2014 was definitely an eventful, controversial, and divisive year in gaming. Many felt let down as a whole, others found themselves enveloped in all “Next Gen gaming” had to offer them. Personally, I found myself in a happy medium, being let down by some promising titles, and completely enthralled by others. These are my personal top 5 games of 2014!
(in no particular order)
Destiny
Now hold on, I know the groans this will bring but hear me out. Destiny, while promised to be much more than it actually turned out to be, still achieved moments of greatness. Growing up I had always desired a shooter/RPG that mixed cyberpunk or futuristic characteristics with fantasy. I wanted to be able to strap into a futuristic set of armor and delve into dark depths of the map hunting characters with names such as “Gate Lords”. The world Destiny is set in, really scratched a gaming itch I have had for a long time.
Aside from that, the gameplay itself is rock solid. Bungie definitely knows one thing and that’s shooter mechanics. Every combat scenario plays out in a flurry of bullets, tearing through the air (and mostly your enemies), in a way that is so satisfying that we almost forget that we have done every mission 5000 times. Yes, it’s story is lacking at best, yes content was cut from the title, yes it has its flaws. But as a game that I thoroughly enjoyed and sank quite a lot of time into, it has become one of my top games of 2014.
Dragon Age Inquisition
As one of my favorite RPG’s of all time, I will never forget the incredibly badass “This is war” trailer for Dragon Age: Origins. As one of my most hated gaming titles of all time, I will never forget the burning sense of betrayal I felt after playing Dragon Age 2. But in what seemed to be a love letter to disgruntled fans everywhere, Bioware crafted an unprecedented masterpiece that improved on it’s predecessors in every way. After being disappointed by the scant story of Destiny, I still felt a deep longing for a game with substance, the kind of game whose lore I could really get lost in, and Inquisition delivered.
I became obsessed with constantly updated my gear as well as that of my companions. As a dual blade wielding rogue, I focused on building the most powerful burst DPS I could, and became a slave to crafting. There are so many tine things to fall into, to really sink your time and effort into in this title, that it really brought the substance I felt had been missing all year. It also managed to estrange me from a lot of people.
Titanfall
The first shooter I ever really got into was Halo: Combat Evolved. Sure I remember running around in Goldeneye for N64 with buddies, but that was more chaos than refined skill. I remember pouring through each map, finding nooks and crannies to hide in and snipe from, learning small ways to manipulate the games physics and use them to my advantage, but after that shooters became more of the same for me. I loved shooters, but they didn’t surprise me, nothing changed. But with Titanfall, everything changed.
One of the most fun gaming memories I have, is booting up Titanfall for the first time on pc, and wondering what was going to happen. And as I dropped into combat fresh from the tutorial stage, a smile spread across my face that hadn’t been there in years. It was such a breath of fresh air to be excited for a shooter again, to rethink the way you play, to find new ways to get one over on your enemies.
The Last of Us Remastered
Having missed out on playing The Last of Us on PS3 last gen, I was eager to get my hands on this title this time around. My anticipation was met with a masterpiece of a game. Not even 10 minutes into the game, I was already sold. When you couple fantastic mo-cap, and top notch voice acting, cut-scenes felt even more cinematic. Normally, protecting an NPC is a tedious task, but Ellie quickly became a character I genuinely wanted to protect.
Left Behind, The Last of Us’ prequel DLC only continued this trend, showing us the true narrative potential of video games.
Watch_Dogs
Again, hold the groans. Watch_Dogs was nowhere near perfect, but beneath the incredibly annoying Uplay issues and rampant bugs, I found a fun experience. Likable and interesting characters who kept me engaged and a deeply detailed open world kept me playing. The universe created in Watch_Dogs is another story I had been waiting to see unfold in a game. I became such a fan, that I actually customized my iPhone to look like it ran ctOS and did the same to my pc. The lore and story behind Watch_Dogs makes me hopeful for the next installments in the series.
All in all, 2014 was an interesting year for games and the gaming industry. We may not have seen all we wanted to see from it, but with some of the upcoming titles in 2015, we definitely have a lot to look forward to.