What Game Surprised You This Year?

[AyreonMaiden]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I had no idea how much I loved cyberpunk until I played it. I had no clue what to expect from a Deus Ex game until this one...holy hell, I want more. Right now. Someone remake the first Deus Ex plz.

 

[omicron1]

For me, it's the games industry this year in general. Seriously, there's been a gigantic number of really good games this year (as metacritic [http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/year/all?view=condensed&sort=desc] so aptly demonstrates), including at least five bona fide classics. Batman, Skyrim, Portal 2, Minecraft, Skyward Sword, Deus Ex, The Witcher 2, Bastion - each of them has earned not only critical acclaim, but the respect/appreciation of the greater part of their genre's fanbase. By which I mean, none of the above is really considered "unworthy" by the Internet at large.


There hasn't been a year this good in... well, in years.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

More that it should be overall more of a strategic gameplay style versus simple brute forcing. Similarly, the story itself should be largely character focused, giving said characters depth and complexity.

The World Ends With You is seen as a JRPG, a damn good one at that, and that's mostly brute forcing. All the strategy you'll ever need (and that most people don't use anyway) is during the boss fights - and they don't even take 10 minutes longer to BF.

Also, by that token, there's a lot of other JRPGs where all you have to do is either set everyone on Auto-Attack or, if that's not an option, mash the A/Cross button (depending on the platform.) FF13 even cuts out the middle-man with all but one character per battle, and that's still a JRPG. I think your metrics (gameplay-wise) are a little off-base.

Spoiler

Sho Minamimoto only teleports when you touch him with the stylus directly, and I still beat both forms on Hard through brute force.

 

[Mallefunction]

Revelations because of how terrible it was. Expected at LEAST Brotherhood quality. Got shit instead.

The first AC game that I'm even considering a return. I'm a pretty big fan, but Ubisoft really lost the ball on this one.

Really? For the first time ever I think I'm actually gonna play through an AC game, Hookblade for increased vertical and making awesome jump-grabs, ziplines, bombs for tactical usage, a parachute! (Okay the parachute was in Brotherhood, i'm only guessing because I quit before I got anywhere)

Those are not the things that made the game fun though. Someone else already asked me to clarify my reasoning so I suggest you go and read.

 

[Mallefunction]

Revelations because of how terrible it was. Expected at LEAST Brotherhood quality. Got shit instead.

The first AC game that I'm even considering a return. I'm a pretty big fan, but Ubisoft really lost the ball on this one.

Hold on, let's not forget how flawed the first one was (repetitive side missions to unlock main missions, weird AI is every way, bad combat, a very one note protagonist, etc.). Don't get me wrong, I was also underwhelmed by Revelations, but let's keep some perspective, it was still better than how this series started.

OT: Red Dead Redemption (I know, not from this year). I had never been that interested in Westerns, and I had generally been indifferent to open world games (save for Assassin's Creed of course),so a Western-style GTA game didn't seem like my thing. However, I figured I'd try it, and ended up loving every second.

Yeah, the first AC was no masterpiece, but it had flow and it was fun. It felt like a finished product overall. Revelations is just a mismash or better yet, an experiment gone wrong. What's worse is that Ubisoft doesn't have any excuse for this mess because Brotherhood was lightyears better and was made in the same development cycle of a year.

 

[A Weary Exile]

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. One of the best shooters I've ever played.

Also I bought Minecraft yesterday and I am *loving* every second of it. Especially the multiplayer.

 

[Zorak the Mantis]

Revelations because of how terrible it was. Expected at LEAST Brotherhood quality. Got shit instead.

The first AC game that I'm even considering a return. I'm a pretty big fan, but Ubisoft really lost the ball on this one.

I would have to agree. Revelations was certainly no where near what they cracked it up to be. It's too short, has obscure gameplay that breaks immersion, a weak story, and just poor choices on the part of Ubisoft.

Hold on, let's not forget how flawed the first one was (repetitive side missions to unlock main missions, weird AI is every way, bad combat, a very one note protagonist, etc.). Don't get me wrong, I was also underwhelmed by Revelations, but let's keep some perspective, it was still better than how this series started.

Heh, I loved the first AC, sure it has it's flaws, but it was a solid game that was very enjoyable. Hell, it's what kicked off the entire franchise. Also, if the original sucked to badly than it certainly didn't help Revelations because there was so much taken from the first game... of course the entire series is not perfect, each game has their own flaws. it's just that Revelations seems to be the most flawed.

 

[217not237]

Do you count games released before this year that I only played this year? If yes, 999. It had a wonderfully unique and complex story, great characters, and some difficult puzzles throughout. If no, Skyrim. I'd tried Elder Scrolls before, but I didn't like it. I guess my opinion changed.

 

[Xannidel]

DS: Ghost Trick, a fantastic puzzle game with a fantastic story that also had some great characters and worth every cent.

PS3/360: Catherine, another puzzle game with some rp elements. A unique game with a somewhat decent story but at least the moral choices work well with this game.

