2014 Games of the Year

It's the end of the year, which means time to look back on what our favorite games this year have been. Here at Nerds of a Feather, we are doing things a bit different. Recognizing that coming to a consensus is painful and often unnecessary, instead of a canonical top 10, we've each provided our top three. This way, we can highlight what we found to be the best games we played this year without creating some Frankenstein's monster that represents the tastes of none of us entirely. Also, recognizing that we're adults who don't get around to every game each year, we've expanded the scope to include games that were not necessarily released in 2014. After all, a good game is good no matter what year it came out. With that said, here are our individual 2014 Games of the Year!


Mikey

Mario Kart 8 - Nintendo has the best exclusives of any console hands down.  Mario Kart 8 is an amazing update to this classic franchise.  The courses are a throwback to the classic tracks I used to race in college.  I haven't played online much, but this was a feature that was sorely needed and done well.  Nintendo knows fun better than anyone else and this is the most fun I've had on the Wii U.

Skylanders Trap Team - I will admit to being underwhelmed with the upgrades to this game since it originally dropped.  Giants was fun, Swap Force was kind of neat, but the ability to trap and use villains opens up another level of gameplay that refreshed this series.  All of the games have been good, but none have felt as magical as this one.  From the video of the character getting beamed into the trap to the noises that are emitted from the speaker in the portal, this game makes me feel like a kid.  

MLB The Show - I have been pleased with my PS4 and feel it has provided a decent graphics upgrade from the PS3.  I thought it was only decent until I popped this title in.  On multiple occasions I have had people watch me play for over five minutes before realizing that it is a video game.  MLB The Show is pure eye candy and it remains as the premier baseball video game on any system.

Brad

1. Destiny - I know the story sucked, but I just can't stop playing this. It's the first time I've enjoyed grinding!

2. Forza Horizon 2 - Easily the most fun I've had playing a racing game, and the simulation is still top notch despite the move to an open-world style.

 

3. Valiant Hearts: The Great War - Gameplay was serviceable and story was phenomenal. Actually made me cry once. Seriously.

Honorable Mention: Contrast - Although a bit too short, it's completely unique gameplay and intimations about multiple universes made the whole thing like watching one of those movies that, once finished, you realize you are going to have to see it again in order to understand what just happened.

The G

For fun's sake, or just to be different, I'm ranking my top 3 games according to Olympic medal-granting conventions.

Gold - Out There (iOS/Android)

It feels strange to pick a touch/tablet game, rather than console or PC, as my Game of the Year—but Out There was far and away the best thing I played in 2014. It’s a roguelike with roots in 4x titles like Master of Orion. It has an elegant design, a compelling story, boatloads of atmosphere, addictive gameplay and—notably—does not rely on violence to move the narrative forward.

Silver - Shadowrun Returns (PC/Mac/iOS/Android)

Disclaimer: this game is from 2013 not 2014, but if we look past the superlative Out There, this was the next best game I played in 2014. A kickstarter-funded reboot of the video game franchise/return to the cyberpunk+fantasy universe originally popularized in tabletop gaming, Shadowrun Returns neatly captures all the fun and retro style of 1990s RPGs.  

Bronze – Destiny (Xbox One/PS4)

Nothing on consoles really knocked it out of the park for me, so I guess Destiny wins bronze by default. The game looks gorgeous and plays like Halo updated for the new generation, and that’s a good thing. Plus I appreciate that Bungie are trying to do something different with how they’ve structured the game and narrative. Unfortunately, the gameplay is too repetitive and the narrative feels half-baked, so in the end I didn’t like it as much as Brad did.

brian

Wolfenstein: The New Order - I am a big fan of the Wolfenstein series, but I didn't have high expectations for The New Order. I mean, certainly I have a lot of fond memories of Wolfenstein 3D, but Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein were good games, but not great games. Wolfenstein: The New Order is a great game.  It's probably one of the best first-person shooters of all time. The story, the pacing, the gameplay, the graphics, the sounds, and the whole package is top-notch. It flew under a lot of people's radars, but it should be played by every first-person shooter fan.

Alien: Isolation - In another big victory for first-person games in 2014, Alien: Isolation does this movie series justice. You can read my review here, but the long and the short of it is that it's a well-made game that accurately emulates the atmosphere of the first Alien movie. 

