2013 has come and gone, and I've had the pleasure of enjoying many things throughout this year in terms of video games...but one thing I think that speaks most vividly as far as say a key phrase is "action". To me, I'm big on character-driven action games. Things like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta: those all count. This year I went through several types of great titles, and some I even bought immediately thanks to GameFly...but only throughout the year did a few stay 'behind' as heavy contenders for my own "Game of the Year" recommendation and I believe I have narrowed it down.
However before getting to that a few titles I went through this year are as follows:
- Sleeping Dogs
- The Walking Dead (By TellTale Games)
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate
- Transformers War of Cybertron
- Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge
- Batman Arkham City
- Mortal Kombat 9
- Grand Theft Auto V
With that out of the way, I'll divide this first into a few games that did NOT get the title and why.
~Grand Theft Auto V~
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore this game. It's longer than the campaign was in IV, has a much bigger city (Yet I fail to see how Rockstar didn't properly translate the mileage. You're telling me an entire city is only a few miles wide in diameter when it's mimicking LA? I don't buy it.) so the sense of scale is WAY off the charts. There's a lot of things to do and to customize, and I even like the campaign far better than IV if ONLY because the characters are great...with an exception to Franklin. Trevor is funny and chaotic; his charisma and ties to Michael are centerfold for the story...and while Michael constantly battles a conflict similar to Niko Bellic, one where he is trying to figure how to balance a life he wants full of chaos and robbery, he still manages to be relatable...especially to me. Franklin however only seemed to be going through the ropes from start to finish: constantly cleaning up after his loser friends' messes and dealing with people who never appreciated him for existing so he spends the whole game being indifferent.
But the one thing I really looked forward to when I wasn't dicking with the story (dicking with the cops), I don't ever find myself doing.....at all. The aggressive AI of cops even on the ONE STAR Wanted level alone is enough to turn me off from bothering. If it's not this, it's also that I have yet to bother more than once with Grand Theft Auto Online. I don't know if that's my own personal feelings towards online gaming these days or my own preferences are changing but...I didn't play it more than a few hours.
~ The Walking Dead ~
Plain and straight to the point, I'm in this one for the story and I don't really feel the need to revisit the story repeatedly unless I'm awaiting the second season which as of this writing has been announced and I am eagerly waiting.
Other than that I have no complaints, but the storytelling doesn't venture much revisiting unless I'm showing the game to a friend.
~ Sleeping Dogs ~
It has everything that can make it distinguishable from being a GTA clone. It has a serious tone instead of humorous (but likable character), a double helix of a plot involving being a cop while also being part of the Chinese Triads in order to solve crimes or BE a part of a gang, lots of vehicles, satisfying combat on both vehicles AND melee, and it feels like a Kung Fu action flick which is a VERY good thing. The thing is though, once the story is done I felt the TRUE emptiness of the open world come out. I didn't feel there were enough side quests or tasks to do other than to collect X number of items to help me find item Y in location Z easier. Dating, if you can even call it that, is calling up a lady you met ONCE in the story, talking to them, and then you never ever see them again just so you can get an in-game bonus.
I've seen there is DLC to extend the game in the campaign and story similar to how other games like GTA IV did the same thing so perhaps I'll revisit it again through that.
~ Mortal Kombat 9 ~
Love love love LOVE the game. I just don't think the combat system that MK introduced years ago is as entertaining or as fluid as I'd like it to be. I like it for being the best Mortal Kombat game ever, not for it being the best fighting game ever. Questionable AI spikes in difficulty also made it hard on me.
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With all of this said, what ended up being Game of the Year? Well it came down to a battle between two -very- close contenders.
Batman Arkham City and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
If I'm going to decide on whether or not one of these is going to win, I know that I would have to look at both games again thoroughly and decide what it was that made me drawn to both.
Both games have amazing combat. Batman Arkham City has the perfect system and way of making you feel like "The Goddamn Batman" with an ever increasing list of abilities, gadgets, and skills you unlock throughout the course of the campaign. The unique combat that's exclusive to this game where you don't exactly combat the enemies by controlling your movement AND attack, you instead direct where your attack is going to hit, and thus react: this all allows you to do things that feel supernaturally strong but all fit in how Batman could take down a 20 thug ambush. Learning this felt great in Arkham Asylum but in City...it was the best it ever could have been.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance oozes Platinum's touch even though they had little time to perfect the game given the circumstances they had from working with Hideo Kojima...but what they turned around in the small time they had was a HUGE turnaround. Raiden does things that surpass imagination from even Metal Gear standards while still retaining elements that make it feel Metal Gear. You can sneak and assassinate enemies in many sections if you want to avoid a full on, aggressive attack or you can take on the bad guys (and you do in certain sections because it's forced in areas) with the fluid, easy to learn and awesome to master combat system. Along with the typical "press a few buttons in sequence to initiate a combo", Raiden can slice any enemy into ANY number of pieces he wants as long as the player has any pieces left to slice. Small areas can easily become big action set pieces where ANYTHING can happen. All you need to know about how crazy the fights can get are presented to you in the FIRST major fight in the game. Boss fights are out of this world, and I have yet to find a single other game that matches it.
