2014 Games Review

2014 Games Review

3 Star Games

Plants Vs. Zombies 2. It started out pretty fun, but the difficulty was ramped up so much in order to encourage in-app purchases that the game became unplayable.

 

Disney Infinity. Pretty much four mini games that you play over and over, but just use different figures in different worlds for. And none of the best characters got a world to themselves.

 

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. A very stupid plot, and annoying characters. The battle

system is ok but can be difficult to use. Some good music, but overall, the worst of the FFXIII

games

 

Five Nights At Freddie’s

 

4 Star Games

Spore. An excellent game of creature evolution that gets too long and dragged out in the final space exploration section.

 

Mario and Luigi. Dream Team Bros. A mostly excellent game but let down by some annoying

giant Luigi battles.

 

Assassins Creed 3. The first Assassins Creed game I've played. The American Revolution

setting is excellent and most of the missions are enjoyable, especially the ones around the

homestead. The game is let down by the numerous eavesdropping missions and the irrelevant present-day missions

 

Ratchet and Clank Nexus. Another classic Ratchet and Clank but far too short.

 

Knights of Pen and Paper. An RPG done with tabletop game mechanics. Fun and different with plenty of references to other games. It has a horrendous difficulty spike towards the end

 

Game Dev Tycoon. The only flaw I found with Game Dev Tycoon was the sheer randomness of what makes a good game.

 

Sonic Lost Worlds. A good Sonic 3D game but far from the best.

 

Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze. it was good, I enjoyed it, a very good co-op

game.

 

Yoshis New Island: Another unremarkable and unmemorable sequel to Yoshis Island

 

FTL. A fun space exploration and ship management game. Depending on your choices it's

either difficult or extremely difficult.

 

The Lego Movie Videogame. As fun as any Lego game but taking the cutscenes and plot

directly from the movie means some of the charm is lost for the game.

 

Reus. A giant controls the elements of a planet to help the settlers. Each game is short, but the giant gets more powerful with powers gained from each game. I originally gave this a 5 but now feel it deserves a 4

 

Armillo. Marble Madness with full 3D graphics and powerups. Great fun. 

 

5 Star Games

 

Persona 4 Golden. Added characters and social links make this the definitive version of this excellent game.

 

The Last Of Us. Action-Adventure game with strong storyline and gameplay. Very scary enemies and an eerie atmosphere. And giraffes!

 

New Super Luigi U. Short and tough Mario platforming levels.

 

Batman Arkham Origins. Thankfully I was able to avoid 99% of the bugs in Batman for another excellent Arkham adventure.

 

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Fantastic Zelda game, great sequel to A Link To The Past and better then Skyward Sword

 

Pocket Trains. Slow but enjoyable train simulator. Very non pushy for a freemium game

 

Super Mario 3D World. Co-op Mario platforming game. Peach as a playable character!

 

Professor Layton and the Azran Legend. The end of the Professor Layton era for now but the game is as good as ever

 

Diablo III. My first Diablo game was very enjoyable without knowing the lore behind it. I'm glad I played on the easier difficulty.

 

Persona 3. While disappointed over some of the Social Links, I played this game as a sort of

prequel to Persona 4 and Persona Q. The dungeons became a bid tedious however the story, and characters are so well written it makes the game compulsive.

 

Assassins Creed 4. The pirate setting makes this a superior game to 3, still got the annoying

eavesdropping though.

 

The Walking Dead Season 2. Clementine is a badass. Depending on your decisions of course.

 

South Park. The Stick of Truth. One of the nearest ever experiences of playing a show that you normally watch. Stick of Truth has a typically South Park plot. Gameplay is great, even if it does get a little easy towards the end.

 

Mario Golf World Tour. The only golf game I play is Mario Golf, it's just fun mainly because of the Mushroom Kingdom setting and additions.

 

Mario Kart 8. Incredible game. Great fun in multiplayer. Challenging time trials. Brilliant track

designs and more to come.

 

Child of Light. Combination of platforming and role playing gives a fun time And all the text is in iambic pentameter. I mean rhyme.

 

Peggle 2. Not as good as the first game due to their being a lot less characters. Still addictive though. The new challenges are also very clever

 

Costume Quest 2. Just as good as the first game.

 

Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. Great remake of the Gen III games with additional content

 

Threes

 

Bird Story

 

Top 10 Games of 2014

 

Gone Home. You arrive home to find your family all gone, and your big mansion in darkness. This game is scary, very scary. Just unsettling. And yet as you make your way through the house, piecing together what happens, it's also quite unexpected

 

Shelter. A mother escorts her five baby cubs to a new home. And everything in the environment around her is trying to kill them. What makes this game is the brutal moment when one of your babies is lost, it's just devastating.

 

Tearaway. Tearaway has so many clever ideas. You design many of the in-game items, enemies and NPCs. Your own finger makes an appearance in the game using the touchpad on the back. You make an appearance using the game camera. And provided you make the effort with papercraft, the main character can achieve his goal and reach you outside the game.

 

Broken Age. Broken Age is the famous Kickstarter game from Double Fine which I backed. You play as Shay, a kid in a spaceship/nursery and Vella who is trying to kill a giant monster instead of being sacrificed to it. The two stories are seemingly unconnected but obviously are and the fun for me was trying to figure out the connection. The twist at the break between the games is excellent. It does loose a bit of momentum in part 2 however

 

Year Walk. A point and click horror game that is genuinely scary and creepy. But it's more than that. Get to the end of the walk and something happens....

 

The Stanley Parable. When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left. According to the Narrator. Or maybe he didn't. Maybe he went in the right door. Maybe he went in both. Maybe Stanley doesn't exist. Maybe Stanley is the Narrator. Who knows?

 

Papers Please. You are a border guard of Communist Arstotka. You must decide who gets into the country and who doesn't. The pay is minimal, and you have a large family depending on every penny. A man comes to your booth. He is a dangerous pimp. Should you let him in knowing he intends to hurt women. If you refuse him, the pay you loose means no medicine for your sick child. It's a tough game with tough decisions. Scary too when violence and bombs erupt outside your booth.

 

Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright. I'm a big fan of both Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright so I knew this game was going to be amazing. And it is. Both styles of gameplay work really well together, the different mix of characters is great and the story is as addictive as Ace Attorney and ridiculous as Layton’s.

 

Phoenix Wright Duel Destinies. It was expected that the next Ace Attorney game would continue the story of Apollo and Trucy but instead Phoenix is back as a defence attorney working with Apollo and new attorney Athena Cykes. And like all Ace Attorney games before it, by the end I abandon all pretence at trying to solve the puzzles and just use a guide to help me get through the story as it is just so good.

 

 

Valiant Hearts. This game broke me. It's so sad.