2021 Community Game of the Year

Life is Strange : True Colors

Spoiler:

Probably my favourite of the Life is Strange games to date. A lot of that comes down to an extremely likeable protagonist (and her hella gay budding relationship with Steph, returning from Before the Storm) but also because I loved the focus on emotion and empathy with her supernatural ability. The conspiracy story side of it could have been better, and there are some plot elements that seem INCREDIBLY conveniently coincidental/convoluted, but overall in general this was a LOT of fun. I’m saving the Steph DLC for taking a break over the xmas period but i’m looking forward to diving back in.

Favourite thing: Holy Crap the facial animations are absolutely SUPERB. The dev team absolutely nailed showing subtle emotion in a way i’ve not seen any other games do and it blows my mind that i’m not seeing more people talking about it. I am EXTREMELY excited to grab the remasters of the original LiS series which should be due any week now, to see how much better they are with the same animation system implemented.

Cloudpunk

Spoiler:

Playing as a gig economy courier delivering parcels in a strange city : Boring. Playing as a gig economy courier delivering parcels in her HOVER CAR in a CYBERPUNK city with her AI DOG COMPANION : Absolute NOT boring! The voxel-art city is a gloomy delight to explore, the vehicle controls are smooth as heck, and the various stories and people you encounter are always interesting. I’ve not played the DLC for this yet but i had a blast with the base game so will definitely be checking it out at some point.

Favourite thing: Zooming around the neon soaked city.

Inscryption

Spoiler:

Ok so i bounce off of digital card games HARD, most of the time. Especially rogue-like ones. BUT Inscryption is much more than that. To say too much risks spoilers, but it combines elements of escape rooms, other game genres, ARG content, FMV and a whole heap of other surprises to keep you on your toes. It is a *fascinating* game to unpack and pull apart. Plus, the central card game mechanics - incredibly addictive. I played through it twice in a row and still drop in from time to time to play the opening act. Go into this one with as little pre-knowledge as possible is what I would recommend!

Favourite thing: So many surprises to keep you guessing!

Subnautica : Below Zero

Spoiler:

I LOOOOOVED Subnautica, and while this version is not quite as (heh) deep as the original (figuratively and literally) it still has plenty going for it. For one thing, the protagonist feels like an actual character this time around (and a lady to boot so - bonus points there) and her connection and growing relationship with ***SPOILER*** and where that takes the two of them in the end feels really earned and makes me hopeful that we’ll get to continue the story of these two characters in a future game. I’m a bit less enthused about the surface arctic-exploration stuff just because these games have always felt a bit cumbersome and clumsy for their “above water” stuff but the underwater side of things is still as much fun as it was in the first game. I've since played it through twice. It's a GREAT game to relax to and just do some base building in safe, shallow waters.

Favourite thing: Exploring underwater alien environments is still a LOT of fund and nerve wracking in equal measure!

Resident Evil 8

Spoiler:

I mean, let’s be honest. I am not shy about my…er… opinion of large powerfully dominant women and I think we ALL know who i’m referring to in this case. BUT… that aside, this is a damned good Resi game. I loved the reinvention of the series that 7 brought and 8 just ramps that up to ridiculous levels. It’s definitely lost some of the actual “horror” of 7, but the bombast and spectacle of this “sequel” is just as endearing. It’s a little…randomly disjointed and as usual the more it leans into the conspiracy / mad science stuff the weaker it gets but it is still really frickin’ fun even when the story takes a nosedive near the end. But I mean where else can you play a game where you go from getting hunted through a gothic castle by Mommy Dracula to fighting discount Bloodborne Magneto with a home-made tank?

Favourite thing: large vampire mommy Doms…
...oh wait you meant in the game? In that case….
....No…wait…nope it’s the same answer. *shrug*

Call of the Sea

Spoiler:

This is an interesting one, and it’s not going to be for everyone but it dropped at just the right time when i was in just the right mood and it’s stayed with me all year. It’s not a particularly challenging or technologically advanced game - it’s a small indie title with some exploration and a few convoluted puzzles to solve, but the story is an excellent cosmic horror inversion - rejecting the cynicism and xenophobia of Lovecraft, in particular a role reversal of the Shadow over Innsmouth from dark, insultingly racist portrayal of “half-breed foreigners” into a bright, colourful “personal journey of discovery” for the main character. Plus, the main characters journey into discovering her own truth and identity…that’s always going to connect with a trans person, lets be honest. It’s short and not particularly difficult (and probably pretty cheap now) so I highly recommend giving it a go.

Unpacking

Spoiler:

Oh GOOD GRIEF this was satisfying. Despite the fact my bedroom / home workspace is an absolute disaster zone right now, sorting out boxes of stuff into their proper place in videogame form was rather addictive. But above all is, Unpacking is an absolute MASTER CLASS in environmental storytelling. I Boo’d out loud as our unseen protagonist moves in with an absolute jackass of a boyfriend (who’s personality lies in, among other things, the fact that nothing of his can be moved around in his apartment, you have to squeeze in the protagonists belongings where they fit, and that means her college diploma has to go under the bed instead of on the walls because of all of his videogame posters). Then, a level or two later I cheered to see her unpacking in a new house, with a new companion and seeing only feminine clothes for her new partner. Yus! It’s pretty good and doesn’t out-stay it’s welcome.

Favourite thing: The audio/foley work is OUTSTANDING. Everything makes incredibly satisfying noises wherever you plonk them down!

Baldurs Gate 3

Spoiler:

I resisted as long as I could, but in the end the temptation to jump into the available content was too great. I have now played a significant chunk of the opening act (not ALL of it though, i did eventually pull myself away by the time I hit the new underdark areas) and so if it’s going to go on any GOTY list it will have to be this one. I *REALLY* love how this is shaping up. It is incredibly fun to be jumping back into Faerun in a non TTRPG way for the first time in ages and the way they have adapted the 5e rules (without copying them wholesale) works incredibly well with their Divinity 2 style setup). It has some VERY promising NPC’s (I deliberately shied away from doing too much NPC interactions for but at a surface level they are all super interesting and I look forward to wooing my dark eyed mysterious Shar worshipper in the final release!).
My only complaint at this stage really is that there’s no paladin class, so i can’t recreate my favourite tabletop character, but i have my fingers crossed that’s coming for the final release. Also the story - has the kind of setup i would 100% steal for my next FR campaign and i am INTRIGUED to see where it goes, and how it eventually ties back to Descent into Avernus.

Favourite thing(s): The music is outstanding, I love that they have included non-”evil” drow and have at least attempted a little nuance in some of the monster races, although given the direction the TTRPG is going in i would like to see a bit more of this.

Death's Door

Spoiler:

This is a VERY fun little action adventure game in the zelda mold, except you are an adorable crow doing his best collecting wayward souls and uncovering an old conspiracy. It is SUPER fun and just about the right difficulty level to be challenging but not impossible for someone with my clumsy ass reactions. I pretty much blasted my way through this over a couple of days and even went back to uncover all of the little collectables and secrets I missed, which is not something I do very often.

Favourite thing: The animations of your little crow dude doing very crow-ey things. It’s super cute.

The Solitaire Conspiracy.

Spoiler:

Dammit Blithel, you’ve done it again!

Ok, so…I LOOVE me some novelty solitaire games and this cyberpunk neon infused spy-nonsense is right up my particular megacity alley. It’s…well it’s solitaire, but also it’s NOT, really. Believe it or not you are operating a network of futuristic spies attempting to identify a rogue agent who threatens to disrupt the world order. It has ridiculously overblown music, some really cool 2d art (in that ‘wibbly animated through fx software’ sort of a way) and cheesy FMV starring Greg Millar.

Favourite thing : The music adapts and grows more dramatic as you complete a game in an EXTREMELY satisfyingly dramatic way. It is ridiculously extra and I love it

* * *

And the "in order" easy copy-paste list for Eleima's sanity:

Life is Strange : True Colours
Baldurs Gate 3
Resident Evil 8: Village
Subnautica: Below Zero
Inscryption
Solitaire Conspiracy
Death's Door
Cloudpunk
Unpacking

* * * *

Honorable Mentions:

Psychonauts 2 -- Great fun, but felt a lot like more of the same (just bigger). Probably not something i would go back to play again I think, and I left a lot of the side collectables and things un-collected.

