Every site has done their Best Of 2011 reports by now. Hell, most of them did theirs before the year was even over. And most lists are the exact same list, maybe shuffled around in order. My problem is, this has been a rough year financially, so I haven't gotten to play all of the AAA titles, or I'm just now getting to them at the end of the year.
But I do play the shit out of indie games. Between the Humble Bundles, the Voxatron Bundle, and the ubiquitous indie sales on Steam, my year has been flooded with indie games. Some have rocked my world, some have filled me with loathing. Here are some of the highlights:
Minecraft
Oddly enough, I'm going to gloss over this one, not because it wasn't important, but quite the opposite. Whether people knew it or not, Minecraft has been the silent juggernaut of all video games this year, indie or otherwise. That may sound like an odd statement, but it's true. It's been a sleeper smash. It has outsold every single AAA title this year. It has been the internet's obsession, and it's been MY obsession since I picked it up in February. While Alpha was technically released in 2010, the game really was developed over 2011, culminating in an official release in November, so I'm letting it count on this list.
Dungeon Defenders
Probably the most polished and professional of these indie titles, DD made me fall in love with it against my usual tastes. I have never cared for Tower Defense games, but something about the vibrant cartoony presentation, the idea of throwing me into the thick of battle to fight alongside my towers, and the balanced and challenging mechanics just struck a perfect chord. It's cute, it's silly, it's hard as hell playing solo, and it's a riot with friends. It even has a free bonus pack of Valve content, including Team Fortress 2 "pets", and a Portal Gun for the Huntress class. I seriously can't recommend this one enough.
Sanctum
Sanctum is very similar to Dungeon Defenders, in that it's a Tower Defense that throws you into the heat of battle. Where DD is fantasy, Sanctum is sci-fi. Where DD is a 3rd person adventure, Sanctum is an FPS Much like DD, Sanctum was released, and has then been supported by constant new map packs and challenges. In general though, I found DD to be more fun; Sanctum just kinda plays it all too straight. Instead of guarding one or multiple targets, Sanctum has you covering multiple paths to one objective. And it gives you set places where you can put your towers/turrets, you can't just throw them all wherever you want. But still, it's fun and very polished. Can't go wrong with this one (unless you pick it over DD).
The Binding Of Isaac
Christ what a fucked up little game. It took a while for this one to grow on me, but the presentation is sort of Zelda if redone by Jhonen Vasquez. This game is about mommy issues and childhood terrors, and features horrific content in a cute, cartoony package. It's packed with religious imagery combined with cutesy gore and filth, and plenty of item pickups that will turn your stomach. The gameplay has a learning curve to it, and the randomized dungeons keep the difficulty fluctuating wildly, but ultimately Isaac did worm its way into my heart. If nothing else, the music is absolutely fantastic.
Jamestown
While I like the concept of a sort alternate history, British colonization vs the Spanish and some tentacled Martians, ultimately this game turned into a fun but forgettable shmup. It was pretty, it was retro, but nothing really set it apart. I snagged it in the Humble Indie Bundle 4, played it for a while, had a good time, and will probably never pick it up again.
Sequence
Never judge a game by its first hour. I bought this cheap over the holidays, and played for an hour and could not stop singing its praises. I LOVED IT. Then I played it again for a couple more hours, and realized it was kind of fun, but one of the most repetitive games I've ever played. It's got a brilliant concept, blending a rhythm game with an RPG, and they do it beautifully. However, that is kind of where the brilliance ends. Well, okay and it has some of the best dialogue ever. But there is no exploration, there is no ROLE playing, there's very little story. There's no dungeons, no world to explore. You literally go to an area, and you are presented with a list of creatures in the area to fight. You pick one, and you enter combat, hoping it drops the items you need to progress. Plus, for as many creatures as you have to fight, there's really only a small handful of songs in the game, so a lot of them use the same songs over and over and over. Ugh....this game has SO much potential, and they completely dropped the ball.
Rock Of Ages
Not nearly as fun or funny as the trailers made it out to be. At all. It's tower defense mixed with marble madness, only...bland. The sense of humor reminds me of that kid everyone knew in high school that loved Monty Python and tried really hard to emulate their style of comedy, but failed. It's not a BAD game at all, just kinda...meh.
Xotic
I want to like this game. It's almost fun. But it's too surreal and weird for its own good. It tries to be an arcade-y first person shooter, but fails. It's a collect-a-thon. 50 kajillion collectable or shootable items in a confusing arena, with a couple of weird looking aliens shooting at you. It definitely has an indie feel to it, like this was someone's brainchild that they're passionate about, but that doesn't always mean it's good. And it's not BAD, it just didn't grab me.
SPAZ - Space Pirates And Zombies
YES! This game is fantastic. It's a very deep space sim masquerading as an action-packed shmup. The visuals are beautiful and eye-popping, the mechanics are smooth and fun, there's a lot of depth to the world and to your ships, and the dialogue is laugh-out loud funny. It contains a line that is one of my favorite video game quotes of all time, "The hull has been breached and the SCIENCE is leaking out!"
Bastion
Perhaps the best known on this list, apart from Minecraft, Bastion has been celebrated all over the internet. It's won multiple Game Of The Year awards for indie devs. I have to admit, it didn't resonate with me the way it seemed to resonate with others, but I did like it quite a bit. It's gorgeous, the music is good, and the narrator that narrates almost every single thing that you do is a fantastic feature that draws you in. But ultimately, the gameplay was really just kinda...hack and slash. Solid, definitely, and handled smoothly, but nothing about it really struck me as remarkable. Definitely worth a buy though, you will not regret it at full price, though it tends to go on sale on Steam every other week.
Terraria
I kind of want to go back and play this again, because apparently it's grown by leaps and bounds in just the 6 months since its release. Terraria sought to blend the harvest-and-build aspect of Minecraft and blend it with 2D 16-bit sprite gameplay reminiscent of various Metroidvanias. I bought it on release day, and it became one of those games I loved and played obsessively for hours on end for about two weeks, and then never played again. It's a ton of fun, but it was pretty exhaustible. I quickly reached the "Well, I've done everything now" point. But apparently they've been constantly adding new content, and new mechanics, new bosses, and really bolstering the multiplayer aspects. It's definitely worth the $10 full price tag, but it's on sale for half off more often than not. As I post this, I'm watching the current trailer for it, and it doesn't even look like the same game I played when it came out, in a very good way.
Voxatron
Another game I really wanted to like. Voxatron is a retro-themed, voxel-based arcade style shooter. A lot of thought and heart went into the crafting of this game. It has a very distinct look, combining shiny new 3d "voxel" technology with old school early 80s graphics. But the problem is, when the vast majority of your game's difficulty is shoddy controls? I lose interest. If a game has tight, responsive controls but is difficult due to design? I'll keep playing and love the challenge. If I die constantly from easy enemies because my guy won't do what I tell him to, I get frustrated and pick another game.
Dungeons Of Dredmore
Last but not least, I'll leave you with a fun little time waster. DoD is not a great game. But it has that feeling like it was made by one guy in his home (because for the most part, it WAS). The artwork is endearingly amateur, the gameplay is a very simple yet deep roguelike with an extensive skill tree. There is nothing remarkable about it, but it is overflowing with heart. This is one guy's pet project and while it lacks polish, you can feel that it's a labor of love.
And so that's it for now! I'm absolutely sure that I've missed some, and I'd be more than happy to hear about it. And there were some that didn't make the cut because while they were popularized this year, they actually came out earlier than 2011 (such as Cave Story). If you have played any of the above and want to share your opinions, or want to talk about games I didn't list, hit me up in the comments!
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