Transistor - Supergiant Games really nailed it with Bastion, and they did it again with Transistor. It has a unique setting, interesting story and characters, and a deep gameplay loop. It's not as straightforward as Bastion, but it's amazing nonetheless.

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POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

Out There for iOS

It's Lonely Out There

Buy Out There - Mi Clos Studio from iTunes
 
4X games (eXplore, eXtract, eXpand, eXterminate) have a long and illustrious history on the PC. The paradigmatic examples are probably Civilization and Master of Orion—turn-based empire-building games that ask you to juggle priorities while offering multiple paths to success. Do you emphasize technological advancement, military conquest or resource-procurement? Usually you combine two or more of these things, or concentrate on one for a while before moving to another.

Several developers have managed to port the 4X experience to mobile, touch-based platforms—primarily iOS, but also Android. The platform is quite suitable, operationally speaking, but tablets don’t seem like a great cognitive fit for long and involved games with lots of menus and things to keep track of; tablets seem better suited for the new wave of 4X-inspired games like FTL: Faster than Light (Buy), which emphasize elements or aspects of 4X gaming but tailored to produce a more targeted experience, as well as shorter games that can be played to conclusion between tasks, in waiting rooms or on the go. This is what tablet gaming is made for.

Out There is rooted in the 4X experience. Like FTL, it uses Master of Orion more as inspiration than template, a setting for its taut story of survival against all odds. Both games take place in procedurally-generated galaxies, ensuring that every game played is sufficiently different from the last. And Out There can be just as unforgiving as its predecessor, yet similarly manages to parlay intense difficulty into an addicting, rather than frustrating, experience.

But whereas FTL emphasizes combat and tactical personnel management, Out There is all about resource management. You are a lone spaceman whose ship has drifted far from Earth. You must find a way back, but the galaxy is an inhospitable place. You need fuel (hydrogen and helium) to move, air (oxygen) to breathe and materials (iron) to keep your ship from breaking apart. First and foremost, you’re going to need to find planets to mine for these elements.

Here’s the problem, though: jumping from solar system to solar system and from planet to planet in order to extracting these essential elements costs fuel, oxygen and iron. And the ship you’re given in the beginning is a fairly insubstantial thing, prone to taking big hits every time you approach a fuel-rich gas giant. So you mine rocky planets for iron, which costs fuel and oxygen. Oh, and did I mention that you never really know how much iron a gas-giant will cost you, or how much fuel you’ll find in return? Now you can see the kinds of tough decisions Out There forces you to make, often boiling down to a roll of the dice, as it might in a real survival scenario.

While you can try to make it back to Earth just managing these four elements and skipping everything else, you probably won’t make it that way. And it’s much more fun if you explore. Garden planets give you the chance to fill up on oxygen and encounter the galaxy’s various alien species. Most are friendly, and if you answer their questions appropriately, they may share technology or the omega element, which can be used for fuel, air or material, or to power a number of unique technologies, like wormhole generators (used to instantaneously travel from one black hole to the next) or life seed, which terraforms rocky planets. Along the way you learn to speak their language, which makes subsequent communication easier.

The galaxy’s more exotic elements, like gold, hafnium or cobalt, can be used to produce the useful new technologies you discover along the way, like the shield generator (which lowers the damage your ship takes), solar sail (which lowers the fuel used to travel between systems) or gravitational well generator (which expands the distance you can travel). You will also find derelict ships to take over, randomly placed supply stations to use and various galactic mysteries to engage or avoid, since only some will work to your favor. There are multiple endings, depending on the path you take, and multiple strategies to get you there. Most of the time something will go wrong. But you’ll just pick yourself up and start anew—it’s that kind of game.

Out There is also strikingly beautiful, marked by an appealing comic art visual style and warm ambient electronic soundtrack that amplifies the game’s palpable sense of wonder. It’s more stylized than FTL; ultimately, though, that’s only a small part of why I think it’s the more impressive game.

A bigger part is the lack of violence. That’s not to say I have a problem with violence in video games (a few extreme cases aside). But I’ve been thinking a lot about how much popular art relies on violence; this is especially true of video games, and even more so when specifically considering science fictional video games.

