2009's "Almost, But Not Quite" List

I had fun with these games but would be shocked if they showed up on any "Best of" lists for 2009...

List items

• 

  1. Prototype

  Having interviewed Radical boss Kelly Zmak & visited their studio, I had a TON of goodwill for this game leading up to launch day. It turned out to be a pretty solid game. The combat system was very underrated & it was the most fun I've had simply MOVING through an open-world game. Sadly, everything else about Prototype was problematic ranging from the story, the unlikeable Alex Mercer, the poor side missions and the miserable boss fights. The end boss battle was probably the most frustrated I've been with a game since my days as a wee tyke throwing tantrums at my NES. Even the supposed "twist" at the end was rather weak.

  inFamous stole a lot of thunder from this game and it was probably justified.

• 

  2. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

  A sequel that seemed to improve everything and nothing from the original game. I was starved for a good loot-heavy action RPG but the flaccid story and incredibly boring combat eventually wore me down. I never did finish this and likely never will.

• 

  3. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

  Contrary to popular sentiment, I enjoyed this a lot more than the original game. The graphics and atmosphere were superior and pressing LT to aim just feels more natural to me. The single-player story was fun enough to play through twice. Monolith dropped the ball on the multiplayer front. It was fun to play online for a few weeks but there was nothing there to extend the long-term appeal.

• 

  4. Torchlight

  It's Diablo for a new generation. Fun, solid and incredibly polished. I want to give extra props to the developers for making such a pretty game run with such low hardware requirements. Truly a rarity these days.