MadCap's Game Reviews - "The Best Games of 2014"

Well, now that we've gotten the alcohol right out of our systems and have brought out the funk, here we are in the year 2015.  While I practice writing 2015 so that I don't screw up when I write checks, have a look at the best games I played in the year 2014. Remember, like the "Worst" list, these aren't games that necessarily came out in 2014, just the ones that I reviewed. I think, given that, there's no better place to start than...

10. Halo: Combat Evolved

The review in question
Ah, the long, long ago time when the Halo series was pure and sweet and innocent...before Microsoft milked the cash cow dry. But by now the bones have crumbled into dust and now they use said dust to try and make more of it, though the fact is that the cow is gone, gone, gone...and no matter how sweet that milk was, we'll never be tasting it again in this franchise.

As you can tell, I have a very negative opinion on where the series has gone.

But we're here to talk about where it started, and where it started is good. The first game is a massive Aliens rip-off, but with just the two protagonists and a second race of aliens thrown in later in the game.  It revitalized the shooter genre, starting a trend of actually having a story with the "shoot everything in sight" that many shooters were known for...regardless of how good the story was or how well it was executed.  But again, starting out, it's you against the aliens with a single twist later...and I really can't complain about that. I do admit to a certain nostalgia about the game from childhood, which I probably why this ranks at all on this list.

9. Doom

The review in question
It's one of the first FPSes that ever was, for better or for worse. There's a plot to it, yes, but it basically is a demon-killing power fantasy. After all, who hasn't had a chuckle at the mental image of running straight up to a big, nasty demon and punching it right in the face?

...

...you people need to play more Dungeons & Dragons.

8. Devil May Cry 3

The review in question
When I was given the Devil May Cry HD Collection for the Xbox 360, my friend told me straight away to just go to this game. After playing it, I understood why. This game is an absolutel masterpiece. Okay, the story isn't perfect, but it's Capcom - to quote Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation, "Capcom makes stories like tumble driers make potato salad". But the fact is that the combat is excellent, the aesthetics are great, the camera's not fixed all the time, and Dante himself just carries the stable with his wit, charm, and frank awesomeness. This is the text book example of how Dante should be. Hell, this is a text book example of how a Devil May Cry game should be. Period.

7. Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark

The review in question
My first review of 2014, and with good reason...2013 had ended and I hadn't finished my retrospective on Neverwinter Nights.  But don't let that fool you, this is awesome. I don't hold up the vanilla game in the same regard because, well, it's not on the same level.  Sure, the vanilla game is arguably longer with four acts as opposed to Hordes's three chapters, the base game is a standard campaign whereas this one is definitely a campaign ender. You start at level 15, and go from there well into the thirties (or at least that's where I was by the end)...and into becoming a damn near Physical God on the surface of Faerun.

That's right, by the end of this, you're able to take on an archdevil from the lowest of the Hells in combat. And, again, it's pretty awesome, if a little frustrating. Or you could just got the direct approach and learn the True Name to either bind the devil to your service or force him to kill himself.

Now you're playing with power.

And it's just a good example of leveling and getting stronger in that traditional D&D fashion. You're not a rookie adventurer sent out to kill rats in someone's basement by this point, you're a seasoned veteran heading up to the next big challenge. And when you're coming up on level 20, what's the biggest challenge you can face? Hordes of the Underdark answers that, and it answers it pretty damn well.

6. Blood of the Werewolf

The review in question
A game that scratched my horror itch in the best way. Mind you, I don't always have a horror itch, but when I do, it's games like Blood of the Werewolf that I get a satisfying scratching from.  Scientifically Proven made a game that, while being a homage to several other facets of the horror genre - games and movies in particular - stands as it's own unique thing.  Selena is no fragile princess to be rescued in another castle, she's a badass mother (no, literally, she's badass and a mother) going to save her child from the evil Doctor Frankenstein.

And in some situations where a female protagonist would be subject to poor writing or characterization, we don't get that here. She's tragic, she's determined, and that's really very beautifully done in a way that doesn't seem cheesy or overcompensating. We want to root for her, we want to see her succeed and save her child, the last bit of her family that she has.  In that way, it's all the more satisfying to see her going all Mama Bear (or, in this case, Mama Wolf) on the bad guys.  The only reason this game isn't higher on the list is because of the pathological fear of insta-kill hydraulic ram shafts that it has instilled in me.

My therapist has been working with me...it's pretty bad...

