A crowded year: Javy’s top 5 games of 2012

Year in Review

2012 was a crowded a year for video games.

A slew of high-quality AAA titles were released this year: The Darkness II, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Twisted Metal, Max Payne 3, Mass Effect 3, The Walking Dead, Spec Ops: The Line,  Borderlands 2, Dishonored, Assassin’s Creed 3.

We were spoiled this year, folks.  Even the ‘lesser’ titles in that list are damn good games. Sure, we may have lost Bioshock Infinite, Grand Theft Auto V, and The Last of Us to 2013, but those who are snatching up the aforementioned titles at holiday prices will have plenty of games to tide them over until the big three get here.

Let’s also not forget a number of notable classic series have received the HD collection treatment:  Metal Gear Solid, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, Jet Set Radio. I’ve played both the Metal Gear and Sly Cooper collections and have to get BluePoint props for granting me the opportunity to revisit games of my adolescence in beautiful, crisp High Definition. (Seriously, if you haven’t see how fantastic Sly Cooper and The Thieveus Racoonus looks, you should pop over to Youtube and take a gander.)

This was also the year that indie gaming truly began to take hold. Yeah, yeah, we had Minecraft, Braid, Limbo, The Binding of Isaac, and Super Meat Boy before this year started. But 2012’s offerings are, in this writer’s opinion, just as good, if not better, than those five. Titles that stick out immediately are Chivalry: Medieval Warfare,Dear Esther, FTL, Hotline Miami,Legend of Grimrock, Mark of the Fucking Ninja, Resonance, and Torchlight II.  This was a celebratory year for both indie developers and indie gamers.

It was a surprisingly difficult task picking my top five games this year. Usually, by the year’s end, I can instantaneously conjure up the best titles to have come out within that year.  I started compiling my list the day before Thanksgiving and it took me at least a day and a half—also, a bellyful of turkey and booze—to make my list.

I approached the creation of this list as something more personal than it usually is. There were just too many quality games this year to set them side by side and nitpick about which same genre games did this mechanic or this mechanic a little better than the others.  Instead, I focused on games that were successful in both immersing me in the world within the game and affecting me on an emotional level. The games I chose might not be the best polished ones, but they’re the ones that grabbed a hold of me and refused to let go, the games that thwarted my expectations, the ones that proved to me that this medium has untapped potential, and that developers are willing to push gamers to the breaking point.

My Top 5

5. Mass Effect 3

My expectation going into 2012 was that Mass Effect 3 would be my Game of the Year.  I had complete confidence in that, actually, having been somewhat blinded by my love for Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2.  Of course, for many gamers and myself, the game failed to live up to those lofty expectations, the fault of which lies with both Bioware and fans of the series.

Mass Effect 3 isn’t a bad game. Far from it. The ending to the epic  sci-fi trilogy is a fantastic, action-packed space opera, but there’s no denying that it’s lacking  a crucial element of what Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 so appealing: exploration. Sure, there are side missions, but these mini-quests paltry and often serve as excuses for cameos and to let Bioware reassure you that yes, your choices did matter throughout the series–just not as much as you probably hoped they would. And…let’s just not talk about the ending, okay? Okay.

All that said, Mass Effect 3 is one of the best games of the year and a worthy ending to one of the greatest series of this generation. This installment's story packs an emotional punch and several sections are surprisingly poetic. The cover-and-shoot gameplay, while doing nothing to particularly innovative, is strong enough to support multiple playthroughs. The multiplayer isn’t half bad either!

Go figure.

4.  Dishonored

I love assassins, so I knew 2012 was going to be a big year for me with releases like Assassin’s Creed 3, Dishonored, and Hitman: Absolution. Too bad only one of them is truly great. Dishonored may be a short game but it features a compelling story starring the best silent protagonist since Gordon Freeman, a unique setting that’s as engrossing as Bioshock’s Rapture, a well-implemented choose-your-own-path play style, and flesh eating plague rats. I’ll repeat that last bit for your benefit: flesh eating plague rats!

Dishonored made this list because of just how well it immersed me in its world. I actually felt as though I was Corvo Attano, infiltrator bad-ass assassin extraordinaire.  Every person I came across had their lives in my hand and didn't know it. Often, I would leap and plunge my knife into the back of a guard. Sometimes I would laugh with glee as some fool activated my Spring Razor (i.e., tripmine) and was cut into a pile of limbs and strings of meat. There were places where I was even generous enough to let a handful of the city watch walk away with their lives so that I could continue jumping from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit of my prey.

Of course, you can always just play through the game without killing anybody, you lame person, you.

3. Hotline Miami

Hotline Miami is a beautiful, disgusting pixelated mess that’s all about getting you to have fun by gruesomely murdering people and then making you feel queasy and disoriented about the whole affair. There is technically a story, an excuse for why you’re murdering so many buildings filled with random, faceless henchman, but it’s threadbare and, perhaps, partly hallucinatory.

About halfway through Hotline, things start to get a little crazy. Dead people show up in restaurants, dripping blood from the ragged bullet holes in their face; you gain access to various animal masks that you give gameplay boons on each level; and soon there appears to be no difference between you and the men you’re killing.

It would not be wholly accurate to say that the violence in Hotline Miami occurs in a vacuum, but the narrative is flimsy enough that it feels like it does.  As I shot, battered, and sliced my way to the game’s conclusion, I kept telling myself that there had to be some reason for all of this, some cause and that the ending would offer me, perhaps not reassurance, but closure.

