From my private reserve
2014 was such a weird year in games for me. If you had asked me last January how I thought this list would have shook out, I’d have been far off the mark. For one thing, I would have expected a slew of amazing new Xbox One and PS4 games taking up the top slots, but we all know that didn’t happen for various reasons (maybe next year!). From the games that did make the list, some of my most anticipated titles of the year hit harder than others, while some of my absolute favorites turned out to be complete surprises!
Whatever my expectations were, I had an amazing time in 2014. Here are the titles that touched the black soylent mass of my heart the most this year.
Best Game of the Year – The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
My GOTY should come as no surprise: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth was hands down the best game I played all year. Yeah, I know it’s a half-remake/half-sequel of the original, but that doesn’t matter to me – it’s still number one. When you stack up all the games I played this year and measure them based on the sheer number of smiles, gasps, and blood-pressure spiking moments of sublime concentration they brought into my life, Rebirth blows them all away.
I gushed all over Rebirth in my 10/10 review, so I’m not going to subject you all to a long litany of praises again. But you wanna know a secret? Something I didn’t mention in the review? I’ve spent just as much time playing Rebirth solo as I have shoulder-to-shoulder with my girlfriend. That toss-away co-op mode that seemed like a polite afterthought ended up being one of my favorite things about the game.
Rebirth is an exercise in barely-controlled chaos. Random enemies, random upgrades, and painful trade-offs at every turn. A single bad room can end a potentially great run, while one lucky item grab can turn a dark situation around. It’s a balloon filled with wasps that you bat around the living room and try not to smack into the ceiling fan. What could possibly be better than adding another person to that volatile mix?
Runners-up – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Call my tastes predictable, but yes, I loved the big showy licensed action game this year. What can I say? I love stabbing monsters, especially when they’re as lovingly rendered and gorgeously hideous as the Orcs in Mordor. I still enjoy Arkham-style combat, particularly when it’s used for things like beheading an enemy in the middle of a fight, brainwashing a fool into backstabbing his friends, or teleporting into a fleeing dude sword-first like a heavy-metal version of Nightcrawler.
Most of all though, I loved the Nemesis system. I’m the kind of nerd who will make up his own stories while playing a game, and a system that will specifically engineer colorful characters and on-going rivalries is so perfectly designed to appeal to me that it is almost scary. If game developers are looking for the next big mechanic to steal, PLEASE make it the Nemesis system.
Dark Souls II
It feels like sacrilege to place Dark Souls II as a runner-up. My deep affection for the series knows no bounds and I had an amazing time with this sequel. Sadly, its excellence was frequently hindered by small (maybe even petty) quibbles I couldn’t help but fixate on. Some uneven difficulty spikes occasionally crossed the line into unfair territory. I expect a Dark Souls game to take me out behind the woodshed from time to time, but I want to learn something in the process, or see how I could have avoided death if I had been smarter. I don’t want to get my shit wrecked by five undead suicide bombs charging me from around a corner.
Honestly, Dark Souls II‘s biggest flaw might be that it lives in the shadow of the original. Dark Souls II is a fantastic game, but Dark Souls was a masterpiece – a work of art. It’s hard to compare to that standard.
Transistor
I am so glad this game exists. Sometimes I just think about Transistor – I consider the look and feel of the game, the melancholy tone, the subtle character touches, that it has a dedicated button to make Red hum a song – and I smile a deep inward smile. I think every gamer secretly dreams about the game they would make if they could, or the one they wish they had made. For me, Transistor is that game.
I’m hard pressed to think of a single thing I didn’t like about Transistor, other than the fact that there wasn’t more of it.
Best Online Multiplayer Game of the Year – Titanfall
Holy shit, was I the only person on earth who loved Titanfall? Despite the crazy poop-flinging backlash Titanfall seems to have inspired from some corners of the internet, I absolutely adored my time with the game. I mean c’mon, bouncing from building to building with parkour skills and a jetpack while shooting dudes? Crushing helpless Grunts beneath a Titan’s steel foot? Launching streams of missiles at a robot before finishing it off with a pneumatic right-hook? How do you NOT have a great time doing that?
Sometimes our choices aren’t complicated. The heart wants what the heart wants, and mine beats to the rhythm of stompy robot footfalls. Titanfall put on the biggest and best spectacle I’ve seen from a online shooter in years and I couldn’t get enough.
Runner-up – Dark Souls II
Dark Souls II threaded the needle between the unique qualities of the original Dark Souls‘ harsh multiplayer experience and some reasonable concessions to what players were actually getting up to. The end result was a multiplayer system that still embraced chaos, random chance, and isolation, while providing an olive branch to players who wanted to co-op up with specific players or engage in certain kinds of PVP. Kind of a best-of-both-worlds solution that miraculously worked.
Make no mistake, this is Dark Souls. You’ll still get invaded by bloodthirsty jackals prepped with gear and skills that will let them take a shit in your lunch. You’ll still occasionally join a world as a White Phantom only to find out your host takes a bizarre delight in running into every possible trap and enemy. But you can also steer the sails of fate a bit, make it a bit easier to join your brother for some co-op when you want to, or meet up with your pal from the forum for a quick duel. Dark Souls II found a fair compromise.
Best Couch Multiplayer – Gang Beasts
2014 was a great year for hanging out with your jerk-ass friends and shouting at each other. While Gang Beasts couldn’t make it into Dtoid’s official GOTY lists because it’s still early access, I’m a totally baller renegade who won’t let the “rules” hold me down when it comes to my personal list. Gang Beasts‘ fat, drunken wrestling babies were one of the highlights of the year in my circle of friends (which sounds kind of weird when you put it like that.)
Best Surprise of the Year – Payday 2
To be perfectly accurate, Payday 2 was a 2013 game but I only got around to it this year. But that seems to have been the perfect way to play it. Skipping over several months of thin content and buggy heists, I came in at the perfect time to snatch up steep discounts on the game and DLC, and enjoy a renaissance of armed robbery. Since starting to play the game in June, there have been five or six major updates, injecting new heists, skills, and even characters into the game. There is so much to do that I’ve had trouble keeping up!
When I picked PD2 up on sale I figured it would be fun for a weekend or two and then I’d quietly uninstall it when I had my fill of smashing store windows and zip-tying hostages. But that hasn’t happened yet. I’m finding new ways to take down heists, new attachments to my silly-looking machine gun, and having such a great time with my friends it should be illegal (oh wait, it totally is.)
Jazzpunk of the Year – Jazzpunk
Take two missionoyl and call me in the morning.
You’ll thank me.
Best Creepy Animatronics – Five Nights at Freddy’s
Let’s eat!
Seriously, I stabbed a lot of dudes – Mordor
Stab, stab, stab, stab…
