Good point, serling. It definitely takes a renewed commitment when you get to the endgame. It's not one of those games that gets easier as you get further along. I've spent over 80 hours playing and I've still never gotten to the end!
Great list, Tom! Driver: San Francisco is my favorite racing game in years (to my surprise), but I can see why it wouldn't make your personal top 10. The Witcher 2 is one of my personal top picks for game of the year, but I haven't played some of the ones you listed here because I didn't personally cover them for my own site and was busy playing and reviewing other stuff. You've left me hoping to soon experience most of the games on your list that I haven't yet tried, so if that was your goal then you've found success!
Yay! Ahem. Actually, the first couple of levels of SpaceChem are totally non-scary. You're just reading some instructions, laying some symbols down, and watching as a couple of atoms are put together, and thinking, neat! Later it becomes brainbendingly ridonkulous, which you some twisted people love and others find too much like hard work, and I'm a bit in both camps, myself. But there's no need to be intimidated by those first steps...
Thanks for the tip on SPAZ - bought it last night after seeing it mentioned here. 6 hours later I had to go to bed. Great, great game.
Dead Island? HAHAHA WOW
I'd put it on my Top 10 list for sure (granted, I didn't have time to
play a whole lot of games this year). Like DS1, it didn't do anything
new (moving the HUD elements onto the character aside) but what it did
do was - as the kids say - The. Shit.
Haters are going to say it isn't original but any action/horror game is
going to be in some ways derivative at this point, just as Indiana
Jones is derivative of 1940's pulp serials. But Indiana Jones was the
best 1940's pulp serial of all time. DS2 was the best action/horror
game out this year (yes, I did play Dead Island and really liked it, but
it didn't deliver the same atmosphere story and scares that DS2 did)
and I'd say a close second to Bioshock for all time champ.
For 14-ish hours DS2 was as fun, scary and more atmospheric than just
about any game I've ever played. It achieved the "you're in a movie"
vibe
that I've wanted since started playing video games. Sure, the ending was a cludge
with some odd decisions (moving from room-clearing gameplay to "RUUUUN!"
was odd) but it didn't retroactively make the rest of the game bad.
I understand the game may not have been everyone's cup of tea, and it
was very poorly served by it's ad campaign. But for me it delivered the
scary, splattery goods.
Alrighty, I'll give it a shot, thanks!
Dead Island? NFS Shift 2? Rift? Always controversial tomchick, aslways controversial.
Careful laddie, we don't need more Bastion 2:Modern Warfare with this 'Amazing storytelling'. Though the idea sounds tasty....
Looking back, most of this list has stood the test of time here in 2019. One big exception being Rift. No one talks about Rift. And I’m not sure NFS: Shift 2 had many fans who talk fondly about it either. I did love the first Shift for its quirkiness and I still remember that one fondly. I never did try the sequel.