Assassin's Creed : Valhalla and Immortals: Phoenix Rising -- I honestly had a blast with both of these games, but given Ubisoft remains unrepentant and unwilling to fix it's ongoing systematic abuse issues i am disqualified them and future Ubi games from any lists.

Gris -- Stylish and graphically stunning, the gameplay just didn't hook me in as much as the audio and visuals did.

In Other Waters -- A very different type of underwater alien planet exploration game, focusing more on story and written descriptions with some very cool "radar" style visuals and ending on a cool Body horror related note . Didn't make it on to the list because I'd picked it up from the year before to finish.

Carrion - Bit of a gimmick but i can't argue that rampaging through a facility AS the fleshy tentacle monster instead of the human soldiers didn't make for a refreshing change!

Rat Boy wrote:

TFW you write your list out and find out something on your Day 1 buy list is coming out before the 31st.

Yes, Matrix Awakens did look hype, didn't it?

ccesarano wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

TFW you write your list out and find out something on your Day 1 buy list is coming out before the 31st.

Yes, Matrix Awakens did look hype, didn't it?

I mean...save it for next year's list? I class December as the "next" year, given that there's almost always something that comes out late that runs over into January for me.

Thank you AcidCat, Timespike and pyxistyx for your lists!!! I'm feeling better about my list, because I'm seeing a lot of lists that don't have ten games. I'm not entirely sure I'll have ten games on my list either. Still digesting mine. Even though we're ten days into December!

I still need to figure out what the heck I played this year. Anything beyond about a month ago just blurs into everything else.

I was holding off on my list in hopes I could get a couple smaller games in before the end of the year, but now I think I'm holding off so I can give my current game a fair review.

The problem is the thing preventing the former is also what is preventing the latter: I actually need to make the time to play more of my current game.

tboon wrote:

I still need to figure out what the heck I played this year. Anything beyond about a month ago just blurs into everything else.

This is where I start with every year's list, but it feels especially true this year for whatever reason.

benign1 wrote:
tboon wrote:

I still need to figure out what the heck I played this year. Anything beyond about a month ago just blurs into everything else.

This is where I start with every year's list, but it feels especially true this year for whatever reason.

Since 2018 I have used this site to message myself a list of what I played. Usually each quarter or so. It's the only way I can remember lately. I used to use backloggery but gave up years ago

Stele wrote:
benign1 wrote:
tboon wrote:

I still need to figure out what the heck I played this year. Anything beyond about a month ago just blurs into everything else.

This is where I start with every year's list, but it feels especially true this year for whatever reason.

Since 2018 I have used this site to message myself a list of what I played. Usually each quarter or so. It's the only way I can remember lately. I used to use backloggery but gave up years ago

My strategy for several years now is to just track them in a separate word document that I open periodically and add new games to. If I beat something, I highlight it green, and if I drop it, I highlight it orange. And crucially, if I wrote a review for the Finished Games thread or one of the Club threads, I paste that into the document. It takes a just a little bit of time throughout the year to maintain, but it makes remembering what I played and what I thought about them a breeze when GOTY time comes.

I list games on my steam user page and backloggery as soon as I finish them, so by the end of the year i have a handy, dandy list to refer back to

Sundown wrote:

My strategy for several years now is to just track them in a separate word document that I open periodically and add new games to. If I beat something, I highlight it green, and if I drop it, I highlight it orange. And crucially, if I wrote a review for the Finished Games thread or one of the Club threads, I paste that into the document. It takes a just a little bit of time throughout the year to maintain, but it makes remembering what I played and what I thought about them a breeze when GOTY time comes.

Yeah, this.

Once a month of so I pop open the doc and add everything I've played since the last update, maybe scribble a few notes, and that becomes the basis of my GOTY writeup at the end of the year.

I play so many games (and now spread across multiple platforms/storefronts) that it's the only way to keep up.

Sundown wrote:

My strategy for several years now is to just track them in a separate word document that I open periodically and add new games to. If I beat something, I highlight it green, and if I drop it, I highlight it orange. And crucially, if I wrote a review for the Finished Games thread or one of the Club threads, I paste that into the document. It takes a just a little bit of time throughout the year to maintain, but it makes remembering what I played and what I thought about them a breeze when GOTY time comes.

I used to do similar but have grown too lazy/forgetful. Would rather just play a game. 2018's list was mostly useless because I forgot to add about half of what I turned out to have played plus what I did add was a re-play. Just a mess.

Sundown wrote:
Stele wrote:
benign1 wrote:
tboon wrote:

I still need to figure out what the heck I played this year. Anything beyond about a month ago just blurs into everything else.

This is where I start with every year's list, but it feels especially true this year for whatever reason.

Since 2018 I have used this site to message myself a list of what I played. Usually each quarter or so. It's the only way I can remember lately. I used to use backloggery but gave up years ago

My strategy for several years now is to just track them in a separate word document that I open periodically and add new games to. If I beat something, I highlight it green, and if I drop it, I highlight it orange. And crucially, if I wrote a review for the Finished Games thread or one of the Club threads, I paste that into the document. It takes a just a little bit of time throughout the year to maintain, but it makes remembering what I played and what I thought about them a breeze when GOTY time comes.

I've been maintaining a spreadsheet of what I've been playing all year, tracking anticipated completion time vs actual, anticipated gaming time vs reality (ugh, what a sad metric!), etc. It's not hard to look in there to see what I played, I'm mostly just surprised that I don't have any idea what my top 10 looks like off the top of my head this year despite having tracked all that.

I do like that bit about dropping posted commentary on finished games into the doc, I might have to incorporate that one.

Eleima wrote:

Thank you AcidCat, Timespike and pyxistyx for your lists!!! I'm feeling better about my list, because I'm seeing a lot of lists that don't have ten games. I'm not entirely sure I'll have ten games on my list either. Still digesting mine. Even though we're ten days into December!

It has been a heck of a year. I enjoy video games, but I haven't been able to invest in the hobby as much as I usually do, especially mentally. There's no shame in that, and as long as you're taking care of yourself and those close to you, there's nothing to feel bad about.

i mean, same. Most of my energy has gone into TTRPG stuff this year, both running and creating sides of the hobby.

pyxistyx wrote:

i mean, same. Most of my energy has gone into TTRPG stuff this year, both running and creating sides of the hobby.

Same on that, honestly. I was one of the designers on Level Up, and now I'm working on a big supplemental project for that with several other members of the original design team. It's going well, but it's sure kept me busy!

Timespike wrote:
pyxistyx wrote:

i mean, same. Most of my energy has gone into TTRPG stuff this year, both running and creating sides of the hobby.

Same on that, honestly. I was one of the designers on Level Up, and now I'm working on a big supplemental project for that with several other members of the original design team. It's going well, but it's sure kept me busy!

You should post about it in the tabletop thread!

So, an odd year of gaming this year, which included a few games I felt I should play, but probably wouldn't have bothered if something else had not given me the impetuous to do so. However, I'm glad I did as it led me to one of the best games I have ever played in - well, coming on 40 years now - but as I don't tend to follow the zeitgeist I'm about 2 years behind everyone else on it.

Here's the list, I'll do the writes up later on.

1. Disco Elysium
2. Old World
3. Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock
4. Control
5. Tyranny
6. Solasta: Crown of the Magister
7. The Outer Worlds
8. Crying Suns
9. Pathfinder: Kingmaker
10. Star Traders: Frontiers

1: Disco Elysium

Spoiler:

I really went into this game not knowing what to expect as, despite all the critical praise it's received since release it probably isn't really a game I would have chosen to play. In the end it took the cRPG club to get me there and even then I did it out of sequence.

But my word I'm so glad I did. I experienced this game, I didn't play it - in many ways I rather think it played me instead. From that opening scene - which originally put me off due to a personal bereavement - This tale of a very broken person just trying to find a reason to exist amongst the wreckage of their life and city they inhabit, through to how the story slowly teases itself out and how it handles so many of the plot points as it progresses, it spoke to me in a way that very very few gaming experiences have ever done in the decades I've been a gamer.

It's not perfect - the political overlay is something I didn't really engage with during the course of my game, possibly because real world politics has been so difficult in recent times, but as an experience it immersed me totally the time I spent with it, and left me thinking about everything I did and everything I said during the course of the investigation. Anyone who thinks games are not art needs to play this game, it's simply stunning.

