Stevivor's GOTY 2014: Leo's Top 3

Stevivor’s Game of the Year awards have already been given out, but some of our writers wanted to talk in more detail about their personal choices. I’m Leo Stevenson, News Editor and here are my selections:

3. Super Smash Bros.

What more is there for me to say about Smash Bros. that hasn’t already been said. Arguably Nintendo’s top franchise these days — Mario Kart is my personal second — Smash Bros. still manages to retain that indelible quality it did when it first appeared for N64 all those years ago. While the premise and gameplay seem normal to veterans, for the uninitiated, Smash Bros. is a weird game. The fighting system, the charaters, the items and everything else about it are the epitome of Nintendo’s stubborn willingness to always do things their own way and to hell with the consequences. In the case of Smash Bros. it works like gangbusters.

After the minor stumble that is Brawl — come at me fanboys — Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS is a return to Melee style form for the franchise. It’s a game that I played (on 3DS) until 4am one morning. It’s a game that manages to be, above all us, fun. Unapologetically and without irony. The character roster this time around is nearly flawless and the inclusion of Mega Man and Pac-Man is a master stroke. Amiibos might be somewhat useless, but it hasn’t stopped me (nor Editor-in-Chief Steve Wright) from collecting a bunch of them. Smash Bros. capped off a great year for Wii U and it did it with style.

2. Wolfenstein: The New Order

I won’t lie. When I saw The New Order at E3 2013 I thought it looked like hot garbage. The tone seemed torn between seriousness and comedy and it came across as this horribly cheesy cliched mess of awfulness. Thankfully, when it was released earlier this year Machine Games had produced something really special. Those moments I’d seen at E3 were unchanged, but with the proper context of the game and its story they now made sense. Set in an alternate universe where the Nazis successfully defeated the Allies, The New Order charges BJ Blazkowicz with defeating the Nazis and taking back the entire world. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the narrative in The New Order would be weak and undercooked, but it’s actually one of the game’s strongest aspects. There’s a gravitas to proceedings and not a hint of irony. This isn’t a “wink wink, kill all the Nazis” testosterone shooter, ok well it is, but it’s so much more.

While the shooting and gameplay mechanics are as vanilla as they come, it was actually refreshing. It was a simple game to play and the strength of the story, its characters and locations spurred me onwards to the final scene. The ending is somewhat of a fizzer and weak compared to what came before, but it doesn’t manage to derail all the brilliance experienced up until that point. With an excellent cast of characters, impressive voice acting and a story that manages to walk an incredibly fine line with aplomb, Wolfenstein: The New Order is a game that begs to be played.

1. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is my absolute game of the year for 2014. No other game grabbed hold of my attention so fiercely, so quickly and without unrelenting. On the surface it’s merely a Lord of the Rings skin over an Assassin’s Creed/Arkham skeleton, yet there’s so much depth to Mordor that you can keep peeling back layers for days. I was so enamoured by the way Mordor handled death that I wrote an entire piece just focusing on that one aspect. Mordor was a conventional game at its core, but it played with those conventions in interesting and unexpected ways. From its time shifting opening giving players (and Talion) their motivation, to uncovering additional lore and fan service for fans of LotR, Mordor was packed to the gills with content. Best of all, if you’re not a fan of the works of Tolkien you won’t be lost, nor will you be force fed anything from that world. It’s there if you want it, if not no need to worry.

The cherry on top of the delicious sundae that is Mordor is undoubtedly the Nemesis System. By creating a system that creates a meta-narrative on the fly unique to each and every player is a stroke of genius. I expect we’ll be seeing clones of the Nemesis System in dozens of games going forward until it’s as ubiquitous as “press A to jump.” Mordor may not be the most original game this year, or even of the past few years, but it is simply a near perfect combination of many of the best games of the past few years. If you’ve not played Mordor please do yourself a favour and do so as soon as possible. It has its detractors, like everything, but for me in 2014 it doesn’t get any better.

Honourable Mentions:

Mario Kart 8 – An absolute blast, gorgeous to look at and possibly the best Mario Kart ever.
inFAMOUS: Second Son – Much better than either game that came before it and still graphically the best game on current-gen.
Sunset Overdrive – Ridiculous, over the top, hilarious, stupid and the closest thing we’ve gotten to a Tony Hawk’s sequel in years.
Assassin’s Creed: Unity – Assassin’s Creed with the power of current-gen, an Ezio-esque protagonist and some great co-op. Win.
Alien Isolation – The most pants sh*ttingest game this year. A true sequel to Alien and the best use of the license since the Assembly Cut of Alien 3.
Titanfall – A multiplayer only FPS that I actually enjoyed. Bravo Respawn.

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Stevivor’s Game of the Year 2014

Stevivor’s overall Top 5 Games of the Year

Stevivor’s GOTY 2014 staff picks

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