2009 is finally over, and a lot of great games have come out during the time. Batman, Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Modern Warfare 2 are probably the games that are most often called game of the year, but frankly, I have to agree with the majority.
Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2 are automatically ruled out in my book because it's the same game every time you play it. They're both absolutely structured, and though they both have fantastic multiplayer, single player still counts - and counts more for me - and I just won't be able to enjoy the single player modes of those games for a pretty long while because it'll be the same thing I just beat two months ago.
Arkham Asylum was really an almost flawless game. The only thing that I could really say that was truly wrong with it is that it was far too easy. I played through the game on Hard, and I rarely died. It missed the element of satisfaction, and rewarded us with cut scenes (I could go on and on about how bad of a way that is to reward players, but that's not what this blog is for), rather than the triumphant feeling of conquering something that actually takes competence to conquer.
As for Assassin's Creed, well, I haven't played it. Sorry to anyone who puts any weight on my opinions on games.
Now then, what's the point of me taking the top four game of the year contenders and telling you what's wrong with them (sans AC2, of course)? Because none of them are the Game of the Year. Demon's Souls is.
Yes, that game that has a reputation for being niche and absolutely brutal. That game that has a story that is told pretty much entirely by the opening and ending cutscene. That game that puts complete focus onto what makes an amazing game amazing: gameplay.
Demon's Souls has a complex and deep combat system, with pretty much every weapon getting its own animations. Tons of spells and 'miracles' (support spells) are thrown in to make a nicely varied magic system. The circle button allows you to jump back and roll, the direction buttons changing between weapons, items, and magic. The triangle button switches between one-handed and two-handed weapon weilding which has a huge effect on the way you play the game. You can sheild, riposte, and then riposte counter for a massively damaging attack. You starting to see where I'm going with this? I didn't even go into how certain weapons affect your character with element effects, healing effects, and tons of other stuff like that. This game is deep.
Unlike most RPGs, I never found myself having to grind, never for level ups - though there was one time near the end of the game where I found myself having to grind for souls to buy items (this is a completely unrelated thought to this paragraph that I had while I was re-reading this before posting, but you buy your stat increases with the same currency - called souls - as you do items and weapons. How cool is that!). The real experience in this game is found by figuring out each enemies' weakpoint, studying their patterns and figuring out when and how they are weak. This is a game where even the weakest enemy in the level can kill you and force you to start over. It's a great break from wave and wave of generic repetitive enemies in Uncharted, only to get killed by a single sniper bullet while you're still at full health. I actually felt like I deserved to die in this game, because when I did die, it was because I was being stupid. This is the first game in ages that didn't leave me shaking my head saying "no" every time I died because I didn't think I should've died. Instead, I nodded my head and said "Alright. So that's exactly how I DON'T beat that part."
And obviously, the game is tough. Finally a game that gets that I don't want to be told "Press A to dodge the Dragon's breath!", only to find that dodging said Dragon's breath requires near perfect timing. No, this is a game that says "Here's the dragon, good luck!" and is never cheap about me getting past the dragon. It takes skill to figure out how to get past the dragon, and skill to actually execute getting past the dragon, but never once in the game did I feel that it was being cheap. It's too hard for a lot of people. There are plenty of people that come to me for game recommendations that will never even hear about this game because they would give up after an hour. It's tough, but it's like MegaMan. It's cruel, unforgiving, and just doesn't like your face, but it is possible and actually becomes somewhat easy after you figure out what to do.
Now then, this game does innovate in one major way. It networks all the players playing on one of the game's servers, not by putting them all into a world and making it an MMO, but by allowing other players to leave messages for each other. Yup, messages on the ground. These can be used to help or harm, and are thus inherently either cooperative or competitive. You get rewarded for leaving good messages via a recommendation system (though that's not to say that some equally evil people will recommend the incorrect messages). This is where the true brilliance of the game's design shines, because the developers built the game wanting the players build and learn off of each other. You'll find warnings of hidden enemies that will jump out and kill you right by the corner that they jump out from, so you have time to prepare yourself and expect it. The developers of Demon's Souls took a page from the internet and let players help each other right there in-game.
Even more about the online is that yes, it does allow you to play with others. However, you can either put up a so-called 'Soul Sign' which is a blue marking on the ground that allows players to connect to each other's games and play through a level co-op style, or you can become a black phantom and invade a living players world to fight them, in an attempt to gain your body back (to the uninitiated, this pretty much means a full health meter. Yes, you know a game isn't ****ing around when it withholds your complete health bar until you either beat a boss or kill off a fellow player, only for you to lose half of it again the next time you die). You literally don't have a choice. You will get invaded by other players and quite possibly die.
I could go on. I could say how each playthrough isn't quite the same because the way you tackle each level depends on if you're a straight melee kind of guy, a magic/melee mix, a bow user, a mage, a priest, or any combination thereof. You can't even get every spell, weapon, armor, or really any collectable in the game without going through multiple playthroughs of the game. The New Game+ of Demon's Souls is even harder than going through the game the first time around. Yet, it's still incredibly fun.
The game also has this unique world and character tendency dynamic which not only effects which areas you can go through in levels, but what NPCs you encounter, or what items you can find. It really is a unique and fun way of creating and encouraging replayability, something that nearly every JRP I've played has lacked.
To sum it up, Demon's Souls is the game we'll be talking about ten years from now. Modern Warfare 2 was great, but has it truly revolutionized the FPS genre? I'd argue that it's de-evolutionized the genre, by taking away dedicated servers from the PC gamers. Batman? Well, I guess it got that stealth/action mix down just right, which is a first. But that's not really a revolution. It's more like getting something right that's been around for a really long time. Uncharted 2? Yeah, that revolutionized storytelling in games, not the actual games. And from what I've heard, Assassin's Creed 2 is a mix of UC2 and Demon's Souls, being a mix of story and gameplay, but never really pushing either forward, rather just doing both extremely well. Demon's Souls innovative and new online component, coupled with some of the hardest gameplay in years that absolutely refuses to hold the player's hand - something that modern games do far too much - becomes a truly unique and fun experience that really will change the course of gaming, despite not having the mainstream appeal of any of the games you'll most likely hear being called Game of the Year.
Demon's Souls is more fun, innovative, and doesn't involve the phrase "Person Shooter" somewhere in the name of its genre. I'd recommend to anybody reading this (I don't think many casuals are going to be coming to SWF anyway) to buy Demon's Souls if they have a PS3. This is the game that we will be talking about ten years from now. Not Batman, Assassin's Creed, Uncharted, or the super-seller Modern Warfare 2. We will be talking about Demon's Souls.
