Stuart Scott
Games Developer
Associate Design Director
Stuart Scott
Games Developer
Associate Design Director
WriteXP
Here is a look back at my favourite games from 2024, including some honourable mentions of games that didn’t come out this year. This video is spoiler-free, but I do use footage from game trailers.
These are my top 10 games of the year for 2023. It was a standout year full of impressive new releases, but that doesn’t prevent games from previous years with post-launch updates appearing on my list. Sadly it was also a year of increasing layoffs across the industry, making 2023 a memorable year for games and those who make them for many reasons – good and bad.
In a year packed full of strong game of the year contenders it was always going to be difficult to find the time to play them all. These are the games I didn’t get much time to play in-depth before the year drew to a close, but what little I did play left a good impression – many of them I’ll be playing into 2024.
Now in ascending order, here are my top 10 games of the year for 2023.
When RoboCop: Rogue City appeared on the Steam Next Fest in the form of a free demo I thought I would give it a try. RoboCop versus The Terminator was one of my first games on the Sega Mega Drive, and I’ve not been this excited about playing the lumbering cyborg law keeper since I was a kid.
From the off, the demo was clearly hitting close to the mark with its returning characters and dystopian Verhoeven tones established in the original 1987 RoboCop film. Walking head-long through the hostage crisis presented in the game’s opening mission, with bullets harmlessly bouncing off my metal body as I violently dispatched the punks and with the RoboCop theme music swelling to a crescendo… this was everything I expected from a RoboCop game. So imagine my surprise when the game eventually opens up into the mundanity of regular police work around the station precinct – albeit with the darkly comic and bizarre incidents present in this world.
The presents a story that builds on the events and locations of the first film, with the level designers and artists showing a good attention to detail in recreating some of the film’s locations. This story is frequently interspersed with unexpected side quests and engaging characters which often prove to be the highlight.
With its comprehensive progression system, and overall enjoyable shooter experience this game turned out to be a great surprise which kept revealing more beneath the surface of this game at each turn. In that sense, it’s a brilliant companion to the original RoboCop film which showed the underlying humanity of Murphy beneath the surface of his gleaming cyborg armour.
Aliens: Dark Descent is another game that provides a brilliant companion to its original 80’s movie inspiration: Aliens. This franchise has seen many more games set in its universe compared to RoboCop, including Aliens: Fireteam which featured in my games of the year 2022 thanks to its multiplayer experience.
However, not since the fantastic Alien: Isolation has a game set in this universe encapsulated the true terror of the Xenomorph. Where Alien: Isolation focused on the individual survival horror present in the Alien film, Aliens: Dark Decent recreates the misplaced Colonial Marine bravado of Aliens that quickly gives way to panic and chaos as the squad faces a growing infestation of Xenomorphs on the planet surface.
In this top-down, real-time tactics game you must command a squad of Colonial Marines through labyrinthine compounds, avoiding patrolling Xenomorphs and rescuing the remaining inhabitants before the nest is alerted or your squad succumbs to the stress of the mission.
In many ways this game is riffing on the X:Com formula – a series I consider one of my favourites – complete with base upgrades and squad member progression. What it lacks in polish or visuals it makes up for in its real-time gameplay and mechanics that synthesise the terror and gadgetry of the Aliens universe into some truly gripping and engaging experiences. It’s a fantastically tense game of defensive strategy and pushing through the odds, using every tool at your disposal to complete each mission – or retreating to the dropship with whoever can make it as you lay down suppressing fire.
Dredge offers some similar moments of deciding when to push through the darkness to risk it all for potential rewards, or retreating to the nearest harbour to wait for the dawn light to dispel the eldritch horrors of the night. The vibes in this game are one of its biggest appeals, and as the game reveals its story of forlorn life on the treacherous waters it pushes you to face these horrors head on in the pursuit of unravelling the mysteries of the sea.
Negotiating your humble shipping boat through the various island biomes and open waters is often serene, interspersed with moments of excitement at a new discovery or terror at the unexpected, particularly during night time. The fishing mini-games are similarly serene yet engaging enough to provide a fun challenge that helps them feel rewarding each time you land a catch.
The game is very open to players from the outset who can freely travel anywhere they feel brave enough to explore. The main limiting factors being the wealth and resources the player can accumulate which they use to upgrade their ship and improve its health or inventory space. Consequently in my play-through I spent a lot of time upgrading my ship before exploring the other major islands which had the effect of undermining the challenge and tension from the mid-point of the game onwards.
Nevertheless, Dredge was a brilliant game that presented a compelling world of fishing discoveries and cult mysteries that was great to regularly pick-up and play on the Steam Deck.
After an early-access release in 2020, and the full release in 2022, Obsidian Entertainment’s Grounded continued to see updates through 2023 and it was at this time that I picked up the game to play with my partner and friends. What started as an initial curiosity and nostalgia for the clear movie inspiration for the game, quickly became an enjoyable co-op experience of discovery and hijinks.
