Game of the year: Specialization

Game of the year: Specialization

Dayz The most honest zombie apocalypse

Not so often this year they tried to scare us. Scare so that I have to drink sedative before bedtime and be afraid of every rustle. Resident Evil 6, on which many had hopes, did not justify the belonging to the genre of Survival Horror – even the stages for Leon Kennedy were not at all terrible. What, however, can not be said about Resident Evil: Revelations for Nintendo 3DS, in which Capcom was quite honestly tried to return to the origins of the series. There are constantly not enough cartridges, the compartments of the ships on which the game passes forever floods, the monsters appear like from the air, and around – darkness and destruction. But bad luck-on the portable … it's not very scary to play. This is not that platform.

Two new games from the Silent Hill line were not at all scary (especially Book of Memories). But indie Lone Survivor The atmosphere turned out to be a purebred Silent Hill and scared to the devils! The first owners of WII U gained interesting experience. They fell to them to roam in Zombiu by the dead by the dead London and try to survive at the same time – after all, one bite means death.

But still, most of all fear, we suffered, playing in Dayz. This free multiplayer modification for ARMA 2 is a real discovery, and it is even strange that they have not come up with anything like this before. There is a large and gloomy island with several cities, as if from the Soviet outback, there are quick zombies, as in “28 days later”, there is you, an ordinary person who can very easily die from hunger, illness or pair of three bites, and … more several dozen people who are also trying to survive. No goal, raids, quests and the like – only freedom and the desire to stay alive.At any cost.

When, hiding in the dense grass, all crippled, you crawl on your stomach past screeching and sniffing in an inhuman voice of infected ones and write in parallel in a common chat “Help, someone!", But you yourself do not even hope … it becomes really creepy. It is terrible from the fact that every few minutes you faint, that there is a far that there is a zombie with a very sensitive hearing, and the grass rustles that you will lose all the accumulated good … terribly from that thought (in which zombies are not found). that no one will help you, and if they meet, they will also achieve to get hold of cartridges and stew. We have not experienced this for a very long time.

Applicants

90% Lone Survivor

60% zombi u

35% Resident Evil: Revelations

Specialization: the most thick atmosphere

Silent Hill: Downpour

Until the last moment, we were afraid to assume what would happen to the Czechs from Vatra Games. On the one hand – the lack of experience, not canonical, and simply boring monsters design and failure in all respects Silent Hill: Homecomping in its predecessors, but on the other, the city of Silent Hill, inherently-as in the second part, promises to return to the origins and put emphasis on the plot.

What happened? It turned out just a deep, very atmospheric game, but not a return to the origins, and not even Silent Hill as such – no, in any case. The Czechs worked in detail the city, wrote the plot without idiocy (which is already good), came up with many excellent situations and worked well with sound (even without Akira Yamaoki).

But they missed a lot: multi -level locations with a bunch of rooms locked with a key, bosses, another world that changes the usual space beyond recognition, and the macabaristic fear – all this Downloadpour deprived. But there is a deep atmosphere of longing and bitterness. We do not know what this is connected with, but playing “downpour” is very sad and dreary, but at the same time I want. Like the early parts of the series, the game lives its inner logic, the logic of unrealistic and illogical dreams. Downpour resembles a depressive, heavy sleep. In this he is akin Silent Hill 2. But more – nothing. This is a completely different game, and this must be realized before picking up the joystick.

The drama of the year

The Walking Dead everything is like in a movie

We admit to ourselves – there are not so many games with a strong plot, especially when compared with the film industry. In such a plot, in order to cry, and you can call back, or just humanly rejoice for those who look at us from that side of the screen. Yes, and no wonder, because for the most part they try to entertain us with diverse gameplay, pathos setting, modern graphics and a delaying multipleor. All these elements, of course, need to be glued with something common, but often the gameplay itself delays much more than the essence of what is happening. For searching for top things, filling levels, unlocking new abilities, we spent disproportionately more time than dialogs. This sin not only arcade genres, but also the last generation of role -playing games. Genres, in fact, seasoned and hackneyed, rushing from one extreme to another and constantly changing.

Interactive cinema, on the contrary, is a rare guest on any platform and therefore is perceived every time as something unusual. Sony console owners were a little more lucky, they have Heavy Rain, The rest had to wait. Well, waited.

