The year is over, all of the games have been released and we’re feeling reflective about the past twelve months. 2013 was undoubtedly a fantastic year for gaming, with many of our favourite franchises seeing new releases, not to mention a tide of new titles and a new generation of consoles. As is the tradition at this time of year, we’ve put together a list of the top 20 games of 2013, of which this is the first part.
20th. Proteus
Proteus stands out as a personal best not for what it does mechanically, but for the feelings it conjured. My short time on the mysterious island brought back emotions that had rarely been triggered since gaming as a youngster. There was a sense of awe and surprise, a child-like bliss and warm, welcoming trance. Taken back to a time when videogame’s innocence and indulgence of joy was seen and believed, the giant, cold industry cogs hidden from younger eyes. Intellectually, the voiceless exploration of morality was akin to a child’s picture book in simplicity. Its simplicity allowing each visitor to take away their own interpretation. Less is certainly more here.
19th. Metro: Last Light
Returning to the fiction of Russian sci-fi author Dmitri Glukhovsky was one of the few treats in 2013 for fans of shooters with stories. As FPSs have become increasingly linear, bombastic and multiplayer-centric, Metro: Last Light carried the story-driven torch of titles like Half-Life, relying on an uncompromising effort to build atmosphere and character. Developer 4A Games wants you to feel for the Metro, and to feel for its protagonist, Artyom, who is the unsuspecting link between what the Metro has been and what it may become. Though Last Light felt a bit safer than the underrated 2033, it is still a testament to the importance of world building, and one of the most memorable fictitious places I visited in the past year.
18th. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
A Realm Reborn has no reason being as good as it is. Originally launching in 2012, Final Fantasy XIV was met with such heavy criticism that Square Enix opted to pull it offline a mere two months after release. During the following years, a reshuffled developer team took on the daunting task of shaping the flawed, original code into something fresh, memorable and fun. The re-release, dubbed A Realm Reborn, fixed much of what was wrong with version 1.0, and brought an influx of players that caught Square Enix so off-guard that digital sales had to be halted and character creation severely restricted for nearly a month after launch. Nowadays, thousands of happy gamers are enjoying themselves in a chocobo-filled, Final Fantasy lore-infused MMO that is one of the strongest newcomers to the genre in the past few years.
17th. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
In a generation largely starved of large, sweeping Japanese role-playing games (at least on consoles), Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch was nearly a revelation by default. Its gorgeous-yet-simple Studio Ghibli aesthetic lulled unsuspecting players into its grasp. From there, Level-5 applied the tough love of a real-time combat engine you’ll more likely come to accept than love. The dichotomy rarely worked in Ni no Kuni‘s favor and the amount of times you’ll curse your AI partners’ incompetence will be numerous, but players willing to stick Ni no Kuni‘s 50 hour campaign out were treated to a whimsical world ripe for exploration and nostalgia. For all its blemishes, Ni no Kuni was the rare experience that evoked that sense of child-like wonder, and in today’s AAA gaming world, that is an achievement indeed.
16th. Resogun
Perhaps the biggest reason why this year is significant are the console launches. Exciting new tech has allowed new ideas and properties to flourish after a generation where they have largely stagnated. The new consoles are also hot and Resogun stands as the premier launch title of the bunch. It’s a finely polished shmup that tops its source inspiration, shaping the Defender mould into something alluring for the modern day. It distills fun down into tightly bound mechanics that express the mechanical reason for playing videogames. It’s also high on partical effects, which seems to be the best current representation for the new gen difference.
15th. BIT.TRIP Presents… Runner2
While the auto-running genre becomes increasingly crowded and ever more stale, Gaijin Games’ flagship title continues to push forward. Gaijin knows the limitations, so Runner2 iterates on a myriad of seemingly small details to create a huge, nuanced experience. It’s charming and surprisingly considered, delivering an experience designed for reflexes of all ages. It is the most fun I had with any game this year, and it’s now occurring to me how long I’ve been away from Commander Video.
14th. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Black Flag is basically the Assassin’s Creed game everybody wanted. AC III‘s excellent ship combat is back and more addictive than ever, lead character Edward Kenway couldn’t give a gnat’s chuff about Assassins or Templars and is a hundred times more likeable because of it, and boring Desmond is nowhere to be seen. Ubisoft’s recreation of the 18th century pirate-infested Caribbean is a sun-drenched playground, stuffed to the gills with places to explore and treasures to loot. Lively, colourful and packed with ideas, Black Flag radiated a sense of fun that was sorely lacking in the two previous games in the series. A few too many tedious stalking missions and that familiar dodgy stealth system hold the game back from joining the real cream of 2013, but Black Flag proves there’s plenty of life left in the Assassin’s Creed franchise yet.
