Knight's Game of the Year: Twenty-'leven Edition

Looking back, 2011 was a dang fine year for gaming. Looking at all of the well-respected franchises, almost all of them had another iteration released this year. You had a new Legend of Zelda, Elder Scrolls, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, Call of Duty (nothing new there, though), Gears of War, Dead Space, Dragon Age, Deus Ex... the list goes on. Kinda.

Now, while I got to play my fair share of these games, there are many, many, many that I didn't play, given my inherent lack of a PS3. So if you don't see something that should be on the list, it's probably because I haven't played it. Or maybe I didn't like it! Gotta take that into account. But anyway, let's go!

RUNNERS-UP:

Terraria

My friends and I each bought this game for $2.50. We figured it would be a fun game to mess around with for a little bit, since we were in dire need of some multiplayer action at the time. From the looks of it, you wouldn't think you could get very much mileage out of it. After all, it's a side-scroller with visuals about on par with Super Mario World, and your primary goal is to simply dig and build when you can.

But there's something to be said for "simple," seeing how I've personally put about 38 hours into this game. Since the world is randomly generated and retains whatever changes are made (i.e. your tunnels, houses, signs, places where you experimented with dynamite, etc.), there's a personal feeling about it. Your world really feels like your world, and you're given a plethora of tools to ensure that it stays that way. Treasure chests are randomly placed throughout the world, containing random items of random rarity. (Random is the keyword here.) Just digging straight down feels like an adventure, and finding that illusive demonite ore deposit to craft that armor set you've been craving can be very, very rewarding.

If you want to progress through the game, Terraria makes you work for it. The best weapons and armor in the game are earned, not found - and the accessories are abnormally fun to use. My favorite being an antigravity potion that allows you to effectively give Newton the middle finger and send yourself hurdling into space. The game is just fun, and the definition of what a sandbox game should be. You can spend hours making a stairway into space, a house made of gold, or exploring the depths of your world looking for that next boss or that next rare item. It's your choice, really.

Battlefield 3

I never see myself as a competitive gamer until I boot up one of the Battlefield games, then I'm instantly that guy you don't want to hear over your headset. But I really do love the series. Going all the way back to Battlefield 1942, the gameplay is some of the most enjoyable of any multiplayer game I've played this side of the MMO scene. Battlefield 3 doesn't necessarily bring anything dramatically new to the table, but it more or less consolidated everything that was fun about the series into one package and wrapped it up with some of the best visuals I've ever seen in a game. (On the Xbox 360, at least.)

The campaign, while fun, was nothing to write home about. But the multiplayer is something I'll likely return to frequently until the next game is released. Any multiplayer game that allows you to take down other players with a repair tool, or to snipe them out of the cockpit of a helicopter, or get first place without killing anyone is a game that's all right by me.

It also lets you jump off a cliff and descend by parachute (or, in my case, by HUMVEE) into your opponents' base. Righteous.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I had pretty much written BioWare off before I got my hands on the beta for this game. At the time, I saw no reason to support a company that, in my opinion, has kicked RPG progress in the wrong direction ever since the release of Mass Effect. But I didn't want to turn down a free chance to see how BW approached the universe/story surrounding one of my most favorite games of all time.

Basically... they did a pretty good job. It's like the BioWare that first got me so enthralled with the Star Wars Expanded Universe made the move down to Austin after KotOR and have been hard at work crafting a several sequels ever since. This game is essentially a multiplayer version of KotOR, which definitely brings with it some downsides, but also brings some crazy upsides, as well. The game employs a system akin to Dragon Age: Origins, so each class has its own unique storyline. The worlds are beautiful, the lore is weaved throughout every single quest, and the role-playing elements, while not as in-depth, are certainly a massive improvement over BioWare's usual formula.

The game is not perfect (it's still a WoW-like MMO at its core), and it's no substitute for what KotOR 3 might have been, but it comes damn close. If this game tipped its hat to the two KotOR games much more, its... eh... something, something hat analogy.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The state of RPGs seemed to be in a sad state with DX:HR came along, a game reintroduced choice and consequence back into a genre that had seemingly forgotten what that meant. To me, choice is more than whether or not to kick a guy out a window or pushing him against the wall. Human Revolution totally gets that, throwing choice after choice at the player pretty much every chance that it gets. And some aren't even explicitly outlined.

Missions will often assign you one task, provide an alternative, imply another, and then leave yet another alternative open for you to discover on your own. Toss in a competent and intelligent story that plays at social commentary and just might get you questioning your own humanity, a cast of characters that are a joy to unravel, and visuals that will make you want to stop and stare - and you have a recipe for one of the best RPGs of the last few years. It's not perfect (those goddamn boss fights), but given this is the first game released by a brand new company, it's an amazing accomplishment.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I wouldn't call anything Bethesda releases a video game; they're commitments, experience generators, life simulators. An entity that has successfully managed to make every little thing you do feel like an adventure. I can't tell you how many times just making the decision to turn left instead right resulted in some awe-inspiring discovery or some lengthy excursion into the unknown.