The miniaturised fantasy and garden setting created a familiar, yet obtuse survival game experience that required a lot of experimentation and exploration to decipher the many crafting recipes and materials. However, this also contributed to frequently enjoyable discoveries that opened up more possibilities for playing in this world together that kept us returning night after night for weeks.
Although this type of survival progression system is not unique to this game, the setting provided a more compelling experience for us, and there is probably something to be said for eventually completing our personal goals of taking on the game’s spiders that for the longest time sent us running in fear. By the end of our time with the game we had established a vast network of zip-lines that spanned every corner of the backyard – thanks to the copious amounts of spider silk we were now able to collect unperturbed by the once fearsome spiders.
A cynic might look at Dave the Diver and say that it’s just taking the popular aspects of many other games and throwing them together to create its aquatic spin on the farming game. While not a wholly inaccurate assessment, there is an unmistakable craft and attention to detail in Dave the Diver that makes the collective offering of mini-games and familiar mechanics a brilliant package.
Much like the game’s culinary maestro, Bancho, who combines typical ingredients with a pinch of the unexpected to produce enticing sushi dishes, Dave the Diver takes these common gameplay staples and layers them to present a game loop that constantly invites you to play just one more in-game day.
The artwork and audio design really helps elevate the experience to provide a wonderful mix of chill vibes and wonder as you explore the depths of the ocean that is occasionally punctuated by brief encounters with new aquatic life – not all of it friendly. Returning to the surface, the restaurant management provides a different pace of gameplay as you create the perfect menu and serve your customers, eventually hiring staff and researching upgrades to remove some of the tension of the early game.
This was a brilliant game to pick up and play in small morsels, or enjoy as a full feast during a longer gaming session. Dave the Diver is one that I still dip into every now and then on the Steam Deck when I’m looking for a low stakes yet engaging game on the go.
As a follow-up to Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom was always going to have a high bar of expectations to overcome to be considered a success. The team at Nintendo evidently took this challenge literally and built on the success of Breath of the Wild by adding a whole new world among the clouds above the familiar Hyrule from before – that’s one way to overcome high expectations.
The team didn’t stop there though, providing a vast underground world to explore as well as reinventing the Sheikah slate powers to suit this much more vertical and expansive sandbox world. It’s in these new powers that the game really shines as an excellent toy that rewards creative solutions and experimentation. At times it feels like the player has access to developer cheats as they transport themselves vertically through the ground at the touch of a button using Ascend.
Other powers such as Fuse address complaints about weapon durability from Breath of the Wild, giving players a mechanism to combine elements in the world to make weird and wonderful improvised weapons with ease. Ultrahand gives the player the power to manipulate objects and fuse them together to create contraptions to navigate the world or solve puzzles with modular machinery components.
I only spent a little time playing Tears of the Kingdom this year, but the level of quality and design expertise on display was evident from the outset. It’s hard to deny that Tears of the Kingdom has surpassed the high bar of Breath of the Wild, in part by building directly on what made that game so successful. It’s only due to my limited time with the game that it sits at my number 5 for this year.
In 2017 I spent a lot of time with Darkest Dungeon on PC; steeped in its dark vibes and punishing difficulty, it was a somewhat masochistic relationship that would continue when I picked up the game on Switch a few years later.
With the release of the sequel this year, I was once again eager to jump back on-board for this new challenge with familiar characters in a re-imagining of the roguelike structure of the original game. Moving out of the confines of the dungeons of the first game, Darkest Dungeon II takes the band of misfit adventurers on the road in a stagecoach, avoiding ambushes, helping civilians and doing battle with cultists and eldritch horrors.
This change is more befitting of a traditional run-based roguelike and removes a lot of the complexity in managing deep rosters of adventurers to ensure that you can field a group to complete the next excursion. However, there is still plenty of depth and strategy in defining your roster for each run which often applies modifiers that encourage you to adapt on the fly and experiment with new rosters or loadouts.
The combat and punishing escalation of stress on your characters is also refined from the first game, ensuring that the experience still hits the same punishing challenge as before with some new surprises and mechanics. Thankfully the frequent failed runs are now less exponentially punishing as each loop resets your roster with the lessons and items from previous runs to put to good use next time.
One of the best additions to the game are the character memory events which must be completed to unlock new skills for your heroes. In what is one of the finest uses of mechanical storytelling I’ve seen, these events present scenarios from the hero’s past in the familiar combat mode that have your characters perform actions to tell their backstory. It’s a fantastically inventive method of telling these stories in an agentic and engaging way.
Given my deep enjoyment of the original, I was initially sceptical that this sequel could present something new and interesting in the Darkest Dungeon world. In shifting the format and structure of the game the team at Red Hook Studios may have smoothed off some of the spiky edges of the first game that made it a particular favourite of other masochistic gamers looking for that extreme challenge. For me, they’ve refined everything I enjoyed about the first game and the new additions here are still providing that hook that keeps me cursing the failed fortunes of my heroes before setting off another run with excited anticipation.
