Category A: Games that I think everyone should pick up and try if they have any faint interest in them. Games I came out of feeling like I'd really enjoyed myself. Something to branch out and try, and definitely something to pick up if you like the genre they are included in.
Category B: Games that I think, if you're interested in the genre, are definite good times. Not necessarily something to pick up if you're not into it, though, but maybe if you like the look. A bit riskier as propositions go. Most games I finish fall into this category.
Category C: Games that are decent enough if you like this or that sort of game, but not really the sort of game you should go out of you way to try. Games I quit near the end or games I was reluctant to finish tend to fall in here.
Category D: Games I regret play, regret buying or regret existing. I would advise against picking up category D games unless you find your tastes run in stark opposition to my own, which is mind you entirely possible.
To switch it up this here, I'm going to start with the games I don't recommend, and then move up the games I really liked. Whoa. Daring.
Category D
Blackguards ; I never even bothered to write a review of this game. I played like 3 hours and after 3 hours wondered when the game was going to get fun or open up at all from being brutally linear. More linear than a FF game with stunlocks and awful healing mechanics. Hyper-pass.
Chompy chomp chomp ; Not really THAT bad, but just so shallow and there's not even an hour of gameplay. You can play it with other people, but you know, you can play anything with other people that you can play with other people.
Magic Online v4 ; People can't currently, as I write this, log on because their date (2015) is different than the server's date (2014). Seriously please stop giving WoTC's digital arm money.
Category C
MMDOC ; A great game fundamentally ruined by being a f2p title that is competing head to head with Hearthstone while armed with terrible Ubisoft marketing and a whole host of other issues. Great to pick up and play for ten hours, but worse every hour after that until its a punishment where you're struggling to pull fun out of it.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning ; I don't remember how many hours I logged into this game but I think it was greater than ten. In spite of that, I remember almost nothing from it, not the combat, not the story and certainly very little of the art. What I do remember is my controller shaking, so there's that.
'Memorable controller shaking' -Lark, 2014
Remember Me ; Nilin owns, and a lot of the stuff surrounding the game owns, but as a game I look back on Remember Me and shudder. The story kinda loses itself at the end, too, but the twist wasn't bad. It's a hard game to recommend, and therefore, very category C.
Betrayer ; If Betrayer's last four hours lived up to its first four hours, it would have been my game of the game. It sure didn't, so while I look back on some of it fondly the twist at the end and the overall forced gloominess instead of working the subtext just turned this game mediocre then bad for me. I hope they made some money off it, though, because there is talent in that team. But get a new writer, or smack the old one a little. Dude could use an editor.
And yes, I could use an editor. There are no volunteers.
Also, seriously, they shouldn't have given the Maiden in Red a name. At least not to the point they did - there was no need for the story or writing to be as explicit or forced as it was. The game had great atmosphere and then it just dead space'd at me.
Saturday Morning RPG ; I kinda liked this game, but I'm not as big on nostalgia as most of my sub-group of human so the game didn't really connect with me. The video gamey QTE style combat was sort of neat, but thinking back on it, it could have used a bit more creativity outside the nostalgia and it started to really hurt my hand.
99 Levels to Hell ; Just not enough game to recommend. Reminds me of seedy flash games in the wrong way. Not really bad, yet not really good enough either. I also really don't know how I feel about twin stick aiming in a platformer. It felt very sloppy even after an hour of playing.
Blood of the Werewolf ; I'm having a hard time remembering what it was I disliked about BotW, which is actually a really bad sign. I really did like the character design, but the game looks like bargain basement robotnik stuff. I think it also had twin stick shooting, now that I think about it, but I mostly remember that the Werewolf really didn't feel like much of a bad ass.
Guacamelee! ; Technically, I didn't even play that version, but I don't really know how much of a difference this does or doesn't make. Guacamelee is definitely better than most of the games in this category but the over-use of the shield mechanic and the balls ache non-optional platforming, or parts where the game would randomly push you toward doing the optional content just make me reluctant to really recommend it. Great visuals though, and lots of spunk, for better or worse.
Syndicate ; I didn't finish this game either, but it was ... I'm not sure. Again, when I have a lot of trouble remembering my assessment of a game I played less than 12 months ago, I really wonder if I should recommend it. I know I didn't finish it, and I know I also inputted a cheat code for the first time in years because the one boss fight was so excruciatingly boring. Visually pretty good, solid soundtrack and the story was ... I dunno, a story?
Actually I can't remember if I finished it or not. Well, whatever, that probably works as just a bad a sign as any. Ending: Can't remember if I saw the ending. Oof.
