Top Ten of 2012, Day 3

8. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

They struck hard and without warning one night, taking all of humanity by surprise. Aliens... ruthless killing machines with an unknown agenda. It falls on your shoulders as the head of XCOM to exterminate this extra-terrestrial threat, and save the world... or at least, what's left of it.

And with that, you're thrown into the deep end of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a reinvention of the classic strategy series. Developed by Firaxis, of Civilization fame, Enemy Unknown remains true to the decades-old originals while at the same time bringing the series into the modern world of gaming. At it's core, the title is a turn-based strategy game where you lead a squad of alien-hunting soldiers out into the unknown of one randomly-generated map after the next. On top of that, there's a resource managment aspect to the game in the form of your headquarters, where between missions you must perform autopsies, research new weapons, train soldiers, and maintain peace with your many diplomatic relations.

Keeping these many plates spinning is difficult throughout the entire game, but as least a few hours in you manage to get a better handle and understanding of how they each function and relate to each other. It's at this point you realize that even if you master all the different elements that comprise Enemy Unknown, it will still always present a tough challenge. This is because Enemy Unknown is an asshole of a game. The stakes are high, and it stays that way from start to finish. The aliens are cold-blooded and ruthless, taking out members of your squad with no remorse or hesitation.

That Firaxis manages to make you feel a connection to what are essentially disposable members of your squad, despite the fact that none of them have any spoken lines or individual characteristics, is a testament to how solid the leveling system is. These men and women literally go through the ringer at your command, and seeing them level up, progressively becoming stronger and more powerful, brings a sense of pride and satisfaction. That they can so easily be ripped away from you seems almost cruel on the part of the developers.

Despite it's several bugs, glitches, and frame-rate issues, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a smart, user-friendly, modern day RTS. Even if you're not a fan of the genre, it is still very much worth your time.

Top Ten of 2012, Day 2

9. Dust: An Elysian Tail

If ever there was truth to the idea of a work being more than the sum of it's parts, you could find that in Dust: An Elysian Tail. Although, truth be told, the individual parts that comprise Dust are just as impressive as the collective whole. Even more so when you realize that each of those individual parts were mainly designed by one person.

The first game from Humble Hearts studio, which is in fact just first-time developer Dean Dodrill, Dust sets out to acomplish several goals, and achieves them all masterfully. At it's core, the game is a hack-and-slash adventure in the style of Vanillaware's output, but that's far from all. Dust is basically everything Dean likes about video games all rolled up into one- there's a Metroidvania element, rpg mechanics, a combo system, a crafting system... I could go on.

Story-wise, Dust plays with the biggest trope used in both anime and rpg's- the mysterious hero with amnesia- but does so without it feeling tired and stale. This is mostly done through the pure charm of the storytelling and character designs- the world of Dust, despite it's sometimes-heavy subject matter, is a warm one... a place you enjoy inhabiting.

The combat and exploration all feel buttery-smooth, fun, and enjoyable. The combo system keeps the numerous battles from ever growing boring or repetitive, and there's just enough collectables, upgrades, and side-quests to keep you curious and uncovering different parts of the map.

In a time when over-the-top violence seems to dominate the medium, a select few games are reminding us that a game doesn't need blood by the bucket to be enjoyable. Dust: An Elysian Tail is one of them, and it's one of the best of the year.

Top Ten of 2012, Day 1

10. Mass Effect 3

On the surface, ME3 is the ultimate refinement of everything we've come to love about the series, but digging into the meat of the beast, EA's influence over Bioware becomes readily apparent.

From a marketing campaign focusing on the "sexy" and "new user friendly" aspects of the title, to the bigger emphasis on combat and multiplayer, it's easy to spot where a higher up within the company piped in with a "Well, what if we added..." This isn't to say that a game should be judged by the behind the scenes antics of it's production, but if the end result is a bad taste left in your mouth, you have to call a spade a spade.

So, looking past all that, what's left?

Well, what we're given is a title that does its best to wrap up years worth of A plots and B plots (and C,D, and E plots for that matter). Sometimes it all comes off a bit too convenient and tidy, but overall the resolutions are satisfying. One area where the game is sorely lacking is with the supporting cast. Major players from part 2, whom you assumed would be with you until the end, are benched for just about the entire game, despite having vital roles previously. One has to wonder why new characters are being introduced this late in the story while other characters that you're already invested in are literally stand around a waiting room for the entire game, as if there's nothing better to do.

What the benching of these characters does, whether it was Bioware's intent or not, is it places the focus of the narrative more on Shepard than the cast. The problem with focusing on the one instead of the many is that Shepard him or herself is only as interesting as the company they keep. Sure, you can build a story up around your individual version of Shepard, but we've spent hours and hours with these crew members, and our attachment to them is just as deep, if not deeper, than our investment to Shepard. That they are absent, or only minor players at best in this grand finale, makes it a lesser tale.

Regarding the tale, I wish I could tell you why it begins the way that it does, but seeing as I didn't purchase the last piece of DLC for ME2, I was left totally in the dark, and completely confused. I had to play catch-up, both online, and within the narrative, just to get a basic grasp of what had happened in the time between parts 2 and 3. Again, you have to call a spade a spade, Bioware/EA.

Once you're off and running (for reals- you flee Earth), the game gets to telling its story, and does so mostly competently. Mass Effect 3 is a war movie with a controller. The wide-eyed spectacle of the first game, and the down and dirty black ops nature of the second are traded in for Saving Private Ryan in space. The tone and level design fit with what they're doing with the narrative, but this leads to several sections of the game that just feel repetitive (which, seeing as some of these levels were built for multiplayer, they are) and lacking when compared to the high notes of the first two games.

Where Mass Effect 3 shines is it's one on one moments, and character resolutions. When it's just Shepard and someone that he's forced to put in harms way, those conversations are pure gold, and remind you that when they bring their a-game, Bioware are second to none. These scenes can be gut-wrenching at times, and I wished there were more of them in the final product. As it stands, the bulk of the game has weight and depth, but most of that is undermined by how everything plays out in the end.

As for the games ending, and how we get there, that's a whole different conversation. The end of Mass Effect 3 breaks the series in several ways, and is compounded by the addition of the extended cut material. At least with the original ending, you could say it was a definitive poor ending. Now, it's just muddy and reactionary. I've heard the Leviathan DLC fleshes out what comes in the ending further, and sets you up to be more accepting of it, but honestly if that's the case, then it should have been in the game. Just like the From Ashes DLC.

Mass Effect 3 is a mostly-enjoyable conclusion to the trilogy, but it should have been better. It should have been game of the year. And it's not.