To conclude 2019, even though we're
already in 2020, Awkward Mixture follows up its general reflection
with a list of the twenty-four games reviewed on the website this
year. Like the past years, I've separated the games into a few
recognizable categories for a final judgment. Onto the games!
Games I Couldn't Bother
Finishing:
I never finished these seven games,
though that doesn't imply they were unplayable. Unlike last year, I
did briefly review them across two articles.
In Unfinished
Games of 2019: Part 1, I reviewed Niche,
Distrust, Dota Underlords, and Road
Redemption. Controlling a fox like species in Niche
was repetitive from island to island. Distrust wasn't much
different. I only tried Dota Underlords because I
enjoy Dota. I stopped
playing they share nothing in common except a visual
similarity. And though Road Redemption may be as good
as (or better than) the older Road Rash, the reality
didn't meet my nostalgic memories.
I reviewed one fewer game in Unfinished
Games of 2019: Part 2, which included NEO
Scavenger, Battlerite, and Zelda: Breath
of the Wild. I saw the appeal of NEO
Scavenger, with its deep crafting, grounded survival
mechanics, and mysterious setting, but I died too often to make any
progress. The reason for playing Battlerite was similar to
that of Underlords:
I like Dota. It was also
the reason for stopping. Battlerite and Dota
are the same genre and I don't have the time to commit to
another game. With all the best of 2017 accolades, my expectations
for Zelda: Breath of the Wild were astronomical, and it didn't
approach them. The experience wasn't bad, but I wasted too much time
pointlessly exploring mountain peaks, and eventually realized they
were all the same. I would have finished it, and who knows what
rating it would have received, but I had to return the game, and
wasn't heartbroken about my loss.
If I Lived Forever, I
Still Wouldn't Recommend These Games:
I commit to
completing every game, and succeed most of the time (see above for my
failures). The few games in this category I finished (sorta), but
wouldn't recommend in any situation.
Technically I didn't finish Bomber
Crew, nor did I defeat the DLC, but I played at
least fifteen hours, seeing everything there was to see. For a game
with a simple, kiddish visual vibe, it was surprisingly difficult.
Not difficult, like a system to learn from and overcome, but a
frustrating, punishing system with a significant penalty for each
failure. Bomber Crew is the Most Likely to Recreate the Death
Toll of the British RAF.
A bad, difficult game is the worst. At
least I will finish a bad, easy game like Moonlighter.
Unlike Bomber Crew it was effortless, so I beat it. One
might have thought plundering dungeons and selling the loot at one's
family shop would be fun. Not only was it as dull as working retail,
I wish it hadn't forced me to pass through a series of manufactured
hoops, instead of letting me make my own way. That's why Moonlighter
is the Worst 2D Zelda Clone.
Games
I Enjoyed, But Wouldn't Play Again:
There's
a significant step between not recommending a game, and saying its
worth one's consideration. Even though I wouldn't play the follow
games again, I enjoyed them at the time.
Dark
Souls 3 was my favorite game of 2018. The
series became so popular it inspired a genre: souls-like. Like any
genre, its possible to enjoy some games and dislike others, because
of a wide variation in implementation. Hollow
Knight is considered a souls-like because of
its difficulty, its dark, gloomy atmosphere, and its limited use of
exposition words to paint a big picture. Unfortunately it doesn't
include the precision medieval combat of its inspiration, and is Most
Like A Metroidvania Dark Souls.
Ever since We and Brave New
World inspired 1984 humanity
has been preoccupied with dystopian society maintained by
totalitarian control. Orwell:
Keeping an Eye on You
allowed the player to experience what these societies would be like
from the perspective of power. The game-play was sparse, and the
developer didn't add much to the conversation about surveillance, but
playing Orwell was Most
Like Being O'Brien.
In
Ohklos
Omega
the player controlled an unnamed Philosopher in the middle of the
swirling maelstrom of a mob. Their goal: to tear the gods of Olympus
from their pedestals and replace them with humanity. Whether the
developer knows it or not, playing Ohklos
is Most Like Reading The
Clouds.
