Austin’s Top 10 of 2012

Take a look at what I found to be the best games of 2012:

NUMBER TEN

Hotline Miami

A weird drug trip where the melding of audio, video and gameplay is so perfect and pleasurable. The over the top violence has a puzzle solving play to it which is interesting to approach. The quick death to respawn mechanic slows down any build of frustration. The in between level scenes are bizarre and kept driving me to play the next level to better understand the story. The soundtrack, a mixture of original and licensed songs, is AMAZING.

NUMBER NINE

Zombi U

A third party zombie game at the launch of a new hardware platform. Taking advantage of weird and quirky control inputs sounds like a disaster, but Zombi U proved to be some of the most fun I had on the Wii U in 2012. Survival horror has seemingly taken a backseat in favor of more action heavy game. Zombi U gave me the tense, stressful resource management and scavenging of a traditional horror game while at the same time adding in permadeath, emphasizing the consequences of death.

NUMBER EIGHT

Sleeping Dogs

An open world crime game born out of the ashes of a game from a different game. I started playing Sleeping Dogs on a Friday and the next thing I knew it was 11pm on Sunday and I had finished the main story and then some. The focus on hand-to-hand combat makes the encounters with enemies more enjoyable than the typical run and gun of similar games. The voice acting really pulls the story of the undercover cop taking down a triad gang from the inside, together and cohesive. Additionally, the side missions feel full and rewarding, always adding into the stats and making the player feel stronger as a result.

NUMBER SEVEN

Persona 4 Golden

Another one of those games which forced me out of my comfort zone. JRPGs don’t usually excite me but Persona 4 had me laughing, smiling and confused in all the right ways. The combat is dynamic with a strength and weakness system, but what really stood out to me was the writing and voice acting. The characters are all charming and get thrown into awkward yet fun situations which  made me wish I grew up in a rural Japanese town.

NUMBER SIX

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I had never had any exposure to the XCOM universe, prior to the FPS trailer shown at E3 a couple of years back. When I heard Enemy Unknown was a brutal, turn based strategy game I was initially intimidated. I picked up the game against my better judgement and fell in love with the combat and metagame. The combat is very punishing to a reckless playstyle and meant to be played carefully and tactically. While the main narrative isn’t very strong, losing a soldier that has been with you since the beginning is devastating. The games difficult systems make understanding them and achieving victory much more rewarding.

NUMBER FIVE

The Walking Dead

Adventure games don’t interest me very much at all. The “click on everything” approach is not compelling, and gets boring quickly. The Walking Dead is not without its problems, but it fixes what I dislike about adventure games and put the focus on character interactions. The sense of control in the decision making of The Walking Dead  tailors the experience to the player. I was emotionally invested in the characters in this game, more than anything else in 2012 . I really liked how the game forced me to make hard decisions from a gut reaction which could greatly impact the characters in my party.

NUMBER FOUR

Mark of the Ninja

Stealth has had a lot of problems in the past, usually as a result of not knowing why an enemy spotted you. Mark of Ninja wears its mechanics on its sleeve. For example, when the player is in the shadows his outfit is lacking of color and in the light the color returns. Every enemy has a vision cone and every sound you make is shown by a circle extending outwards from the source. The best part of the game is using these transparent mechanics to play through an entire level without setting off any alarms, while still killing everyone. The scoring system and different ways to complete a level made replaying these levels as enjoyable as the first playthrough. This is another one of the games I found to be so compelling I played every part of the game multiple times to earn every single achievement.

NUMBER THREE

Dust An Elysian Tail

A beautiful charming, cartoon art style in combination with its simple, fluid combat made the serious tones of its genocidal story easier to stomach. This game was designed, programmed, written and drawn by one man which is an accomplishment on its own. The hack and slash combos of the combat is simple, and holds its own thanks to the variety of enemies you’ll encounter. “The game” (replace with Dust: The Elysian Tail) has hidden items and collectables scattered throughout the world that gives the game a MetroidVania feel to it.

NUMBER TWO

Rhythm Heaven Fever

Quirky scenarios, catchy music, a cute art style and a ‘simple to play difficult to master’ gameplay kept me coming back to Rhythm Heaven Fever constantly throughout the year, even though I had imported it from Japan 6 months prior. Rhythm Heaven Fever stole so many hours from me as I worked to master this charming Japanese rhythm game. I can’t wait for the next installment of this game, and I wish more games would take cues from the Rhythm Heaven universe and be weird, fun and easy to play.

NUMBER ONE

Halo 4

If you know me at all, seeing this at the top of my list is no surprise. 343 Industries made the most ‘Halo’ Halo game we have seen in a long time, and its also the best Halo game. There hasn’t been a more powerful narrative in the Halo games than the humanizing story between Master Chief and Cortana of Halo 4. In addition to the fantastic story, the multiplayer components are integrated into every aspect of Halo 4. The cooperative modes are great, but the competitive multiplayer has been taking up most of my time. I can’t think of any games coming in 2013 which will take me away from playing Halo 4 Wargames.