No, this isn't a list of games released in 2013 that I've played like the other one. This is a list of games that I have completed for the first time in the year 2013 along with a bit on what I thought of them. Like the other one, this list is much shorter than I'd like it to be.
(PS2) Probably my favorite game out of this whole list. A few dungeons are a pain (Kabukicho Prison is hands-down the worst part of the game) and I wish it was cheaper to buy demons back after fusing them (I didn't find myself fusing that often due to being unable to buy demons I still wanted back), but other than those two fairly minor complaints, Nocturne is great. It's incredibly difficult, its dungeons are mostly well-designed and varied, its environments have this great clash between demonic structures and the leftovers of human civilization. Plus, it has a pretty mind-blowing true-demon ending where you become the leader of all the demons and prepare for a multidimensional apocalypse.
(PC) A charming, short little puzzle game in the vein of Portal. Hey, if first person puzzle games become the new indie platformer and they're all this inventive, then count me in. There are about 3 hours of puzzles and exploring abandoned facilities here, culminating in a pretty cool ending. And it does it all without any voices whatsoever!
(PS3) I completed The Journey part of P3FES. Due to unfavorable opinions on The Answer, I didn't even touch that and, honestly, didn't care to. The Journey was a full experience and I didn't really feel like I needed more out of it. I feel like the story and writing in this game surpasses Persona 4's by a good bit. Unfortunately, the fact that you cannot directly control all of your party members really hurts this game. Ultimately, there are still plenty of strategies that you can use in battle, but it still feels really limited. But is it still fun? It absolutely is. I just wish that I could play a version that used Persona 4's mechanics with this game's story and included the overworld, and maybe even touched-up versions of the anime cutscenes. P3P doesn't have the latter.
(PC) Tomb Raider is probably the best action movie I've played in a long time. It's a AAA Uncharted-style action adventure, and it does it all way better than Uncharted ever has. It never stopped being fun to play, from beginning to end. The story takes itself a little too seriously - I might have preferred Gilligan's Island with guns and buried treasure - but hey, it's still really, really fun to play, and the story never gets in the way of that.
(PC) Well, this game was pretty much what you should have expected. It's got a great story and characters along with gameplay that is sometimes brilliant, sometimes infuriating, but mostly just good-not-great. I would have liked to hold all of the guns. Really, that's honestly my biggest complaint with the game. Screw realism, I'm flying along rails in a floating city, I don't care if having an arsenal in my back pocket is unrealistic.
(PC) Um, well, I think I beat this in very early 2013. It might have been very late 2012. Anyway, doesn't matter, I'm putting it here. Dishonored is one of the few games I've played where the bad story really gets in the way of good gameplay. The game actively discourages the player from using its most interesting and fun tools. I've never seen a game do that, and for good reason - it really hurts what is, in every game-y respect, a good game. The levels are well-designed and the various methods you can employ to beat them are all interesting and satisfying. There's always a way to finish your mission without killing the main target, which is always a great idea but actually executing it is often a bit boring. Maybe I just don't like stealth games, but here you have the capacity to wipe out entire rooms of guards and do whatever you want without sneaking around them. And it's the best way to play the game. And the game then tells you "No! Don't do that!". This is a case where I wish the developers would have picked stealth or action and ran with it instead of trying to choose both. Both ways of playing the game suffer because of the other's existence. It doesn't always feel as tight or refined as it should.
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