The Top 5 Games I Played that Came Out This Year

Overall, I would call 2014 a disappointing year. Most of what I was looking forward to ended up being pushed back to 2015 and what did release mostly left me feeling underwhelmed or ambivalent. However, there were still quite a few surprises to be had and while my back catalog from 2014 isn’t quite complete, here is a rough look at my Top 5 in no particular order.

1. NaissanceE

Released early this year to little fanfare, as are most things relegated to Greenlight that aren’t building/survival sims, NaissanceE was both a visual and sensory treat, giving me bright, distinct visuals and absolutely breathtaking atmosphere. I spent all of my time with the game either in awe of it or terrified of it, it’s great big cityscapes coupled with an excellent use of licensed music led it to be at the forefront of my memory, even through the rush of holiday releases late this year. A beautiful game that makes me look forward to whatever the devs bring next.

2. Divinity: Original Sin

I haven’t reviewed Divinity yet for the sole reason that I haven’t finished it yet. That being said, I don’t imagine there is much I could do that could cause it to drop in my mind. With hassle-free and tactical — if not exploitable — combat that gels seamlessly with the exploratory elements and a full co-op campaign that feels designed for such, Divinity was just a treat to play at almost every turn. Minor quibbles about delay inputs in the UI aside and sometimes juvenile writing aren’t enough to turn me away from my most pleasant surprise of 2014. Here is a Kickstarter I wish I had backed.

3. Drakengard 3

No other game on this list will be as technically incompetent or frustrating to play. Framerate and screen-tearing issues abound in the title which only hampered by the fact that the game looks like an early-era PS3 game with the budget to match. Gameplay is straight forward and repetitive to a fault and is only playable in the sense that it plays better than previous titles in the series. It’s a crude, ugly game all the way through.

And I think I’m in love with it.

While NaissanceE continues to be in the forefront of my mind, Drakengard 3 never quite left all this year either. While it fails to live up to the batshit zaniness of it’s predecessors, a great performance by Tara Platt as Zero and one of the most dysfunctional RPG casts in recent memory lend itself well to just being unforgettable. Add in the best damn score of the year and some truly wonderful directorial touches by Taro Yoko and you have a game that’s all the right levels of crazy to sometimes pull it off just right to make something so ugly become beautiful.

4. Bayonetta 2

No, I don’t think I can add anymore that needs to be said Bayonetta 2. It isn’t the masterpiece others make it out to be, but no other game will play better or gives a better bang for your buck action wise. Add to that often humorous characters and truly dazzling set pieces and you have a game that never forgets to have fun.

5. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Awful title aside, I have to love Nintendo for being one of the last few bastions of playing with friends on a couch. And no game better serves that point than Super Smash Bros. I may gripe and whine while playing — I am one of the saltiest people you’ll ever meet while playing fighting games — but I still always come back.

I find it funny that we praise Smash Bros. for having loads of content when almost all of it is terrible. Smash Tour sucks, the single player content still hasn’t evolved past what it was in Melee, this time without a goofy mode like Subspace Emissary to give me wonderful cutscenes (Shut up, I liked Subspace Emissary for the cutscenes and felt the mode would have been fine if it cut back on the repetitive gameplay elements). But the core gameplay is just so simple to grasp and fun to play around with that we kind of forgive how throwaway the rest of the game is. And I will admit that while 8-player smash is awful, I appreciate the mode because it allows for 5 people to play with little to no repercussions. No more having to rotate loser.

Honorable mentions this year include: Endless Legend (an easy choice for number 6, one of the best 4x I’ve played in a long time), Grand Theft Auto V (belongs on a 2013 list), Mario Kart 8, InFamous: Second Son, Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax.

That’s not quite it for 2014 for me (Like I said, I got backlog I’m working on right now) but this is the list in time for year end. Tomorrow I’ll highlight the games I’m looking forward to most next year.

Happy New Years, I guess.

 

Drakengard 3: The good, the bad, the ugly

I feel like I was always destined to like “Drakengard 3”. It’s surprise announcement was preceded by the far less surprising announcement development studio Cavia closure a few years earlier. They had just released their brilliant swan song “Nier”, one of the most under appreciated gems of the last generation and with it most hopes that the series would ever be revisited. “Drakengard” itself had been dormant for nearly a decade and was never a popular series to begin with, more known for infamous Let’s Plays than anything positive about the actual game.

