The Games of 2013 - Day Four

The Top 5 of 2013

Path of Exile

  

One of the best games of the year was a free-to-play downloadable action-RPG that out-Diabloed Diablo. What else can be said about this game that hasn’t already been discussed by other publications? Intense click-heavy combat, gorgeous visuals and spell animations, some of the most in-depth skill specialization ever seen in a game, and plenty of difficulty settings and abilities to max out, or bosses to grind, that will have any farm-happy gamer coming back for more. The fact that it’s free is only icing on the cake, and further enforces the emphasis on the free-to-play market going forward. If games like this and League of Legends don’t convince you that the free-to-play business model isn’t the cash grab it once was and is actually a highly competitive and valuable market, then I don’t know what else will.

The Stanley Parable

When I talked about subverting expectations in games yesterday while discussing Gone Home, this was the game I had in mind. The Staley Parable is less a game and more an experiment. It toys with the notion of player choice in games, or the lack thereof; the idea of agency, of a grand scheme at play, and it all begins in an office, behind a desk, in front of a computer screen. You are Stanley, an average Joe content to work the same menial job for the rest of his life. But when, on one peculiar day, Stanley decides to get up from his desk and realizes that everyone else in the office building has disappeared, the foundations of his very existence come into question. Accompanied by the brilliant narration of the game’s all-seeing storyteller, The Stanley Parable is simply the kind of game you just need to experience for yourself. There is no amount of praise that can do it justice. The Stanley Parable can be completed in 10 minutes or 10 hours: how you choose to get to an ending, and how long it takes, is entirely up to you. And trust me when I say there are dozens of endings.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

When Nintendo created The Legend of Zelda series nearly 20 years ago, they knew they were onto something special: the sense of openness, the danger, the feeling of being a legendary hero, the old fashioned kidnapped princess. It was a truly brilliant game. Since then, Nintendo has managed to only briefly recapture that magic in less than a handful of games. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is not only the best game in the series in over a decade, but it is easily in the top five ever, and certainly one of the greatest across all of Nintendo’s storied library. The same freedom found in the original finally returns, creating a truly exciting and harrowing adventure as you brave the dungeons and face the dangers in any order you wish. Along the way you’ll come up against some of the most brilliantly designed puzzles that only Nintendo can do so well set to newly arranged versions of some classic Zelda tunes.

The Last of Us

I have no shame in admitting that I am not the world’s biggest fan of the Uncharted games. They were good, by all means, but they were just that. The level of excitement and anticipation that built up around them eluded me, so when it was announced that Naughty Dog’s next project was going to be a zombie game, you can understand my reluctance. “Oh, great, one of those kinds of games from these guys?” How naïve I was, and happily so. What Naughty Dog and the brilliant team of actors, led by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, managed to do with this fairly average, admittedly generic premise, was create an experience with so much heart and so much emotion that you simply could not disregard it. The journey of Joel and Ellie across the ravaged, infected United States would have been void of excitement if not for the chemistry between these actors and the empathy you feel for their characters. Its crushing introduction and absolutely devastating finale aside, The Last of Us is one of the most emotional games of the generation.

BioShock Infinite

There’s just something about the world of BioShock Infinite that just keeps calling to me, even after so many months have passed since I finished it: Its haunting beauty, its dark comedy, its terrifying appeal. It’s a place that has no right to exist, and yet on its surface appears a place you could never live without. The nuances of the characters, from Elizabeth’s doe-eyed expressions to the Lutece twins’ disjointing riddles, create a sense of wonder and awe in a world that is brimming with eccentricity. But throughout its early hours, you know something is not right and you just can’t quite put your finger on it. Perhaps it’s the strange baptismal entrance into Columbia, or maybe the obvious floating city in the sky bit. Or maybe – wait, is that…are they singing “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys? I thought this game was set in 1912? That song doesn’t come out until 1966. What’s going on?

That’s just the kind of lunacy you’ll experience in sprinkled doses throughout your journey in BioShock Infinite, all of it culminating in a profound and cathartic message about the state of the games industry, the BioShock series included. Ken Levine isn’t a man to shy from a bit of pretense, and though the ending can be construed as somewhat preachy, if not a little heavy-handed, it cannot be ignored. Coupled with some fantastically visceral combat and the outstanding use of the city’s Sky-Line as more than just a glorified set piece, and BioShock Infinite wasn’t just an amazing story, but a wholly satisfying gaming experience altogether.

Coming up tomorrow, my Most Anticipated Games of 2014.