2. Old World

Spoiler:

The 4x it feels like Soren Johnsen has always wanted to make. It works like Civ in terms of exploration, expansion, exploitations and extermination, but adds a dynasty system for your family as your descendants control the fate of your empire.

When it works it really works - the gameplay is as tight as any 4x in recent times, with simple mechanics that are easy to understand before you start seeing the complexity in how it all connects together. The Dynasty system makes for wonderful storytelling on top of that layer as you work how who's best for you offspring to get married to, and what direction in life you want them all to take. Where it falls down slightly is that despite all those choices, it really seems to make that much difference to what's actually going on in the game (unless your heir is insane of course), and the military side of the game seems to overwhelm everything else.

Still, as a new entry in the increasingly crowded 4x genre, this stands on it's own merits as one of the best available

3. Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock

Spoiler:

An unexpected gem of a game that takes a simple if well thought out 3D space combat system, and welds it to a serviceable strategic campaign of large space ships blowing the crap out of each other set during the first Cylon war.

It follows that premise of "simple of understand, hard to master" gameplay, where you set your ships up to manoeuver their way across the field of engagement, minimising damage where you can and focusing fire into devastating salvos need to break through the armour of the Cylon ships. It's more akin to Blendo game's Flotilla or Homeworld's mechanics than something like Star Wars: Squadrons, and there are few feelings more satisfying than seeing your Battlestar manage to pitch and yaw itself into harms way, before unleashing the perfect flak barrage to wipe those incoming nukes.

Thoroughly recommended as one of the best space combat games I've ever played.

4. Control

Spoiler:

The "It's in my pile of free games from Epic that I should really check out" game. Installed on a whim, I had no idea what to expect. What you get is a great 1st/3rd person exploration/story/shooter game that has a spookily effective plot which the gameplay, audio and interactions all reinforce into something really quite compelling. I'm not usually one for this games, but much like Disco Elysium this is a game that is making me question my apparent prejudices and be more prepared to try something outside my comfort zone on occasion.

5. Tyranny

Spoiler:

The "cRPG that everyone's forgotten" game - another game that the cRPG club got me around to playing. It's clearly Obsidian playing around with the Pillars of Eternity construct to see what else that they could come up with. It results in a game with some many systems that are nearly superb - the magic system especially is a part of this - but don't quite add up to greatness within the game. However it's also a game that clearly ran out of time, leaving a frustratingly truncated experience that is much less than this game deserves. The plot doesn't help here, as the left hand of a despotic but all powerful tyrant, it still seems to rewarding the "good" choices over the "evil" choices for the duration.

6. Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Spoiler:

In amongst the heavyweight cRPG revivals currently ongoing, Tactical Adventure's take on the 5th edition DnD ruleset certainly lacks the polish of their more illustrious rivals, but also is more than capable of holding its own. The turn based combat it well thought out, some of the location show real imagination in both setting and 3D environment building, and the story is serviceable enough to hold its own.

Yes it's not the best looking game, and the quality of the voice acting is more than a little amateur dramatics society level, but it deserves to be counted among the better of this years releases. Plenty of other developers could take a look at their ideas and learn a great deal.

7. The Outer Worlds

Spoiler:

The other type of RPG that Obsidian make - a colourful, silly and above all fun open world(ish) RPG that eschews the more serious takes that Bethesda infuse their games with, and instead says what it wants to say with lashings of humour that hits more than it misses. It's limited for sure, and more than a little repetitive in places, but as a gaming comfort game, it knows exactly what it's doing and doesn't quite outstay it's welcome.

8. Crying Suns

Spoiler:

Another "it's in my pile of free games from Epic and I should really check it out" games, this is an FTL / rogue-lite clone with an extended story. The game play is easy to pick up and it's not as random - or brutal - as FTL could be, with tight little tactical battle encounters that are fun to play around with, with different ship types giving you different ideas to try. More than worth the time I spent with it.

9. Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Spoiler:

I came back to this game after seeing all the praise that Wrath of the Righteous received, and while I'm glad I gave it that second chance, I say that through gritted teeth. As a cRPG it deserves it place to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity or Divinity: Original Sin - it's not as good as any of them for sure, but it is a remarkable achievement for a first (at the time) developer.

However, I've never played a game that has less respect for your time as a gamer. Owlcat set out to make a Pathfinder campaign on a computer - not a cRPG that uses the Pathfinder ruleset. It's a fine distinction but critical, because a computer can't step in and be a DM when the rules are working as expected, but basically breaking the whole experience and making the game unplayable. Battling through to the end of certainly one more heroic feats of gaming endurance I've indulged in, but I did get there. One for the purists to be honest.

10. Star Traders: Frontiers

Spoiler:

Last only by reason that I just haven't given it the time it so clearly deserves, this space exploration game looks basic on the surface but has so much depth to it that you quickly feel like you are drowning in options of what to do, what to be and how to play it. In the end it was too much for me - at the time - but clearly there is so much going for this game. Think of it as a 2D Elite / X4 clone, which allows you to take a ship, select a motley crew and then just head out into the galaxy and do just whatever the hell you like. Definitely the game I need to go back to.

Nice to see Crying Suns. I think I left it off of my 2020 list because I got it on Android and forgot about phone games months later when I made the list. But it was fun. I really enjoyed the grid combat.

As usual, my list is Nintendo-centric and somewhat behind the times. My kids are getting old enough to game though, so that will start keeping me more current.

1. Super Mario Odyssey - Switch
My son is OBSESSED with Mario. We got him this for his birthday in September and it has been a blast. He watches YouTubers do playthroughs and then will tell my wife and I where to go to get our moons. We're all on different saves as well, so he's managed to get 200+ moons of his own (with a little help one some boss battles). I'm not a Mario expert, but I have been playing for the last 32 years of my own life. This game is one of the best.

2. Monster Hunter Rise - Switch
I almost forgot to include this until I saw it one someone else's list. I've had a Monster Hunter game going in the background for years, so I just assumed this was a last year title. It amazes me how they are able to take the simple concept and continually refresh it. I was worried they would take all the easy stuff from World and cram it onto the console, but they really hit that balance between quality of life enhancements and maintaining the challenge of the grind. Super happy with this. I am still getting used to not having an "ultimate" version straight away. Waiting for more end-game content has been hard! (fun bonus: GameStop just got in a new batch of amiibos last weekend, so I was able to pick up a set for me and my playgroup!)

3. Super Mario Maker - WiiU
I got this for Christmas 6 years ago and just opened it, again to play with my son. Wow! This is such a fun and cool idea! And it's so easy to use. My four-year old is making levels and having a blast. Some of them don't make any sense, sure, but they all have giant baddies and usually a Bowser or two at the end to blow your face off. And he is loving every minute!

4. Gloomhaven - PC
I played the board game for a few months. I appreciated the scale, but I don't think it deserved all the hype. This is not "the greatest board game of all time." My take has always been that it may be a great game, but it is not a great board game. There is simply too much overhead. But the PC version fixes all that! There is still a lot of complexity, but it streamlines so much that it makes it manageable.

5. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Switch
There's a bit to like here, and then there's all this area of missed potential. The characters are fun and the multiplayer is a lot of fun. The solo campaign though felt like a slog and the levels often felt like they were missing something. Still, it makes the list because I only played 5 new games this year. And I will say I haven't tried most of the content added for free after the games release. If nothing else, I am excited to play as Wiggler

There's a part of me that wants to put Rise as my #1 to pad its numbers. It's not often I am playing a current game that might make a list, so my vote actually counts this year! But if I'm being honest, Odyssey is the better game. So this is my call to all you hunters out there - vote Rise!

Jonman wrote:
Sundown wrote:

My strategy for several years now is to just track them in a separate word document that I open periodically and add new games to. If I beat something, I highlight it green, and if I drop it, I highlight it orange. And crucially, if I wrote a review for the Finished Games thread or one of the Club threads, I paste that into the document. It takes a just a little bit of time throughout the year to maintain, but it makes remembering what I played and what I thought about them a breeze when GOTY time comes.

Yeah, this.

Once a month of so I pop open the doc and add everything I've played since the last update, maybe scribble a few notes, and that becomes the basis of my GOTY writeup at the end of the year.

I play so many games (and now spread across multiple platforms/storefronts) that it's the only way to keep up.

Ya'll so organized. I just look through my purchasing history at the last minute and pick what stuck.

