Best of 2014
updated over the year
List items
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I never had the patience or right group of friends for TCG's in the past despite thinking they were a neat idea, which is probably why Blizzard’s free card battle game with Warcraft people feels like it was mathematically created from the ground up to hook me in. You can feel it in the pageantry and fanfare of new card unveilings. The sweet spot of 7-12 minute matches. The delicate balance between planning and luck, anticipation and reaction, approachability and complexity. The serotonin drip as you unleash the hounds with a couple of knife jugglers lying in wait.
Every voice sample, spell animation and superfluous interaction fits in just so, displaying an overall commitment to polish that few developers can match. Substantial content updates have kept things fresh over time with the promise of more to come. And there's a perfect amount of social interaction for friendly competition - voluntary, character specific exclamations between strangers passing in the night. It’s coldly calculated science disguised as a warm fireside companion, the one game that's kept me coming back for more all year long and my overall favorite from 2014.
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Colorful, confident and relentless, Bayonetta 2 is an assault on the senses and reflexes from start to finish that improves on the original in nearly all aspects. A campaign where each chapter is a jaw dropping spectacle and every character wants to go to Fimbulvinter, a trove of challenges and unlockables to work towards after completion and brilliant gameplay further refined to be as stylish, fluid and fun to execute as any I've come across in the genre.
Encounter design is lean and briskly paced, enemy design is creative and plentiful with lots of faces in weird places. At it's heart, Bayonetta 2 is pure arcade action that we rarely get nowadays - the DNA of Sega, Capcom and Nintendo combining to infuse Platinum's best work yet with refreshingly old school sensibilities alongside a generous serving of cheesecake and crazy.
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An exciting take on literary adaptation, using the well known novel as a framework for a branching and replayable adventure around the world born of choice and circumstance. As you chart a course through 144 potential destinations, different cultural themes, subplots, characters and fantastical contraptions are presented in plain but elegant original text that's well researched, engaging and consistent with Jules Verne's voice throughout.
The management of money, time and trade goods plays an integral role in how each trip takes shape and player input is constantly requested as a means to influence everything from the inner monologue of the narrator to personality traits and revelations of new story threads to pursue. Better stay in and tend to Fogg tonight, we're low on funds and the mechanical bird to Istanbul looks like it's going to be a bumpy ride.
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There's never been a war game quite like Valiant Hearts. It's historical magical realism, the tale of four people and a dog as they cross paths and puzzle adventure their way through the whimsies and horrors of wartime Europe in the early 20th century. Cohesive hand drawn artwork and animation gives an expressive, detailed look to the game, the soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful, the cast is likeable with relatable circumstances and there's enough mission variety to keep things moving and interesting until the end.
The game also partners with The History Channel, most notably for artifacts with textbook style writeups that serve as the sole collectible. Education, exaggerated French stereotypes, urine soaked cloths as makeshift gas masks, a musical sequence or two, and in the end, a powerful experience that hangs around long after it's over.
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2014 was a great year for RPG's, andarrived in the form of a note perfect romp through South Park from Obsidian and the show's creators. Drawing inspiration from classics like Paper Mario and Earthbound, the loot and class based RPG part of the game more than holds its own alongside the novelty of being able to walk around and interact inside the show.
There's a substantial amount of writing and voice work from Trey Parker, Matt Stone and friends, the plot goes to some real fucked up places like Canada and there's callbacks to just about every corner of show history tucked in somewhere. Not everything hits, but over the course of the dozens of hours you spend in South Park there's plenty of genuinely funny stuff to uncover. A labor of love that was worth the wait.
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For a series as keen on history and lore as Dragon Age, previous games often felt restrictive and the big picture never really came into focus. DA:I is the big picture, striking a measured balance between hand crafted and open world with a variety of locations that are distinctly beautiful, highly explorable and at times overwhelming as quest logs and new map markers begin piling up.
While the breadth of world building is impressive and the party based combat is entertaining it's the political intrigue, major plot moments and getting to know the company you keep that makes it great. There's so much ambient conversation and contextual dialogue that you could probably play through twice and not hear it all. The game is thematically rich but religion appropriately takes center stage, casting your Chosen One character in the role of both savior and puppet master as the Inquisition leaves its mark on Thedas.
Also there's multiplayer. And relationships. And a surprisingly deep crafting system. And 10 dragons to hunt. And Vivienne has a cool hat.
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Peak Nidhogg is a sublime dance - a fever dream of swordplay, anticipation and momentum swings with chunky pixels and Daedelus and a flying worm that eats you at the end. Deceptively simple (and frustratingly sparse with only four stages to cycle through), it's the best one hit kill fighting game since Bushido Blade and I was taken by its frenetic charm from the very first match. Even in the midst of a local multiplayer renaissance Nidhogg stands out as special, and while online isn't perfect it's a worthy substitute in a pinch.
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Disorienting and surreal first person exploration through a cyber world of nonsense with weird, interactive goofs at every turn. Jazzpunk takes the kitchen sink approach to video game comedy - parodies, puns, one liners, silly minigames and sight gags are delivered without shame and with a zany frequency the Zucker brothers would be proud of. Though the default FOV and mouse smoothing actually made me physically ill early on, once you get on Jazzpunk's wavelength (and mess with the settings) every delightfully stupid thing it does tickles.
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After 8 years, it's the end of the road for Wadjet Eye's breakthrough Blackwell series and the perfect time to celebrate a new classic of the point and click genre now that it's finally complete. Epiphany is a satisfying conclusion to the five game narrative arc covering three generations of Blackwell women and their incorporeal companion as well as a lengthy, smartly designed adventure that outdoes its predecessors on its own merits. Plus it's a ghost story, everyone likes a good ghost story. Not quite a standalone title, more like the final chapter of a prolonged episodic saga - play them all back to back for maximum effect.
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Excellent moment-to-moment gunplay in a dreamlike Sci-Fi atmosphere.
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Customizable and cool strategy action with striking art design and an equally compelling soundtrack.
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A beguiling mashup of genres and tones, love, Japan
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It's a great game of Mario Kart.
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Surreal wonderlands and audiovisual delights.
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A traditional, isometric cRPG spit polished to the point that it feels like a thoroughly modern creation.
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Proven approaches to traversal (Assassin's Creed) and combat (Batman) serve as tools in which to manipulate the real star of the show, Monolith's innovative enemy AI, clan and hierarchy systems.
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A distilled dose of Swery's offbeat strengths.
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Tempest 2014 should be on every Vita.
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Mysterious, punishing and rewarding. A worthy addition to an excellent series.
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Space Civ brings some interesting new ideas to the series.
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Superhero open world antics with pretty special effects.
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