big deal to me. I need my custom content to keep me interested in the game, and while there are a lot of alternatives, they just don’t look as good as the mods. Still, “The Sims 3” is an awesome experience and the best thing about it is that you can either play for 24 hours straight or just pay a quick visit to your neighbourhood to see how your beloved Sims are doing. Either way, you’re guaranteed to have an almost indecent amount of fun.
2. Final Fantasy XII (PS2 / 2006 / Square Enix)
I started playing “Final Fantasy XII” in 2008 and it took me until November 2009 to finish it. Yes, I took a lot of breaks in between, but that’s not the only reason - the game is simply an adventure of epic proportions. Every time you think that you have gotten one step closer to the end you realize that there are a million other things to do and so you stray from your path and find yourself somewhere you didn’t even want to go. The game design is beautiful and sucks you into the beautiful world of Ivalice from the get-go. When you think you have seen the most pompous dungeon possible “Final Fantasy XII” teaches you better and ups the ante to leave you with your mouth wide open. True, the story is flawed and the characters are pretty much all unlikable, but there is not one boring minute in the game (except for the lengthy cutscenes maybe). There is always something new and exciting to discover and by the time you get to the final fight of the game you have leveled your characters up by walking around the vastness of Ivalice so much that you will defeat your enemy with ease. “Final Fantasy XII” is not a snack - it’s a full-blown meal that will take up a lot of your time and effort, but if you give it a chance it will reward you with its highly entertaining gameplay.
1. BioShock (PC / 2007 / 2K Boston)
You’re probably tired of hearing it, but the truth is that “BioShock” is a hell of an awesome game and there is no way to get around it. The story seems simple at first: Jack (who else?) crashes into Atlantic Ocean in 1960 and finds an underwater city called Rapture. The residents have turned into monsters, due to Adam, a substance that … well, turns people into scary-ass monsters. As your character travels through the terrifying city he learns that he plays a more important part in the events than he ever could have imagined. However, the plot is not what makes this my favorite game of the last year - it’s the innovative gameplay that achieves almost the impossible: even though you spent all of your time in an underwater city whose corridors pretty much all look the same it never gets boring. There is always something that will surprise you. The flawless combination of weapons and plasmids, which are special powers like throwing fire or objects with your mind, seems so natural that you don’t even realize when you’re using what. That especially comes in handy when all hell breaks loose around you and you don’t have a lot of time to think about your actions. Although it is not exactly short, the game will be over before you know it and you’re left craving more. Luckily we all know that a sequel is coming and even though I have absolutely no idea what the developers plan to do with the story I have high expectations and trust them to do the right thing. There’s only one thing I know - it will be really hard to outdo the brilliant gaming experience that is “BioShock”.