List:

1. Valheim (PC)
2. Crusader Kings 2 (PC)
3. Subnautica: Below Zero (PC)
4. Alba (Switch)
5. KingSim (PC)
6. Wildermyth (PC)
7. Nuts (Switch)
8. Cards of the Dead (Switch)

My PC has died and moving house + Christmas + holiday travel means I can't see myself getting any more gaming in this year (it hasn't been a big gaming year for me on the whole).

Look forward to doing my usual and pillaging the resulting top 10 (and specific user lists) for what to play next year. Here's hoping none of them are as disappointing for me as Hades was...

My list... if I have time I will add text and pretty pictures, but I haven't had time in years...

1. Mass Effect (via Mass Effect Legendary Edition)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. Astro’s Playroom
4. Life is Strange: True Colors
5. Hitchhiker: A Mystery Game
6. Loop Hero
7. Disco Elysium
8. Stardew Valley
9. Eastward
10. Fantasian

As usual it pains me to put any of these games in the bottom five. I enjoyed them all enormously but here is my order as it stands today. I’ve noted where I played a game co-op as I can’t speak to how good the singleplayer experience was. Much love to the friends I played co-op and multiplayer with this year. Those games and my gaming in general would be nowhere near as enjoyable without you. I look forward to continuing our virtual adventures together.

Also, many thanks to Thatguy42 who sent me his copy of Mutant Year Zero when I was hesitating about buying the game. Without your kind act I may never have experienced the incredible characters, a particular stand out being an eyepatch wearing, cockney fox called Farrow, or the satisfyingly gritty and tactical turn-based combat.

1. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
Out here, everything hurts.
- Imperator Furiosa, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Spoiler:

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Thronebreaker, despite being up against many stellar co-op games this year, clung, limpet like, to the top spot on my list. It’s tenacious hold on the number one slot only started to make sense when I remembered that my play through of The Witcher 3 never recovered from my encounter with a card game called ‘Gwent.’ After that point the Witcher 3’s world became an overly elaborate back drop for my adventures as an itinerant Gwent player.

Thronebreaker also appeals to my love for stories of armies both historic and fantastical. Tales of arduous campaigns and cunning, tide turning strategies. I’m particularly drawn to stories of armies faced with impossible odds who’s chances of victory seem only to diminish. One of the games that cemented my love for gaming, Myth: The Fallen Lords, contained one such story Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is another.

2. Orcs Must Die 3 (played co-op)
Legolas: Final count forty two.
Gimli: Forty two. Ooh. That’s not bad for a pointy eared, elvish princeling.
I myself am sitting pretty on forty three.
- Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Spoiler:

Put to the test

Observation
On the surface Orcs must die 3 is a cartoonish game full of cheesy one liners, comical orcs and slapstick humour but underneath that light hearted veneer is a solid, meticulously balanced ‘tower defence’ game with an astonishing amount of polish and, on higher difficulties, a stiff, often mind bending, challenge. That contrast between surface style and gameplay is something not often seen in games.

Question
Does this seeming miss match in tone between the light hearted presentation and the underlying, robust strategy game help or hinder the experience of playing the game?

Hypotheses
It could be argued that the art style in the Orcs must die series appeals to one type of player whilst the gameplay appeals to another, quite different, type of player. That fact might go someway to explaining why entries in the series often pass without much critical fanfare despite (in this scientist dispassionate and completely unbiased opinion) being one of the best co-op experiences available.
I propose though that, this potential downside aside, the art style and gameplay work extremely well when it comes to keeping players engaged during times of frustration or failure when their patience and perseverance are being sorely tested.

Experiment
Two volunteers (hence forth referred to as Spikeout and Higgledy) were selected to play through the campaign acquiring five skulls for every map on the highest difficulty ’Rift Lord’ (the volunteers had previously played through the game together on the regular difficulty.) The five skulls challenge meant that they would have to complete various tasks, including letting no orcs into the rift and finishing a map within a set, and very tight, time limit. This challenge was considered to be likely to generating the levels of frustration in our test subjects needed to test the hypothesis.

For this experiment we focused in on a particularly difficult map called ‘Hidden Dock.’ (See fig 1.)

Level: Hidden Dock
Number of players: Two
Time limit: 00:11:30

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Fig 1. Map ‘Hidden Dock’

On this map the orcs progress down two sides. The western and eastern corridors are wide with columns down the middle making them harder to guard and trap thoroughly. Once the enemies reach the southern corridor and are approaching the rift from either side, it’s an incredibly short distance to the rift.

What follows are records of a series of attempts by our volunteers. They aren’t consecutive. There were multiple mid-match restarts in between when an orc entered the rift invalidating the run. To preserve the blushes of our test subjects the true number has been hidden and these key examples are labelled alphabetically.

Attempt A

The volunteers were in good spirits despite having made over a dozen attempts at preventing orcs from entering the rift. After experimenting broadly, mostly defending the western corridor, the pair settled on a strategy where they would place all their defences in the southern corridor on either side of the rift. This worked reasonably well. On this attempt they set about getting their completion time down below 11.30.

Reactions to comedic/light hearted elements: some chuckling at orcs being flung out to sea by flip traps.
Swearing: Moderate
Time completed: 00:11:36
Time over: 6 seconds

Post match transcript:
Higgledy: What do you want from us?!
Spikeout: ****ing six seconds
Higgledy: No
Spikeout: Aaaagh
Higgledy: How do we shave time off that?
Spikeout: I know. Unless… we could branch out more and put them [the traps] further up. ****in’ hell. That seems a rough ****ing result there.
Higgledy: (laughing) It does
Spikeout: After all that
Higgledy: We poured our hearts and souls into that.
Spikeout: I know. Bloody did too.

Attempt B

For this attempt the subjects felt that they could easily make up the six seconds with more pace and aggression.

Reactions to comedic/light hearted elements: More chuckling at flip traps. Delighted reaction from Spikeout to a new line from his character.
Swearing: light
Time completed: 00:11:34
Time over: 4 seconds

Post match transcript:
Higgledy: surely that was quicker than we’ve done before
Spikeout: Probably about one second. We’ll see. Four seconds ****in’ hell
Higgledy: Really? That’s ludicrous. We pushed that. It felt a lot quicker.
Spikeout: It did. Flip me. That’s wild. That’ll do me for now.
Higgledy: Same, same. Yeah. We can have a go on it again fresh but that seems like the right strategy doesn’t it?
Spikeout: It does like. But that is… I was sure we were at least thirty seconds quicker than we’d done before there.
Higgledy: Yeah
Spikeout: Bloody… bloody nora as you would say Higgledy.
( Both laughing)

Attempt C

The pair worked very quickly to take down the first waves as they emerged from their respective gates. They also placed traps further out from the rift.

Reactions to comedic/light hearted elements: Higgledy laughed uncontrollably for a period of time as he tried to describe an event where a trap, planted by Spikeout, unexpectedly wiped out a large orc directly in front of him.
Swearing: Moderate
Time completed: 00:11:31
Time over: 1 second

Post match transcript:
Spikeout: Oh my god. One second.
Higgledy: Really. Jesus.
Spikeout: 11:30 and we did it in 11:31. That’s ****ing outrageous.
Higgledy: It is. It is.
Spikeout: Oh my god. I want to get this so bad like.
Higgledy: (laughing)
Spikeout: I’m going to set my watch for eleven minutes and then we’ll say, right, we’ve got thirty seconds left.
Higgledy: Right. Yeah and then we can just go for it. Just run out and if anything gets past us it gets past us sort of thing.
Spikeout: Yep exactly.

Attempt D

The subjects set a timer so they could monitor how much time they had left to complete the map. In the last thirty seconds they moved outwards dealing with the last remaining enemies as quickly as possible.

Reactions to comedic/light hearted elements: laughter at orcs being buffeted by a haymaker. General comments on the pleasures of orc based slapstick.
Swearing: Light
Time completed: 00:11:18
Time under: 12 seconds

Post match transcript:
Spikeout: Yes!
Higgledy: Yes. Brilliant.
(Both exhale loudly)
Higgledy: Thank heavens
Spikeout: Uhu, sweet
Higgledy: It’ll be interesting to see what the time is. It’s gotta be quite a bit better. Well, at least ten seconds better.
Spikeout: 12 seconds. You do have to work for that don’t you like.
Higgledy: You do. You do. 12 seconds was the actual time we improved was it?
Spikeout: We got twelves seconds under. We improved our last time by 13 seconds.
(Laughter)

Analysis
Some may see this study as a sham, a shameless framing devise for pieces of dialogue the author wanted to highlight. Those people wouldn’t be wrong. The observations and the subsequent question posed though are honest ones. When Spikeout suggested playing this latest iteration in the series I wasn’t that keen. The art style and the goofy humour tended to suggest a game that would be a shallow experience. After playing Orcs Must Die 3 regularly for a couple of months I can safely say that nothing could be further from the truth.