I didn’t know a thing about El Paso, Elsewhere when it released in September, but upon hearing Max Payne – one of my all-time favourite games – mentioned as inspiration for the game it immediately piqued my interest. Sure enough, from the first moment with El Paso, Elsewhere I felt like I was playing as Max, albeit by his new name of James Savage, shoot-dodging through doorways, chugging painkillers and monologuing at every opportune moment.
It was pure distilled Max Payne gameplay, presented in an ethereal dream structure of vampires and the end of days that actually reminded me of the weird, sporadic vibes of Hotline Miami. This was heightened with the music that would mirror the pace and crescendo of the action to give the experience a great rhythm as each level flowed from one to the other. This was also complemented with some great needle drops as the sequences ratchetted up in the story.
And then there is the story – one of love, breakups and self-reflection told brilliantly through some great performances by Game Director Xalavier Nelson Jr. as James Savage and Emme Montgomery as Draculae. It was a deeply effecting tale that embodied the joy and pain of being open with someone you care for and the fallibility of relationships that were never meant to be.
El Paso, Elsewhere packed a powerful punch for me as a fantastic homage to some of my favourite gaming memories from the 2000’s, but also surprised me with an emotionally resonating story and performances that made the whole game fascinating at every step.
I consider the latest incarnations of the Hitman series to be some of the finest games in recent years. This has been reaffirmed with the release of the Freelancer Mode and the rebranded World of Assassination collection that brought the 3 previous games under a single umbrella of Hitman goodness in 2023.
Freelancer feels like the perfect culmination of everything that the current series has been building towards, creating a whole new experience for players new and old to interact with the systemic playgrounds of the previous games. I was so fascinated by how the team at IO approached the creation of this new mode by repurposing the design and mechanics of the base games to produce a gameplay experience that was fresh, yet familiar.
The result was a highly replayable and enjoyable experience that also gave me a deeper appreciation of the foundational design and systems of play in the Hitman games. The Hitman series is definitely one of my all-time favourites and this collection of games will continue to be something that I will happily play again and again for years to come.
As highly as I regard Hitman World of Assassination, my number one slot for game of the year 2023 had to go to the brilliant puzzle game Viewfinder. Where Hitman was a fantastic iteration and collection of previous games in the series, Viewfinder was a surprising, innovative, and compelling debut from a small team that deserves to be recognised for its excellence.
The game is a finely honed package of mind-bending puzzles that has you playing with the reality of your surroundings through a blend of 2D media in a 3D space. Each collection of levels in the game’s story introduces you to a new way of viewing and manipulating your surroundings to make progress through its simulated worlds.
Playing with each new mechanic is quick and easy to intuit, and the escalation of how these toys need to be combined to navigate the obstacles in each level is inventive and highly rewarding to discover. As you begin to feel that you have stretched the limits of what it is possible to do with the current mechanic, the game moves on to another set of levels that provide a fun new toy to play with. This ensures that the experience is engaging throughout, but also manages the complexity of the puzzles presented to the player ensuring that the solutions are never too intangible or debilitating to the player’s progress or enjoyment.
The laid-back aesthetic of the game has an element of wonder and idyll, often presented by the calming AI companion, Cait, who guides the player on their journey through these virtual worlds in the guise of a smiling cat. This idyll is juxtaposed with the dark underpinning of the game’s story, which has you navigating this simulated world in the hope of discovering the secret to revitalising the Earth’s plant-life in the wake of a climate crisis. This was a deeply resonating story that reveals itself through the data and journals left by the simulation’s creators as you draw closer to the solutions hidden in the research program.
Viewfinder was such a wonderfully enticing game to play together with my partner, pondering over the puzzles and marvelling at the inventiveness and pure creativity on display. It was a technical work of art and the whole experience was a joy from start to end. A thoroughly deserved and memorable game of the year!
Here’s a look back at my games of the year for 2022. These are the games I’ve enjoyed playing the most over the last year as I catch up on my backlog, so expect a mix of genres and a couple of games from past years to make an appearance. The video below is spoiler-free – no plot points are revealed – but I do use some footage from game trailers.
These are the games that presented the most compelling or enjoyable stories at the heart of their experience.
These are the games that I put on to relax with at the end of the day, so it’s all about laid back challenge, simple inputs, and zen-inducing gameplay.
These are the games that are best enjoyed with friends, or offer that exciting competition with other players.
These are the games that I hit the pause button on playing, hoping to return to them again in the near future when I have more time, or as the experience continues to evolve with updates.
These are some of my favourite games that I’ve played in 2022, leaving lasting impressions and providing hours of enjoyment.
Early Access games – the latest trend in PC gaming. They allow gamers to pay for access to an unfinished product that draws upon its user’s feedback and funding to steer the game to completion. Often labelled as a ‘paid-Beta’, Early Access titles are proving to be a divisive topic between players, developers and the games media. However, as the number of new Early Access releases on Steam and other platforms increases it would seem that the format is set to continue for the foreseeable future.
So why is Early Access currently so popular? The benefits of Early Access for developers and consumers have been discussed before, but I think there are more answers to be found amongst Richard P. Gabriel’s thoughts on software acceptance, summarised by his phrase “Worse is Better”.