Yet for someone raised on science fiction literature, this imbalance is more than a bit odd—many of the most famous SF stories don’t involve war or combat or the spilling of intestines to be compelling. (Don’t believe me? Read Childhood’s End or Ubik or The Left Hand of Darkness.) Out There presents a taut, compelling and thoroughly addictive tactical strategy game experience that doesn’t rely on violence or the threat of violence in order to be any of those things. I find that incredibly appealing, and while I do still enjoy FTL, I’ll be spending most of my time in Out There’s virtual galaxy for the foreseeable future.


The Math

Baseline Assessment: 9/10

Bonuses: +1 for insanely addictive gameplay and appealing visual and auditory style; +1 for being that rare SF-themed game that doesn't rely on violence to be compelling.

Penalties: -1 for unlike the amplifiers in Spinal Tap, our scale doesn't go up to 11.

Nerd Coefficient: 10/10. "Mind-blowing/life-changing"

Read about our scoring system, and why 10s like this one are so damned rare. 

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POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a
Feather founder/administrator (2012).

Desert Fox by Shenandoah Games for iOS

New Wrinkles to a Winning Formula

I missed out on the 1970s/1980s heyday of board wargaming, but I was big into the 1990s video game translations--Panzer General II being my personal favorite. Sadly, these and other turn-based strategy games faded with the rise of the RTS. But though I appreciate the frenetic action of Starcraft and C&C, I never stopped loving this slower, more genteel breed of strategy game.

As with isometric RPGs and point-and-click adventure games, iOS has stimulated a resurgence of interest in the faded genres of yesterday. In 2012, specialist studio Shenandoah Games released Battle of the Bulge, a small-scale but deep wargame set on a classic board divided into pieces (though not hexagonal, as in the classic model). The game let you play out several scenarios related to the historical battle, and even choose the general you would face (the A.I. for which would then pursue a strategy in line with their historical predilections). Games were relatively short, but never seemed to play out the same way. And it came chock full of history lessons! It was, in a word, awesome.

Desert Fox: The Battle of El Alamein is the third installment in the Crisis in Command series, after The Battle of the Bulge and 2013's Drive on Moscow: War in the Snow--and it may be the best one yet. The game puts you in the midst of the Western Desert Campaign of 1942, in which Axis forces (under the command of the eponymous "Desert Fox," General Erwin Rommel) attempted to drive the Commonwealth forces out of Egypt to clear a path to Persia and its oil fields. Historically speaking, the campaign featured a whole bunch of German advances until the stalemate at the First Battle of El Alamein (July 1-27, 1942) slowed Rommel down. Then new British commander Lt. General Bernard Montgomery ended Hitler's oil dreams permanently at the Second Battle of El Alamein (October 23 - November 11, 1942). It was the first major victory for the Allies since the start of the war. 

Desert Fox is built on the same engine and features the same general gameplay dynamics as earlier entries in the series. You take the role of Axis or Allied commander, and either face off against a historical opponent or a friend. Each side has a limited number of days, divided into a discrete number of turns, to achieve specific goals, most of which involve either capturing a set number of vital points on the board or getting units past the enemy defenses (while maintaining supply lines). Each player moves units on one hexagon per turn--a departure from the normal way of things in a lot of wargames (where players move all available units in each turn), but which lends the battles a gratifying chess-like feeling. There are different units--infantry, armor, APC, etc.--all with different advantages and disadvantages. And there are serious terrain effects, ranging from armor bonuses gained while defending cities to roads that facilitate breakouts. The elegance of this formula is what made The Battle of the Bulge such an inviting and addictive experience.

Though the core gameplay returns in tact, Desert Fox nevertheless adds a few new wrinkles that keep things fresh. Now you have to contend with--or receive protection from--landmines and barbed wire. Even if you wipe out enemy units on a given space, you won't be able to advance until you clear the mines and wire, and only certain units (i.e. infantry or mechanized infantry) can do that.

There are also significantly altered supply dynamics. In the first two entries in the series, units were supplied as long as they sat on an unbroken chain of friendly territories. But now any unit can go out of supply after taking action (or retreating after being attacked). Each side has a limited amount of supply they can airdrop in, and unsurprisingly, the Axis has less supply to go around, while also having to contend with bombing runs on supply lines. But the Axis get a more complex array of units, allowing for tactical approaches not available to the Commonwealth. There are the standard armor and infantry, plus mechanized infantry, super fast recon and flak, which can negate Commonwealth air power and help keep units in supply.

