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GOTY 2012

2012 was a year of surprises. While many of the games I started the year looking forward to were delayed to 2013 or fell short of expectations, they were more than made up for by a variety of other excellent games. Indie games had a fantastic year in particular, as developers put a level of polish into their creations that couldn’t be matched by behemoths with budgets in the tens or hundreds of millions. As always, there are games I couldn’t get to for time or technology reasons, so some games I wanted to play like Journey are out.

2012’s 2011 Game of the Year

Bastion

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If this was purely for the 2011 game I played most in 2012, it would undoubtedly go to Battlefield 3. In fact, I barely played Bastion at all in 2012, only loading up the PC version to check out DLC and the iOS version to test the controls. Bastion gets the nod because it's the game from last year that I couldn't stop thinking about. The gorgeous art, dynamic narrative, rich soundtrack, and tight mechanics would each be impressive on their own, but the way they complement each other in service of a greater whole is what makes Bastion a truly special experience.

Honorable Mentions

These are the games I enjoyed this year which didn’t make the list, but are worth a mention (in no particular order).

Black Mesa – A free Half-Life 2 mod that almost perfectly remakes the original Half-Life for a modern audience. Link

Far Cry 3 – Ridiculous open-world gameplay, a great-looking tropical island, and the best intro of any game this year. The story can’t keep up the brilliant self-awareness it starts with, but there’s a lot of fun to be had regardless.

Frog Fractions – A free, must play game for anyone that grew up with entertainment games. To say much about it would be to spoil it, but the game is hiding something great under its surface. Link

FTL: Faster Than Light – Take Oregon Trail, add elements of roguelikes and space sims, and FTL is the result. Even if the endgame feels too restrictive, every journey I took was a blast.

Mark of the Ninja – Incredibly-refined, satisfying stealth mechanics and a great art style.

Spec Ops: The Line – Featuring one of the most interesting stories in a military first person shooter, it’s worth picking up on sale and plowing through the mediocre gameplay to see the plot unfold.

Trials: Evolution – Twitchy, physics-based motorcycle platforming on tracks that never stop increasing in both difficulty and absurdity.

Game of the Year 2012

List items

  • At the start of 2012, an adventure game set in the zombie genre and based on a non-game series sounded like it could be little more than a neat nod to the source material. Instead, The Walking Dead’s plot and storytelling mechanisms are so exceptional they made the game my favorite of the year. The tough choices the game asks you to make, sometimes involving life or death situations, are made all the more impossible not just because of perfectly-calibrated timers , but because of the game’s ability to establish emotional connections between the player and the characters. It’s also one of the only games to take advantage of an episodic format from all angles, giving developers a chance to react to player feedback and allowing players to take a breather between adventures in the dark, despairing world. It may not have much to offer from a traditional gameplay standpoint, but The Walking Dead takes such great advantage of the interactivity offered by the video game medium in other ways that I have no problem calling it my 2012 Game of the Year.

  • Discovering firsthand that Fez wasn’t just an indie platformer with a clever navigation mechanic, but a puzzle game that eventually reaches Myst levels of complexity and beyond, was one of my favorite moments of the year. Spending hours trying to decipher pieces of the deeper logic of the world, which each make perfect sense when they’re finally cracked, was incredibly satisfying in a way that I haven’t felt since that older game series ended. The wonderful faux-retro sights and sounds make exploring the world a great pleasure, and even players who don’t want to break out pen and paper can appreciate the majesty and mystery of the game.

  • Turn-based strategy is a genre that hasn’t appealed to me much before, but XCOM: Enemy Unknown does a fantastic job making itself accessible to newcomers while showing why veterans love this type of experience. When each action on the battlefield feels like it could be the difference between victory and defeat, critical hits and missed shots can have the player alternating between ecstasy and agony several times a minute. Between the rollercoaster rides that the primary portion of the game offers, the base building portion is a great exercise in trying to get the most out of every credit that comes your way. Though the game was a bit buggy when I played, once killing one of my most valuable soldiers by allowing an enemy to shoot through a wall, I was always eager to jump into one more battle.

  • This Metroidvania game drew me in with its charming characters and satisfying combat, then surprised me with its dark, compelling plot. What’s incredible about the game is that one man is behind all of the game’s artwork, programming, game design, and writing. When an extraordinary display of effort and talent results in such a fantastic final product, it’s an inspiration.

  • People have talked so much about this game, both about the good and the bad, that it’s hard to think of something that hasn’t already been said. That on its own speaks to the level of investment the Mass Effect series has earned. The final third of the trilogy has the most refined combat and dialogue systems yet – though neither of them offers the number of options found in the game’s predecessors, every option feels more fleshed out than before. On the other hand, the writing isn’t strong at the very beginning and very end, and it’s obscene that players need 3 pieces of DLC (From Ashes, Leviathan, and Extended Cut) to get the best experience with the main game. But when Mass Effect 3 does get things right (and it does, for the most part), I’m reminded why the Mass Effect universe is one of my favorites to spend time in.

  • Every time I play a Halo game I grow more appreciative of the series. Though it doesn’t stray far from the formula Bungie used for a decade, Halo 4 changes enough to feel both fresh and faithful – an important balance to strike for new developer 343 Industries. The visual style, reminiscent of Metroid Prime, suits the architecture and creatures of the Halo series incredibly well. It’s also nice to finally see more of the Halo universe in the actual game, even if some of the cutscenes are far too dense for those only familiar with the games.

  • Everything about Hotline Miami is both unsettling and addictive at the same time. The swift, brutal gameplay, the distorted, gory pixel art, and the harsh, incredible soundtrack all add up to an experience that makes you feel uneasy, but not as much as it makes you want to keep playing.

  • It is incredible how much Harmonix has continued to support the investments people have made into the Rock Band franchise. That trend continues with Rock Band Blitz, a game which takes almost every song released for the series between the original game’s 2007 launch and today (with the notable exception of the Rock Band 3 soundtrack) and uses them as the basis for a follow up game to the studio’s Frequency and Amplitude. It’s a brilliant way to get some single-player enjoyment out of your Rock Band library without having to dig up and set up plastic instruments.

  • It’s a Japanese take on Gears of War. Your best friend is named Big Bo and calls many of your actions “SWEEEEEET!” Big Bo is also not the most ridiculous teammate you meet up with. If any of that makes the game sound even slightly appealing, you should give Binary Domain a chance. It might surprise you.

  • On a PC with the settings turned up, the neon-lit streets of Hong Kong during a nighttime rainstorm look incredible. The martial arts combat, similar to combat in Batman: Arkham Asylum, feels great, and the story is nicely presented. Some of the game’s environmental attacks, leaderboard challenges, and open-world possibilities are too brutal or over-the-top for the game’s plot, but then again, I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of watching Vinny play Sleepy Dogs thanks to that ridiculousness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzw1bq4WCLY&t=38m50s
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