In his essay from 1989, Lisp programmer Richard P. Gabriel wrote a section titled “The Rise of ‘Worse is Better” where he described the concept of accepting a ‘worse’ solution to a problem, rather than the supposedly ‘right-thing’ to do. In this example, a ‘worse’ solution is one that is simple and limited in functionality compared to the ‘right-thing’ which is more complex and functional.
The core of Gabriel’s argument is that quality is not necessarily improved as functionality is increased, as software that can be used simply for a limited purpose will often be more accepted by users due to its practicality and usability. Crucially, ‘worse’ programs can be crafted and adapted at a much quicker rate compared to the ‘right-thing’, which likely faces longer iteration and usability testing times to function at its desired complex level.
Increased delivery speed leads to an increased use rate as more users adopt the ‘worse’ solution in favour of the unavailable ‘right-thing’. Gabriel describes this adoption process as a ‘viral’ outbreak due to the nature in which the program is spread through word of mouth and existing use, eventually leading to widespread acceptance. Once accepted, there may be pressure from users to expand the functionality but they have already been conditioned to accept ‘worse’ rather than the ‘right-thing’.
In time, the ‘worse’ program will ultimately become the ‘right-thing’ as it is adapted to cater to the increased functionality demands and requirements of its now diverse user base. With this in mind, let’s now look at how this applies to Early Access games.
When considering the benefits of Early Access, many commentators are quick to point out the financial benefits for small developers that the scheme affords them to produce their vision. Users are also empowered by a sense of contribution to a project that they are presumably interested in, be it through feedback or funding, as well as ‘rewarded’ through the titular Early Access to the game.
The game that the users have access to in those early days is a limited and often simplistic program, lacking the intended functionality required to adhere to the developer’s vision of a complete product. According to Gabriel’s terms, such a game should be considered ‘worse’ due to its lack of functionality and an adherence to his principle that “Completeness can be sacrificed in favor of any other quality”.
Taking the comparison further, the simplicity of ‘worse’ programs allows for quicker production rates that can be more readily adapted upon. As project scopes for games become greater, so too does the time in which it takes to complete them, but Early Access titles often boast of a more immediate feedback loop with their customers and consequently a potentially quicker iteration speed.
As mentioned earlier, the quicker a product can be released, the faster the use rate of that product can be increased, particularly in the absence of the ‘right-thing’. In the case of Early Access, developers can quickly push out the simple version of their game with the intentions of generating a user base to expand upon with further updates.
With a user base established, the hope will be to foster a community with these users that in turn increases the product’s visibility and incoming revenue. The importance of YouTube ‘Let’s Play’ videos and community word of mouth is crucial to the success of many modern Indie titles in the industry now. In our time of viral marketing campaigns, Gabriel’s 1989 description of the adoption of his ‘worse’ programs as a virus outbreak is eerily prophetic.
So as a means of funding and promoting a project, Early Access has clear benefits for developers, but it is not without its risks and pressures. Releasing a ‘worse’ version of a game can have a detrimental effect on the all important first impressions of a product that is missing key functionality, potentially preventing the project to gain widespread user acceptance.
If a developer is successful at fostering a community, they are then under pressure to satisfy their expectations and avoid game fatigue for fear of losing their customer base. This may lead to compromises from developers on their original vision of the project and what they deliver in the long run, not to mention risk being at odds with the proposal which enticed their first adopters. Such compromises may prevent the final product ever being the ‘right-thing’ that its developers and users wanted it to be.
When viewed in comparison with Gabriel’s concepts of software acceptance it may be easier to understand why Early Access is considered so divisive within the industry and amongst consumers. The greatest benefit of Early Access, when regarded as ‘worse’, is that it allows for quicker introduction and adoption from users with the ambition of widespread acceptance. It is a process that can provide improved revenue and marketing for smaller development projects that may allow them to compete for sales alongside the bigger budget productions.
However, it is not hard to imagine the Early Access scheme being exploited to facilitate the hurried release of a lesser product to reach the market ahead of an anticipated title. The viral success of the original DayZ mod soon led to a lot of similar products available on Early Access, perhaps looking to capitalise on the game’s popularity. Sadly, a similar precedent for this has already occurred in the mobile games market which has seen its fair share of clones and copy-cats looking to cash in on other’s success.
As the latest process that opens up the financial possibilities for games development to a wider range of users, Early Access will only lead to a more diverse collection of products available on the market. As it continues to gain more acceptance as a process, so too will the products created under the Early Access scheme, until eventually they may even be considered the ‘right-thing’. However, to achieve this goal, concerns regarding the honour system that currently revolves around Early Access transactions and user commitments to unfinished products will have to be overcome.
These concerns actually highlight the important reliance developers and consumers share with one another, and how Early Access may be leading the way to a more harmonious relationship with products that are usually more informed and tuned to their user’s needs when finally released. Whatever the ‘right-thing’ of future games development is, it will have to maintain this often fractious relationship if the industry is to continue its success. In this case, Early Access may be ‘worse’, but that does not mean that it is wrong.
