Massive Damage

My Favourite Games of 2011

I had to be very careful when I made the title of this post. I need to make it abundantly clear that this is not a list of what I perceive to be the best games of 2011. I have not played every game that was released this year, and there are several high-profile games that I missed out on. Such games on that list include…

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Uncharted 3
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Batman: Arkham City
Rayman Origins
Saint’s Row: The Third
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Battlefield 3
Serious Sam 3: BFE
Resistance 3

And I’m sure that there are a few other titles that I forgot to mention. There are also some titles that I started but haven’t given a sufficient amount of hours to, such as Forza 4 and Dark Souls. My point is that I cannot profess to be an authority on the best games of 2011, and so I must settle for a far less controversial (and consequently, far less interesting) premise: my favourite games of 2011. Here we go:

5. inFamous 2: I bought the first inFamous game on a sale at Future Shop, and then it sat on my shelf collecting dust for over a year after that. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to play it, but rather there were always other games and other life obligations standing between Empire City and myself. However, when I finally sat down to give the same a shot, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the storyline, the game world, and even the combat that so many people like to speak negatively about. The follow-up certainly isn’t the most revolutionary sequel in gaming history, but it does a solid job of improving upon many of the weaker aspects of the original game while still keeping the fun aspects intact. Much has been said about the new Cole, but the truth of the matter is that I like the charming and cheerful personality of inFamous 2’s Cole much more than the overly serious and brooding Cole from the first game. Perhaps that’s more a reflection of my own personality than anything else, but in a gaming world that seems to be heavily populated by serious, brooding characters, I would much rather have another Nathan Drake than another Marcus Fenix. The only major place where inFamous 2 stumbles as compared to its predecessor is in the music department, since they no longer had the services of Amon Tobin at their disposal (from what I understand, he was hard at work on ISAM while Sucker Punch was developing this game). Apart from that one wrinkle, this is one example of a game that isn’t revolutionary or overly thought provoking, but still manages to be a whole lot of fun.

4. Portal 2: There isn’t a whole lot that I can say about this game that hasn’t already been said by people much smarter than myself, so forgive me if this next paragraph sounds like a broken record. It’s amazing how a game can capture the attention of the mainstream gaming audience without forcing the player to kill a single person. In Portal 2, you do not engage in combat (apart from some specific instances that I won’t give away). Rather, your adversary is the environment, and you must use what scant resources are available to you (i.e. a portal gun and your brain) in order to survive and proceed. If Portal 2 was just a series of puzzles, it would still be one of the best games of 2011, just by virtue of its excellent level design. The fact that Valve was able to put together such a fun storyline for this game is a testament to just how consistently impressive that company manages to be in all of its endeavours. This is another example of a game that won’t make you step back and think about the human condition, but much like the aforementioned inFamous 2, the storyline in Portal 2 is a tool that facilitates and augments the sheer amount of fun that you will have while playing. And I haven’t even mentioned the co-op.

3. Catherine: Even after reading some of the gushing reviews that Catherine received from various gaming websites, I was still very much on the fence with this game. While the storyline certainly looked delightfully weird, I wasn’t sure if the actual gameplay itself (typically an important part of any game) would be able to hold my interest during the 8-10 hour journey. As it turns out… I was slightly correct. My biggest problem with Catherine is just how repetitive the block puzzles start to feel after a while. The developers tried to mix things up in as many ways as they could (there are different types of blocks, different types of enemies inhabiting the field, and various boss fights throughout the game), but at the end of the day, I cannot deny that during the last few levels of this game, I was slightly relieved that the end was near. This may not sound like a great endorsement for my third favourite game of the year, but my point is this: Catherine is so delightfully weird, so full of personality, and so full of heart that the repetitive nature of the gameplay is easily forgivable. Much like The World Ends With You (one of my favourite games of this console generation), Catherine does such an awesome job of combining a fairly grounded premise (faithfulness in a relationship and the concept of a soulmate) with an out-of-this-world twist (a strange nightmare that is killing those unlucky enough to become afflicted by it). I was willing to push through some of the repetitive gameplay because I was so eager to find out what would become of these characters that I had become so attached to. In this current generation of gaming, there haven’t been as many high-profile Japanese games that put endearing stories and loveable characters at the forefront, but thankfully games like The World Ends With You and Catherine are carrying the torch with their heads held high.

