It wasn’t until I looked back at the list of games I’d played in 2009 that I realized just how few games I played in 2010. I guess moving across the country and starting at a new job will do that. While I managed to play twenty-three games and replay an additional five in 2009, I played a scant fourteen games in 2010. As I did last year, I’ll review them and give a brief rating to each.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Arkham Asylum is a game that snuck up on me. I didn’t expect it to be very good, but in the end I loved it. Along with Dead Space, it’s one of my very few Playstation 3 “Keeper” titles. The rhythmic combat was engaging, challenging, and fun. The stealth segments were as good as any I’ve played and better than most. But what really made the game shine was its excellent use of Gotham City’s rogues’ gallery. The mainstream Batman villains such as Penguin, Riddler, and Two-Face took a backseat and didn’t even appear in the game. Instead, we were treated to Zsasz, Killer Croc, Bane, Harley Quinn, and Scarecrow. I learned a lot about Batman villains, and they’re pretty damn cool. I was engaged enough in the game to track down every one of the Riddler’s hidden riddles, and with one or two exceptions I enjoyed the search. Get game gets a solid A.
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
After having played the amazing Escape from Butcher Bay, I had high expectations for Assault on Dark Athena. Sad to say that the game didn’t meet my lofty expectations. There just weren’t nearly enough moments where I had the joy of sneaking up behind guards like I did in the first game. Hiding in the pitch darkness while guards stumbled around blindly was one of the best parts of Butcher Bay, and Dark Athena didn’t have nearly as much of that. All in all, the game felt relatively uninspired. I’ll give it a C-.
Dragon Age: Origins
I started this game in late 2009, but finished in 2010. Its strategic combat didn’t quite match that of Baldur’s Gate, but it was indeed very well done. And the characters and relationships in the game were better done than most games I’ve played. I like the fact that Bioware moved away from the one-dimensional good/evil or paragon/renegade scale and instead focused on how the individual NPCs felt about your character. It made the characters feel so much more real.
The game’s dark fantasy is something I loved, and to me it was best expressed by moments such as the Grey Wardens’ brutal Joining ceremony, the destruction of Redcliff by the undead, and the late-game execution of political rivals. Small bits of the story which do not have a happy ending, but which add a decidedly dark tone to the game. I think I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed Dragon Age. It gets an A.
Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening
While Dragon Age was a fantastic game, the Awakening expansion was far less impressive. It took the same engine and used it to tell a far less exciting story. They kept Oghren, which was a good move, but most of the characters weren’t nearly as good as the original game. Furthermore, the plot, which had to do with intelligent Darkspawn, seemed to detract from the excellent setting the original game had created. By the time I’d reached the midpoint, I couldn’t wait for the game’s ending, and it felt far too long. I can only hope that Dragon Age 2 doesn’t continue the yawntastic themes of this expansion. C-.
Enslaved
Enslaved was a game that had a lot of big plusses and a lot of big minuses. It seems that the game’s flaws hurt it more than its triumphs helped it, as the price very quickly plummeted after the first few months. The demo didn’t encourage me to go out and buy the game; it was only the ravings of some friends on Google Buzz that finally pushed me into picking up a copy. I’m glad that I did.
Enslaved began very mediocre. The world-conquered-by-machines subgenre is one I generally enjoy, whether it’s The Matrix, Terminator, or The Two Faces of Tomorrow. All in all, Enslaved doesn’t flesh out the specifics of its setting as well as it could. We learn that slavers capture and haul off humans regularly, but not much more. Are human settlements common? Are there robot cities? For the most part, mechs seem to stand around in the middle of nowhere, waiting for a human to walk within 30 feet of it so that it can attack. Beyond the well-executed combat, some minor collecting, and sub-par platforming, there’s not much gameplay to be had.
But this isn’t where Enslaved shines. I’ve heard it said that the game’s story is what makes it good, but I have to disagree. The story is just okay. It’s the characters that make the game good. Specifically, the way they’re written and voice acted. The facial animations are more expressive than in many movies.
Enslaved is a short game, but I’m not sure why that’s so often presented as a flaw. Some stories are better told in 10 hours than in 60. To me, Enslaved was the perfect length, and it was a good solid game that I enjoyed despite two chase sequences that drove me a little crazy. I’ll give Enslaved a B.
Gem Miner: Dig Deeper
What? An Android game? Yep. When listing my games for the year, I generally don’t include Flash games and the like, but amongst all the games I’ve played on my phone, Gem Miner is the one that felt most like a full-fledged PC or console game. There was a lot to do and to explore in Gem Miner, and I played the crap out of the game until I’d done every last little thing.
In Gem Miner, you explore and dig mine tunnels. You upgrade your character and your equipment, dig deeper, and find progressively better and more valuable ores. All the while, you’re shaping the tunnels, so it has some of the same appeal as Dungeon Keeper. If you’ve got an Android phone, I recommend trying out the free demo. Gem Miner gets a B+.
