List items
-
By now everyone knows how great the story and characterization in Last of Us is, either because they experienced it for themselves, or because they were subjected to gamers who simply wouldn't shut up about it. So rather than talk about the amazing ending or whatever for the umpteenth time, let's focus instead on the more controversial qualities of the game: the combat, the stealth mechanics, the gameplay.
If you had reservations about said qualities, it's fair to say you'd hardly be alone: This more than anything appears to be what's keeping it from being at the absolute tippy-top of more people's GOTY lists. But to those with such concerns, such complaints tempering your enjoyment of the masterfully-told tale Naughty Dog weaves here, I'd offer this, a counterpoint, offered humbly for your consideration:
ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY INSANE!? What game were -YOU- playing? Because the game -I- played easily had the most satisfying and compelling gameplay of any game this year! It was challenging* but never onerous, rewarded creative play in a way that most games simply aren't capable of, and perhaps most remarkably of all, used the entire time you spent playing it in furtherance of the themes of the story and the advancement of its characters.
Maybe I'm just a crazy person** but when I finished Last of Us, I didn't just think I'd played the game of the year, I thought I'd played the game of the generation.
*Note: I played on Hard, unusual for me, a typical 'Normal' player who barely managed to eke out a win in the first Uncharted game even after turning the difficulty to easy. Which is to say I strongly recommend playing on at least hard, regardless of what level you typically play.
**Exhibit A: I have both the PS3 and Xbox 360, and yet spent nearly the entirety of the generation focused primarily on Sony's platform, sometimes (cough, Skyrim) to my great detriment. Exhibit B: I used footnotes in my game of the year list.
-
After finishing Last of Us, I had one question on my mind: Why don't more games have characters as fully fleshed out as Joel and Ellie? When Gone Home was released two months later, it almost felt like a direct answer to my challenge.
I don't want to get too deeply into the inexplicable controversy surrounding this game, because that would probably result in me typing "SHUT UP" like twenty-five times in a row. But to keep this list nice and confrontational, I'll just say that if you didn't like Gone Home you -probably- hate women... aaaaand I'm judging you. Sorry, broseph.
-
Speaking of hating women... Grand Theft Auto V, ladies and gentlemen. I kid, I kid... Well, mostly... But in all seriousness, I don't think it's unreasonable of me to point out that the latest Grand Theft Auto title's portrayal of the fairer sex (see what I did there?) is at best problematic, and at worst woefully tone deaf. One could argue that this is fitting for GTA's typically caustic send-up of capitalist excess and the reckless pursuit of the American dream, to which I'd say... well, yeah, that's actually a pretty good point. That said, I guess my main complaint about Grand Theft Auto V is that it's often simplistically cynical "they're all crooks" worldview seems increasingly immature in the context of a rapidly artistically advancing medium.
So I think its place at number three on my list is really a testament to the sheer scope and variety of fun waiting for players on the innumerable boulevards and back roads of GTAV's satirical take on California. I easily put more hours into this game this last year than I put in all the other games on this list combined. And when the story concluded, it didn't slow me down a bit. I played for weeks afterwards, finding collectibles, completing obscure side missions, taking advantage of money-making opportunities, and just generally taking in the sights and sounds of San Andreas. And when I ran out of things to do, I made my own fun, which was incredibly easy thanks to gameplay that was so "emergent" that it practically reintroduced meaning to that overused term.
And that's not even getting into the multiplayer, which, uh... I suppose is because I really didn't get into the multiplayer.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Load Comments