In the final part of my look back at my personal gaming highlights of the year, I have decided to list my top 3 favourite games in rank order to reveal my Game of the Year 2013.
This year I have struggled to find a good reason to brush the cobwebs off my PS3, but with the release of Naughty Dog’s bleak and emotional The Last of Us, I was glad I reached for the duster. This masterful character driven game breathed new life into the console as the generation was preparing to make way for future hardware.
I wrote a blog post about the immersion breaking situations I often found myself in whilst playing The Last of Us, but this was more of an analysis of the problems of storytelling when creating believable worlds that players are then allowed to influence. To date, The Last of Us is possibly the finest attempt at tackling those issues, which is evident from my occasional dismay when the spell of immersion was broken despite the developer’s brilliant work.
It is that immersion within the world of The Last of Us and the connection to its characters which makes this game such a powerful experience. Whilst the majority of the gameplay is far from revolutionary, the implementation of the mechanics and the refined attention to detail makes the act of playing feel new.
The Last of Us is more than a brilliant story driven interactive drama that brings a fresh perspective to the tired themes of zombie apocalypse. As big budget, triple-A developments are considered to be burgeoning out of control and scope, Naughty Dog has proved that a large team of skilled developers can still create innovative and intricately polished products worthy of the attention they receive.
I have never found myself dreaming what it would be like to command a starship through the cosmos, engage in epic space battles or conduct interstellar diplomacy. That was until I played FTL!
FTL was often infuriating and seemed determined to punish me and my crew when we are at our most vulnerable, damning us to an inglorious death in the depths of space. Until I eventually completed the game, I went through numerous ships. Death by enemy boarding, oxygen starvation, deadly fires spreading…. But with each spacecraft’s passing, my determination to finish the game would grow and hopefully vengeance against the dastardly Rebels would be mine.
It was this constant threat and pressure that actually helped me become so invested in the outcomes of my crew and starship. Thanks to FTL, I was now weighing up the tactical decision of diverting power from my ship’s life support systems in order to direct a (hopefully) fatal blow to my attackers. The game was full of these tense and exciting moments that reminded me of some of my favourite situations when commanding my squad in the brilliant XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game’s punishing and thrilling gameplay that made the eventual moment of victory ‘oh-so sweet’. However, the enjoyment would not stop there as FTL had great replay value with new ships to unlock, species to meet and secrets to discover.
I remember hearing about Gunpoint many months before its release as I was directed to the dev-log of the game’s creator, Tom Francis. As soon as I saw the early gameplay footage and heard the way Francis talked about his project, I knew that this would be a game to pay attention too. Fast forward to the release and it was great to see the game lived up to its promise and my expectations.
Here was a puzzle game that refused to constrain players to simple right or wrong answers, and instead provided a freedom to experiment and imagine the most unbelievable solutions possible. Using an innovative hacking device that allowed players to rewire a building’s systems, the game offered an opportunity for an inventive and unpredictably fun form of stealth not seen before.
With the invention of this brilliant hacking mechanic, Francis created a gaming environment for players to craft a level to their own wishes beyond his design. This experimental playground was presented in the beautiful pixelated world of a private detective, complete with its own alternative Film Noir murder-mystery plot.
Full of typical British cynicism and humour that seems to be a mirror of Francis’ personality, the game is constantly witty and hilarious. The old adage of ‘Always leave them wanting more’ is quite apt when talking about Gunpoint, which seems to end as quickly as it hooks you into its opening scene. That said, with the vast possibilities offered in each mission and the addition of a level editor I am hardly going to begrudge this game for its short story length.
Gunpoint is the most perfect blend of refreshing ideas, enjoying experience and accomplished production that I have experienced in 2013, and quite possibly one of the finest games I have ever played.
In 2013 handheld gaming was bigger than ever. Nintendo finally seemed to be returning to form with popular releases for the 3DS such as Pokémon X and Y and Animal Crossing. Sony’s Vita has also dusted off the cobwebs thanks to the PS4 Remote Play functionality as well as new exclusives such as the imaginative Tearaway.
However, it is mobile and tablet gaming that has interested me most of all this year within the handheld market. Aside from the mega-success stories of titles such as Candy Crush Saga, I have found mobile gaming to provide some secret gaming pleasures that kept me exploring the Android Play Store. Amongst the numerous titles I played this year, these are my favourites that make up my list of Best Handheld Games of 2013.
Plug It! is a first-time release for new indie start-up haveUplayed and is one of the finest mobile games that (sadly) no-one is talking about. Using their device’s tilt and touch controls, players must guide Goi the lizard around the platform puzzler to help him ‘plug’ a hole before lava spews forth and destroys the lizard eggs!
It is a beautiful ‘cutesy’ game, but don’t let that deceive you to its challenging puzzles and gameplay. Thanks in part to the use of tilt controls, Plug It! requires quick reflexes and can be quite demanding, but haveUplayed have finely balanced the control system to avoid punishing at the cost of player enjoyment.