Conclusion
A true experiment on this subject would, of course, involve two versions of the game, one with the elements being tested present one with them removed. Two groups of players would experience one or the other and the results in terms of play time, etc would be compared but, as flawed as this ‘study’ is I think we can all agree that the results invite further research, possibly in the form of more DLC? (see fig 2)

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/11FiDF2fuOujPG/giphy.gif)
Fig 2. A gif of respected fictional scientist Ian Malcolm.

Appendix I
I try not to include YouTube videos with my scientific papers but these examples of teamwork from our subjects were too good not to be recorded for posterity. Understandably, there is NSFW language throughout. At the very end there is an appearance from laboratory cat ‘Flynn.’

Appendix II
I thought this was an interesting reminder that slapstick humours has been around for a long time:

Slapstick, a type of physical comedy characterised by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, usually violent action. The slapstick comic, more than a mere funnyman or buffoon, must often be an acrobat, a stunt performer, and something of a magician—a master of uninhibited action and perfect timing.
Outrageous make-believe violence has always been a key attraction of slapstick comedy, and, fittingly, the form took its name from one of its favourite weapons. A slapstick was originally a harmless paddle composed of two pieces of wood that slapped together to produce a resounding whack when the paddle struck someone.

- Encyclopaedia Brittanica (2021)

3. It Takes Two (co-op game)
And now for something completely different.
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1973)

Spoiler:

When coming up with an idea for this write up I kept wanting to describe one particular boss fight for you. Part of me is still keen to talk about that fight and how impressive it - appropriately enough, as I write, a little black cat has arrive on my chest. I’m now holding the iPad by one corner with the two fingers and thumb of my left hand, whilst the same hand supports his back end, and typing with my right. He’s staring out through the French windows and purring. Flynn’s foster family described him as a ‘cuddleaholic.’ It’s apt, especially in winter when I’m a ready source of warmth and chin tickles.

Where was I? Oh yes - Part of me is desperate to describe that boss fight and how fun and inventive it was, with the Shymlark and I doing radically different things at the same time (it involves a baboon and changes of scale) but, ultimately, I feel it would be a disservice to anyone who end up playing the game. There are many astonishing sequences as you progress through It Takes Two and they yield equal amounts of delight and amazement. We regularly marvelled at how often the developers switched mechanics and even genres and how well it all worked. I’d enjoy describing many of those sections of the game to you but, again, part of the joy of those moments is discovering them for yourself. So, instead, I am going to use this time to go over the best and worst sleeping positions for you cat whilst gaming.

To get a couple of obvious facts out of the way. You don’t have much choice in any of this. Flynn has phases when he doesn’t visit me at all and phases, like now, when he’ll turn up two or three times a night angling for a cuddle. Where he plonks himself is really up to him but he does seem to progressively favour sleeping positions that are better for him and me. Sometimes, when he arrives, I’ll stop playing and watch something instead so I can fiddle with his head, which he enjoys or kneed his tummy with my knuckles, which he really enjoys.

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1. Above the hands can work for a time but Flynn seems to slowly increase in weight as he lies there. That weight, he’s small but he’s dense, presses down on the back of the thumbs making it difficult to use the thumb sticks.

2. In the crook of the elbow is a lot more stable and the weight is easier to support with the arm, especially if the arm is, in turn, supported by the arm of a chair or sofa.

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3. Along the arm is even better than curled in the crook of the arm because the weight is more evenly distributed. This one is very comfy.

4. No idea what was going on here.

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5. The PS4 controller feels like it was designed to fit across a small cat’s back. This position and the next are equally comfortable.

6. Facing away from you is slightly better than facing towards you because the cat has an escape route that doesn’t involve your face. I foolishly went hunting mountain lions in Red Dead Redemption 2 with Flynn in this second position. Let’s just say Arthur wasn’t the only one who nearly received a mauling.

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7. If your cat has naturally high levels of friction they can curl up in the middle of your chest. This is not an advisable position after a heavy meal.

8. Centre chest with the forearm supporting looks like it shouldn’t work but it does seem to and it keeps the hands free of restriction. Again, I only recommend it for short periods and not after meals.

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9. On one recent occasion Flynn arrive on my chest during a good run at a challenging boss in Absolver. He stood there thinking just long enough for my attempt to go completely off the rails then decided he didn’t want a cuddle after all and left. On a similar occasion in Orcs Must Die 3 I was able to peer round him whilst saying, “Lie down. Lie down then good boy,” until he complied. To be fair to the lad he’s generally very good and can, once settled, happily lie still for extended periods of time while I kill orcs or practice my kung fu.

10. An equally bad position but with a worse view.

Flynn’s latest thing is that he likes to squeeze in with me on the seat. This works okay but beware of finding yourself being gradually displaced.

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When not in a cuddly mood he sleeps on his cat bed (that used to be a footrest until it was annexed.) Here he is stretching out over my new, strategically convex footrest.

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4. Stranded Deep (played co-op)
[Counting the wooden poles on his raft] Twenty two. Forty four lashings. Forty four lashings, so, we have to make rope again. Wilson we’re gonna have to make a hell of a lot of rope!
- Chuck Nolan, Cast Away (2000)

Spoiler:

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5. Absolver
Jab, jab, jab, body blow, body blow, break away move, aaaargh!
- Snowball, The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

Spoiler:

Confessions of a button masher

How long have you been button mashing?

Too many years to count.

How old are you now?

57

How would you define button mashing?

Attacking constantly with the same simple attacks and, when given the opportunity to use combinations of buttons for different attacks, hitting button combinations randomly without having learnt what they do.

What’s your first memory of mashing buttons in a game?

Probably a game called Oni by Bungie. That was my first melee combat game I think. It had guns but ammunition was limited so you had to fight hand to hand at times. You could do all kinds of melee combat moves and takedowns with a combination of mouse clicks and key presses. I’m pretty sure I just did random combinations of those things.

Are you still button mashing?

Yes. Occasionally. Well, quite a bit. It depends.

Is there a game where you honestly tried to learn the combat system?

Probably Shenmue on the Dreamcast. I made a big effort to learn combos because the game made you play through training sessions which I enjoyed. It felt like part of the story. There was a big fight at the end of the game. I remember using combos and pulling off cool moves but I’m not sure how much of that was on purpose.

What other fighting games have you played?

I’ve never been into the ‘one fighter either side of the screen, health bars at the top’ style fighting games. They don’t appeal for some reason. I like free range fights. Sleeping Dogs had very violent but fun melee combat.

The GTA style game set in Hong Kong?

That’s the one. It had fight clubs dotted around the city. Those were fantastic. Fairly simple combat, at least the way I played it. There could be as many as twenty enemies. You had to single people out to fight while avoiding being ganged up on. It was a lot of fun.

Any more recent games?

God of War. I don’t think I delved deeply into the combat system during my first play through. I’m replaying it now, which I highly recommend and I’m trying trying to experiment with different weapon abilities. I do some moves on purpose, I have two or three favourites but I also try out random button combos and see what I get. Marvel’s Spider-Man was brilliant as well. Again, I explored the button combos more on my second play through. The animation in Spider-Man is a joy. He moves in a way I imagined Spider-Man would fight in the comics. So good.

You’ve played quite a few souls-likes.

Yes

Those games aren’t combo heavy but you have a stamina bar that limits the number of attacks you do.

That’s right.

Are you good at stamina management?

What do you think? No I’m not.

A stamina bar seems specifically designed to stop button mashers such as yourself.

In my first Dark Souls play through I payed very little attention to the stamina bar. I’d attack until I couldn’t attack any more then I’d wait until I could attack again. I’d maybe glance at the bar to check it had refilled. I’m a lot better about that now but I still don’t think I’m brilliant at it. Sometimes I can limiting my attacks in order to preserve stamina but I regularly get carried away and just keep attacking if I feel I have someone on the ropes.

