There are a ton of games I’ve played in 2011 that I never got a chance to write about, and some that are still sitting on my shelf that I have yet to play. I have things to say about all of these games, so I’m going to take this opportunity to write about all of them in a condensed fashion. There are 22 games I want to cover, so I’m splitting them up into two groups to avoid making the post too long. I’ve done this before, so anyone who frequents my blog should be familiar with how this works. Let’s get to it!
Resistance 3, the latest in Insomniac’s pretty spectacular franchise, managed to surprise me even more than I thought it would. I loved the previous two games (although I know many people who thought the second was a huge misstep for the series) and expected no less than top quality from one of my favorite developers. And they delivered, bringing back the best elements from Resistance 1 and some of the coolest set-pieces from Resistance 2 to combine them into one fantastic package.
The guns are all terrific and Insomniac threw in Ratchet & Clank’s weapon leveling system so they level up the more you use them. I love this because it provides you with a good reason to switch up your guns (and your tactics) pretty often. Sure, everyone will have favorite weapons, but there are guns I might never consider using if not for this unique dynamic. The return of health packs is also a nice addition, making sure you stay on your toes at all times. I’m not against regenerating health, but I think it is a trend that I would like to see less of in shooters.
Next up is The Lord of the Rings: The War in the North, a new action RPG from the team at Snowblind. These guys developed Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and the Champions of Norrath games, so I had some high hopes that this would be a return to form for them. While I will say this game is pretty underrated, it still is far from great. If you’re going to play this, I would recommend playing in co-op. I played through the entire game solo and kind of regretted it. I still enjoyed the experience, but then I tried a little co-op with two of my friends and realized that I was missing on the best the game had to offer. This is still a decently fun solo game, but don’t bother buying it unless you have at least one friend who will run through it will you.
Oh Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, whatever shall I do with you? You provide a strong story that showcases the end of Altair’s life, as well as a nice closure on Ezio’s, but you fail to introduce anything great beyond that. There are no real “revelations” to speak of, although the ending does make me curious about where they’ll go with the next entry. Some of the missions in the game are the best the series has to offer and the hookblade is probably the coolest addition in the series from a traversal perspective, but what about everything else? It’s either superfluous or just plain dumb. The tower defense stuff: awful and meaningless. The ability to make bombs is kind of cool, but I rarely ever use bombs in the series, so it was nothing that really sucked me in.
Desmond’s Journey is a really interesting take on telling a story, but it can be a bit dull at times. The Altair levels are short, but they manage to do a lot with a little and probably are some of my favorite parts of the game. For the most part, it all felt like filler. Mostly good filler, but filler nonetheless. Remember my post on sequel fatigue? That’s finally starting to kick in with this series. I’m just hoping that this year’s game can deliver something really remarkable, or else they might lose a lot of people.
Now to talk about a sequel that turned out to be better than I ever thought it would be, Saints Row: The Third. The first game was a decent Grand Theft Auto clone that came out at the right time, managing to attract more attention that it would have after Grand Theft Auto IV. The sequel was a bit of a mess and seemed very conflicted on what it was trying to be. And then there’s The Third, which clearly knows exactly what it wants to be and runs with it. This series is no longer living in GTA’s shadow and is all the better for it.
This game hits all of the right notes, delivering an experience that tries to be as ridiculous as possible. I didn’t love it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I wish the side content was a bit more interesting and I wish they had more story missions that weren’t just there to introduce the side content, but those are small problems I have with an otherwise really enjoyable experience. The best part about Saints Row: The Third? It’s legitimately hilarious. Sometimes the jokes fall flat, but it usually manages to entertain better than you might expect.
Nintendo’s attempt to bring the popular Itadaki Street franchise to North America, Fortune Street, is a great deal of fun. This is a series I wanted to try out for the longest time, so this was a must-buy for me. It delivers an experience not that different from Monopoly; I described it to my friends as Monopoly with stocks. I love Monopoly, I love the changes made here, and I think this game can be a blast with the right people. If you like board games (especially like Monopoly), I would recommend checking out Fortune Street.
