This has been a strange year for gaming. There have been massive disappointments, great games with enormous flaws, but also some great surprises. It was a challenge to narrow down the list to 5, and there are games that do deserve recognition that unfortunately have to be cut. That said, here are my top five games for this year:
5) Papers, Please (PC)
Papers, Please might not be everyone’s cup of tea, as evidenced by Jason’s Review, but I personally loved it. The gameplay is fun, challenging, and rewards attention to detail as well as speed. Finding discrepancies and hearing the excuses of the people was one of the highlights of my year. Making the performance tie directly into the well-being of your family, gave the abstract concept of a score something that felt like actual consequences, rather than just a random number. What really sets Papers, Please apart from others games is what surrounds the game play. There is a lot of talk in video games about morality systems, and consequences for the player’s actions, but I don’t feel any game has pulled it off quite like this one. The game presents you choices that only have bad outcomes, the difference being whether you will chose the one where you bear those outcomes, or if it will be a stranger. They are not clear cut, binary choices that have universal repercussions, like the ones doled out by most games this generation; rather they are grayer and smaller, a choice between saving a stranger’s life or keeping the heat on. The consequences of your actions, especially the most immediate ones are personal. They only affect you and your family, and that, in a way, made them more real to me than choosing whether or not to wipe out the Rachni. It’s also given me an urge to yell “Glory to Aztrozka” every time I pass through immigration.
4) Gunpoint (PC)
My only complaint about Gunpoint is that it is too short. Yes, its only negative is that I want more of it. The cheeky dialogue kept me amused while the story kept me interested to find a resolution to the mystery. The gameplay is a blast, and it provides with a surprising number of options to complete each level, particularly once you have completed the game and can return to earlier levels with new gadgets. The inclusion of a customized epilogue page at the end of a very satisfying final level puts the cherry on top of a great experience. More importantly, Gunpoint shows that you don’t need justification to punch someone in the face 168 times.
3) BioShock Infinite (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
It has become popular to hate BioShock Infinite this year. Either because of the content of the story, or the mechanics of the game. It is true that there are issues with the game, but the narrative kept me engaged and playing far longer than I probably should have. BioShock Infinite throws a lot at you, and between the historical references, the use of the many universes interpretation, and the meta-gaming commentaries, it is easy to lose sight of what, for me, made it an interesting game: the story of Booker DeWitt, a miserable human being who ruins everything he touches. He ruins his life, he ruins Elizabeth, he ruins the rebellion… and to go on would be to spoil the game. There are criticisms of this game that are valid. The gameplay can be predictable, and the guns are not always satisfying. Overall, though, those annoyances did little to diminish my enjoyment as I completed the story. Perhaps what I found more interesting was that this not only the story of Booker DeWitt: Jerk of the Year, but also the story of how Elizabeth discovers what she is and what she is capable of. Elizabeth and the possibilities that her powers open are incredibly interesting to me, and despite the relatively weak first installment of Burial at Sea, I am looking forward to playing as her in Burial at Sea Part 2.
2) Grand Theft Auto 5 (Xbox 360, PS3)
I have been playing Grand Theft Auto since the first PC title came out in 1997, so it is not surprising that this game is on my list. GTA5 is a great game on its own right. The three character structure makes a huge difference when building a narrative, taking the story interesting places, allowing for a different feel to the game depending on who you are playing with, and even allowing for the return of some of my favorite activities, such as the rampages, that may not have been possible to pull off in a coherent way otherwise. The heist missions and planning are fantastic, and I wish we would have gotten more of them. I think all of the three characters added something to the game, and Michael, Franklin, and especially Trevor are some of my favorite characters from any game in 2013. The level of detail on the game, the map, the random things to discovered, and the overall return of fun to the game are acutely felt, as it feels less monotonous and depressing than the previous entry on the franchise. Unfortunately, for as great an experience the single player game was, GTA Online is perhaps one of the worst experiences of the year. A rough launch is forgivable, but delivering a lazily designed product clearly intended to push micro transactions, and one that four months after launch still doesn’t have all the features that were originally promised, is not. I get the feeling that without GTA Online, we may have had more content in the main campaign, and that would have easily made it game of the year. Still, I had a blast with GTA 5, and I hope the upcoming DLC will keep the same level of quality the single player campaign brought.
1) Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3)
In the past two generations, JRPGs seem to have fallen from the position of favor they enjoyed during their golden age in the 4th and 5th generations. This drop is somewhat justified, while there have definitely been good JRPGs over the years, the genre in general seems to have struggled to find their place in the modern industry, using design choices that feel either outdated, or going in new directions altogether. Ni No Kuni is remarkable because it is an excellent game that feels right at home in a modern game library, and it does it by bringing a lot of the old design choices that feel dated in other games, and updating them. The game feels like a SNES game in the best ways, but simple, more modern, additions like showing enemies on the map instead of having random encounters, or the battle system clearly inspired from Persona and Pokemon make it extremely fun to play. The game is filled with content, and it knows to dole it out in small doses so as to get the player used to the basics systems before introducing new mechanics. This keeps the game fresh while avoiding overwhelming the player with a lot of information at once. On top of the great design, the game has gorgeous, colorful art, and a wonderful and sad story, like only Studio Ghibli can produce, and it will likely stay with me for a while. In the end Ni No Kuni doesn’t really break any new ground but it does accomplish what it sets out do very well. It reminds me why once upon a time, JRPG’s were my favorite genre, and that is why it is my game of the year for 2013.