Packed with a selection of unlockable game modes and bonus levels, Plug It! was one of those mobile games that I would pick up with the intention of briefly playing with a quick cuppa. However, I often ended up determined to beat just one more level then realising my cup of tea had gone cold. You will be hard pushed to get a better compliment out of me for a game if I don’t mind losing a cup of tea to it every now and again!
Coming from ZeptoLab, makers of the popular Cut the Rope series of mobile games, it was no great surprise I was impressed with their latest offering, Pudding Monsters. This is a delightful puzzle game where you have to slide jelly monsters across a dinner table so that they can form into a bigger creature to save themselves from becoming dessert.
Much like the previous titles from ZeptoLab, this game has a charming and glossy presentation that I enjoyed whilst pondering over the puzzles. As I progressed through the game I was introduced to new monster types that offered new problems and techniques which kept the game fresh.
By using an inventive new 3-star reward system the game encourages replayability by presenting each level in a new light. Players are encouraged to complete levels in a multitude of ways, rather than simply awarding stars based on score, as is often the standard. Like the best mobile games, this is quick and easy to pick up and play, but hard to put down once you’ve started.
In case you hadn’t noticed, mining is kind of trendy in gaming at the moment thanks to games such as Minecraft, although where most games attempt to copy the format of such titles, Pocket Mine decided to try something different. In a game that perfectly utilises the functionality of mobile devices, Pocket Mine presents a simple game where the player must attempt to dig as deep as possible in the limited time provided.
Using ‘one-touch’ gameplay, players must tap a block to ‘mine’ it, but each tap weakens your pick axe until it eventually breaks. However, as you mine you will collect valuable ores that can be converted into in-game currency which can then be used to upgrade your pick for future excursions. As this might suggest, there are in-app purchases which is usually a major turn off for me in a mobile game. Thankfully, they are easily ignored and do not provide much benefit beyond the ability to prolong playing duration.
I found that the default time limit was more than enough for me to have an enjoying trip down the mine shaft and attempt to salvage some of the varied collectibles and power-ups or complete one of the random challenges. One of my favourite features of the game is the act of unlocking and building a deck of modifier cards which are then randomly selected at the beginning of each game. These ensure that each game has a slightly different experience or challenge that gets more satisfying the more you play.
Roofdog Games have crafted a finely balanced mobile game that presents a variety of ever changing rewards and challenges that ensure each play through is as fresh as the last. There is no shortage of things to achieve or unlock in the game and I’m constantly encouraged to play it whenever I find myself with a few minutes spare. Each bite-size session leaves me satisfied yet still hungry for more, though I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to playing it… honestly, I’m not!
Most new games have a variety of multiplayer options tailored to extend their lifespan and provide additional experiences for players beyond single player pursuits. This trend for ‘games as a service’ is understandable in a modern world where people are finding more ways to connect and socialise digitally.
Personally, I tend to prefer dedicated multiplayer games to satisfy my desire for social gaming, as opposed to the often shoehorned multiplayer modes offered by some games. Many recent games have introduced interesting multiplayer components to compliment their single player features, but none of those have managed to entertain me beyond mere curiosity. I have selected the following as my Best Multiplayer Games of 2013.
What originally started as a Half-Life 2 mod released in 2010, Chivalry is now a standalone release built on the Unreal Engine. This new revamped version of the game retains the inventiveness of the original whilst providing a more polished presentation and control. The result is a multiplayer game that gives players the opportunity to experience firsthand the intense brutality of ‘medieval warfare’, but also offers unintentional black humour.
Spurred on by the surprisingly comical player controlled battle cries, heading into a brawl rarely fails to be an enjoying, unpredictable and tense scenario unavailable in most other games. Skirmishes often play out like a battle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail rather than a grisly melee to the death.
Comedic novelty aside, Chivalry’s combat is finely balanced to ensure that it can be quickly picked up by new players whilst more nuanced control can be learnt for a more skilled play style. This helps to ensure that skirmishes are frantic yet balletic displays that can be quickly changed by the addition of another player charging into the fray. It is dangerous, thrilling, refreshing and ultimately fun; a brilliantly enjoyable multiplayer experience.
Released last year, Guild Wars 2 and its player populace seem to still be going strong, whilst so many other MMO’s have been struggling to survive this year. This is perhaps in part due to continued development and community support despite its lack of subscription service.
ArenaNet promised big innovations to the MMO format and they have certainly delivered on a number of their guarantees following the game’s release. Guild Wars 2 provides a rich and varied world for players to explore, socialise and compete within that rewrites a number of the conventions of the genre. With their Super Adventure Box ‘April Fools’ prank this year, ArenaNet demonstrated just how much they were determined to cater to a unique and entertaining world for their player base.
Not afraid to step out from the shadow of World of Warcraft and attempt new ideas, Guild Wars 2 has proved that there is space for more than one MMO in the market. The way the game handles individual storytelling and employs more fluid multiplayer gameplay are techniques I expect to see mirrored by future multiplayer focused games, regardless of genre.