Still, great game. No doubt about that.

5. Rad Raygun

The review in question
Knowing is half the battle. What's the other half? Killing those Commie motherfuckers with a laser gun! Or, at least, that's what Rad Raygun will have you believing by the time you finish playing it. Developed by Trufun Entertainment, it's a tongue-in-cheek look at the fervent anti-Communist and uber-Patriotic approach of the United States against the Russians, putting it into the context of an awesome Mega Man clone. With awesome throwback 8-bit music (by FantomenK!), it's short, but it's good. I look forward to the sequel!

...oh, the sequel's out? I'll have to look into that...

4. Pokemon X and Y

The review in question
My inner seven year old enjoyed this very much. So did the twenty-three year old version of myself. While X and Y do undoubtedly have their problems, there's so much to like and it's very clear that this is not the same series that Nintendo and Game Freak first came out with way back in 1996, for better or for worse.  You have a villain that's far more developed, Lysandre being a Big Bad with far more depth than one would expect from previous Pokemon games. Sure, his lackeys are a bunch of hipster wannabe douchebags, but Lysandre had an actual reason for doing what he did beyond the simple desires to make money or to rule the world that other villains in the series have had.

It wasn't just a few new 'Mons thrown in - in fact, X and Y have introduced the least number of the creatures to date - and the same story with different people thrown in.  While Black and White seemingly did this until were learned Ghesis just wanted to be the only one with Pokemon (because, logic), it was really these games that graduated the villains into homicidal maniac territory. While Lysandre doesn't seem that way - he honestly believes that destroying the entire world will save it - his plan and Team Flare's in general is actually a really refreshing concept for a series that has, up to this point (barring the Lavender Town Pokemon Tower in Generation I) only hinted at or shied away completely from death. Dare I say, adding a little more realism and real-world context to what had previously been a very naive and simplistic series.

3. DuckTales Remastered

The review in question
Woohoo!

And now that you have that stuck in your head, here's the number three choice, DuckTales Remastered. A refurbished and repurposed port of the original NES game that was mega hit back in the day, DuckTales has at last been brought into the 21st century, and it is pretty awesome. WayForward Technologies and Capcom brought back the feel of the game while also updating it for the present, making sprites in 2.5D instead of the 8-bit and bringing in the original cast to do the voices for dialogue.

And it has what may be one of the most badass weapons in gaming. You thought the Doom Guy with the BFG 9000 was bad? When Scrooge McDuck comes at you with the combination cane-pogo stick, you better get ready to run, suckers! That man will be happy to beat the gold coins and jewels right out of your still breathing body as he treks his way across the world (and even above it!). I said in my review that the game feels like an interactive episode of the show, and I still hold to that. And that is pretty awesome.

2. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

The review in question

Rex Power Colt is a bad enough dude to rescue the President.  That's literally all you need to know.

1. Alien: Isolation

The review in question
This game would be good on it's own, but it's also good because it's the first Alien related game since Colonial Marines about in 2013, and it's effectively saved the franchise from that pile of trash. But even as I ponder why Randy Pitchford still has a job, I look at this game on it's own merits and see excellence around just about every corner.  The xenomorph is the top of the food chain and you get to learn that the hard way if you get cocky and try to take it out.  This isn't some shooter, and you're not a Colonial Marine. You're an engineer, and while Amanda Ripley is just as badass as her mother, she's still a squishy human and the Xenomorph is a few tons of death in a jet black, serpentine body. She has to use her wits, her ingenuity in crafting items for use, and a little bit of luck in order to defeat the alien and get off of the station alive.

The focus might be pulled a bit, thanks to the infamous Working Joes, but the menace of the alien does remain quite fresh and we're not regulated to long stretches of fighting nothing but faceless Weyland-Yutani Marines.  This is helped, too, by the environment of the space station that Amanda finds herself on while searching for the flight record of the Nostromo from the first movie. It's dark, claustrophobic, and chilling all on its own, not even getting into when you have to be watching and listening for the alien menace that seeks nothing more than to consume you for din-din.

It does run on a bit too long - in fact, it outright denies at least two logical places where one of the movies would have stopped - but it's a fun time, if a little frustrating at points, and fits well into the two Alien movies that actually matter without breaking series canon, and thus I put it up as my choice for the number one best game of 2014.

Agree with my choices? No? Tell me why I'm wrong in the comments.

Oh, and Happy New Year, everybody!

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