PS3 exclusive: InFamous 2, a fantastic sequel to my favorite PS3 game. Sadly the game freezes on me and I cannot finish it but i still enjoyed what I could get out of it.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Darksiders. It sucked.

I'd heard reviews in both directions but I wasn't prepared for how much of a letdown it was.

The most interesting character was the horse and this game ain't Skyrim.

You know it came out nearly two years ago, right? Beginning of 2010, not 2011.


OT:
Hard Reset. Coming from ex-People Can Fly employees, I expected something better (I liked both NecroVisioN and BulletStorm). The demo was great, and the beginning was fun, but the more I played the more it bored me. There weren't that many different enemies, and all the levels seemed the same.

That wasn't what was asked though was it? The question was what game did you pick up this year and get disappointed by? Mine was Darksiders, which wasn't a new game and I knew that when I bought it, but I was still disappointed in it.

 

[TheTim]

Mortal Kombat, one of my favorite games, ever


this is coming from someone who has never even remotely enjoyed any fighting game besides the ssb trilogy

 

[skywolfblue]

Portal 2. I was expecting it to be good, but not quite that WTFBBQAwesome.

Dead Space 2. Having never played the previous Dead Space game, I decided to get it expecting a "meh" horror corridor shooter without much pretty scenery. Wow... I had never realized corridors could looks that awesome! Seriously some beautiful environments, and awesome guns.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

The 3rd Birthday. I'm far from the type to be hyped for a third and/or first person shooter, so I shrugged it off. But after having zero other game options, I tried it, and it's in my top 5 PSP games without a DOUBT :3 Story was a little shaky, but I loved it to bits :3 A little unforgiving in hard mode and above though...

 

[Nouw]

Skyrim. I didn't care about the game despite the hype it was getting here and had no plans to get it. But as my desire to find out what's so damn good about the game took over, I gave it a rent. For an RPG, I love it. I usually can't dedicate but damn is this game good. Getting it for the console or PC, undecided.

 

[Red Mammoth]

Red Faction Armageddon. Enjoyed the last 3, but when I saw the trailer and saw they'd introduced aliens, I got a little worried. Turns out I was wrong. Bloody great game.

On the other hand, was really excited for RAGE and I was wrong on that count too.

 

[LBringer]

Surprises:
Assassin's Creed: Revelations:
(Good) I thoroughly enjoyed the story that was told.

Spoiler

The two apples seemingly do different things, the apple Ezio used in Brotherhood controls people, whereas Altair's apple seems to create 'ghost' replicas as evidenced when you use it. Three people's stories end (plus one more officially from Brotherhood) (RIP Ezio, Altair, Lucy, Subject 16). We also learn about how Ezio continues his bloodline, what the pieces of Eden's end function is, a crapton of small details, etc. (I trimmed this down quite a bit)

Minecraft:
(Good) Holy crap it looks like garbage, and I'm not a 'multiplayer' kinda guy. I ended up being talked into giving it a chance and played it with a few people (after getting the hang of some of the basics solo) and I ended up loving it just for the world it creates. I still hate the green penises though >.<

Brink:
(Bad) I thought it was going to be fast paced and fun (even with bots) and holy crap was I wrong...

Bulletstorm:
(Disappointed) I came into it hoping it was going to be a fun fast paced shooter, instead I got a game felt like it was made by a bunch of drunk college frat guys. I mean, I'm not expecting Casablanca in game form, but I'm getting a little irritated with stuff that feels this low brow.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine:
(Good) I didn't know what to expect with this... Ultrasmurfs and all... but from the opening text typing on the screen through the final FMV I was impressed and had fun almost the entire way.

 

[The_Deleted]

Skyrim. I didn't care about the game despite the hype it was getting here and had no plans to get it. But as my desire to find out what's so damn good about the game took over, I gave it a rent. For an RPG, I love it. I usually can't dedicate but damn is this game good. Getting it for the console or PC, undecided.

For what it's worth, Bethesda are releasing the tools in January so the modding community can go nuts.

Modding... in Skyrim? Makes me wish I had a decent PC,

 

[DanielBrown]

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
I had seen it plenty of times while browsing for games, but never found any reviews nor decent gameplay videos, so I ignored it. Eventually decided to give it a shot since it was so cheap and damn was I surprised.
Worst game this year by far.

 

[Gmans uncle]

Bulletsorm, it let me down in sooooooo many ways.
When they previewed it, it looked like an awesome throwback to the golden age of shooters when it was all about fun and destruction, not realism and cover. but then it threw most of that out the window. It delivered some of that fun... filtered through the conventions of modern action games, so we STILL had to take cover, and we STILL had re-generating health.
Was it bad? No (there where actually quite a few bits that where really really good).
Was it what I was hoping for? No.

 

[Exerzet]

Dark Souls for me. I had played demons' souls, and seen my friend MURDER his controller after a few boss-fights in it, so I had not expected it to be at all any good. Turned out it was awesome though XD