Heavy Rain
Of all the games I played in 2010, Heavy Rain has got to be my favorite. I’ve written a lot on this site about how the notion of indelible decisions in a video game changes the way you play and brings a sense of seriousness and immediacy to the game – makes every decision deliberate. And while that’s certainly the facet of the game that made the biggest impression on me, I shouldn’t ignore the fact that behind the game’s mechanics lies a very well-written murder mystery, told from a variety of perspectives. The game’s voice acting has often been criticized, but it remains my favorite game of 2010. I’m giving it an A.
Hoard
I’m not finished playing Hoard. Like Pixeljunk Monsters, I’m not sure I’ll ever really be done playing Hoard. But I’ve done everything that the game has for me to do, although I’m still working on getting gold medals on some of its levels. I nearly didn’t include it on 2010’s list, but then I found myself asking whether I’d add it to 2011’s list. Nope.
Hoard has three game modes. First is treasure mode, in which you compete against zero to three other dragons to collect as much gold as possible in the ten-minute time period. As you drop off gold at your hoard and the pile of gold grows, your dragon can level up his speed, his breath, his carrying capacity, and his armor. There are princesses to capture and knights rescue them from you, there are archer-protected cities that you can burn and receive tribute from, there are taverns that spawn thieves who will try to rob from your hoard, and there are wizard towers that shoot balls of magic that can kill you in a single hit.
The game’s second mode is Princess Capture, in which you try to capture fifteen princesses as quickly as you can. Each time you drop a princess at your hoard, you need to decide whether to stay and protect her until she’s ransomed. If you stay, you lose valuable time, but if you leave, a knight may rescue her, or another dragon may come and steal her for himself. The more difficult levels require you to capture fifteen princesses in under four minutes to get the gold medal. Not easy!
The final mode is the most difficult: Hoard mode. In Hoard mode, you try to survive for as long as possible while the game throws everything it’s got at you. Knights, heroes, wizard towers, and dozens of archers. And you’ve got no hoard at which to heal yourself should you be hurt.
Hoard is a great little downloadable game. I’ve only played multiplayer once, against my brother, but the single player is generally enough for me. The game gets a B.
inFAMOUS
I was seriously late to the party on inFamous. I’d already played Prototype, and it’s hard not to compare the two games. Overall, I may have preferred Prototype. Prototype had better gliding, better challenges, better powers, and I preferred running up the sides of buildings to slowly climbing them. I finished inFamous – it was a good game, but I’m not going to go out of my way to recommend it to anyone who hasn’t played it. I’ll give it a B-.
No More Heroes: Desparate Struggle
The original No More Heroes certainly had its flaws, but it was a fantastic and hilarious game. This sequel got rid of many parts in the original which had been overly tedious or problematic, but also lacked much of what made the original shine. It was easily as weird though. Desparate Struggle did have more than one ridiculous and hilarious moment, and those scenes are what make the No More Heroes games great. No More Heroes: Desparate Struggle gets a B-.
Punch-Out!
Maybe it’s just me. I loved the original NES Punch-Out!, and this game is a beautifully-remade version of the same game. The controls are tight, the animations look great, and the same timing-based puzzle-fighting mechanics are in place. But after having beaten the first couple circuits, I found that the harder levels were just too difficult to be fun. And I didn’t want to go back and replay the ones I was able to get past. The game is really short. And as well-made as it is, I got less enjoyment out of it than I did out of many other games. So I’m hard pressed to give it anything more than a C+.
Retro Game Challenge
The last game I played on my DS before its untimely demise. I’d heard great things about the game on a podcast, and it was a good bit of fun, but partway through the game’s RPG tribute, my DS exploded. If you like 8-bit era games, Retro Game Challenge is a fun one to play, and the meta-game that comes from hanging out with a friend, sitting on the floor in front of his TV, and looking through magazines for cheat codes, adds quite a bit to the gameplay. C+.
Trine
Trine is the best platformer I’ve seen in years. It’s also the only PS3 game that’s given me a platinum trophy. That’s right – I did every last stupid thing that the game has to offer. This includes summoning 500 objects with the wizard and getting through the Tower of Sarek on hard without dying once.
Trine takes full advantage of a current-gen platform’s graphics engine; for what’s essentially a 2d platformer, it’s inordinately beautiful. Moreover, it does an excellent job of giving you three characters with fundementally different abilities, any of whom can execute any challenge, although each is best suited to a specific kind of task. The wizard is best at most puzzles due to his ability to teleport and create objects. The thief is best suited to platforming because of her grappling line. And no one is better at straight combat than the knight, who can block enemy attacks with his shield. But although he has no weapon, the wizard can attack with levitated or dropped objects. The knight can solve puzzles that the wizard is best for by throwing boxes or kicking walls. And the rogue tends to excel at just about everything, due largely to her triple-shot and flame arrows and her immensely useful grappling line.
Trine is about platforming and reflexes, but it also allows for creativity in solving its puzzles. And I love that. The game gets an A-.
Uncharted 2
I know that everyone will think I’m crazy, but I really did not like Uncharted 2. At least I finished the first Uncharted game. The sequel I just could not get through. Way too much frustration. I’ve heard reviewers say that Enslaved was trying to be like Uncharted 2, but in my opinion Enslaved was a much better game. Uncharted 2 gets a C.
