2011, for me, was the year of demolished expectations. A month or two before we were utterly inundated with massive AAA releases, I made a list of games I would buy in the heat of the moment and games I'd wait for. What I should've done was use that paper for something productive, because that list went OUT the window in very, very short order. That in mind, let's take a spin.
This game was the epitome of a backburner game for me. I liked Oblivion in the moment, but in retrospect I considered it very "meh," and its sequel didn't look like it was doing anything to change my perceptions of the series. Then it came out and, of course, it reviewed amazingly but so had its predecessor. Then both my roommates bought it. Then the only noises I heard coming from both their rooms for well over a week were Skyrim noises. And the only conversations they had were Skyrim conversations. I knew I had to at least TRY the game, and guess what? They weren't wrong.
I can't even put my finger on what makes this game so much more different than all the other games like it, but there's SOMEthing.
I'm the kind of person who needs a gripping story and characters to drive me forward (or some kind of MASTERFUL gameplay) and this game has NONE of those things, but yet I still find it COMPLETELY engrossing. The only thing I can think of is the sense of wonderment and awe that the entire world has. The desire to see what ELSE the game can throw at you and the sheer breadth of STUFF to do. The fact that I'm playing as an Imperial Soldier who's also an orc/werewolf that looks like some kind of Nordic/Samurai combination isn't even the strangest/most awesome thing about this game, but it comes damn close.
You can say "rehash" or "retread" all you like, the only thing I hear are thugs faces breaking underneath my Bat-boot. Arkham City is everything a good sequel should be: reminiscent of what came first, but also massively expanded. Much like Skyrim, there is so-so-so-SO much to DO in Arkham City, from the AR challenges (those last two are TV-punching tough) to uneasy alliances that you just KNOW aren't going to end well, to the single most fluid, dynamic combat system in the history of beat-em-ups (and maybe all of videogames), anyone can find something to love about this game. Oh and of course: you get to BE BATMAN.
I've always been lukewarm on the Saint's Row series. I felt the first one was a smoother-playing GTA, but that it didn't REALLY know what it wanted to do. For every genuine moment (Troy revealed as an undercover cop at the end, bonding with the rest of your gang even through betrayals and treason) there were three or four that just seemed ripped from some kind of power fantasy pimp game (all the business names, the final gang missions, the dialog in general). Game 2 changed things up, going completely whacky with the pimp power trip. Sure, you were still basically a thug working his way up through the ranks, but now instead of drive-bys and
You know how so many games offer you a "choice" to make when what they're really saying is "which direction do you want to spec in and how do you want the same characters to talk to you?" Witcher 2 doesn't do that. Witcher 2 hides around a third to half of its content behind moral choices. If you go one way, you don't meet certain characters, you never learn certain events, you have a TOTALLY different outlook on the world and the people in it. That. Takes. CHUTZPAH. That is the game dev sitting back and saying "Play through it again. Or don't, miss out on our awesome content." And awesome it is. Gorgeous doesn't even do justice to the visuals, the voice acting is great across the board, the story goes in some directions that most dare to even insinuate in, and the choices are actually complex and gray. You truly don't know who the heroes are at the beginning and by the end you don't know if there are ANY, including yourself, to be seen.
This one got awfully lost in the shuffle and I've been meaning to get back to it ever since. I haven't played terribly much of that, but the fact that its itching constantly at the back of my head waiting for me to pop it back in is testament to the utterly addictive gameplay.