That’s an easy way to loose a fight.

I watch a trio of streamers called RKG, where two guys talk as a third plays souls-like games and they often call for a reset mid boss fight if things are getting out of control. That means stop fighting, move away and centre yourself again. I find that a helpful thing to do. I’ll often try to treat the end off a boss fight like it’s own little boss fight. I’ll calm myself down, wait for openings and do just one or two careful attacks at a time. To be fair, spamming attacks can also work, given the right boss, but I usually feel like I’ve gotten away with something if I win that way.

What are you playing at the moment?

A game called Absolver.

That game has quite a complex fighting system doesn’t it?

Yep.

For someone who doesn’t naturally click with demanding combat systems you seem drawn to them.

I enjoy intense, deliberate fights. There’s a lot to love.

How are you getting on with Absolver?

It was a bit daunting at first. It has something called a ‘combat deck’ where you choose the attacks your character will use. Once you’ve set up your deck though you only use two buttons to attack. One for a series of regular attacks that you set in your deck and one for alternative attacks that you can throw in to change things up. That remains the case throughout the game.

There are also stances in the game aren’t there?

To be honesty I don’t have my head around stances yet. I’m kind of ignoring them, which hasn’t hampered my play through at all. There were stances in Nioh. I ignored them in that game as well. I get why developers want to include stances in these kinds of games. I’m sure they are a large part of actual martial arts combat.

So stances aside…

Stances aside, the main advantage of Absolver’s system for me is that all the complexity is in the combat deck not in memorising button combinations. When I’m fighting I’m not wracking my brain for the next combo. I can concentrate on my movement, dodging and timing my attacks.

You like it?

I do, very much. I love the fights even with regular enemies. The last boss fight against Risryn was superb. At various points the boss and I were both continually dodging around each other’s strikes. I love that. It’s like a ballet. I tried beating that fight many, many times. My heart was going like the clappers when I finally did it.

Tough fight?

I had the first half of the fight down but for the last third she’d draw a sword and demolish what was left of my health bar. Many times I got her down to a tiny sliver of health then she’d hit me with a long series of sword strikes and finish me off.

Don’t you have a sword of your own?

I could summon one but it didn’t seen to help. Dodging was better for breaking her momentum. In that last attempt I again got her down to a minuscule amount of health before she drew her sword. I had two thirds of my health bar. I was so close to winning and I had so much health, I got a bit reckless, throwing kicks and punches, just trying to land that last hit. Risryn blocked and dodge like a demon and I ended up stranding myself right in front of her with no stamina.

You were button mashing.

Maybe. Yeah I was. She started in on me with the sword, taking lumps off my health. Fortunately, I regained just enough stamina for one attack and did a low leg sweep that ducked her next swing and staggered her. That was the tipping point. I backed off, regained a little more stamina and then closed in for another series of kicks and punches. This time a kick sent the sword spinning out of her hand, the follow up blows ended the fight.

The same developers Sloclap are bringing out a game called Sifu next year are you going to check it out?

I am. I was interested before but I’m really excited for it now.

Will you button mash in that game?

I’d like to say no but, in all likelihood, yes.

6. Divinity: Original Sin 2 (played co-op)
Okay. My touurn.
- Gru, Despicable Me (2010)

Spoiler:

Where did you get that hat?

Shymlark and I have spent many happy hours locked in combat with large numbers enemies in fights that feel like we were one wrong decision away from disaster. Talking over who of our many and varied enemies was the biggest threat and what spells or abilities our characters should use is endlessly engrossing.

We’re not quite as thorough when it comes to tracking down quest givers or finishing quests that we’ve previously been given. We’re also not above a little casual thievery, especially where spell scrolls are concerned, yet, even with those time saving proclivities, it took us several months, playing every week, to leave the starter island. At this rate the game is going to see me into retirement.

We are fully committed to finishing Divinity: OS once we’ve escaped a very different and rather glitchy archipelago of tropical islands that we’ve found ourselves marooned on in the game Stranded Deep. If you’ve seen my ‘write up’ for Stranded Deep you’ll have noticed that a rather silly hat features prominently (the beanies apparently denote difficulty and can’t be removed. I dislike them intensely as they work against the atmosphere the game is otherwise so good at creating.) In Divinity I also encountered a hat that, while fitting more comfortably into the world it exists in, could be described as ‘somewhat excessive.’

Words alone cannot do the headdress concerned justice so I’ve included screenshots below. Screenshots ain’t easy to take because, thanks to it’s prodigious height, the headdress has a tendency to poke out of the top of the screen when looking at a character close up.

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Thankfully Larian offer the option to hide hats, etc, so the headdress can give me it’s nice stat boosts without otherwise impinging on my senses. Before I checked the box to hide the breathtakingly impractical piece of headwear I had some thoughts on how it could be improved. Here are a few of my sketches:

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I thought there was potential for signage on the front of the headdress, created by some sort of magic lettering of course, or it could be used as a transportation system for some of the smaller and chattier wildlife in the game.

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These next two are aids for thievery. The second modification is for mass distraction while your co-op partner is doing a bit of pickpocketing.

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7. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
I am a duck bent on thelf pwethavathun.
- Daffy Duck, ‘Duck! Rabbit, Duck!’ (1953)

Spoiler:

By any other name

From the surrounding forest, silhouetted against the light of the campfire the three figures looked reasonably human. Inside the circled logs the shifting firelight revealed that each had the head of a bird or an animal. One, dressed in a shabby raincoat, was a black feathered, yellow billed duck, the bulkier figure next to him was a boar with an impressive snout. The third, dressed in a old military surplus greatcoat, was an eyepatch wearing fox. The boar, Bormin, turned a piece of bread in his fingers. It had a greenish substance smeared on it. He looked like he couldn’t decide whether to eat it or throw it as far as he could into the darkness. Farrow, the fox, was cleaning her disassembled rifle with practiced ease. The duck, Dux, picked absentmindedly at the grey tape holding a crack in his bill together as he toasted a piece of spam on the end of a casually held stick.
“Is that going to heal?” Bormin asked.
“Hu?”
“That crack in your bill?”
“Probably not.”
“That sucks.” Bormin held out the unappetising bread. “Do either of you want this?”
Dux glanced up from his sizzling slice of spam then shook his head. “Nah. You have it.”
“It looks pretty rank.” Farrow said.
Bormin dropped the bread into the fire. The green substance on it bubbled and boiled away.
“I’ve been wondering about something.” Dux said, “Do you think it’s a coincidence that our names are Dux and Bormin when I’m a duck and you’re a boar or do you think it was someone’s sick joke? I mean Farrow has a perfectly good non-fox related name.”
“I do. I like my name,” Farrow said as she thoroughly wiped over the trigger assembly.
“My name isn’t Boarman. It’s Bormin. It’s different.”
“Completely different. Chessman and cheese, apples and au pairs.”
“I reckon it’s some tosspot’s idea of an ‘arty chuckle,” Farrow said.
“Whoever it was they were ‘orrible at coming up with names for mutants like us.” Dux knocked the spam onto a tin plate with his dislodging stick.
“That’s a bit harsh. What names would suit us better?” Bormin asked.
“Something unexpected yet right as soon as you heard it. Keith, Alphonse...”
“Keith and Alphonse?”
“Not those names. Those are just examples. Steve or Rupert or Partick…”
“Patrick the duck,” Farrow said. Dux glowered at Farrow who gave a little chuckle.
“Well, whatever name you’d rather be called let me know and I’ll do it. It’s no skin off my snout.”
“Thanks pal.” Dux blew on then quickly consumed his slice of span.
“I’ve never really wondered where my name came from. It was always just there. Silly hu?”
“If you’re happy with it you’re happy.”
Slotting home the last piece and locking it in place Farrow looked over the reassembled rifle. “Come on then you two. Let’s be ‘avin’ ya. We’ve got a fair ways to go today.”
They packed up camp and dashed water over the fire. After kicking over the ashes Farrow said, “Got it.” She pointed to Dux then Bormin, “Kurt and Ben. Short for Benedict.”
“Oh,” Bormin said, “Benedict.”
Dux gave a friendly salute to no one in particular, “Good day to you. My name’s Kurt.”
They set off up the relic cluttered highway as the first glimmer of dawn marked the horizon.
“Kurt. Throw me that glow stick!”
“Careful Ben! May I call you Ben?”
“Feel free Kurt old pal.”
“Careful Ben! There’s death robots in them there woods!”
The pair laughed continuing to concoct scenarios that tested out their names. Farrow checked that her rifle was properly shouldered and smiled.