2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution: If Catherine was enjoyable because of its endearing story and its loveable characters, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is enjoyable for precisely the opposite reasons. The world of Human Revolution is a very dark place (both literally and figuratively) in which the twin horrors of human inequality and corporate power have reached an all-time high. That being said, going through this world in the shoes of Adam Jensen has been one of my favourite gaming experiences of 2011, and it’s not just because I was such a huge fan of the original game (I rank it amongst my favourite games of all time). Much like the first game, Human Revolution does a great job of putting you in control of a character who initially feels somewhat weak, but then becomes progressively more badass as game moves forward. While Human Revolution doesn’t really offer the freedom of gameplay style that the original game did (trying to deviate from the stealth approach tends to create a lot of problems), the multiple paths and multiple choices of augmentations certainly do a good job of creating the illusion of freedom, and I suppose that’s an impressive accomplishment in itself. Adam Jensen has become one of my favourite characters of this console generation, and he manages to do it without wearing his personality on his sleeve. The aspects of Jensen’s personality are not shoved in your face. Rather, you have to seek them out and slowly piece together the story of this tragic yet valiant character. Jensen’s story is truly a memorable one, and I definitely plan on reliving it at some point during the new year.

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: It’s a testament to Skyrim’s greatness that I’m willing to offer it my game of the year pick despite the fact that I have yet to finish it. I’m not sure how many hours I have put into Skyrim thus far (perhaps about twenty?), but I’m sure that I still have many, many more in my future. I fully expect Skyrim to keep me occupied for the remainder of December, as well as the full span of January. I’ve been a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls games since Morrowind, and Skyrim does a great job of improving upon many of the weaker aspects of the last two instalments while still retaining the magic that made both of those games so great. Getting rid of the governing attributes in favour of a raw skill system was a pretty gutsy move on the part of Bethesda, but it paid off. One aspect of the previous Elder Scrolls games that always annoyed me was how those games locked you into a specific play style at the very beginning (though to be fair, that particular drawback in not exclusive to the Elder Scrolls franchise). Dispensing with the governing attributes and the class system allows you to create a character that truly represents your play style while still preventing you from becoming a one-man killing machine (you have to commit to your skills sooner or later, since a jack of all trades will inevitably become a master of none). I’m willing to bet that my Khajiit dragonborn is quite different from your dragonborn. While I focused my attention on light armour, one-handed combat, archery, sneaking, lock picking, restoration, and alchemy, you probably focused on some different areas, and your friends probably differed from both of us. I cannot recall the last time that an RPG truly allowed you to create a character that is a reflection of your own personality. There have been many games that have attempted this feat (and they all succeeded to some degree), but Skyrim manages to pull this off while making very, very few compromises. There are so many amazing aspects of this game (the believable game world, the consistently interesting main quests, the engrossing side quests, the subtle humour sprinkled throughout, the absolutely gorgeous visuals, the improved combat system, the ocean deep collection of literature, the challenging dragon priest battles) that I simply don’t have the room to discuss them all. What it ultimately comes down to is this: Skyrim is my favourite game of 2011 because of its undeniable and unmatched ability to make me stop whatever I’m doing and play it some more.

Every year is always met by the inevitable collection of cynics who claim that the game industry is “dying” or “running out of good ideas”, so let me throw my voice into the discussion by saying that 2011 has truly been a fucking incredible year for gaming. As people who play video games, we truly are fortunate to be living in a time like this, and I cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store for us. It certainly has a tough act to follow.