13th. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
For all of its regurgitation, the Zelda franchise has been searching for a refreshing idea for over a decade, having experimented with everything from an oceanic over world to the implementation of motion controls. Yet despite all of these attempts to rejuvenate an ageing formula, Nintendo have consistently failed to address the biggest issue that’s been progressively eroding the series’ appeal – that of its overly controlled structure, or more precisely, a lack of player freedom.
A Link Between Worlds does away with the lengthy tutorials, linearisation and overly-structured design of its most recent predecessors, and gives you a level of freedom to explore that the series hasn’t afforded since its originating incarnation, and in doing so it harkens back to what made Zelda so special in the first place – the excitement of simply going on an adventure without knowing what is going to happen.
12th. Rogue Legacy
There were few 2D games in 2013 with controls quite as tight and responsive as Rogue Legacy. And you needed that pinpoint precision as you ventured through its gargantuan castle for the hundredth time, ready to tackle the myriad enemies and environmental hazards waiting inside. You were never quite sure what to expect, not only because of its randomised levels but also because of the random character generation which gave you a new combination of wacky traits each time you made a run through the castle. Whether you were a flatulent giant or a colour-blind barbarian with alektorophobia, every run felt unique. The persistent unlocks may have defied the real Rouge-likes it alludes to in its title, but the gold-collecting path to unlocking them was just another aspect that made its addictive gameplay loop oh so satisfying.
11th. Rayman Legends
Lost amid the Rayman Legends conversation, which seemed to consist solely of great Wii U GamePad functionality, and then that it was no longer a Wii U exlusive, was the mere fact that it was yet another fun game from the eccentric mind of Michel Ancel. Stripped of its signature feature, which it more or less is on anything other than Wii U, Legends is still the sort of hilarious and irreverent experience we’d expect from the limbless one. Classic platforming mechanics are seamlessly blended with the world of classical animation, where squash and stretch reign supreme and clever use of audio, both through sound effects and music, really underscore the action. It all illustrates a thorough understanding of what makes well-realized 2D art still an incredibly powerful medium, and an ideal place to bust a few heads via well-timed jumps.
10th. The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is a rare videogame. Not only is it remarkably funny and celebratory, but it offers a scathing look at the medium it inhabits. It explores the illusion of choice and the uneasy relationship between designer and player, adopting a satirical tone to subvert expectations and betray almost everything we’ve come to know from this interactive medium.
With a quick witted narrator at the helm it talks to the player directly, reacting to your decisions and questioning why videogames are the way they are; why do we even bother with them to begin with? In lesser hands it wouldn’t work, yet we remain firmly on board for the duration, seeking answers amidst a tangled narrative bursting with inventiveness, consistent laughs and unexpected outcomes. The definition of a game made for gamers. It almost makes you proud.
9th. Super Mario 3D World
Few games brought as much unadulterated joy to 2013 as Super Mario 3D World. From the delightfully catchy music and burst of colour in almost every single level, to the fantastic new cat suit and pretty much everything else in between. EAD Tokyo somehow continue to reinvent a series decades old, all without hopping aboard the well-worn nostalgia train. The simultaneous multiplayer can get a little too hectic at times but the levels are so well designed for both single and multiplayer situations that it maintains its superb quality no matter how many people are involved. Just when you think it has nothing left to give it finds new ways to inject that special, tingly feeling right into the pleasure centre of your brain. The little plumber has still got it.
8th. Papers, Please
An elderly woman stands at your desk, shaded pixels tracing the lines of her wrinkled, worried face as she tells you that her husband is waiting for her on the other side of your border control office. But there’s a problem. She’s from Republia, and your Arstortzkian overseers have just that morning decreed that no Republians are to be allowed across the border due to a terrorist threat. She looks perfectly innocent, all her documentation is in order and she sounds sincere, so what do you do? Green stamp or red stamp?
Nothing else in the landscape of 2013 videogame releases posed quite so many thought-provoking moral quandaries as Papers, Please did. But what’s perhaps most distinctive about Lucas Pope’s work is that it comments on a distinctly human situation through the way that you interact with it, not in spite of your interaction.