Freedom Fall ; Actually as torture platformers go this game is really solid, love the art, quite like the bosses, enjoy the music but ... Then the game is just abruptly over. It feels like the built the assets and had the music to do at least 40% more levels, but they just didn't, and I don't really know how to feel about that. Everything feels so rarely used and the world feels like it could just been engaged with far more. Pity. If you see it in a bundle, I'd grab it, but it is hard to recommend as a full price product.
I had more fun with Freedom Fall in the hour I played it than the first three hours I've played Shovel Knight, but one of them is an indie darling and the other is just Freedom Fall.
Sweezy Gunner ; A bit torn on this one, but I think as silly charming as it was, it wasn't really good enough to outright recommend. As top down shooters go it was pretty relaxing, but it had some dopey design flaws that took away from the enjoyment of the pure chill shooter that it wanted to be.
Category B
Clickr ; Clickr is a pretty little puzzle title. Visuals and audio are excellent, and very soothing, which is key while smashing your brain again puzzle gameplay. I liked it a fair bit, but I found the granularity on the difficulty in some modes rather frustrating. It is ultimately a very deep amount of content for the asking price, though I don't know how it stacks up with other puzzlers.Dead Space 2 ; I honestly thought DS2 was going to be far worse than it was, since people complained it is way too arcadey and not horror-y enough. While the horror elements go into what Yahtzee coined as "Are you scared yet???" territory, it did manage a couple really good psychological moments. The things involves eyes, brrr those got me good. I liked the rest of the cast and I honestly thought it was a stronger game than DS1, albeit at prices I don't think needed to be paid to achieve what it did. The game does have some flat out ridiculous sections.
Final Fantasy 7 ; I went into this game largely expecting to be disappointed with it, since my memories are tainted with years of discussions that followed. The truth is, to me anyway, FF7 is the point where things started to go bad but just before they really did. I'm playing FF8 right now and FF7 doesn't have nearly the same issues it does, though it is worse in a bunch of other categories. Regardless, it was totally playable and as an adult the memory screwy jank of the storyline really worked with its obviously stilted production. End result is actually a way better game than I remembered, albeit an extremely ugly one with weird melted lego man cutscenes and a bizarre dead world filled with just about no one.
King of Fighters XIII: Steam Edition ; Don't get me wrong here, I really enjoy this game, but its impossible to completely recommend. The mechanics are just so ridiculous, and doing things like accidentally drive cancelling into a super just gives you this moment at the cliff where you look up and go 'oh man there is so much more to this game...' that I'm not sure most people want to experience. It's beautiful, it's awesome, it's a game way beyond the level of most people. Including: Me.
Hero Siege ; If this game was like, a $30 title, I wouldn't like it. But it's not. It's a little budget little with just enough charm to squeak into being a category B game. It just has a great sense of silliness coupled with some all in action, well worth picking up on a bundle or on sale to mess with it. It isn't deep or amazing, but it is strangely satisfying.
Apparently they added MP in a DLC, but I don't have that or any friends who have played it, but maybe I'll get a chance to do that next year.
Prime World Defenders ; If you like grinding and tower defense, this game is surprisingly good. If you don't like f2p game style grinding, this game is infuriatingly bad, with very little between the two points on the hypothetical nonsensical venn diagram. There isn't really much else to say about this one, it isn't the best tower defense game out there but all the little f2p touches (that don't require or ask for or can't take your money) actually give it a little bit of a spunk.
Your mileage may vary on that one.
Category A
Risk of Rain ; Tied for my personal game of the year, RoR is just such a brilliant experience once you get into it. There is a moment, and I've observed this in more than a few discussions of the game, where you "get" RoR and before that the game is just kinda irritating. I don't know why I stuck it out for as long as I did, as I am quite bad at platformers and generally not a big fan of roguelikes, but I actually went back and played this game for another 25 hours with a friend before I got tired of the netcode. The netcode felt pretty messy, but MP in RoR is just fantastic and really changes up the game. I would love to have enough friends to play 3 friends at a LAN busting up RoR, but I think the art style puts people off. Or I have shitty friends. Or both!
I really look forward to another title from these devs. They did stumble a little updating RoR to the new engine, but the fact they went out and built a new engine, that is pretty awesome. We gave it a try after the update, but it was too buggy and then holidays, etc.
Rogue Legacy ; I liked Rogue Legacy more than RoR, but I played RoR three times as much, so I don't know where you put things in that sort of paradigm. Rogue Legacy is much like RoR in that it is a roguelike platformer, but built around a different upgrade system with far more sword fighting and the like. The game can be a little frustrating in parts, but I generally found it to be a total joy to play, especially as I got better and better at the game.
I really think anyone who is even a little interested in the phrase 'roguelike platformer' can enjoy this game, which makes it solidly category A.
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