It was a good year for videogames no matter which genre is your favorite. It was so good, in fact, that this year I had to split up my year end awards so that two games can receive top honors. One is my "favorite" game, the other, what I consider to be the "best". And the crazy part is that Skyrim, that of multiple GOTY awards already, of which I have glowing praise myself, and that which will probably devour close to 200 hours of my time, is not even one of those two. So yeah, it was a good year.
As always, there were numerous games I didn't get around to this year, but I think I did a good job of getting to my biggest priorities and feel fairly confident that I have a good idea of what deserves to be recognized the most. The biggest exceptions are as follows:
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has its proponents and its critics, but by most accounts it's the best Zelda games in years, which is saying something. Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls, which I did play, and I gather that they're pretty similar. The calling card for both games is difficulty, and while I've read some intelligent essays claiming that difficulty is the brush with which the game's designers painted their experience, I'm not convinced that Dark Souls' defenders aren't suffering from some kind of Stockholm syndrome. Rayman: Origins takes the same title that Kirby's Epic Yarn took in last years' article: The Charming Platformer With Outstanding Art Direction Ostensibly Aimed at Kids but Secretly Good Enough for Any Adult to Enjoy That I Didn't Get Around to Playing Award. It's a niche category. L.A. Noire was very highly anticipated, and was bound to disappoint some. It was similar to Heavy Rain in that it was ambitious and unique, and despite its flaws managed to move videogames forward.
And now, on to the games I did play!
Honorable Mentions -
Both Bastion and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP were sonnets: shorter experiences that captured the heart of many, including myself. Bastion's core conceit is that a (relatively) omniscient gravelly narrator chronicles your journey as you make it, which is as charming as you can imagine. The music is superb; in my opinion the year's best in videogames, and the painted art style all makes the game add up to more than the sum of its parts. Sword and Sworcery has similarly amazing music, and it should since basically the entire experience is built around it. The calming exploration of inspired 16-bit artistic landscape against the backdrop of a dramatic but understated story made this a game I'll never forget. It's for iOS only, but if you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, you should check it out. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is one of the most singular visual experiences you'll ever have, but other than the otherworldly art direction, I kind of hated this game. Combat was shallow, repetitive, and boring, and the story was at least as incomprehensible as the title. I'm not sure there's much to be gained from playing this game that can't be experienced via screenshots.
inFAMOUS 2 is the unfortunately capitalized sequel to one of my favorite games of 2009, and it does everything the first game does better. In some cases it's a lot better, like the endings which feel truly divergent depending on whether you choose to be good or evil (and both pack an emotional wallop to boot), and in other cases more subtle improvements such as the graphics and animations which look a little smoother or the setting of New Marais, a New Orleans stand-in which oozes character. Finally, (though this is kind of cheating because neither game technically came out this year) Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were released in an HD collection last September, and both are amazing. Ico is a unique puzzler that was ahead of its time in 2002, and Shadow of the Colossus... well, playing it for the second time (and for the first time in HD) elevated it from simply an underplayed gem to arguably one of the greatest games ever made. I can't say enough about Colossus. It transcends simple "good" or "bad" descriptors and is simply an experience that must be absorbed.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution -
In preparation for playing this game, I played the predecessor from 2000, and was very impressed by the open-ended level design, which allowed you to attack any given situation with either stealth, technical expertise, open combat, or simply situational awareness by finding a hidden route. Since the first Deus Ex came out twelve years ago, it has become a cliched bullet point for the back of game boxes to be able to tackle a situation in a variety of ways, so it's hard to explain how good the game was at it, but suffice it to say, the superb level design was always thoughtful, and it made all potential choices equally valid, which is not as easy as it sounds.
Human Revolution follows this template and ends up feeling like the combination of a lot of different games. It has the shooting of a Mass Effect, the level design of the first Deus Ex, the stealth and choice making of Alpha Protocol (only if it was a good game), and the art design of a Portal. On paper, this is a perfect game made just for me, but for some reason it didn't really move me, and I'll probably end up forgetting most of it in a few years. Maybe it was the monotone voice acting or the rote international conspiracy story, but despite the excellent art direction, much of the game lacked soul. Very well done game, but it didn't capture my heart.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -
I'm only (only!) 53 hours or so into this game. I've raided countless dungeons, caves, bandit camps and abandoned forts. I've helped countless citizens with their varied problems. I've discovered countless priceless artifacts, including jewels, weapons, armor, corporeal remains, books, scrolls, and magical items. I've slain countless undead, vicious wild animals, witches, pirates, and trolls. I've absorbed the soul of countless (okay, maybe 10 or 12) dragons. And even after all of this, I still feel like I've just scratched the surface. While normally this might be a defeating notion - after all this work, all this time spent, I'm still not even 20% through the game? - it's kind of exhilarating for Skyrim, because even after countless times doing something, I'm still ready to do it countless more times. I think that's the biggest compliment I can pay Skyrim.
