The Games of 2013 - Day Three

Most Overrated Game

 

I played through Gome Home expecting a tense, disturbing haunted house adventure. What I got was a somber and rather unconventional story about teenagers in love. That’s not why I feel the game is overrated. It’s one of those situations where the premise belies the conclusion, and not in a good way. Exploring the atmospheric Greenbriar mansion situated in the Pacific Northwest of 1995 was a genuine treat, and allowed the player to assume his or her own suspicions about what happened there. Discovering little clues about the family, identifying with the 90s culture and music of the time, all of it felt very well placed and tastefully done. And then slowly all of the charm of the house and the mystique about the family turns into a story about teenage angst and forbidden love. You see, the game’s “main” character is never seen on screen, but rather you play as Kaitlin who has returned home after a year of being away to find the house strangely vacant. Through notes and other strange oddities lying around the house, it’s your job to piece together what has happened there.

Kaitlin’s younger sister, Samantha, is the true main character, and you only see her through letters written to Kaitlin that are scattered about. It’s from these letters that you piece together the bulk of the “main” story, which essentially boils down to Samantha running away with her lover, Lonnie, a would-be Army volunteer who changed her mind at the last minute. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the context, and given the game’s period setting, I recognize the kind of message it was trying to send about homosexuality and love. But I wouldn’t have cared any more if it were two straight characters in love, either – that’s the problem. The game does so much to convince you that something awful happened here, when in the end two kids just decided to run away together. It subverts the notion of expectation from games, something I appreciate, but does it in a way that feels contrived and preachy. Exploring the house was far more interesting than reading about two kids in love.

Most Underrated Game

Rayman Legends is not underrated in the exact definition of the word: in fact, it has received near universal critical acclaim for its gorgeous art direction and terrifically structured platforming. However, no one played it. Don’t you lie to me. This game went so far criminally under the radar that it’s basically a catastrophe, which is upsetting because this is possibly one of the finest side-scrolling platformers ever made. Yeah, I said it. I shouldn’t even have to go into the reasons why Rayman Legends is worthy of your playtime: the fact that the game was delayed for nearly 10 months to allow it to be ported to nearly every single available platform gives you no excuse for not playing it. Do yourself a favor, buy this game. If you don’t have the money to buy it, tell someone else to buy it for you for Christmas. If you live a sad and lonely life, go to any electronic store that has a Wii U set up for playing and chances are Rayman Legends will be one of the available demos. Stay there for a few hours and play the damn game. 

Up next, my Top 5 Games of 2013.