8. Broforce
Run!! Go! Get to da choppaaa!
- Dutch, Predator (1987)

Spoiler:

In praise of randomness and disorder

When Broforce secured a place at the bottom of my game of the year list and then proceeded to move upwards I wasn’t sure why it had such a strong appeal. Pixel art has always drawn me in but there are many pixel art games I don’t enjoy. I’m not attracted by bro culture (which the game parodies more than celebrates) or 80’s action movies, although I’ve seen and enjoyed many. As I played more I realised that the game had an appreciation for the joys of randomness and chaos that exists at the heart of many of my favourite games.

The combat in Myth: The Fallen Lords and it’s follow up Myth II: Soulblighter (very early Bungie games) made the fighting in other games feel lifeless and rote by comparison. It was partly due to the fact friendly fire was always in effect in the campaign and in multiplayer. You had to manoeuvre your units and engage with the enemy in ways that avoided damaging your own people. On top of that your own and enemy attacks were inconsistent. In a sense it was a hidden dice roll system but it went much further than that.

A prime example were the bottle bomb throwing dwarves. Managed well your dwarves would devastate enemy forces, especially when used in conjunction with the satchel charges they carried, but leave them to their own devices for too long and they weren’t above lobbing a bottle bomb into a scrum of units, containing a dozen of your own warriors, blowing the entire group to smithereens (the fact that the guilty dwarf might mumble, “Sorry. My fault!” didn’t help.)

Even when a bottle bomb landed on target the temperamental explosive devices would behave in unpredictable ways. A bomb might bounce, landing away from the enemy before it exploding, it might land on a line of satchel charges but gutter ineffectually as a group of enemies walked over them only to finally explode once they’d passed. The bottle bombs could even land and go out entirely (extinguished bottle bombs might be reignited later on in a battle by a fresh explosion which would kicking them into the air with favourable or unfavourable results.) Finally, if hit with a spear when winding up for a throw, a dwarf might drop a bottle bomb at his own feet. The explosion would likely kill him and set off any satchel charges he was carrying vaporising any units in the vicinity.

Broforce also embraces the potential for you to be your own worst enemy. Thrown grenades or timed explosives don’t behave as erratically as dwarven bottle bombs but they do have a tendency to bounce off the environment in unexpected ways, usually back in your direction. A missile might set off a chain of explosions ultimately sending an ignited gas canister hurtling towards you or you might realise you don’t have time or space to escape your own summoned artillery barage. The first dozen or so attempts at any new level in Broforce tends to be a litany of silly, self inflicted deaths until you finally get your act together and push deeper into the map.

Far Cry, as a series, has always had multiple ways to keep fights feeling exciting and unpredictable. In Far Cry 2 there was no marking system (I suspect through omission rather than intentional design, marking enemies has been included ever since) this combined with aggressive flanking from the A.I. meant that I would regularly lose sight of enemies amongst buildings or in long grass until they emerge to my side or behind me. Propagating fire from Molotovs is a series staple and could, at it’s most potent, quickly change the dynamics of a fight. Wildlife that is hostile to both the player and enemies leads to glorious three way fights. Dangerous wildlife was introduced in Far Cry 3 and hit it’s peak in Far Cry: Primal, when companion animals were also thrown into the mix.

The weapon durability in Far Cry 2, a feature understandably abandoned for the rest of the series, was probably the most aggressive system of it’s kind I’ve encountered. It meant that, if you weren’t carrying a weapon in good condition, you would have to switch several times during a protracted fire fight, often picking up the weapons of fallen enemies and fighting with them whether they were suitable for the situation or not.

Weapons degrading and eventually breaking in games has rarely been a popular mechanic but developers have found other ways to encourage the use of unfamiliar weapons. Halo forced weapon switching through scarcity of ammunition. Battle Royal style games use random distribution of weapons in the environment to do the same. Broforce encourages rapid changes of play style in a way I’ve never seen before. As you progress through a level you can save prisoners dotted around the map. Once you free a prisoner your are given an extra life and you switch to the freed character. The new character you control can be someone entirely new or one of a selection you’ve previously unlocked. Either way they will have a different weapon and a radically different secondary attack.

Broforce’s richest seam of unpredictability and disorder though is in it’s massively destructible environments. Many games use environmental destruction to great effect, the Battlefield series and Rainbow Six: Siege being prime examples (multiplayer games can also be generators of unpredictability and chaos. Broforce has multiplayer but I’ve yet to try it.) Broforce’s 2D environments take destruction further than any other game I’ve encountered. Key elements, like ladders and platforms for spawn points, etc, remain intact but just about everything else can be destroyed. You can demolish structures around enemies killing them in the process or destroy the ground under them sending them tumbling to their doom. I passed several very tough areas by burrowing under them. Similarly, in alien hives and other cave systems, you can avoid well defended areas by going over their heads.

Destruction cuts both ways of course. The ground can be blown out beneath you, chain explosions can give your character no where to run and the floors in buildings can be destroyed dropping you into groups of enemies or, memorably, whirling saw blades of death. One of the worst/funniest ways to go involves a large block of stone falling from a weakened cave ceiling and squishing your character flat.

Escalating chaos is definitely a huge part of Broforce’s appeal for me. One wonderful example occurred when I was descending through an almost entirely destructible brick building full of explosive barrels and gas canisters. I dropped into a room with two guards and took them out. As they died they each dropped a timed grenade that went off taking out the floor. I fell into another room with more guards and, as a fight ensued, more grenades were dropped. Some went off destroying the floor, others fell through to the next level were they went off taking out more guards who dropped more grenades. What followed was a cascading chain demolition. As I fell down the levels explosive barrels were wiping out big chunks of the building and gas canisters flew past me horizontally and vertically. My immediate concern went from fighting enemies to being somewhere the explosions weren’t and, ideally, stand on a small section of floor that wasn’t going to be swept out from under me. As the last gas canisters flew the chaos finally subsided and I was left, miraculously unharmed, standing at the bottom of a vast, vertical swathe of pixelated devastation.

9. Subnautica
Cage goes in the water, you go in the water, shark's in the water. Our shark. [Sings] Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu you ladies of Spain. For we’ve received orders for to sail back to Boston and so, never more, will we see you again.
- Quint, Jaws (1975)

Spoiler:

Having explored the treacherous depths in my mini sub the ‘Seamoth 2’ I was, with some relief, heading into shallower waters and home. The beautiful little mini sub with it’s spherical glass cockpit was my pride and joy. It had the number 2 after it’s name because, as you might surmise, the first Seamoth met an untimely end.

I had been exploring close to the vast wreck of the Aurora at night, scouring the sandy seabed for equipment or parts that I could scan into my replicator’s database. Moving through the gloomy water my original Seamoth’s headlights fell on a circular hatch lying flat on the seabed. Leaving the sub I swam to it and started scanning. As I worked a large shadow swept over me. The mini sub’s headlights suddenly shifted away, leaving me in relative darkness. Swimming up I looked back to see a monstrous eel like creature writhed back and forth just above the sea floor. It’s head was pinning the Seamoth behind some rocks. As I watched there was a muffled concussion and the mini sub’s headlights blinked out. The sub was gone. Turning I swam for the surface. Glancing behind me I expected to see the creature racing from the depths but it never came. I returned, under my own power, to my cramped little life pod.

I’d learnt, from that and other experiences, that it wasn’t safe to go too close to either end of the Aurora’s wreckage as, for whatever reason, huge leviathans lurked there waiting to devour anyone who ventured too close. As I travelled home now I was charting a route far away from the Aurora and it’s alarming companions.

Entering comparatively shallower waters contorted beam like structures loomed out towards me. With a thrill of excitement I played the subs headlights over them. I’d found an alien base not long ago and the area around it had been populated by similar contorted structures. Steering the mini sub in between the beams I noticed that they started to lose their contortions as I progressed. Curved vertical beams sweeping down to intersect them. Surveying this new, orderly pattern a horrible realisation dawned. Despite my best efforts, I had arrived at the ruined rear section of the Aurora.

