Well, except for the part where these are games I played in 2014, as opposed to games that may have come out in 2014. Whatever.
BANNER SAGAI've talked about this one. It looks pretty. It sounds lovely. It asks me to make hard choices and then question them, and for some reason I love it all the more because of this. I'm thinking of playing through it again on Hard.
I will probably fail. I don't actually care.
THE LONGEST JOURNEYAdventure games are kind of my thing. I was birthed on Colossal Cave and Adventureland, raised on Space Quest IV and Fate of Atlantis, and sent into the world alongside Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. Adventure games aren't my jam. They are the eternal soundtrack of my existence.
So yeah, I kinda liked the Longest Journey. It's not as funny as Sierra or LucasArts fare, but it's good enough, and it has a story deeper and more moving than all of the above. When I finished, I immediately launched into Dreamfall and Dreamfall Chapters, which are equally beautiful and moving, though the first in the series remains my favorite in terms of gameplay (so far -- there's more in Dreamfall to come, and I can't wait to play it).
If adventure games are my soundtrack, then Tim Schafer is my composer. All my favorite adventure games? Yeah, they're his. I missed the Kickstarter, but honestly I'm happy to give Tim full price for what is essentially my childhood in precious-gem form.
Broken Age doesn't quite trump Curse of Monkey Island as my favorite adventure game of all time, but it stands alongside my favorites. It also currently holds the award for blowing my mind and the minds of my children with its story secrets. I love it when a story does that.
It is very strange to me that a free flash game has earned a place among my favorite games of the year. But it has.
Phoenotopia is essentially a platformer RPG, like innumerable classics I played on NES and SNES. It has clever puzzles, superb exploration, and challenging boss battles. It even has a couple of mechanics I don't think I ever saw back in the day, but that I really enjoyed. It surprised me. The fact that it's free makes it that much better.
A quick Google search will find you these games. If your tastes at all align with mine, you should try them.
What have you played lately? What's your favorite?
The end of Banner Sage is too hard, but it is an otherwise fabulous, beautiful game. Thanks for the rec, BTW.
ReplyDeleteWe also played Banner Saga based on your rec and we absolutely loved it.
ReplyDeleteOne of the gems we found this year was Two Brothers which we picked up on Xbox Arcade. Tears were cried during that game, but it was lovely and sad and a lot of fun, too
The end of Banner Saga is very hard, but it felt right to me -- like the last desperate battle in a desperate world. Honestly, the tone of that game made me more willing to suck up failure than most games. It almost made me expect to fail, and I loved it for that :-)
ReplyDelete