Those of you who read my Most Disappointing Games of 2013 post may be surprised as to how Battlefield 4 could be included on this list. Yes, the game has been plagued with issues since its launch at the end of October, and yes, the game has been almost unplayable at times. But, the inevitable disappointment that this caused is proportionate to how much fun this game is when you do manage to play it without issue.
Continuing the exciting unpredictability of previous releases, Battlefield 4 is one of the finest games this year for providing those amazing moments that you eagerly want to retell to your friends or share on Youtube. It is only in the multiplayer environments of Battlefield that the random behaviour of 64 players can produce unique spectacle on such a consistent basis that ensures watching a game unfold is just as entertaining as playing.
It may be suffering from technical issues, but compared to the alternative multiplayer shooter experiences available this year it still provides the most exciting and unexpected gameplay. Despite its teething problems, it is already the multiplayer game that I have committed the most time to this year, and I’m sure that it will continue to entertain for a considerably long time (once the issues are fixed..!)
Usually games featured in a category of ‘Most Disappointing’ would be hauled up in front of the snarling public and shamed with the badge of disappointment, held to account for their crimes against consumer’s expectations…! This is rarely a form of constructive criticism but often only serves to vilify developers’ efforts more than provide insightful critique.
This list of games is not about shaming the efforts of the teams responsible for them, but is a reflection on my own expectations and how this ultimately led to my disappointment. The following games all entertained me during my time with them, but there was just something that tainted that satisfaction enough to distract me from total enjoyment. In retrospect, that ‘something’ was probably due to my own expectations and not so much a fault of the game.
Here is my personal list of the Most Disappointing Games of 2013.
In EA’s parlance, I am a Battlefield ‘Veteran’ that has enjoyed playing the series since the original BF:1942 and most of the iterations since. With the announcement of Battlefield 4 I wasn’t exactly giddy with excitement at the prospect of a new version, given that I was still enjoying the frantic action of Battlefield 3. However, as the launch date approached I could not help but feel intrigued as to how the ‘Levolution’ events would play into the chaos of 64 player warfare and what new features would be added.
So, with the game finally released I decided to jump on board and see what the future had in store for the Battlefield franchise. So much of what I enjoyed in the previous incarnation was still here, as well as some seemingly small additions that still provided an invigorating freshness to some tired aspects. Before long I was caught up in the excitement of new weapons to unlock, assignments to complete and maps to explore.
Sadly, the excitement was intermittent. Problems such as crashes to desktop, loss of game audio, temperamental hit detection and latency issues to name just a few, all severely marred the game in its early days of release. Online community forums and outlets for the game were quickly inundated with complaints and concerns, though thankfully the game’s developers appeared to be making efforts to rectify the serious issues.
With 2 months passed since its release, Battlefield 4 is starting to find some stability but it is a real shame that the game could not be closer to the intended quality upon launch. Whether through over-ambition or an inflated confidence, EA and DICE have stretched themselves and the formula of Battlefields gameplay to far for their own goals.
Troublesome launches are nothing new for the Battlefield series, and even knowing that going into the latest iteration, I was still dismayed to see the problems that have plagued this game already. I am still playing the game and hope that this instalment will be entertaining me long after release as the previous titles in the series have done.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown was quite possibly my Game of the Year 2012 (had I actually awarded such a thing this time last year!). The sense of perilous excitement I felt whilst trying to ensure my squad of operatives, named after friends and family, survived insurmountable odds was an experience I have longed to encounter again. It was clear that any follow-up in the series would have a high standard to reach in order to recapture my sense of engagement.
With the release of The Bureau I saw an opportunity to revisit the world of XCOM from a new perspective during the inception of the secretive agency at its heart. Set amidst the conspiracy and propaganda of 1960’s Cold War, the premise of clandestine ops and alien invasion was a natural and interesting fit for an XCOM prequel, and one that I wanted to experience.
One major difference between the two games was the blend of 3rd-person cover/shooter mechanics with the turn based strategy synonymous with the series. I was eager to see how harmonious this marriage of gameplay would be and hopeful for a continuation of the tactical dilemmas presented in Enemy Unknown.
However, whilst The Bureau is a very solid and enjoying game, at no point did I feel the engagement and excitement of commanding my squad of operatives against the deadly alien threat. 2K did well to implement the tactical interface in such an easy to use format, but due to my AI comrades inadequacy during combat I felt no desire to utilise them. Missing the camaraderie and connection to my operatives that was such a key part of my enjoyment in Enemy Unknown, The Bureau was unable to satisfy my XCOM fulfilment.
If The Bureau was to exist in a world without Enemy Unknown, it may well have garnered more praise from reviewers and players alike. Unfortunately, I don’t think it could have existed without Enemy Unknown, and despite confidently attempting to introduce a new gameplay experience, it was always going to have to live up to the success of its older brother.
Before Hitman Absolution was even released it had managed to disappoint me with its questionable portrayal of women as sexualised cannon fodder in the much maligned E3 2012 trailer. Overt sexism aside (of which much on the matter has already been written), it also presented the game as an all out action blockbuster, rather than the methodical assassin fare I was hoping for.