And you can’t say that this year turned out to be very scarce on dramatic plots. The universe Shepard tragically saved and seemed to cut off the whole era of video games. Max Payne became fat, found the meaning of life at the bottom of the bottle and left the noir New York, grabbing his grief with him. Captain Martin Walker from Spec Ops: The Line He went to Dubai brought by the sand in search of the missing colonel, just like in the movie “Apocalypse Today”, and met there that no one could expect at all ..

But The Walking Dead: The Game it stands out very much against their background. Just think, a game in which there is almost nothing besides talking, managed to keep the player on a leash all five episodes, forcing him to tremble in anticipation of continuation. Lee Everett and Clementine became us as relatives and will surely replenish the gold fund of recognizable game persons. After all, together with them, we survived for more than half of the year among distraught people who revived the dead and suffered from the crafty comrades. We were nearby and survived every betrayal and every death with them. When you put a gun in the hand of a person so that he kills his own child, with the words: “No, you must do it”-something inside turns over. We have never made such difficult decisions before, the choice has never been so complicated.

The Walking Dead: The Game was created for the sake of the plot and holds exclusively at dramaturgy. Such games either rise to the top of Olympus, or quietly grow moss somewhere in shady ravines, surrounded by a few "connoisseurs". The “walking dead” rose high – this is definitely the drama of the year, but their path was long and difficult, and none of those who spent this time in Lee Everett and Clementine will never say that interactive cinema is simply stupid entertainment.

Applicants

70% Spec Ops: The Line

55% Mass Effect 3

25% Max Payne 3

Indie game of the year

FTL: Faster than Light new space management level

Choosing a winner in this category was most difficult. There were a lot of independent games in 2012, and all so different ..

Eyes are already scattering!

IN Dear Esther And Thirty Flights of Loving Two dissimilar ideas about what an interactive story should be embodied. Lone Survivor It was almost the most terrible horror of the year, and Anna honestly tried to scare the day of the day. Super Hexagon And DustForce Cracked for VVVVVv and Super Meat Boy in the field. Little Inferno brought with her a little obscurantism and made children burn charming plush toys. And on the Xbox 360, meanwhile, a long -building appeared Fez, Luxurious DUST: An Elysian Tail and advanced port of Mario Rogalika Spelunky.

By stressful competitive wems (and not at all by the method at all), we chose five applicants. Remained, firstly, Mark of the Ninja. If there were no new Hitman in the Stealth nomination, the ninja would have defeated, and with a huge margin from the rest of the applicants. The only trouble is Mark of the Ninja – it hurts short.

Next, Hotline Miami. A simple toy, collected almost on a knee in a special designer, turned out to be the most brutal and merciless militant of the year. It also has an excellent soundtrack and a clearly restrained style “we want in the eighties”.

Legend of Grimrock returned us to the end of the twentieth century, where the Might & Ball ruled Magic, Betrayal at Krondor, Eye of the Beholder and Wizardry. The most strange thing is that the quest in it turned out to be much more than a party role, but that was enough.

Botanicula struggled on the spot with a kind suhur and bright spontaneity. We thought that to the level of our own Machinarium Czechs from Amanita could not reach. Mistaken.

But no matter how strong the contestants are, the first place still takes Faster than Light. Until now, no game about spacecraft has posed an edge of the crew. And ftl – ​​set. With minimal means, I have achieved such that you begin to bake about every clogged mechanics as a native. Because he went with us all the way, and if they kill him, he would definitely death. Thanks to this (and put to the service of a variety of "random") we spent a lot of pleasant watches behind the game.

But we gave the first place ftl and for another reason. This is also a large event, one of the first games to achieve phenomenal success on Kickstarter and almost the first among the released. It marks the beginning of a new era, when any talented developer (not necessarily Tim Schafer or Peter Moligne) can go out to people and get funding out of the blue.

Remember the word "crowdfunding". It is very smart, and you will hear it more than once.

Applicants

80% Mark of the Ninja

70% Botanicula

50% Legend of Grimrock

15% Hotline Miami

Specialization: the most anticipated indie-longstro

Fez

Fez, Despite its modern indie, one of the last symbols of the outgoing era. The era of long-term construction, when the developers could afford to pour over one single project for years, scaryly fed to patient fans new details and the most incredible promises. And we listened with gleam in our eyes, and opened our mouths in anticipation, and it was not very offensive to us when the air castles collapsed with the release. After all, how interesting it was to wait!

