So, the year is over again, and, because most people do these things, I feel like it's time to look back at what fun and fanciful times I spent in 2014. Much like in 2013, the main issue with this is that I don't really play modern games: Most of my purchases are made on Steam during sales, or the occasional second-hand pick-up for a game on a console outdated by a couple generations. As such, rating my top games from this year would produce a very short and very biased list.
Now, not all of these games will have been reviewed on this blog. The reason for this is twofold: First, I (relatively rarely) get lazy after beating a game and don't review it. It might be just sheer laziness, but sometimes I just don't have anything to say about a game, as was the case with the first Metal Gear Solid, which I hinted at at the end of my Persona 3 review. The second reason is that I feel a game must be finished before I can review it, especially considering my inclination toward story-based games. There's been a number of these games that I haven't finished, or that are unfinishable, and, as such, no review will go up.
I have an internal one-franchise rule, mostly to stop my last year's list from having three Phoenix Wright games on it, and to stop my number one or two from being HearthStone each year. This means that a couple of the games I'd put on my list are relegated to the honourable mentions gallery: A place where I put games that I feel deserve a spot on the list, or at least a mention, but don't fit on there for one reason or another. By pure coincidence, that is exactly what the rest of this post will be dedicated to filling out.
Honorable Mentions:
HearthStone: Goblins vs Gnomes
Yes, I am still playing this darn thing, and I'm still having just as much fun with it as I did last year. It's certainly the game I've spent the most time with this year, and I don't regret any of it. There's been a couple of expansions that have shaken up the meta, the small "adventure" of Curse of Naxxramas, and the massive Goblins vs Gnomes. Whilst GvG was slightly disappointing to me in that it didn't slow down the meta as much as I hoped, it still provided 120 new cards to play around with, and more HearthStone is always welcome. With more card combinations that ever to play around with, as well as a now slightly less net-decky meta, the game is better than it's ever been. Now, Blizz, if only you released an expansion that didn't encourage aggro even more, that would be great.
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
After playing and rather liking the two latest Persona games I decided to check out some other games in the underground giant that is the Shin Megami Tensei series. Being a bit intimidated by the famed difficulty of the main-stream of the series, and having been informed the Persona combat system is different enough to not really be good preparation for them, I tried the supposedly easier Digital Devil Saga. What awaited was a somewhat grindy RPG with a really enjoyable combat system and a very twisted world. The story is intentionally kept minimal, but effective, and the game oozes atmosphere out of every pore, building a creeping sense of unease. It's not horror, per say, but you can tell that there's something wrong with this world. Unfortunately, I never finished this game, getting side-tracked by real-life stuff. Another reason why it's stuck in honourable mentions is that there'll be another SMT game on the list proper, surprising no one who reads this blog.
Dust: An Elysian Tail
A game that I only started playing toward the end of the year and haven't yet had the chance to finish, this is one I actually struggled desperately to keep on the actual list, but got just edged out. It's a Metroidvania/Platformer/Beat'em'up title made by a one-man team. The game looks absolutely gorgeous, rivalling even Bastion's beauty, previously unchallenged in my eyes. To add to this, it's also an extremely satisfying, very fluid beat'em'up, though I wish the enemies had a little more health. It's a blast to play, it's gorgeous to behold, and the story isn't half-bad either.
SpaceChem
Yet another game that just barely didn't make the cut: SpaceChem is quite possibly the greatest puzzle game ever made. The mechanics are next to impossible to describe, but they are exactly what a puzzler needs: Extremely simple, yet creating an absolutely dumbfounding amount of depth. The puzzle-solving allows for a surprising amount of different solutions, even though for each level the game asks for the same end result. The best description of the game I've ever seen is on MatthewMatosis' channel, with this handy link leading you there (you should watch his other stuff, too. It's all top-notch content). Unfortunately, I'm too dumb to get more than a dozen levels in, but it's a really nice game to spend an evening puzzling over, and the feeling you get when you succeed is really without peer. It's really my own stupidity keeping it from being really high on the list.
Now, not all of these games will have been reviewed on this blog. The reason for this is twofold: First, I (relatively rarely) get lazy after beating a game and don't review it. It might be just sheer laziness, but sometimes I just don't have anything to say about a game, as was the case with the first Metal Gear Solid, which I hinted at at the end of my Persona 3 review. The second reason is that I feel a game must be finished before I can review it, especially considering my inclination toward story-based games. There's been a number of these games that I haven't finished, or that are unfinishable, and, as such, no review will go up.
I have an internal one-franchise rule, mostly to stop my last year's list from having three Phoenix Wright games on it, and to stop my number one or two from being HearthStone each year. This means that a couple of the games I'd put on my list are relegated to the honourable mentions gallery: A place where I put games that I feel deserve a spot on the list, or at least a mention, but don't fit on there for one reason or another. By pure coincidence, that is exactly what the rest of this post will be dedicated to filling out.
Honorable Mentions:
HearthStone: Goblins vs Gnomes
Yes, I am still playing this darn thing, and I'm still having just as much fun with it as I did last year. It's certainly the game I've spent the most time with this year, and I don't regret any of it. There's been a couple of expansions that have shaken up the meta, the small "adventure" of Curse of Naxxramas, and the massive Goblins vs Gnomes. Whilst GvG was slightly disappointing to me in that it didn't slow down the meta as much as I hoped, it still provided 120 new cards to play around with, and more HearthStone is always welcome. With more card combinations that ever to play around with, as well as a now slightly less net-decky meta, the game is better than it's ever been. Now, Blizz, if only you released an expansion that didn't encourage aggro even more, that would be great.
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
After playing and rather liking the two latest Persona games I decided to check out some other games in the underground giant that is the Shin Megami Tensei series. Being a bit intimidated by the famed difficulty of the main-stream of the series, and having been informed the Persona combat system is different enough to not really be good preparation for them, I tried the supposedly easier Digital Devil Saga. What awaited was a somewhat grindy RPG with a really enjoyable combat system and a very twisted world. The story is intentionally kept minimal, but effective, and the game oozes atmosphere out of every pore, building a creeping sense of unease. It's not horror, per say, but you can tell that there's something wrong with this world. Unfortunately, I never finished this game, getting side-tracked by real-life stuff. Another reason why it's stuck in honourable mentions is that there'll be another SMT game on the list proper, surprising no one who reads this blog.
Dust: An Elysian Tail
A game that I only started playing toward the end of the year and haven't yet had the chance to finish, this is one I actually struggled desperately to keep on the actual list, but got just edged out. It's a Metroidvania/Platformer/Beat'em'up title made by a one-man team. The game looks absolutely gorgeous, rivalling even Bastion's beauty, previously unchallenged in my eyes. To add to this, it's also an extremely satisfying, very fluid beat'em'up, though I wish the enemies had a little more health. It's a blast to play, it's gorgeous to behold, and the story isn't half-bad either.
SpaceChem
Yet another game that just barely didn't make the cut: SpaceChem is quite possibly the greatest puzzle game ever made. The mechanics are next to impossible to describe, but they are exactly what a puzzler needs: Extremely simple, yet creating an absolutely dumbfounding amount of depth. The puzzle-solving allows for a surprising amount of different solutions, even though for each level the game asks for the same end result. The best description of the game I've ever seen is on MatthewMatosis' channel, with this handy link leading you there (you should watch his other stuff, too. It's all top-notch content). Unfortunately, I'm too dumb to get more than a dozen levels in, but it's a really nice game to spend an evening puzzling over, and the feeling you get when you succeed is really without peer. It's really my own stupidity keeping it from being really high on the list.
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