And that's what forms the core of the game. DX:HR focuses on choice, Fallout: New Vegas focuses on player agency, Skyrim focuses on adventure. It's crafted a beautiful, immersive, and dynamic world around this, constantly going out of its way to exploit that thrill of discovery that we all feel in one way or another. Skyrim asks you to blaze your own trail through this land it's provided you, and it's a testament to its scope that Buch and I have been playing quite a bit, and we hardly ever have identical experiences to share.

To quote a PC Gamer review:

"While everyone else is faffing around with how to control and restrict the player, Bethesda just put a fucking country in a box."

GAME OF THE YEAR:

Dead Space 2

Okay, gimme a sec to explain this one.

The first Dead Space will probably end up being one my all-time top ten favs. Why? I'm still kind of thinking it over. At the time, it was one of the most terrifying/immersive games I had played. It wasn't enough that it was scary; the developers had to push the envelope in some way. Their way of doing that was to create an entire sci-fi universe around the main character, complete with 500 years' worth of history, its own religion, economy, etc. And this was a game that took place almost entirely on one ship! I really got the feeling that there actually was an entire civilization out there beyond my tiny little part of the galaxy.

Not only that, but the story of the U.S.G. Ishimura was a terrifying one, exposed to the player almost entirely through text/voice logs and trails of blood. Terrifying, but good, and the atmosphere never lets up.

Dead Space 2 isn't as claustrophobic as its predecessor, but it's just as terrifying, creative, and immersive. It's also a little more personal, since the main character, Isaac Clarke, is actually given a personality and a voice this time around. His story was one that I very much wanted to see through to the end. His emotional struggle in the wake of past events (the first Dead Space) is one that you don't see too often in video games. It makes him seem, dare I say, human instead of your typical action hero.

It's just not too often you get a game where the main character is attempting to cope with what happened in the last game.

The DS universe is also expanded upon, resulting in a most excellent setting: the Sprawl, a massive space station/city built around the shard of one of Saturn's moons. DS2 isn't a free-roaming game, but it kinda feels like one. There are no loading screens unless you die, and the city is always visible outside. There's a sense of cohesiveness that only adds to the experience.

The game is basically what you'd get if Resident Evil and Mass Effect had a kid. An immersive, hard sci-fi experience that is constantly trying to provoke an emotional response out of you is my kind of game. You might laugh, you might cry (there are some genuine heartfelt moments here, however infrequent), but you'll probably just end up being terrified. It was an expertly-paced, emotional roller-coaster through a fantastic sci-fi setting, sporting one of the more characterized protagonists to come along in some time - so it gets game of the year from me.

Honorable Mentions:

-Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road

-The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (Haven't finished it yet, or else it'd be on this list.)

-Bastion

-Dead Island

-Warhammer 40k: Space Marine

-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

-L.A. Noire

Dishonorable/Obligatory Mention:

-Dragon Age 2

Happy New Year to everyone! Here's to another great year of gaming on the horizon. =D

February 7th - Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

March 6th - Mass Effect 3

March 27 - Dragon's Dogma

April 24 - Prototype 2

June 30 - Borderlands 2

TBA - Alan Wake's American Nightmare

TBA - Assassin's Creed 3

TBA - Bioshock: Infinite

TBA - Diablo III

TBA - GTA V

TBA - South Park: The Game

Game Review: Dead Space 2

Typical outcome: "It's beautifu-OH SHI-!"

It's like being asked if you want to be bit by a rattlesnake a second time: Hey, wanna go up against the necromorphs again? Huh? Do ya? Rawr?

But by the time my copy of Dead Space 2 came in the mail, I was psyched beyond any semblance of a care. I thankfully knew very little about the story, or even what to expect. I knew my mom probably wouldn't like the game very much, but, then again, she's the one who introduced me to The Thing. I was very excited going into this game, with expectations that sat pretty high up there. It would've been very easy for Visceral Games to just rehash the first game (like BioWare, they're a subsidiary of EA), but I was amazed that DS2 pretty much met all of them, and did so with style.

The game's story picks up some three years after the quagmire on the Ishimura, with Isaac Clarke waking up in the psych ward of a hospital, confused and suffering from a severe bout of trauma-induced amnesia. He remembers absolutely nothing since escaping from the Aegis System, but he does remember just enough for him to recognize a necromorph infestation when he sees it. Things just never get better for good ol' Issac.

Barely escaping with his life, Isaac is thrown into absolute chaos, with no other real objective except to survive. As he soon discovers, the place he's currently running around is "The Sprawl": a massive, self-contained city built around a shard of Titan, one of Saturn's presently-pulverized moons. Things are gradually going from bad to superbad, as the necromorph infestation spreads violently throughout the unsuspecting populace. He (and by extension, you) has no idea how the necromorphs appeared here or how to even go about stopping it. Eventually, he comes into contact with several other characters, who shed some light on a conspiracy at the heart of it all, and inform Isaac Clarke of just how f**ked he is.