That said, the game has its problems. The numerous glitches have become legendary. Though I haven't encountered anything game-breaking, I have noticed numerous small things that break immersion, like swords of vanquished foes standing mysteriously on their points, a particular type of helmet being see-through, and items, when dropped, falling right through the floor. I also hear the complaints that it's just like Oblivion, the previous game in the Elder Scrolls saga. At its core, a strong argument can be made that Skyrim is the same game as Oblivion but with nicer graphics, colder setting, and dragons.
But when I exit a Dwemer ruins with fresh loot and a giant sky full of the Northern Lights hits my eyeballs for the first time, I don't care about any of that. I just let a single word escape my lips and admire the scenery. "Wow."
FAVORITE GAME
Batman: Arkham City -
I bought this game (and its predecessor, Arkham Asylum) for basically one reason: I've wanted to be Batman since I was maybe 4 years old. Arkham Asylum was arguably the first good Batman game ever, simply because it nailed every point on the "What goes into a Batman game" checklist. Brawling with goons? Check. Stealth-based sections where fear is a major gameplay mechanic? Check. Detective work? Check. Joker doing crazy stuff and making bad jokes? Gothic architecture dripping with dark personality? A colorful array of insane villians that double as boss fights? Check, check, and a big ol' check.
Arkham City has all of this as well, though it trades some of Arkham Asylum's focus for breadth, reuses several locations for different plot points, and has some of the worst dialog around. How many times do I need hear Batman say "You'll never get away with this!" or "We'll see about that!" in some form? The game often suffers from feature creep as well. Do I really need 14 different gadgets, some with multiple uses? In some cases, the game answers yes, but good luck figuring out which button combination to use.
That all said, the addition of both the grapnel boost (allowing Batman to grapple straight past a ledge and into a glide) plus the dive-gliding mechanic (in which diving straight down adds momentum to the glide and increases gliding distance) are inspired additions that take locomotion from one of the worst features in Asylum (basically just running) to one of the the most enjoyable in City.
I honestly went into this game expecting to enjoy it but think of it as more of the same from Asylum, and thus lower on my list. I was expecting it to be solid, well put together, but ultimately not in the top tier of games for 2011. Instead, here we are. None of those expectations were wrong, per se, but what I didn't expect was that I wouldn't enjoy a game more than Arkham City. Being Batman in such a convincing way just felt so... good. Moving around the city in such a fluid way was an extra-delicious icing on the cake, bumping it up from a fun, well crafted game into my favorite game of 2011.
BEST GAME
Portal 2 -
The first Portal was probably perfect. It took a unique concept, refined and explored it over the course of a two hour game, and then added a layer of excellent writing and humor. Portal 2 does everything bigger and better. A strong argument can be made that after Portal's level of refinement, the addition of features, mechanics, and even length would just muddy things. But it might not be fair to compare Portal 2 to its predecessor; it might be akin to comparing a movie with a poem. So I'll compare Portal 2 to this year's games, and more importantly, to itself.
Standing on its own, Portal 2 is pretty close to perfect itself. It's so tightly designed, the pacing so fluid, the puzzles so satisfying, and the story so well done, it's hard to find any fault at all with this game. It's hard to write objectively about humor, so I'll just say that the game is hilarious and move on. The way the story moves is such a perfect natural extension of the themes of the first game that it's hard not to admire. While we still get to learn little about the protagonist Chell, we do learn the backstory and motivations of the previous game's brilliant antagonist GLaDOS, and as an added bonus get an excellent foil for her in the Stephen Merchant-voiced Wheatley, who never says or does anything in the entire game that's not interesting, funny, or both.
There was also a cooperative mode added to the game, which cynical gamers have learned to disdain as a tack-on bullet point for the back of the box. I was skeptical myself that such a mode, if even possible in a puzzle game, was necessary. However, I'm pleased to report I was quite wrong, and solving the puzzles that were designed for two players is just as satisfying as the stellar single-player puzzles. If it's hard to explain the feeling you get when solving a good puzzle by yourself, it's harder to explain the feeling you get solving it with someone else. Can we just use good? It felt good.
While some complained that the additional puzzle-solving implements (such as different gels that could be splattered on surfaces) were an illogical implement to the core portal-centric design of the first game, I felt that the additions were interesting and fun without being distracting. For all the added complexity new features provided, Chell is still always holding a portal gun in her hands, which sounds trivial at first. But the narrative simplicity of that simple fact, plus the degree to which the player always feels comfortable yet challenged is extremely important to the central brilliance of this game. It would have been easy to give the player several more tools to work with, maybe variations on the portal gun or allow the player to control a gun that shot the aforementioned gels. Indeed, the developers thought about doing just this, but scrapped it in favor of the simplicity I'm talking about. To understate things, it was a good choice. In fact, I'm pretty sure every decision Valve made in making this game was a good choice, which is why I had no choice but to make it my best game of 2011.
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