7th. Tomb Raider
Crystal Dynamics’ energetic reboot of the aging, stuttering Tomb Raider series was one of the great suprises of 2013. With Rhianna Pratchett on writing duties, Lara Croft was transformed from a fantasy love doll with two beachballs glued to the front into a grounded and believable character whose ingenuity, bravery and toughness slowly blossomed over the course of the game. That bit near the end when Lara cuts loose with her signature dual weapons? Badass moment of the year.
It’s not perfect; too often the more restrained story being told clashes with the increasingly ludicrous action set-pieces, and if I never see another quick-time event again it will be too soon, but overall Tomb Raider was gorgeous to look at and a total blast to play. A smart, heartfelt and exciting reboot of a seemingly obsolete franchise. Roll on the sequel.
6th. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Look past the peculiar oddness of how it functions and Brothers presents something special. A sibling story with an economy of content, that makes better use of only a couple hours than any game of this year. It’s an emotive and artful experience that breaks convention to try something different and to give us a unique story. For this, it stands out as a refined downloadable game with significant weight and a clarity that’s carried through until the emotionally charged end. A fine piece of work that earns its placing with every minute of the content.
5th. Grand Theft Auto V
The Grand Theft Auto franchise has nothing left to prove. Rockstar North could have easily rested on the laurels of its previous success, churned out a prettier version of its flagship franchise, and likely would have still received universal acclaim. However they decided to take a number of big risks with Grand Theft Auto V and it paid off huge dividends for gamers.
The decision to let players switch between three different protagonists added more depth not only in terms of gameplay but it also enhanced a heist story in a way that couldn’t have been achieved by a single hero. It continues to be the gold standard in unique, over the top, hilarious side characters and missions. And finally, despite of all its post launch issues, GTA Online is still an impressive piece of work that delivers a free MMO-like online experience to GTA, included in with the price of admission without compromising the quality of the excellent single-player campaign. A lead that many developers these days could stand to follow.
4th. Outlast
The independent debut from studio Red Barrels, Outlast provides a rather large overdose of squeaky bum time. Philippe Morin’s camera design plays a large part in pitting you directly into this asylum-gone-wrong affair. Told from a first-person perspective, utilising full body awareness so our protagonist leans and uses his hands as guidance, harking back to Monolith’s excellent design work in Condemned, with a night vision HD camera put to excellent use when the lights go out.
It’s easy to make an audience jump with the now cynical, Hollywood rinsed quiet-quiet-quiet-bang! approach of schlock such as Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring. What the team has managed to do in their first attempt should be praised -creating a vivid and frightening tale. Sure, tropes and cliches are used occasionally but intelligent use of such devices makes them fresh once more. Further evidence – if more be needed – that independent studios are keeping the horror genre alive.
3rd. Gone Home
Gone Home has been and will remain a focal point of discussions about the potential of this medium for two main reasons – what the game is about and how it is about that. The Fullbright Company’s vision – to tell a simple story about human relationships and family life – is one admirable for just how rare it is in this industry of guns, guts and Gamerscores. And almost every aspect of the game’s design – be it its length, the detail of its world, the way you interact with that world or how its story unravels – works harmoniously to deliver that vision.
2nd. BioShock Infinite
There’s no setting more difficult to get right than the fragile utopia. BioShock Infinite may be our new primary example. The world of Columbia is full of color and detail, expertly expressing the zeitgeist of old America. It’s a shooter that’s brought the genre to its natural conclusion, where we find that the function begins to hold back the form. Everything is conveyed so exceptionally well and in a new way, we begin to resent that the playing part is so familiar. The highs overcome the standard parts and certainly justify Infinite as one of the year’s best.
1st. The Last of Us
The Last of Us is a game of minute details. Of a world and an environment that conveys storytelling without ever saying a single word. It might be a piece of incidental graffiti, or an irrelevant bedroom in a ramshackle house, leveraging reality and a sense of place to absorb us in this harrowing world. It lends weight to the very human tale of Joel and Ellie, their superb characterisations and nuanced motivations providing the crux of a heartfelt and sombre narrative. You care about them and death feels consequential, never falling into a basic routine of one mindless kill after another. Combat is visceral but necessary, forming a cohesion with Joel’s unforgiving will to survive. The Last of Us feels complete in almost every single way, presenting a meaningful tale the medium rarely achieves. An astounding accomplishment and worthy winner of Thunderbolt’s Game of the Year 2013.
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One of the last major video game publications to release a list closes out GOTY season perfectly!
Ni no Kuni looks fun too.