Desert Fox gives you three different scenarios of progressive complexity: Ruweisat Ridge, a fast-paced battle where the Axis attempt to seize strategic sites (which garner victory points); Second Alamein, where the Commonwealth tries to shove the Axis back into Libya; and The Campaign, a massive, longer-term and more open-ended scenario than the others. It's advisable, after completing the tutorials, to learn each one well before progressing to the next. (Here are some additional tips if you need them.)

Finally, Shenandoah made some neat decisions with the menu system that really top off the experience nicely. Keeping track of things is super easy, and you always have access to historical information on the events portrayed in the game. Everything is nicely presented and intuitive, and the tutorials are among the best I've ever encountered in a strategy game. My only real complaint is that it would be fun to have an additional mode where each side has to deploy its units at the start.

In the end, Desert Fox presents a balanced, challenging and deep strategy experience. And it manages to present something that can appeal to both hardened wargamers and genre neophytes. While I'd still recommend the latter to check out The Battle of the Bulge first, it's not necessary to enjoy Desert Fox.


The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 for managing to make a wargame that is simultaneously deep and accessible; +1 for the supreme elegance of the game design. 

Penalties: -1 for where's that deploy-ever-unit-myself mode?

Nerd Coefficient: 9/10. "Very high quality/standout in its category."


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POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a
Feather founder/administrator (2012).

Lost Echo for iOS

A Short and Stylish Adventure for iOS

Tablets are a natural home for point-and-click adventure games, both because of the multitouch interface and because the 30-somethings who buy tablets are, for the most part, a nostalgic bunch. Early in the cycle you had ports of classics like Beneath a Steel Sky and The Secret of Monkey Island; then, more and more, you started to see originals--adventure games designed for tablets from the ground-up. Lost Echo is one such game, a memorable and melancholic journey that is short, sweet and stylish.

As the game begins, you find yourself in an outdoor cafe with your girlfriend Chloe, a well-known journalist. She says she has something important to tell you, but a phone call interrupts. Just then you see a surge of blinding light. You black out and wake later in the hospital. Your friend Greg visits you, but when you ask about Chloe, he claims not to know who you are talking about. No one does, in fact. The doctor wonders if you have sustained brain damage, but you feel just fine--you just need to find out what happened to Chloe.

Your quest follows the standard adventure game format: you explore, have conversations and solve puzzles--some of which are brain teasers and others of which depend upon your having scoured every corner of every environment to find the right items (the usefulness of which may not have been evident at the time). The puzzles aren't particularly great, but they're good enough. It does, however, help that the touch interface is so well done; you can really tell this was designed for tablets and not ported from PC or console.

What really makes Lost Echo stand out, though, is its engaging, science fiction story, its tight focus on character and (gasp) character development--such a rarity in the world of video games. A  beautiful soundtrack centered on Eric Satie's "Gymnopedie" gives the game an appealing and memorable air of melancholy--also a rarity in the world of video games.

Overall, Lost Echo is an excellent choice for tablet gamers, adventure game enthusiasts and those who like the idea of an interactive story.


The Math

Baseline Assessment: 7/10

Bonuses: + for emphasis on character and emotionally resonant storytelling; +1 for visual and auditory style.

Penalties: -1 for some of the puzzles feeling a bit too random.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10. "Well worth your time and attention."

POSTED BY: The G, purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a Feather founder/administrator.

Shadowrun Returns!

As S. C. Barrus wrote in a guest post, crowdfunding has facilitated the re-emergence of the isometric RPG as a viable market segment in the crowded field of video games. Though primarily developed for PC/Mac, tablets are a natural home for these games. After all, most can be programmed by a relatively small group of developers (and thus sold for a pricepoint mobile gamers will tolerate), while featuring point-and-click gameplay that translates well to multitouch and doesn't require a hell of a lot of computing power to run smoothly. And the consumers these games target--nostalgic 30-somethings who want to relive a 90s gameplay experience--are, as far as I can see, slowly gravitating away from attention-requiring console or PC gaming and towards something that better fits a life defined by constant multitasking. Shadowrun Returns, then, seems a perfect fit for iOS and Android--and, indeed, most elements of the 2013 PC/Mac hit translate well. More on that in a bit. First, though, some background...

The '90s ruled, man

Shadowrun Returns is based on the famous pen-and-paper RPG Shadowrun, as well as the legendary 1993 isometric adaptation for SNES. The basic premise of Shadowrun is to put AD&D races/classes into a near-future cyberpunk universe, so that elves, trolls, shamans and mages quest alongside "runners" (people who go on "dungeon" crawls in corporate offices) and "deckers" (people who hack into "the matrix").