Considering we're talking about action games here...what then, is it that would make one better than the other? Both games have great combat, both games have a character with a long history that gives them a 'dark knight' presence with a complex history, both games have loads of conversations with team members speaking to them through a headset to help keep the exposition continue through the game's story, both games have cool villains...so what then...do I look for that will help one win over the other? Who would win in that case?
I think the idea is that both games are both actually at war with each other because both are VERY great games but...I believe MGR:R has some things that give it the edge over Arkham City.
1) The Music. Never before has a game caught me off guard with pure, unadulterated power rock that comes out at the pinnacle of a boss fight. I am personally a huge fan of ANY game that has music to accompany certain moments in a game...and if it's in sync with the action onscreen then all the better. Metal Gear Rising had something it didn't even need to help make it better but it did anyways: it had the soundtrack to make you WANT to keep the fight going and see to its end. Throughout the course of every boss fight you will encounter all the parts of a character's theme song even when introduced. From the subtle instrumentals performed in the background leading up to the fight, to the blazing intros, then PLAYING through the song's chorus, bridge, and outro as you take down significant notches of the boss's health bar is paramount to a single instinct that gamers want to feel when playing any good boss fight. They want to feel powerful. They want to feel like a badass, and they want to think that there's some band sitting on the sidelines going "Let's give this guy some fucking sick MUSIC!" because after all we were all kids at one point trying to insert our own theme songs into everything.
While Batman Arkham Asylum, City, and Origins have fantastic music to help each and every single moment there isn't a tune in that game I see myself going back to wanting to listen outside of playing video games. Nor does it have the pleasure where I actively try to find certain moments in other games where a scene is enhanced by adding MGR boss music.
2) The DLC expansions that give players a chance to play as 2 characters featured throughout the game (and thus helps give everything more story) are FREE. That's right, FREE. Initially when they released they were priced respectively on the services they came on (PSN and Xbox Live), but Platinum has seen now to make them free and if you're in North America you can get the full game for $29.99 AND its DLC campaigns for FREE.
3) Admittedly, I feel the actual combat feel in MGR:R is better than the unique system in Arkham City. While it works for Batman, a system like that is privy to a lot of frustrations I have with it merely because I cannot move Batman in full movement and have to constantly deal with being 'locked'. I can't quite explain what I mean but it's obvious to the feel when you compare it to say...an action game made by something the likes of Platinum. You can choose to do the same thing in MGR:R through a lock-on (or leave it off. It's purely up to the player) but still even there I feel there is far more freedom. I feel more capable of getting myself out and not having to wait to finish a fight just so my health can restore itself: I am in control of my own actions and well being as Raiden and that's largely what gives it another plus.
4) The "Dark Knight" persona. Both characters are very complicated characters with a dark history behind them, but what separates how I connected to Raiden is how he simply...approaches his own nature in the game's first big act. Batman lives his life battling the conflicts of solving crimes and never killing anyone...not even the villains he has to stop. Things like that, including all of the issues he has to deal with on a daily basis (IE: the death of his parents) are constantly screwing with him.
Raiden on the other hand has gone his entire life killing, having earned the moniker "Jack The Ripper" in his youth, and after the Sons Of The Patriots he tried to put that past behind him....
However Revengeance brings back the problems and self worth he would have to fight to get in a world that wants peace. For example, now he's killing (supposedly) in the name of freedom...but he finds out at a point that so are these other guys he's supposedly battling against. So what makes them different? The ideals get more radical than in previous Metal Gear Solid games but the grey areas of morality and loopholes in law that the franchise is known for is very much present in the game, and when Raiden has his 'moment', thus deciding to live by it, I was blown away.
I think that by comparison I just felt more attracted to this conflict Jack/Raiden went through and for this and the above reasons listed...that's why I am more than positive I consider this game my Game of the Year 2013.
I look forward to what 2013 brings me.
If you're looking for some good action games, here's 2 other recommendations from me.