Hotline Miami does no such thing. It’s content to wallow it its own blood soaked ambiguity and stare you down. This is perhaps the most unnerving quality about the game: it seemingly has no agenda, has no desire to preach to you about the evils or virtues of violence. Hotline Miami simply exists, a neon-lit nightmare for any gamer capable of braving the gut-churning violence and hellish difficulty

Runner Up: The Walking Dead

If you had told me that Telltale’s take on The Walking Dead was going to be one of the best gaming experiences this year, I would have laughed your ass out of town. It’s not like I wouldn't have my reasons, either. I mean, come on, these guys made Jurassic Park, a game no one wanted or asked for, a whopping  nineteen years after the original movie was released.

But, hey, if we can get an adaptation that’s as high quality as The Walking Dead for every tepid, boring game that Telltale creates, then I say bring on the mediocrity, baby, because The Walking Dead is one of the most emotional, depressing, and meaningful gaming experiences I’ve ever had. Period. It’s also the best rendition of The Walking Dead universe and showcases just how unique and impactful this medium can be on intellectual properties.

Sure, the comic book and television show are compelling in their own respective ways, but there’s definitely a difference between watching a bunch of people sit around a campfire after the apocalypse, pondering man’s inhumanity to man and then actually playing as those people. Carl Grimes is in mortal danger? I’ll admit that my blood pressure’s up a little bit.  However, if you lay a hand on my Clementine, I will straight up murder you with a hedge trimmer, motherfucker.

The game, for me and tons of other people, just elicits a more visceral emotional response than the show or the comic book. This particular group of survivors isn’t necessarily better written than Rick’s company, but it’s the fact that we’re there in the forests, in the dead-strewn streets of Savannah and Macon, in the thick of it, forming(sometimes against our wills)emotional bonds with these people. And then we have to watch them die. Horribly.

The Walking Dead’s vulnerability and honesty are probably its two greatest assets. No one is safe, and just because you’ve done a good deed doesn’t mean it will reward you later on down the road. Just get that Commander Shepard paragon shit out of your head right now.  You are not invincible, nor armed to the teeth with guns. You are not a health bar and an ammo counter. You are a desperate, scraggly former professor from the University of Georgia who has to care for a girl in search of her parents. You are a man who has only his wits and desperation to aid him.

The Walking Dead is a dark, unflinching and, ultimately, moving story about humanity and survival in the face of annihilation.

Bring your tissues, folks. By the time Episode 5 ends, there isn't a dry eye in the house.

My Game of the Year: Spec Ops: The Line

This was a difficult decision.  The Walking Dead and Spec Ops both offer harrowing, violent experiences that will unnerve gamers. In truth, one personal, pivotal moment helped push Spec Ops: The Line’s impact just a bit above The Walking Dead for me, and it didn’t come until the credits started rolling. I sat the controller down on the ground and pondered over all the people I had murdered without guilt since I first beat in the head  of a grunt in Half-Life  with a red crowbar. How many innocent live had I annihilated in Civilization with nukes? How many  pedestrians had I run over in Grand Theft Auto? By this point in my life, I have more blood on my hands than Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan ever did.

All of those people are virtual, of course, but in that moment, it didn’t matter. A tide of guilt rolled over me, and I felt sick as I pondered how many times I had snuffed out a “life” because the rules of the game either encouraged it or demanded it and, worse, just how much fun I had getting caught up in murder.

I’ve played games that have tried to have this effect on me before, most notably Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater’s infamous Sorrow stage, where you’re forced to traverse down a river while sidestepping the ghosts of all the men you’ve killed. But that was more annoying than anything, an interesting idea with a faulty execution that resulted in a tedious minigame.

Spec Ops: The Line is both upfront and cryptic with you about its guilt tripping. “This is your fault,” the loading screen tells you, but there are situations where you are presented not with choices, but the illusion of choice.  Shoot the rattled prisoner you've just rescued because he's holding a gun in your face or wait for him to calm down?  Put a dying man out of his misery or save a bullet? Do the choices matter? Not really. Why should they, though? When all is said and done, this is a war, and another body is just good as any other. Plus, you’re the mass murderer playing crusader who’s creating the most bodies. Congratulations, hero.

From a gameplay standpoint, Spec Ops is only interesting enough to propel the story forward, which is actually appropriate in this instance. The quickly-dull mechanics actually add to the feeling of dreariness as you trudge through the hell on earth known as Dubai, killing man after man.

Is it an exploitative game? I don't think so. When you have a game tackling issues like war and PTSD, it may seem that way but, hey, it’s not using the war context to create a blockbuster game filled with entertaining bloodshed and explosions (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3). Instead, it uses war in the way that Apocalypse Now and Slaughterhouse-Five do, creating a destructive experience that views both war and humanity with sorrow, loathing, and regret.

Spec Ops: The Line is the reason I play video games. It’s a brave game that pursues a man’s psychological and moral collapse to the bleak end without ever looking away or even offering the smallest bit of hope. It’s a game that dared to condemn me.

Bioshock made me wonder if I was a slave to the rules of every game I’ve ever played. Spec Ops: The Line convinced me, for a moment, that I was a monster.  

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What do you think were the best games this year?  Let everybody know in the comments section below.