There seems to be a shared sentiment in the community that 2013 was a weak year for video games but I can think of at least ten more games that I could easily use to swap out anything on my list. If this is a weak year then lets hope 2014 is a great one.
5. Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)
If you’ve played a Fire Emblem game before then you probably already know what you’re getting into with Fire Emblem: Awakening. The series’ simple strategy formula doesn’t feel terribly innovative and early on I found myself doubting that this title was really going to earn 30 hours of my time. The game is well balanced and fun to play, the anime cutscenes are designed beautifully and look amazing on the system, the localization is some of the best Nintendo has ever done, the added difficulty settings made the series more accessible to newcomers (although real grown-ups play with permadeath turned on), yet despite all that something still felt missing.
Then I started making babies. For reasons I don’t think I can possibly explain here, at the midway point in Awakening your team starts to pair off in romantic partnerships (that you of course have orchestrated) and then you get to recruit their offspring to fight for you. Children will inherit their parents’ traits, both in look and in skill, and that one little feature takes a series that was in great danger of going stale and completely turns it on its ear. Fire Emblem’s main campaign will only run for about 30 hours but I easily dropped 50 into the game in order to craft my most perfect beautiful babies. By the final boss I was able to pretty much wipe the entire map with just two people, which is never something that happens for me in RPGs. If you own a 3DS and you don’t have this game then you have made a gross tactical error in life.
4. The Stanley Parable (PC)
The Stanley Parable is incredibly difficult to condense down into words, to the point where I almost don’t even know what type of game to say it is. I suppose it most closely resembles an adventure game but there aren’t really any puzzles to solve. You basically just spend your time in-game wandering around an empty office building while you ignore an increasingly agitated unseen narrator. And it’s pretty fucking magical. Originally a Half-Life 2 mod, the standalone release of The Stanley Parable is a huge improvement over its predecessor and absolutely worth its asking price. The game is riotously funny, poignant when necessary, and a blast to explore.
A lot of the game’s success lies with its narrator, Kevan Brightling, who is the only voice you will hear in the game. The narrator goes from light and airy to dark and malevolent at the drop of a hat and in less competent (or british) hands things might not have gone as smoothly as they did. The game is practically addicted to breaking the fourth wall and is a beautiful example of the struggles and considerations that game developers have to make in regards to player agency in their games.
If you like video games like I do I don’t think you can find a better (or at least more entertaining) commentary on the medium. The Stanley Parable is a great way to spend a few hours and is easily one of my most memorable moments from 2013.
3. Bioshock: Infinite (X360, PS3, PC)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game fall from grace quite like Bioshock Infinite. Upon its release it was literally all anyone could talk about. Review scores were through the roof (it’s the third highest rated game on Metacritic from last year) and for awhile there you couldn’t click three things on the internet without hitting an analysis of its infamous ending. Now the tides have turned and perhaps not in an entirely unexpected way. I won’t get into what genre Infinite really lies in for fear of spoiling it for those who somehow still haven’t found the game in a Steam sale, but let’s just say that this particular type of fiction doesn’t usually hold up well when the magnifying glass gets put to it.
I can look past plotholes and failed social commentary though. If you were expecting Bioshock to have something profound to say about racism and class warfare then yeah you probably were disappointed with Infinite, I’d also say you probably didn’t play the original which handles heady topics like objectivism in an equally indelicate way. But where social commentary collapses characters arise. Elizabeth is one of the most interesting (and helpful) companions to appear in any video game this year and the story of Infinite, at the end of the day, is really all about her. She’s stellar as a part of the game, never in your way, always helpful in a fight, she has just enough to say to keep the story moving but not so much that you find her irritating. I found myself so attached to Elizabeth that the stretches of the game where you’re separated from her actually made me uncomfortable.
Bioshock Infinite tells a mature and exciting tale that doesn’t hold your hand and doesn’t care if you see some of the seams along the way. If it wasn’t for one other game it would easily be my favorite narrative of 2013.
2. Rayman: Legends (Wii U)
Man you have to feel a little for the Wii U. If you’re wondering what a bad year for a video game console looks like, this is it. Nintendo kind of pulled things together and finished out the year strong with Super Mario 3D World but you know things were bad when the only other high profile game on the system this year was a Pikmin title. Rayman Legends was to be the solution to this problem until Ubisoft delayed the game and rescinded its system exclusivity back in February. Ultimately I think this hurt Nintendo, but I also think it hurt the game as well. Rayman Legends was designed to be run on the Wii U and playing it with a normal controller on other consoles really robs you of a lot of the experience.
The multiplayer in this game is the real star. Whereas Mario games have you bumping into one another and accidentally launching your friends off of cliffs Rayman lets you simply pass through other people in the field. Never is your progress impeded because somebody is in your way. Legends does let asshole friends have their fun too if they get their hands on the touch pad. Manipulating the level on the touch pad leaves everybody else at your mercy and it made for some fantastic co-op and some equally fantastic assholery.
Rayman Legends has pretty much perfected the platformer in my mind. It’s creative (dear god those music levels), it’s challenging (dear GOD those music levels), and it doesn’t make me repeat the same stuff over and over again. I’ll go ahead and share what I think will be my most unpopular opinion this year: this game is better than Super Mario 3D World. As far as I’m concerned Rayman is king, it’s the best game on the Wii U, and it’s the platformer I’m going to be comparing everyone else to in 2014.
1. The Last Of Us (PS3)
As a fairly unabashed Naughty Dog fanboy, this year’s pick for best game doesn’t even register as a remotely difficult decision for me. Part horror game, part stealth game, and part “just fucking run and pray” game, The Last Of Us blends a bunch of genres that I usually don’t enjoy into something that I absolutely adored. The game is meticulously balanced with the intent of giving you those powerful moments where you take out the last enemy in the nick of time with your final bullet in your weakest gun. Even towards the end of the game when you’re a fully stocked powerhouse it still feels intense and challenging.
But forget all that. The real heart of The Last Of Us lies with its two main characters. The writing is tight and simple, the stakes are high but the story is incredibly personal, the voice acting is superb, and the ending is guaranteed to linger on your mind for some time after beating the game. In the future when someone asks me why I love video games this will be what I show them, I’ll just have to make sure they look away during those damn water pallet segments….
