I get the strange feeling 2011 will forever be known as the year the Indie game went mainstream – a plethora of obscure and wonderful gaming snacks have arrived this year and subsequently caused my left index finger to fall off. Still, that’s nothing compared to the news that Minecraft has achieved official release status. The game has made more money than the guy who invented gravity, and that was before the bloody thing was even out! And with such gems this year such as Bastion, Limbo and The Binding of Isaac, to name a few, the ever-growing popularity and financial viability of the humble indie game grows new legs and starts to run. Next year will be very interesting.
Of course, it’s been a fab year for the big-guys too – with monsters such as Dragon Age 2, Deus Ex: HR, and Skyrim gracing our screens… I will admit, it was a momentary ponder as to what game I enjoyed most this year. A short moment, as a game I have been waiting some time for made an appearance, and it was wonderful. I am, of course, referring to…
Portal 2
How could they top the first one? That was the first thought when I was installing Portal 2, and a worrying one. The first was short and sweet – four hours long, with the highlight being the quick, witty banter with a homicidal, disembodied voice. How can you turn an experimental FPS puzzle game into anything more?
Easy, add magic gloop that you can bounce on.
Nah, just kidding. What Valve did was revolutionary, mind-blowing and utterly simple – they built a backstory for GLaDOS and the Aperture Science Laboratories. A simple one, but between the usual bouncing, portal-juggling puzzles, you find an almost thread-like story woven in between the very wall-panels. The Rat-Man graffiti; Wheatly’s hilarious babbling; and the few moments in which GLaDOS herself offers some exposition, mostly after… um, the fall. I’m doing my best to avoid spoilers, but there were a few times that the game really surprised me with twists to the history of GLaDOS, and even dipping into her motivations. All while maintaining that feeling of being as clever as a ninja-physicist with a Ph.D in inter-spacial portals, and as dumb as a brick with only a Master’s Degree.
The best part? More GLaDOS. I have an unhealthy love of that twisted, matriarchal bitch that transcends the usual gaming player-vs-villain relationship. I have seen me standing about needlessly simply to hear more of her dry, caustic wit. I have deliberately allowed myself to get murdered, squished or impaled, just to see if she has anything unhelpfully snide to add. And with the deeper story this time around, you get to see the wheels turning behind the scenes for the first time. It is fantastic stuff.
The characters are fantastic, the puzzles tricky, and with an imaginative co-op mode (with even more GLaDOS), Portal 2 has cemented its position as my number one game of 2011. Of all time, really.
Runner-Up 1: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
My first runner up GOTY may come as a surprise, as I disliked the original Deus Ex. Possibly because I am an idiot, possibly because everyone else is. Opinion is divided. But Deus Ex: Human Revolution is, in a word, fabulous. And for one simple reason – head-shots now work. After all the sneaking around, all the hacking, all the ninja-take-downs… when the shit hits the fan, you can always pull out your pistol and make the problems all go away. Yes, sometimes this is the definition of “making things too easy”. But with uncommonly thin skin and a poorly armoured trench-coat, Adam Jensen goes down surprisingly quickly – making every balls-to-the-wall assault a risky venture.
I just appreciate the option being there.
Incidentally, DE:HR also has the greatest pistol in any game, ever. I’m just sayin’…
Runner-Up 2: Dead Island
There is much to be said about being stuck on a tropical paradise over-run by the undead, possibly involving how many bullets you have left. Or perhaps whether an electrified machete is a bit overkill, or an imaginative solution to a sticky problem. The bottom line remains – if you can get a good swing with it, it’s probably a weapon in Dead Island. And only a wuss uses a gun.
Gore aplenty, this free-roam(ish) first-person survival adventure ticks almost all the boxes – wide-open areas teeming with rotting brain-munchers; a slightly morbid cast of survivors, each with a score to settle; and some of the most graphic melee assaults ever to be inflicted on a zombie, pretend or otherwise. To top it all off, Dead Island boasts more melee weapons than a small, angry country full of cavemen. Oh, and each and every one can be modified with batteries, saw-blades and nails to make the perfect zombie-smasher.
There are even a few guns, but who needs them? Pansies.
Also Worthy: The Binding of Isaac, The Polynomial, Skyrim
