Final Game of the Year post: Mass Effect 2 & Red Dead Redemption

All these posts about the current Game of the Year (L.A. Noire, if you didn’t see) has made me think about last year’s Game of the Year as well. I didn’t write a GotY post last year – my website was still relatively new and I didn’t really post that much on it. But I can talk about it now.

And just a little warning! This whole post will probably seem very angry, unjustified, and ranty. It’s my opinion, and whilst I would only hold it if I thought I was right – that doesn’t mean you need to take me seriously or get offended or anything. You’re allowed to not agree with me and have terrible taste in video games.

There’s a split between Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption for the ‘unanimous’ (or at least as unanimous as adding up magazines opinions) Game of the Year 2010. Apart from Edge who gave it to Super Mario Galaxy 2 in a desperate attempt to be different (despite giving it’s carbon copy predecessor Super Mario Galaxy 1 GotY in 2007) and a few other smaller awards here and there. Various website ‘User Choice’ awards (which is a ‘unanimous’ public in a sense, but still not really) are much more varied; Call of Duty:Black Ops, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Starcraft 2, etc. and at least demonstrates some independent thought.

But anyway! Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption are what I want to talk about now. I didn’t like either of these games, however my dislike for Mass Effect 2 is stronger.

It seems to pretend to be this huge, complex, immersive sci-fi space opera story game when really, all I was playing was a poor collection of game and sci-fi tropes with a chest high wall shooter. The character you end up playing is usually pretty ugly (and people complain that Bethesda do bad player characters…) in an ‘amazingly top of the line ship and crew’ that for some reason is filled with people who all have stupid side quests for you to do. All your fighting…companions(?) have optional, dull and predictable ‘personal’ side quests and pseudo relationship building moments in an awful dialogue picker design…thing. There’s an painful…resource gaining mini game involving planet scanning that someone somewhere must have thought was a good idea, and that someone must never be allowed near game developing ever again.

Mostly, however is that really, Mass Effect 2 was a chest high wall shooter. Once you got past the pile of stupid and ill conceived ideas stuck together in a space ship and all the (I assume) ‘charming’ jokes referencing the first game, the gameplay is mostly a quite repetitive run through each environment shooting everything in sight. And sure, those environments were technically competent at least, but after a while they kind of blend together into the background as you run from each location shooting things.

I’ve heard and read various accounts of peoples views, deeper readings etc on how the game was amazing, and what not. Not to be blunt…well yeah, to be blunt, but you’re going to find deeper meaning if you want to find it. Because you want to make your beloved game sound grand and deep, and you want to sound clever. A lot of the game was poorly written and heavy handed. Not least because a huge portion of Mass Effect 2’s selling point was that it was a sequel to a fan loved game, and riddled with lazy ‘You remember this from the last game, right?’ moments masquerading as plot and game design.

Red Dead Redemption is both worse and better in a lot of ways. It didn’t stick in my mind and haunt me as much as Mass Effect 2 did. But it still managed to get a lot of GotY votes despite being so…bland.

And I do mean bland. Because while I’m perfectly willing to accept that you like the ‘western’ genre in it’s recent, popular video game iteration…the main character John Marsden was pretty dull. The games environment, beyond it’s initial pretty openness, blends pretty quickly into a orange-y dullness filled with MMO style ‘Collect 5 of x’ quests…which aren’t really worth doing. So I don’t really understand how people have claimed that they enjoyed it more than Grand Theft Auto 4 – which for all I disliked annoying cousin Roman (who you could, quite easily, turn off) felt more varied in terms of game play and had a lead with some actual personality. Peter Reviews describes a lot of these problems in more detail on his review.

So, after all of that therapeutic ranting, what do I think should have been Game of the Year 2010?

Well, despite really enjoying the truly brilliant horror that is Amnesia: The Dark Descent, my Game of the Year for 2010 couldn’t have been anything but Heavy Rain, (like L.A. Noire) a complex, interesting, and adult experience that was very visually appealing and stayed with me for a long time.

There were a few games I’d like to mention as personal disappointments. Silent Hill Shattered Memories had, I think, the potential to be a really great Wii game. I liked the idea of being able to explore the creepiness of Silent Hill with a torch in hand – unfortunately the game was quite repetitive, and there was very little fear or suspense in true ‘terrified to explore around the place, but have to anyway’ Silent Hill fashion.

I would also say that year I played an awful lot of Dragon Age: Origins – I would definitely say this isn’t really because it was a fantastic game. It was, in a lot of ways, just as silly, trope-y and over simplified as an RPG as Mass Effect 2. But it was at least more playable than Mass Effect 2, and more playable than the (sadly, terribly buggy) Fallout New Vegas.

So, that was my thoughts on the gaming year of 2010. There was a lot more games I could have mentioned – Dante’s Inferno, Sam & Max, and Kirby’s Epic Yarn to name but a few…but I didn’t want to dwell too much on GotY things. Until next time.