Next up is Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, which is completely underrated by both fans and critics. I consider myself a huge fan of this series and have been since the PS1 games, but the changes made with Assault Horizon are smart and change up a formula that was starting to get a little stale after Ace Combat 6. The helicopter missions weren’t the same caliber as the plane missions, but they were still fun and helped mix things up. But there are only two full helicopter missions in the game (and two from the gunner’s seat, which are super short), so they don’t detract too much from the overall package if you’re not a big fan of them.
The “Close Range Assault System” is something that a lot of fans either love or hate, but man, it works fantastically. I think it blends in right with the standard combat from the series. You can still take down planes the regular way plenty of times, there are just some instances when you’ll want to use the close range system and find it to be more beneficial to the situation. It still feels like Ace Combat and I find the fan reaction to the changes are just really silly. This made my list of honorable mentions in my top 10 for a reason.
Shadows of the Damned is a game that I wish I bought at launch. It makes me sad that this did so poorly considering how great it really is. Its humor is immature, but it’s immature in a smart way, if that makes sense. It distinguishes itself from trash like Duke Nukem Forever by having actual characters we care about. Johnson is one of the best new characters and Garcia Fucking Hotspur manages to hold his own in the same category as other awesome Suda characters like Travis Touchdown.
The shooting mechanics felt sluggish at first, but I adjusted to them pretty quickly. It also has a bit of a slow start. Once you get past the first major boss, things begin to improve. That is, until act four, where you run into the infamous “Big Boner” segment. Oh man, it’s TERRIBLE. SO BAD. A lot of act four really drags actually. Okay, so, the game is far from perfect, but damn if it isn’t a lot of fun (for the most part). It’s a strange game, isn’t it?
Child of Eden is like Rez but even better. That’s right, I said it. I love Rez to pieces and think it’s one of the best music game experiences someone can ever have and Child of Eden manages to be even better. Child of Eden’s soundtrack, overall, is much more consistently great than Rez’ was and the gameplay, which pretty similar, adds a few nice additions that keep it from feeling exactly the same. There isn’t much else I have to say about it except PLAY THIS GAME. PLAY IT.
Gemini Rue is everything I love about adventure games. Intriguing story, great characters, brilliant puzzles, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. The look of the game is very reminiscent of those old school LucasArts adventure games that I grew up with, so I was on board the moment I saw the trailer for this. They also have shooting segments, which is not something you often see in point and click adventure titles, but it works pretty well and is surprisingly strategic. This is a real gem of a game that I think all adventure game fans should give a chance.
Now let’s talk about Dead Island. This is…certainly a game. What does it do well? The first person combat. When you play this game, be sure you turn on the analog melee system, meaning you control your attacks with the right analog stick. This is the best first person melee combat I’ve seen in a game since The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The island itself is generally a lot of fun to explore and there is plenty of content here to keep you busy. And then there’s the co-op, which seems like the way to play this game. I can’t imagine going through this 15-20 hour game by myself the entire time, it might get a bit tiring.
What doesn’t work? Everything else really. The melee combat carries this game above and beyond being just another mediocre action game, but there isn’t much more to compel you. The side quests themselves vary in quality, but most of them tend to be fairly uninteresting. The story quests are uninteresting too, come to think of it. If I had to sum it up, I would call it a lower quality Borderlands with zombies; there is plenty of fun to be had, but you might have to wade through a lot of shit to get through it.
Final game for this post is inFamous 2, a game that improves greatly upon the already amazing original game. The action feels a bit more fluid thanks to the addition of melee combat and some new powers that change things up a lot, including the fire or ice powers you get access to about halfway through the game. The choices you make are feel like the blur the lines between good and evil more than the first game did as well. Oh yeah, now you have a blast shard radar…THANK YOU SUCKER PUNCH!
I hated the boss battles though. They all followed the videogame logic of “let’s just make this enemy bigger than the last” and all of them are terrible because of that. The enemies in general offer a challenge, but I loved the bosses from the first game; they were different and allowed for more strategy than just “THROW CARS AT THIS BIG THING.” I also think the city itself is less interesting than the first game, but that’s just me. Overall, a fantastic sequel that improves in the right places.
And that will do it for part one! The second part will be out sometime within the next month (once I actually finish catching up on 201′s games).