Aiming the sub downwards I powered towards the far side of the wreck. If I could move quickly enough, the Leviathan might not notice me. The mini sub was hit hard from behind and span around. An immense section of the creatures body snaking past then the head raced in. With the four arm like appendages on the sides of it’s head the Leviathan grabbed the sub. It’s tooth crowded maw gaped just beyond the glass. The subs bodywork creaked and groaned under the stress then the Leviathan suddenly it let go and swam away into the gloom. With sparks flying in the cockpit and alarms blaring I dived the sub down through the huge beams and out into open water. It felt like a chance to get clear but my hopes for survival faded when I saw the Leviathan moving parallel with me. It turned in to intercept. I ejected from the mini sub and swam away.

Looking back I saw the leviathan’s head appendages clamping down on the mini sub once more. There was a brief flash of flame and roiling bubbles as sub imploded. Seemingly content to have deprived me of yet another minisub, the Leviathan swam away, it’s huge body, trailing a large forked tale, snaking into the darkness. I swam for the surface.

Sometime later I returned to the ruined stern of the Aurora in the Sea Moth 3. Leaving the mini sub at a safe distance I swam in between the exposed beams. In the well lit waters I could see the Leviathan patrolling. Even at a distance it was an intimidating sight. As quickly as I could I removed a small device from my inventory. Releasing the object that resembled a Fisher-Price walkie talkie into the water I watched as it jettisoned two side panels and then deployed small nozzles that moved up and down occasionally, jetting out water to keep it hovering in place. With one eye on the circling Leviathan I called up the virtual touch pad and entered a name into the marker beacon, ‘Here be monsters.’

Bonus
This write up went through several iterations. One involved talking about monster movies and shows I experienced growing up. Here are a few notes on two of the earliest TV shows from my impressionable youth:

Marine Boy was an anime from 1968 which featured a lad in his fetching red outfit who could breath underwater thanks to an advanced type of chewing gum called ‘oxygum.’ He had a friendly dolphin sidekick called ‘Splasher’ and an underwater boomerang which was surprisingly effective. The graphics, thanks to the unparalleled enhancements provided by ‘childhood vision,’ were breathtakingly state of the art and, in my memory, rivalled modern anime.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was structured much like the original Star Trek, the crew of television’s coolest fictional submarine the ‘S.S.R.N Seaview,’ explored the watery unknown and encountered horrifying monsters from the deep. These creatures would either threatened the entire sub from the outside or make their way onto the sub itself where they’d stalked the corridors callously murdering nonessential crew members. It was terrifying to me as a young lad but, at the same time, exciting and completely gripping. Voyage and, no doubt Star Trek itself, likely contributed to my future appreciation of horror movies.

10. Enter the Gungeon
Say hello to my li’l frien’
- Tony Montana, Scarface (1983)

Spoiler:

Down time

Picking a blonde hair off her orange dress suit the thief took one last, luxurious drag on her cigarette then flicked the butt into the void that surrounded their subterranean base camp. Amid the tents and general clutter stood three other adventurers. To her right was the overly talkative pilot, all slicked back hair and worn leather jacket. He was no competition. Beyond the pilot was the stoic space marine. He appeared to be reasonably competent. To her left was a young Indian woman, the hunter and her constant companion a small dog of indeterminate breed. She was the one who posed the biggest threat. Despite being armed only with a rusty revolver that looked like she’d found it at the back of a barn and a wooden crossbow she was having the most success navigating the treacherous depths of the Gungeon.

The Gungeon itself resembled the drug fuelled nightmares of the senior editor of ‘Guns, guns and more guns’ magazine. A surreal realm of cartoonish death and dismemberment populated by living bullets and littered with pitfall traps. The marine and the pilot seemed, for all intents and purposes, to have given up on the idea of getting to the end of the Gungeon as, if she was being completely honest with herself, had she. The hunter, with sickening levels of perseverance and character, kept at it.

Each day she’d be gone for anything up to eight hours returning in the afternoon or early evening. At first she kept to herself, giving no clue of the progress she was or wasn’t making. After a time however her frustration reached a point where she couldn’t hide it any longer. It started with a few scattered but heart felt profanities. She would arrive back at camp looking as calm and composed as ever but, at some stage during the evening she would whisper or shout, “F*ck!” to herself.

Once the hunter and her dog returned to camp covered from head to toe in feathers. The thief starred at her unable to hide her curiosity. Brushing the feathers from her clothes, an exercise that was only moderately successful, the hunter responded to the thief’s quizzical gaze, “Don’t ask.”

Now and then a strange individual or pair of individuals would walk out of the Gungeon and set up shop somewhere nearby. One time the hunter asked if the ‘little alien dude’ made it out alright. The thief shrugged and lit another cigarette. “He probably found a safe spot in there somewhere,” she said, not sounding too hopeful.

One day she arrived back very late looking exhausted. She shook her head. “I had this awesome gun. It was awesome!” The thief waited for her to say more but she cooked, ate a modest meal and turned in.

Then one night the hunter pulled an old, dark purple bottle from her bag. She wiped two glasses, filled them both with a rich red liquid and offering one to the thief. Scowling the thief asked, “What is it?”
“Wine from my home,“ the hunter took a sip to show it was drinkable. Wanting to say no but unable to resist the lure of exotic alcohol the thief took the offered glass. They drank together, mostly in silence with the hunter’s dog sleeping contentedly by her side. The wine, perhaps because she hadn’t had a drink in the months, was some of the best she’d ever tasted. The hunter picked up her crossbow and handed it to the thief. It was a simple, unvarnished with some flaking, pastel coloured paint on the stock. Apparently, it had been her grandfather’s.

The next morning the hunter seemed to be in a particularly good mood. Despite her best efforts the thief found herself warming to the young woman. She suspected that, in some small part of her shelf worn heart, she was even starting to root for her to succeed.

The hunter checked her equipment with her usual calm efficiency. Glancing up at the thief she said, “Wish me luck.” The thief, working on her first cigarette of the day, gave a crooked smile, “Good luck,” and, after searching for something to add, ”Knock ‘em dead.”
The hunter wiggled her eyebrows, “I will.” Turning she set off up the steps to the Gungeon. Her tiny dog in pursuit. Watching them go the thief took one last drag on her cigarette then flicked the butt into the void.

Honourable mention

These are games that I thoroughly enjoyed and I wanted to give just this little bit of recognition. It turns out I’m not a natural bridge constructor but it was a joy to be teased and tormented by Glados again. Ashen, as well as giving me a ringside seat to Shymlark’s first experience of a souls-like game, has the best lanterns in any game ever. I’d written Shadow of the Tomb Raider off thanks to it’s marketing but it was a lot of fun. Gimme a story involving Mayan cultures and I’m there. Flat Heroes is a triumph of smart gameplay and minimalist design.

Portal Bridge Constructor
Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an ‘unsatisfactory’ mark on your official testing record, followed by death.
- Glados, Portal (2007)

Ashen (played co-op)
We have a good arrangement. He makes the weapons. I use them.
- Blade, BLADE (1998)

Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Right. So, pretty much, touch anything and you get your head chopped off.
- Lara, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

Flat Heroes
Thomas was absolutely fantastic at falling. He was almost as good at falling as he was at observing.
- Thomas was alone (2010)

I posted this accidentally. I’ll finish editing it. It’s close.

Edit: Ok done.

I'm so happy to see Mutant Year Zero on a list. I love that game and it's expansion so much.

Vector wrote:

I'm so happy to see Mutant Year Zero on a list. I love that game and it's expansion so much.

It was a fantastic surprise. There were lots of lukewarm reviews and it has it’s rough edges but I adored it.

Higgledy wrote:
Vector wrote:

I'm so happy to see Mutant Year Zero on a list. I love that game and it's expansion so much.

It was a fantastic surprise. There were lots of lukewarm reviews and it has it’s rough edges but I adored it.

Your list didn't say if you played the expansion. It's about the same length of the main game (maybe a few hours shorter). The same dev. team also made a game called Corruption 2029 that is in the same engine and mechanics. It's less than 10 hours long, very little narrative, limited character progression, but has some interesting takes on the direction they may go in a Mutant Year Zero sequel.

Thanks. You sensed right that I didn’t play the expansion. I was feeling satisfied having played the main game but I do want to go back to it. I’ll check out Corruption 2029.

Vector wrote:

Your list didn't say if you played the expansion. It's about the same length of the main game (maybe a few hours shorter). .

It's that long? Really? I really need to go back to that then!