The fine folks a Spike Chunsoft shook up the visual novel genre with this game. As much as Virtue’s Last Reward’s story and characters resonated with me last year, in this game the mechanics take center stage. Playing Danganronpa was the best part. The climactic moment of each chapter is a trial to discover who dunnit in this campy, anime murder mystery. The trial proceeds by detecting an illogical or contradictory statement to the evidence made by one of the students stuck in this hellish school. Danganronpa stays fresh by adding new minigames and roadblocks in the way of discovering the truth. Outside of the trials the freedom to explore the world and interact with characters adds a sense of agency to the normally highly linear visual novel genre. I enjoyed the technical aspects of Danganronpa and look forward to see what comes next from Spike Chunsoft.
The success of an open world game is best measured by its ability to do many things okay. InFAMOUS: Second Son goes beyond 'okay' in many aspects. The main character, Delsin, is better than expected. His Native American roots play subtly into his story and effectively fill in some history for our hero without the taking the ham-fisted approach race has played in other games. The Orwellian vision of Seattle is a fine playground. Having never been, I can't say how accurate it is, but what really stands out is the tools for traversal in this game. They are distinctly different from the prior games in the series and hold back just enough to not creep into the bread and butter of other games. InFAMOUS: Second Son's story is better than it has any right being, bolstered by an multidimensional villain and heroes that exist in the grey. In short, InFAMOUS Second Son is a surprise, making so many correct choices in design where a jaded gamer like myself could see it going in another, less impressive direction.
Despite being an easy target for internet memes, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a surprisingly great entry in the franchise and brings some much needed oomph to the single player mode. The exo suit allows for increased mobility (a trend with first person shooters in 2014) and more over-the-top moments. Surprising, Advanced Warfare has quick time events that play well. They are short, few and far between, and allow for a little player agency in typically passive scripted moments. Also surprising was the stealth segments. I mean, they worked and weren't frustrating which is more than can be said about stealth in other FPS games. Technically, the quality of the facial graphics was superb even if it was reserved for cutscenes. I feel like I'm hopping all over the place, but its unavoidable since Advanced Warfare adds a lot of good things on the already solid foundation of Call of Duty.
7. Dark Souls II
Everyone's first Dark Souls game is their favorite Dark Souls game is the saying. I don't know how that applies in my situation since in my opinion Dark Souls is a better game, but I stuck with and finished Dark Souls II. I can't put my finger on it, but I found Dark Souls II to be more straight forward than it's predecessor, but inferior in most other aspects. Dark Souls II made two glaring mistakes: first, by reducing max health after death, the freedom to explore without consequence was taken away. Second, enemy encounters shared the theme of less intelligent design, more monsters. Despite these flaws, I kept with it and with the option to invite players into the game, I always had help when I got stuck on a challenging boss. Except the Smelter Demon. I think I got killed by him at least 20 times. But when I was able to dispatch him, even though it was with the help of another player, it felt so good to stop on his proverbial grave. Even a flawed Dark Souls game is still a good game.
I've never really like Mario Kart. I've touched all the console editions and have dorm room memories of playing on the smallest CRT split four ways. This year though, something changed. Mario Kart 8 did something previous games in the series could not; keep my attention. Certainly unlocking the characters and karts kept me coming back, but so did everything else. The tracks played on nostalgia without relying on replication. For example, Star Road from Mario Kart 64 is back but instead of laps, its a straight shot. This pares down the time spent on the needlessly long space rainbow but retains the spark that made the track such a mainstay. The new items balance the play field for those looking for some way to hedge the random abuse received when in first place. The biggest success of Mario Kart, on top of doing so much and looking so good already, is it's online play feature. I'm out of the dorms and only able to play an hour with a friend across the county, but I can do it now. This is very surprising and very welcomed knowing Nintendo's track record (heh) with net code. All in all, Mario Kart 8 is a total package made even better by the ability to transcend the couch.
What is wrong with me for putting a hollow and short game as on of my favorites this year you might be wondering. It's simple; Destiny grabbed me. Sure it's flawed but what it does do, it does very well. It handles as good as any other modern shooter and casts the loot carrot on the stick just far enough to keep me coming back. I played through the whole game mostly solo. Or as solo as mission would allow. Sure it would have been more fun to play with friends like I did in the Alpha and Beta. Yet something still had me hooked when playing alone. After I finished the main story quests, I did some of the higher end content. Repeating the same quests at higher difficulty was still pretty enjoyable even though it was nothing new. I'm sad to said there is something addictive to Destiny, but at the same time, it's nice to mindlessly wander while listening to a podcast and just loot. Basically, I'm giving credit when credit is due. Destiny may have numerous eclipsing faults but I still played it, enjoyed it, and played it some more.
That into music. Enough said, right. No, The Wolf Among Us is more than the smokey, velvety, synth intro song. In my eyes, it validates the Telltale Games design in it's effectiveness to put choice in the player's hands. I hate to mention it but the comparisons between this and Telltale's The Walking Dead are worth bringing up. I always felt something was off when playing as Lee. Why wouldn't he just be honest? I was playing him to act that way but it seemed like the game was determined to go in a direction regardless of what I did. In the Wolf Among Us, this video gamey pill was easier to swallow. And it's because Bigby was already an established character. Turning the screws during an interrogation seemed and natural as going easy. Bigby's True Neutral alignment if you will combined with his fairy tail history made it easy to make any of the choices provided. I really enjoyed playing The Wolf Among Us in one shot and can't see myself going back to waiting for each episode to drop again. I highly recommend this game since it may have gone overlooked with all of the other games coming out from Telltale. And hey, what with them and severed heads?
I don't know specifically what it is about Transistor that really spoke to me. It comes from Super Giant Games so the combat is solid and made unique by adding the time stop mechanic. The story of the muted jazz singer on the quest for revenge offered good motivation to see the game to its end. The music was top notch. And the crumbling utopia was a cool place to be in and learn more about. It was simply a complete package.
The best modern JRPG. South Park: The Stick of Truth was surprisingly a great game to play for someone like me. RPGs are typically long, and often tedious beats. The game was streamlined thanks to the stripping away the vestigial trait of so many JRPGs of random and meaningless combat. South Park makes combat more impactful and enjoyable by limiting it. Each encounter felt more puzzle like and less of a slog. When you only have so many hours for games this is a major benefit. And of course, it was funny. It was like a greatest hits of South Park but also didn't rest on it's pedigree. It was very much a delightful surprise given its troubled development.
It could have been dumb. It could have been forgettable. It could have failed. Wolfenstein: The New Order could have been so many other things, but somehow it ended up being superb. More so than anything else, Wolfenstein: The New Order had incredible pacing. High speed, dual wielding, shoot 'em up action followed by a little exposition. Pretty standard, but then throw in a little exploring of the home base and interacting with a tight group of well realized and flawed characters. Then a mission with very little weapons used. Then a mission were stealth is done well. Throw in a puzzle. Then back to base. Then shooting. The variety combined with quality made every moment in the game feel deliberate and never got old. The development team brought their signature heft and weighty feel to the combat making that aspect shine as well. The Wolfenstein adherence to the occult was turned on its ear by placing it in the hands of the heroes which made for a nice twist. Another nice twist was setting the game in the Nazi ruled pseudo future and allowing the player o experience a diverse set of warped locations, most notably an internment camp and the moon. Wolfenstein: The New Order was my favorite game of 2014, a year saturated with first person shooters. It used the medium better than any of the others and raised the bar of quality for the genre. I cannot recommend playing any other game more than this one.