It was with much trepidation that I bought the game amongst promises from Square Enix of catering to fans of the previous Hitman titles with hardcore gameplay options and modes. Indeed, beyond the stunningly updated visuals, the core of a classic Hitman game could be identified.
Here was a game that provided a multitude of varying locales and instruments of death to ply Agent 47’s superior skills, but to what ends? Missions were now segmented into small chapters of conflict, often with a lack of assassination target or objective other than move onto the next area. This segmentation was presumably to encourage replay-ability of levels and promote experimentation of the environment’s elements.
However, this partitioning of the content seemed largely in order to push the player through the stifling story line that the developers had decided to embroil Agent 47 in, complete with cartoon characters and clichéd plot. It severely detracted from the essence of Hitman’s historically professional attitude as a gun for hire, forcing the player into new situations and foregoing the briefing and planning phase before missions. I relished those moments in previous titles of best laid plans going drastically wrong and having to improvise to avoid failure.
Absolution felt like a game that attempted to cater to Hitman players new and old, and it would seem that in trying to appease both it unfortunately left neither party truly satisfied. It introduced some interesting and inspired features to Agent 47’s arsenal that I would like to see return in a new Hitman title. Hopefully, if such a game is released in the future, lessons from this title will be learned and fans of the series could have the game they hoped for this time around.
What does it mean for a game to be intriguing? It could be due to the mechanics of its design, or perhaps the form of its presentation. It is the hint of a deeper purpose beneath the initial façade of a game, or possibly just the promise of a new experience for the player.
The following games demonstrated these and many more intriguing qualities to earn a place on my list of the Most Intriguing Games of 2013.
It was way back in March this year when I first played this bureaucratic credential checking simulator by Lucas Pope. At the time the game was still in development but a browser based version was available on Pope’s website.
Despite the apparently mundane premise of the game and the simplistic mechanics, Pope managed to evoke a lot of emotional and ethical dilemmas to the act of checking virtual passports. What initially started as an interesting diversionary challenge one lunch break quickly led to me questioning my own morals and humanity! Quite a journey to take in 30 minutes with a browser based game…
With the release of the standalone version of the game in August, Pope introduced further human complexities and ambiguities within his world of fictional citizens. Drama, intrigue and despair would be revealed by each hopeful stranger that approached your booth, taking you on a doubt filled quest of questionable incentives.
Pope successfully managed to transform the act of administrative work into a social and psychological commentary of trust, authority and humanity in everyday life, all in the context of a game. Such powerful responses are rarely exploited in a game, let alone as masterfully as Pope does in Papers, Please.
In April, industry luminaries, press representatives and internet commenters were all in unison on social media talking about a new game craze simply known as Candy Box. Such was the fervour surrounding the game and its deliberate mysteriousness that word of mouth quickly took hold and this viral intrigue would play a large part in how the game would prove so popular.
What initially starts as a sparse browser page with a number slowly ticking up begins to unravel into an ever expanding ASCII graphic adventure that rewarded experimentation and curiosity. The crude art style provided a charming nod to text-based adventure games of the 80’s, but also masked the devious psychological nature of the game’s design.
The constant, measured trickle of reward and discovery quickly led to many players becoming addicted to furthering their progress in this fantasy world, hoping to uncover new secrets. However, this deliberate drip feed was no more than a simple time gate intended to draw players back to the game in regular intervals.
It is a design employed by the infamous Facebook games such as Farmville that so frequently received condemnation from many of the people that were now singing the praises of Candy Box. Here was a game that subverted the opinion of many people in the industry, myself included, as to what an acceptable method of controlling player’s enjoyment within a game could be. That unwitting realisation may not have vindicated such design practices, but it definitely captivated a seemingly impervious market and demonstrated how we are all susceptible to addiction.
The Stanley Parable is a brilliant and inspired game that originally started as a Half-Life mod. The experience of playing The Stanley Parable is directly linked to the individual playing it, and therefore in many ways it is difficult to quantify what may captivate a player. In my case, as a Level Designer, I was led on a fantastically humorous journey where I knew the setup to all the jokes, but the punch line still always managed to surprise and entertain me.
The essence of The Stanley Parable was to hold a mirror up to the very fabric of designing and creating a story driven game where the player controls the protagonist. It plays with convention and expectation of level design principles, as well as narrative structure and implementation within games. Therefore, when I looked into the mirror I felt justified, ashamed, fascinated, inspired, entertained and surprised every time I played as each time was different. In fact, I think I will have to go play it just one more time…!
2013 has provided us with the end of eras, the beginning of a new generation and a wealth of controversy and success in between it all. As this interesting year in the industry draws to a close, people begin to look back and rank their gaming experiences.
Ignoring all the news stories and studio closures, what of the games that are the very essence of this industry?
What follows is a collection of the games that have nestled in my gaming memories of 2013, though (disclaimer for nit-pickers) they are not necessarily games that were only released this year. So without any further ado, here are the categories for the Stuart Scott Game of the Year 2013 awards!