Without giving too much away, I absolutely loved how the story unfolded in Dead Space 2. Much like its predecessor, it's a slow process of gathering information and just taking a look around, but unlike DS1, this game doesn't even tell you where you are, or why you've woken up in a straight-jacket! It's reminiscent of the mansion from Resident Evil; you're just there, bad things are happening, and it takes some time to figure out what due to the horrible, horrible circumstances. There's a palpable sense of wandering in ignorance at the worst possible place, at the worst possible time - minus the Jill sandwich.

As for the location you wander in ignorance, the Sprawl is pretty much the opposite of the USG Ishimura, in that there are less winding corridors, more open locations (comparable to the Ishimura's bridge area), and many more pretty things to look at. Dead Space was a visually stunning game to me, especially considering that it's just about three years old. Even on the Xbox 360 version, Dead Space 2 looks even better. Everything looks cleaner, the use of light to create mood and tension has been employed more frequently, and the level-design is fantastic.

As before, there are no real loading screens or "cutscenes" in Dead Space 2, only strategically-placed elevators or story moments to distract you from when the game's actually doing its work. The camera never cuts away for the entire game (unless you die), so when shit goes down, it's very unexpected. This also makes the Sprawl feel as massive as it looks, since the entire city was actually designed around the areas you can explore (much like Alan Wake and Mirror's Edge). It feels like a real spacestation, and that's the important part. There are apartment complexes, shopping malls, food courts, a church, sewers, and other spoiler-ific places that you'll be fighting your way through. Some care clearly went into the design of this game if they designed a whole city even though you only play through certain parts.

Click to see just how massive the Sprawl appears.

Overkill? Perhaps, but it makes the experience. (It's an eight hour game spread across two discs, which should give you an idea of how dense this game is!)

So, it's bigger, prettier, and the story expands upon the main plot and the lore in all the right places. But is it fun to play? Well, Visceral Games have clearly charged ahead here with that old mantra in mind: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." There are many gameplay tweaks that rectify the major hangups that most people had with the first game. The zero gravity sections now allow you to float around them using thrusters, instead of a point-and-click bounce from one room to the other. Isaac is also a little more maneuverable, where he was previously kinda sluggish, which makes a big difference during an attack.

The return of "context-sensitive events" that pop up every now and then was very welcomed. Nothing breaks up expectations like being suddenly flung through space, forced to maneuver your way through debris along the way. They're almost like unique mini-games that you only play once, much like the drag tentacles from DS1. More of that is always nice.

But aside from tweaks and the token addition of weapons and new brands of necromorphs (terrifying, though they are), the gameplay remains largely unchanged from the last game. For better or worse, you're still dismembering necromorphs for eight hours, which gets noticeably repetitive this time through. This wasn't much of a problem in the last game, since getting acquainted with "dismemberment combat" and the necromorphs themselves was half the fun. Not to mention the encounters were more infrequent and set up with a greater sense of subtlety, which just built more tension. This time, you just get swarmed. Every time you feel like you're gonna get swarmed or attacked, you do. Lots of swarming going on.

It would be the equivalent of picking up Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age 2 for the first time and discovering that geth/darkspawn are the prime enemy again, and you're gonna be fighting them exclusively for the whole game again. When it comes to the combat, there's a lot of deja vu going on, and I'm worried that Visceral Games are beginning to back themselves into a corner in that regard. I didn't care for Gears of War 2 because you were just fighting more of the Locust Horde, and I don't much care for Halo because in this rich sci-fi universe Bungie created, the Covenant and their various sects are apparently the only threat to a supersoldier in the entire galaxy.

Variety is the spice of life, Visceral, and making a variety of one type of enemy isn't gonna cut it for Dead Space 3, because it almost didn't work with Dead Space 2. The necromorphs are scary as hell, but so were the zombies in Resident Evil, and you can see what repetition did to those guys. Dead Space 3 needs to be your Resident Evil 4, where you go back to the drawing board and make with the "outside the box" stuff.

So, I guess my main gripe with the game isn't necessarily with the game itself, but with the direction of the franchise overall. You can just see Dead Space there, with its sci-fi universe that I'd seriously rank up there creativity-wise with BioWare's Mass Effect series, teetering on the edge of becoming a series about shooting different kinds of necromorphs in slightly different ways. Once you get swarmed for the billionth time, the scares and the immersion goes away. The opening? That was terrifying. The school? Nightmare-inducing. Getting swarmed again outside the factory? Annoying.

But it says a lot about the general atmosphere, art direction, and story of this game that I'm willing to shoot my way through even more swarms just to play through it again (having New Game+ available doesn't hurt either). It may not do anything particularly daring gameplay-wise, but everything else tries to do what Dead Space did great, and do them even better. In my mind, they succeeded, and they've definitely made a fan out of me. Dead Space 2 is still an amazing, terrifying, and immersive experience worthy of the hard sci-fi genre that it celebrates. If you loved the first game, there should be very little dissuading you from trying out its sequel.

It's a beautiful game, and your mom will hate it.