Fez partly avoided this. Excellent music, unique visual style and exciting blood, the ability to rotate two -dimensional space in three dimensions (no matter how wild it sounds), capable of and completely change the perception of reality. All elements were reliably fastened with excellent platform gameplay – Phil Fish, the ideologist of the project, honestly kept all the promises.

But over the five years of development, we learned almost everything about the game – the cards were discovered long before the release, and the finished project was no longer surprising us. That is why Fez’s memory will not be deposited not as an excellent platformer, but as an amazing and endlessly distant project that was so nice to wait.

The style of the year

Journey in harmony with the outside world

Style is a very ephemeral, almost weightless concept for which it is difficult to write an unambiguous definition. Style is the harmony of the picture, sounds, music, the presentation of history, when all the components of the game, as it were, sound together and it turns out a symphony that you hear and feel somewhere at the level of the subconscious. Aesthetics.

There were many beautiful games in 2012. There were many those who sound great. And those where history makes you really worry. But the game in which the connection of pictures, music and history is so harmonious and ideal – only one. Journey.

The sand shimmers in the rays of the sunset, from the gusts of wind – it does not pour out, but rises like sea water during the storm. A small funny little man on sharp legs wanders through the dangers to his grief, menacingly rising on the horizon, meets bizarre, as if made of fabric, in which the inhabitants of the sea are immediately guessed. Without any words, Jenov Chen, the head of Thegamecompany, tells the story of the civilization of creatures, to whom fate has prepared a split, a civil war and condemned to complete extinction. The game can run three to four times and each time understand and mark something new for yourself. This is a gigantic stone head brought by sand – to whom it belonged? And here is this factory – what was produced here? And white creatures – who are they? Gods?.. And the main character? It was created artificially? Or maybe God is just he went down from the sky?

Each square centimeter of the desert, abandoned cities, dark caves … Every centimeter you seem to feel skin. All this is together and is the style.

The Soundtrack of the composer Austin Pieces was nominated for Grammy in the nomination "Best Soundtrack for Visual Media" on a par with the "Dark Knight: Renaissance of the Legend", "Girl with Dragon Tattoo".

It just so happened that the experiments about the style are the lot of small shocking indie games like Hotline Miami or here, for example, immigrants from the Sony incubator – Journey and UNFINISHED Swan. Of the more heavy and standard games this year, only distinguished Dishonored. Steampank (or rather, Vorvanpank, because all the mechanisms here work on whale fat) is generally found in games less often than he would like, and even so visually honed – even more so.

Applicants

80% Unfinished Swan

50% Hotline Miami

30% Dishonored

Domestic game of the year

Prime World Family contract

As already mentioned in the last "stand", domestic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian) games have not gone anywhere, they simply migrated to the online. The era of the single – sneaked. Because – piracy. Because – it is easier to advance and collect the audience in online than in offline.

But there are other reasons. It is natural that in 2012 we found only one noticeable single game – Inversion. And then the domestic only half. The position in the top is our thanks. For making single.

We chose between Warface, Panzar: Forged by Chaos And Prime World. All three – high -quality. All three are original, there is no second same game in the world. From a bird's eye view, they are quite equal. I could still claim War Thunder, But the game is still at an early stage, it will fight for the title in 2013.

Warface is also not a domestic product, its basis and plan from German Crytek. Gameplay is cool, but, in essence, we have just a good action movie in front of us. Its main advantage over the multiplayer in Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty -that he is purely online and conditionally deposited, and above Point Blank or COMBAT ARMS – In modern schedule. The prize for which must be awarded and Crytek, and not just our industry. Super, no doubt, but not number one.

Panzar: Forged by Chaos-brilliant fantasy-beo -evik in the spirit Team Fortress 2, but inferior to the "world of Prime" by scope. It is less multifaceted and, moreover, has not yet been fully formed. Twenty advantages to karma, but not number one.

And Prime World, except for the introduction of a “boy and girl” into the heads (there is almost no one in the game, but many game designers now think in this direction), successfully reproduced the Moba-gang in their own manner, and also brought the idea of ​​a castle strategy in the genre. It is at a height in terms of the general level of administration (yes, we evaluate it), the updates going to it are sensible, and there are many of them, the events are held interesting.