In
last year's reflection I said about The
Banner Saga 2
that it's, “position as a great game is Most
Dependent Upon The Series' Conclusion.”
In retrospect The
Banner Saga 2
could never have been called great, a mistake rendered immaterial by
The
Banner Saga 3,
which was worse than its predecessor. While I criticized TBS2
for raising too many questions, TBS3
makes the mistake to answer them with soul-crushingly terrible
answers. That's why The
Banner Saga 3
earns Most
Disappointing Series Conclusion.
I
played The
Stanley Parable
in 2014 or 2015, and found it mildly entertaining for its 3 hour run
time. The experience reminded me of watching a trailer for a really
funny comedy, only to go and see that they had used the best parts
for the ads, with everything else not quite as humorous. The
Beginner's Guide
suffered from the same issue, except that
instead of a comedy, it's a drama. It's awarded the Most
Serious Walking Simulator.
The
Walking Dead
started as a comic in 2003, became a TV show in 2010, and spun off a
video game (among its many other properties). In 2012 Clementine was
born, fully formed at the age of eight. The
Walking Dead: Season One
revitalized the adventure genre, leading to other gems like The
Wolf Among Us.
The first Walking
Dead
game inspired players with its heartfelt relationship between Lee
Everett and Clementine. The the follow up was fine, but The
Walking Dead: A New Frontier
barely wants to talk about Clementine. It throws a new cast of
characters at the player, and says play with them instead. A
New Frontier
is like The
Banner Saga 2:
it was acceptable, but its final rating depends on the series
conclusion. If the final game is good then
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier will
be a fine placeholder, but if the final isn't satisfactory then this
game won't be worth another thought. In an odd twist, I've already
finished sequel, so A
New Frontier
is Most
Dependent Upon the Series Conclusion Where I Already Know the Answer.
Obsidian
Entertainment and Paradox Interactive's cooperation generated the
second best game of Awkward Mixture last year: Pillars
of Eternity.
Hoping that their partnership would yield additional fruit, I
played their 2016 follow up, Tyranny.
The game implemented the rare, but growing sub-genre: the evil RPG.
The player served an evil master, and undertook evil quests, but
Tyranny
avoided the popular style where the evil people are
zany and hilarious. The developers tried to conduct a serious
setting, but they didn't say anything new about evil and its effects.
But tyranny did on the rare occasion try to discuss freedom and
autonomy, and is the Most
Subtle Reference to the The
Histories.
Tooth
and Tail
may be the best game of this section, a fun little RTS, with the
ability to generate unique levels. I found some of the levels in the
later half frustratingly difficult, but the unique style and quick
game play alleviated major issues. It is the Most
Like A Redwall Russian Revolution.
Honorable
Mentions:
These
are the games I would recommend without reservation. I finished each
one with enthusiasm, and hope to return again in the future.
I've
never played a rhythm game on the PC, partly because there aren't
many to choose from. But I'm glad I took a chance on Crypt
of the Necrodancer.
It wasn't too difficult to set one's own music into the game, but I
found the prepackaged audio preferable. I didn't actually beat the
game, because a single victory only unlocks more of the story with
additional characters, but I put 15 hours into it, and if I had
continued I would have burned out. Instead, I had a good time, Most
Like Dancing At a Disco.
Some
friends of mine who quit playing Dota
convinced me to purchase Deep
Rock Galactic,
and I don't regret it one bit. It's still a Steam Early Access game,
but the developers have worked relentlessly since the beginning of
the year with continual improvements. If you've enter wanted to take
a break from killing relentless hordes of zombies in dark dingy
streets, and instead kill swarms of voracious insects while exploring
glittering caves for treasure, this is the game for you. It's
incredible with friends and is the Best
Co-op Game of 2019.
