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 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution

He never asked to be born a badass. It just happened.

One of your first missions in Deus Ex: Human Revolution is to thwart a hostage situation at one of your boss's subsidiary companies. Not so difficult; just get in there, shoot the bad guys, rescue the good guys and go home right? Well, yeah, it can be that simple, or it can be as complicated as you want it to be.

Not feeling up to busting down the front door and gunning down everyone between you and the hostages? That's fine because there's an entrance on the rooftop that'll make it easy for you to get the drop on them. But maybe you're not feeling up to using your gun either? That's fine, too, because if you're real quiet, you can sneak around and crawl through some air vents to get to where the hostages are being held. Oh, but there are a few guys blocking your way and you're not so sure you can sneak around them. Well, there's always your tranquilizer rifle! Shoot one of them in the face, watch his buddies run to his aid, and then sneak around to the elevator.

Wham, bam, you're at the hostages... But maybe you don't feel like rescuing these hostages. Maybe that gas bomb they're stuck with is a little too close to hitting zero, and your hacking skills aren't as keen as you'd like them to be. Maybe you don't want to die, not on your first goddamn mission. So you run, you get your ass out of there and hear the hostages' screams go quiet. Maybe you feel guilty, or maybe you don't, but either way there will be no Mission Failed sign for you. But later on down the line, there will be some consequences that you'll inevitably have to deal with, or perhaps some people won't look at you the same anymore.

This is the case for most of the many, many missions in Deus Ex: HR, where sometimes ignoring someone will have consequences eventually. And this hostage situation was just the tutorial.

But anyway: Welcome to Detroit!

You'll be playing as Adam Jensen (a sort of near-future Clint Eastwood), the chief of security for a multi-billion dollar corporation that specializes in artificial limbs and implants. (Collectively called "augments".) In the opening moments of the game, the corporation, Sarif Industries, is attacked by heavily-augmented terrorists, leaving most of the science staff, along with Jensen's girlfriend, dead by way of unsubtle means. While attempting to save the staff, Jensen is mangled and left for dead, but his employer sees fit to save his life by turning him into something of a cross between The Six Million Dollar Man and Robocop - except with kickass sunglasses.

Jensen gets back to work - like a boss - with his heavily-augmented body and continues to solve Sarif Industries' problems. Along the way, murmurs of a corporate conspiracy start arising, so Jensen must begin to balance his own personal interests (player's choice) and the demands of his boss if he ever wants to figure out the exact circumstances of his girlfriend's death. And it will be one crazy ride to get there.

It's very hard for me to give you an exact impression of what you'll be facing in Deus Ex: Human Revolution because of just how much you won't see on your first playthrough. I was going all out, exploring everything that I could, every corner of Detroit and Shanghai. It surprised me to no end when I found out, by way of the achievements that didn't ding for me, how much of the game I had missed! To that end, DE:HR is probably more comparable to Obsidian Entertainment's past ventures: Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol, on account of the very dynamic storyline. Entire sections of the game will be lost to you depending on your choices. This is a game that all but demands multiple playthroughs.

Not to mention that the story itself is very well-written. There are twists and turns, with all of the quests being very derivative of its hard science fiction theme. It makes it a very immersive experience when your missions involve collecting a debt from someone who got themselves some black market augments, or breaking up an illegal neuropozine smuggling ring. There are also a lot of very good points of debate that are brought up. Would human augmentation be a perversion of our very humanity? Or a harmless way for us to rise above our natural hindrances? I dunno.

Now on to the gameplay. As I said before, there are multiple ways you can approach this game. You can be all combat, all stealth, or someplace snugly in between. You could even go all melee if you wanted to, and bring down everyone with lethal or non-lethal takedowns. As a game that allows you the option to play how you like, it's pretty good at everything. No, the stealth sections aren't as good as those from the Splinter Cell series, you won't be shooting out lights or keeping to the shadows, and the FPS combat isn't as refined as Battlefield: Bad Company 2. But its still fun. Fallout 3 and New Vegas didn't have to be those games either to be absolutely immersive and entertaining.

But the RPG elements, the augmentation and conversation systems, are absolutely refined. The augments allow you to play your way, and play them awesomely. If you like sneaking around enemies, place points (called "praxis kits" in the game) into making your footsteps silent or refining your hacking abilities, which allows you to open locked doors, shut down surveillance cameras, and even turn robots and turrets against your enemies. If you're more of a warmonger, you can increase your dermal armor, install the "Icarus Landing System" so that even jumping off a ledge will get someone killed, or make your augmented weapon, the "Typhoon", even more devastating.

And BioWare take note, DE:HR employs the use of a conversation system that I found wholly superior to those of the Mass Effect series and Dragon Age 2. Though there weren't as many options as I would've liked, nor did they pop up as frequently as I would've liked, knowing the intent of what you were going to have Jensen say, as well as knowing almost exactly what was going to be said, was very welcomed. This means that attempting to sigh doesn't turn into a death threat, as in Exhibit A.

This is a great game all around. The story, gameplay, visuals, characters, locations, RPG elements: all stellar. It's not a perfect game, though. There are a few things that keep it from absolute greatness in my mind.

The first are some technical hiccups. Let's keep in mind that DE:HR is the premier title for Eidos Montreal. The pressure could not have been any higher, as both a sequel to a beloved franchise and their first game ever. But I'm sure there were limitations, as the animations and lip-synching aren't really up to snuff for the most part. You'll see most of the women performing the same body movements, and when people speak, their lips are only just keeping up with what they're supposed to be saying. It's pretty noticeable at first, but eventually, depending on your interest in the story, you'll probably end up forgetting all about it.

The second, bigger, flaw that I personally took umbrage at was the boss fights. Yes, in a game that emphasizes player agency and freedom of choice, you are downright forced to fight your way through a series of bosses. You can't talk your way out of them or circumvent them in any way. Regardless of your spec - stealth, hacking, etc. - it's gonna be combat time. People with points in shielding and the typhoon weapon will have no problem, while everyone else will likely struggle a bit. In any case, they're an unwelcome element, especially since they're the least characterized NPCs in the game, which only adds insult to injury. The cliche monster is almost nowhere to be found in the rest of the game, but rears its ugly head here with a vengeance.

That being said, Deus Ex: Human Revolution still manages to rise above its flaws. I would personally call it a masterpiece of the genre: an RPG that actually gives meaning to the words (acronym?), though it's not as big of a sandbox as Fallout 3 or New Vegas, and it's not as pretty as Mass Effect, it sits in the vacuum left over by both series and should satisfy fans of both. Unlike Mass Effect, your choices really do matter, and unlike Fallout the story is much more prevalent. It's pretty much a happy medium between the two.

I hope it doesn't take another four years of development for Eidos Montreal to get a sequel out the door, but this game has more than enough content to keep us playing for some time. Not to mention that their next project, already in development, is Thief 4. Weeeee!