There is also enough flaws-for example, weakly plot texts, regularly redrawn balance-but with something, and such minuses can “boast” any of the applicants. It is unlikely that Prime World is able to squeeze Dota 2 or Lol, Yes, and in popularity, she can’t argue with more mass Warface, but she took the position firmly and influenced the domestic playing industry, for which she gets first place.

As for Royal Quest, That Katauri Never created AAA-class games. AND "Space Rangers", And King’s Bounty originally designed for a narrow circle of fans. The honor and praise of Katauri that both games “shot”, eclipsing many super -expensive projects. However, Royal Quest – it remained within the framework of a narrow niche. This is also good, just very far from the first place. In addition, the game is now radically redone. The old RQ dies, the new one has not yet taken shape, and in December 2012 it is not necessary to bore the game, but Katauri – for determination, and players – for patience.

Applicants

85% Warface

85% Panzar: Forged by Chaos

70% Royal Quest

30% Inversion

The disappointment of the year

Diablo III West VS. Reality

We’ll clarify right away – here we will consider not the games that disappointed the editors, but those that caused the biggest resonance and excitement among the players. About games that most pleased or upset "Gambling.ru ", we will probably talk in our XL Casino blog during the winter holidays. Now we will talk a little about something else, so do not be surprised if the same game suddenly turns out here and in the nominees for the award.

Diablo III – This is the most classic example of high expectations syndrome. When the third part of the famous series is for twelve years, the last four audience is regularly fed with promises and fragmented pieces of information, why it is surprised that the requirements for this part are presented above. They rationally talked.

And then the game in the end comes out, and suddenly it turns out that all the air locks built in the head suddenly r-time! – and collapse under the pressure of severe reality. Yes, Diablo III is a wonderful Hack’n’Slash. This is a magnificent Hack’n’slash. So much pleasure from clicking the mouse not to get in any other game. But this, in essence, is all that Diablo III is able to offer. The plot there is simple and predictable, about which the fans immediately began to grind. The level of complexity at the start is not regulated, and the first passage turns into a lazy walk, which is capable of “even your grandmother” ©. There is virtually nothing to do in Endheim, the network instantly filled the videos on the speedy killing of the bosses on the “nightmare”, where the pumped character tore the poor fellow into shreds in seconds.

In fairness – then the situation was corrected by patches, adding a flexible setting of complexity, and additional bosses, and a whole bunch of assembled objects. But the first impression was already spoiled irrevocably. In addition, by current standards, the gameplay itself is outdated – the game industry gave rise to a great many ways to diversify the battles, and the idea to build a game on only one “jamming” many considered a blasphemous.

And so it turned out that from the hit of all times and peoples Diablo turned into a niche game for connoisseurs, which is eloquently evidenced by the ratio of those who are delighted with it, and those who remained evil on Blizzard. It did not become a bad game, but the former greatness dispelled like smoke.

The public reacted a little less acutely to the completion of the trilogy Mass Effect, when it suddenly turned out that all previous elections have no meaning. Instead of showing how the galaxy has changed as a result of Shepard’s actions, the creators brought the storyline to the appearance of a god-make-up god and three options for the development of events that do not depend on anything.

Not believing that so many years of waiting ended with a quiet zilch, the players even came up with the “theory of indoctrination”, which came down to the fact that the events of the final Shepard were dreamed of. Many hoped that the developers would now catch and honestly make the promised sixteen different endings instead of three almost the same. But the exit of the "extended edition" only confirmed that they are seriously. Well, Bioware wanted the finale to be unforgettable, and they have achieved their goal – talk about how much better everything could not subside until now.

But under Max Payne 3 At least introduce a special nomination – "passive disappointment of the year". An excellent, complex and very male action movie with a traditional slowdown in time and a touching script fell victim to his own advertising campaign. At the first, after the announcement of the image, Max turned out to be bald, bearded, in a dirty T -shirt, during the day (where noir?) and in the middle of Brazil. The former detective did not reach such a state immediately, we are thoroughly told the story of this diving “to the bottom” – and this story is worth listening to it. But thousands of players simply rejected Max Payne 3 only for the new image of the hero and did not even play it. It's a pity, because then they would have a chance to make sure that this is a great action movie with whom no one to compete in spectacular.

Applicants

50% Mass Effect 3