But Square Enix must have also decided that there was enough residual goodwill left over from “Nier” that the series was given one more go, this time brought to us by Access Games, the developers of the weird-but-great “Deadly Premonition”. It brings back series director Yoko Taro and reunites him with “Nier” composer Keiichi Okabe, the man probably most responsible for “Nier’s” cult status. Square Enix must have been hoping that this would become a sleeper hit in the same way “Nier” did. All the elements are in place and presumably they were given free reign to do what they wanted within budgetary constraints.

The underlying problem there is that “Drakengard” as a series has never been good. The first “Drakengard” is a clunky and slow void of entertainment, where giant maps are sparsely populated with a handful of enemy types that all die the same way. The graphics were poor, the technical limitations of the PS2 apparent, and the game’s warm embrace of it’s endless repetition almost sleep-inducing. The only time the game broke up it’s sub-“Dynasty Warriors” combat was with equally bland dragon-riding segments, which themselves were broke up between “Panzer Dragoon-esque” flying missions and a simple means of getting around the oversized maps quicker. Drakengard was never more than a poor B-grade game from a time when major publishers still made those.

In “Drakengard 3’s” defense, at the very least it is a more fun game to play, if only barely. Eschewing the series’ big, empty maps in favor of linear corridors littered with enemies, it doesn’t take long before you are fighting something again. The game plays quicker than it’s predecessors and features the barest in action gameplay, like dash-cancels, parries, and weapon-switching combos. But mechanically speaking this is where the positives end.

Bluntly put, “Drakengard 3” is a mess. It’s a technical mess, where slowdown, screen-tearing, and ugly models reign supreme. “Nier” was no technical feat, but it looks more akin to “Final Fantasy” when put up against the “Drakengard 3’s” PS2 era graphics, at least during gameplay. Cutscenes fare a bit better, but due to all but one of them being rendered in-engine they are littered with the same problems. It doesn’t help that despite tighter level design than previous entries in the series, “Drakengard 3” is still horribly repetitive. It carries over the original’s mission structure but does little to trim the actual length of the game or levels themselves. The game will throw another wave of enemies at you when you would just rather see the words “Mission Complete”. The most egregious of these is a desert level where you have to cross the level to kill a group of sorcerers who are creating a fake sun that burns you when you aren’t in shade. An interesting idea for a level, but after killing them once the game makes you cross the level to destroy another one. And then a third. Once was enough, thanks.

For those looking for a good game in the technical sense, stay far away. But the the thing is, most fans of “Drakengard” could have told you that. This series isn’t known for stellar gameplay or visual fidelity, it’s known for being absolutely insane.

“Drakengard 3” follows Zero, an Intoner (Think demigod queens), as she embarks on a quest to kill her sisters so she can bring about the end of the world. With the help of her infant dragon Mikhail and her, ahem, harem of warriors, she goes on to murder thousands of people with seemingly little regard for morality or empathy. The plot is bare bones, littered with anime melodrama, and won’t make any sense on a single play through. But the cutscenes will never leave you wanting. In fact, they are the big reason most will keep with the game as long as they do. Looking forward to what crazy thing happens next is the game’s biggest motivator and it’s greatest asset.

The game’s writing is quite funny as well. “Drakengard 3” knows it’s an ugly game and reflects that beautifully. The humor lies somewhere between the gross out gags of “Jackass” and the darker humor of a lesser Coen Brothers film. There are jokes about pissing dragons, sex gags, and even knocks at the game’s own repetitive nature. The game is also incredibly sexually charged. As mentioned above, Zero runs with several men who presumably do more to satiate her urges than they actually help in combat (seriously, the AI partners are useless in combat and there has to be a reason she keeps them around). Most of her sisters have a kink that unfortunately goes to mostly define them, as their development occurs outside the game in supplementary sources. In spite of that, the game’s frank attitude towards sexuality is refreshingly welcome and surprisingly mature, though not exactly within context of the game itself.

But where the game really shines for me is its attitude towards the industry it is a part of. Despite the game’s justifications, Zero still comes off as a sociopath, one who murders thousands in her quest to commit more murder, so singly focused that she not only ignores her companions pleas to stop what she is doing but actively berates them for doing so. Zero’s attractive and perfect exterior hides her dirty and depraved interior. In the way that today’s industry so casually treats murder as a mere means to an end, Taro uses that same means to hold a mirror up to the player to ask if its really worth it. And while he may undermine his point slightly by justifying Zero’s actions, the game still colors them mostly with the veil of lunacy.

“Drakengard 3” isn’t a pretty game. I can’t even bring myself to call it a good game. But for those willing to put up with it’s numerous flaws, there is something to be had here. I make no promises that you’ll have fun, but you certainly will never forget it.