The original iterations produced remarkably balanced and deep gameplay, but 2007's ill-fated attempt to turn extract a console FPS out of the beloved franchise sparked anger and consternation among fans clamoring for something more faithful to the original vision. Enter Jordan Weisman, developer of the pen-and-paper game (as well as Heroclix and BattleTech), and Kickstarter. One year and $1.8 million in donations later, Weisman's studio Harebrained Games released Shadowrun Returns for PC/Mac. By the end of 2013, an iOS version hit the market.

...with elves!

Shadowrun Returns is, like the 1993 SNES classic, a true isometric RPG--featuring turn-based squad combat, highly customizable character classes, balanced gameplay and a well-developed and engaging story. Rather than attempt a modernization, Harebrained smartly doubled-down on the early 90s cyberpunk nostalgia--evident in everything from character hairstyles to the goofy drum-n-bass music triggered by combat. The result is a highly enjoyable, addictive experience that hits the right note of nostalgia for life-long Shadowrun fans, as well as those who, like me, cut their teeth on PC games during the 90s (and 80s).


On the other hand...

There are, however, some issues I'd like Hairbrained to address in the sequel. First off, I experienced some stability issues: freezing, crashing and so forth. After some online consultation, I learned that these could be mitigated by putting the iPad on airplane mode and closing all other apps. It did work, but eh...this kind of thing should have been dealt with in beta, no?

Of course, that might have just been a minor annoyance if it weren't for the game's frustrating "checkpoint only" save system. I guess the PC/Mac version has already been patched to allow for quick saving, but iOS has not. Though Shadowrun Returns is not a large game, a few of the levels could have benefited from some extra checkpoints--especially considering the game's propensity to crash. Going back and replaying 30+ minutes five times and not by choice is retro in the wrong way.

It's a testament to how fun this game is, though, that I didn't quit in frustration. I found myself thinking about the game when I wasn't playing, and waking up an extra half hour early so I could get a level in before the day began. Last game I did that for was Skyrim, and that's basically my favorite video game ever.

See, Shadowrun Returns isn't perfect, but it's a hell of a good time, and a great way to relive the good old days without the crappy hardware.


Tips and Vitals

If you decide to buy a copy of Shadowrun Returns, you may naturally wonder whether it's better on PC/Mac or iOS/Android. I can't speak to the PC/Mac version, but I will say that the touch interface was solid but at times less responsive than I would have liked. And I do think a two-button mouse would have come in handy. On the other hand, I spend most of the day hunched over in front of a computer screen. When relaxing, I prefer to be on the couch, with my feet up and either a controller or mobile device in my hands. So in that sense the trade-off worked in my favor; the iOS port is definitely good enough to justify not sitting at a computer desk.

After committing to iOS/Android, though, there's still the question of phone vs. tablet. Some games naturally work better on one or the other (e.g. FPS on phone; adventure games on tablet). Bottom line, I think Shadowrun Returns is clearly made for tablets, and would feel cramped on a phone. But maybe that's just my fat thumbs talking.

Once you've gone procured the game and fired it up, you are faced with a host of character creation questions. My character, "Nerd," was officially a shaman (dude who can summon creatures under certain conditions) but was fairly balanced between summoning, decking and the use of ranged weapons. I also made him a tank, which helped a lot towards the end of the game. By the time you can select your own party, however, you realize that the easiest rode involves balance among characters, rather than within them.

Badass.

It's okay to be a jack-of-all-trades, as I was, but every party needs one straight up soldier (armed with a shotgun, which is immensely overpowered). Coyote, who you meet in the course of the game, will do for this role--so keep her close. And it's vital you hire a decker--unless you are one yourself. I also found support mages useful for the fourth and final slot--someone who can up your accuracy, lay down fire or lightning fields if you get attacked from both sides and, crucially, heal squadmates without spending precious medpacks. Conversely, I found specialized shamans and assassins basically worthless.

Oh, and one other piece of advice: defensive tactics are your friend, particularly in the matrix.

Enjoy the ride, chummers...


The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 for balanced, lively isometric retro; +1 for the 90s are back, man!

Penalties: -1 for stability issues; -1 for stupid checkout-only save system.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10. "Well worth your time and attention."