Who would think that a two hour demo of a unfinished game with an
undeclared release date would be worth playing? Deltarune,
the maybe (?) sequel to Toby Fox's 2015 fan sensation Undertale,
seems like to eclipse the original. Even though I didn't love
Undertale as much as the super fans, a completed Deltarune is
the Most Anticipated Game of Awkward Mixture.
I
loved Supergiant's 2014 Transistor,
and enjoyed their debut Bastion,
so their third game, Pyre,
was the game I Most
Wanted to Love.
Expectations impact how I rate games, and often when one fails to
meet mine, its rating suffers. In Pyre's
situation, I'm not sure if my expectations are still buoying it up,
even though I know it wasn't as great as I wanted it to be. Oh well.
Hopefully their next game, Hades,
meets my unreasonable expectations.
I
don't have a quota to fill for each category. This year five games
earned honorable mentions, compared to three in 2018, and eight in
2017. The number is elastic. I say this because like the previous
game, The
Sexy Brutale
was a game I really wanted to like, boosted as it was by my
impressions and Jim
Sterling's recommendation. While I enjoyed elements of the
game-play, the ending was disappointing. It's the Best
Version of A Tormented Groundhog's Day Murder Mystery.
The
Best of the Year:
For the first two years Awkward Mixture awarded a single award for
best of the year. Last year I introduced a second place award when
I felt two games deserved particular recognition. This year, I found
three games worthy of acknowledgment. You think you know where this
is going. A new ranking system every year; fourth place, fifth
place, etc... I don't think so, but I guess you might be right.
Follow along for 2019's top three.
Awkward
Mixture's First 3rd
Place Award
I
quit playing Darkest
Dungeon
for a month or two in frustration after it refused to offer up its
secrets with ease. I returned because I couldn't be denied the truth
of what resides at the deepest pits of the estate. Like the Ancestor
I needed to know what was at the bottom, and eventually I found it.
I sacrificed a host of souls to witness the emptiness at the core of
existence, and the monstrosities which hover just beyond our vision.
Only dare approach if you too are committed to digging into the heart
of despair. The pain of temporarily thwarting the Cosmic Darkness
makes this the Most
Satisfyingly Frustrating Game.
Awkward
Mixture's 2nd
Place Award
I found it difficult to separate the second best from the best game
of the year. They shared a number of similarities. An oppressive
environment, a horror sensibility, mostly story oriented, with simple
puzzles mixed in. They had their differences too. One, a solo
piece, the recipient of numerous awards. The other, the final game
in a well received series, created by a company which failed halfway
through the last stretch. Did I prefer the conclusion to a series
I've loved since the first game, or the stand alone game which won
multiple awards in 2017? The latter earned second place in
Hellblade:
Senua's Sacrifice. A phenomenal game which delivered an
atmospheric experience, the player plays as Pict warrior Senua as
she seeks to banish her demons and rescue her love. Senua's
Sacrifice is the Most Visually Arresting Game for its
use of motion capture to depict the protagonist's anxieties, as
played by Melina Juergens.
Best
Game of 2019/2018
When the Walking Dead series was removed from Steam I
considered that I might never finish it. It didn't help that I rated
Season Two as mediocre. It's been six years but I purchased
Season Three and The Final Season on the Epic
Games Store during their Halloween sale for five dollars each. As I
mentioned above, the value of Season Three, which was mediocre
at best on its own merits, was dependent on the success of Season
Four. The
Walking Dead: The Final Season wasn't perfect. It contained some
contradictions to the Walking Dead Universe, and spun together an
ending which relied on flimsy preconceptions because the creator of
the series hadn't finished his comic. Yet, it contained the best
characters of the series, short of Lee Everett, and created an ending
which fans of Clementine's journey could be happy with. Now that the
comic is completed, there is an opening for one more season for a
better conclusion, but I don't anticipate it. So we bid farewell to
one of the bravest heroines in video game history. Farewell
Clementine. The Walking Dead: The Final Season is the Best
Game of Awkward Mixture of 2019.
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