My Biggest 2010 Surprises

As the year winds down, I’ve been looking at the pile of games I picked up over the course of 2010. I had high expectations for some and wasn’t disappointed—Red Dead Redemption was every bit as good as I had hoped, and I was hoping pretty damned hard on that one. Other games left me wanting more (Medal of Honor, anyone?). My favorites, however, are the ones that took me by surprise.

Here are a few of the games that blindsided me in 2010. Hear me out, and then weigh in on the comments section. I’m always interested to learn how other people viewed the year, too.

Deadly Premonition
This one popped up out of nowhere. By all rights, it should have been a disaster, or at best a laughable lark. Instead, it became one of my favorite games of the year. Almost every time someone writes about it, they have to spend a few paragraphs wringing their hands over what the game does wrong and making apologies for it. I fully acknowledge that the first few hours of Deadly Premonition are awful. They highlight the game’s combat, which is by far the game’s weakest element. I’m done making excuses for the game, though.

Here’s why I love the game: Deputy Emily Wyatt is one of the people you meet as FBI agent Francis “York” Morgan. Over the course of several meals with her, you discover that she’s a terrible cook. If you go to her house and peer into her kitchen window, you’ll see scorched walls and other evidence of her previous kitchen mishaps.

First, I love that you can be creepy and peep into windows. Not only that, the game rewards you for doing so by offering little glimpses into the lives of Greenvale’s citizens. Another character, Harry Stewart, is a creepy wheelchair-bound recluse who also happens to wear a gas mask. I’ve driven by the town’s diner and seen his manservant, Michael Tillotson, operating the lift that lets Stewart get into his van.

I spent dozens of hours playing Deadly Premonition, and after a while I found myself just wandering around town, absorbed in the atmosphere. I rarely feel an incentive to do that anymore. I’ll take the game’s rough edges in exchange for the charm and depth that it offers any day.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Tim raved about this one when he played it for review, though I didn’t really believe him when he said it was great. The man does love Sonic, after all. When Reiner relented and played it, I was a surprised to hear him pick up the raves where Tim left off. Fine. “I’ll play the damned thing,” I thought. I’m unbelievably glad I did.

I saw Lords of Shadow before it had the Castlevania name attached to it a few years ago. It seemed like a completely adequate hack and slash game, but I didn’t think I’d ever get around to playing it.

Here’s the deal: You don’t have to be into Castlevania to like or enjoy this game. I loved the first few NES games, the first GBA one, Symphony of the Night, and a few others, but I don’t consider myself a superfan. There’s a little fanservice thrown into the game, but it’s handled well. Rather than jab your ribs and say, “Hey, this is Frankenstein, get it?!” the devs wisely let the game speak for itself.

Reiner kept raving about how many new systems the game kept introducing throughout the story, and he was completely right. Before it’s over, you will have acquired the ability to cast light and dark magic, to fly (a little), and dash, to name a few. Each of the abilities can be used in and out of combat, and they work really well with one another.

Combat’s another high point. It’s polished and fair, which is all I could really ask for. At first I bitched about what I considered a few cheap deaths, but then I realized that I was actually kind of sucky. It had been a while since I’d played a game that not only had a block button, but that required you to use it. Oops.

Anyway, the gameplay is great, the story is surprisingly strong and moving, and it has one of the best gaming endings ever. Really. It’s also quite long, so if you’re looking for something to fill up your Christmas break you have a new mission. Really, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Angry Birds
I played this for the first time on a friend’s iPod Touch. I thought it was cute, the way birds slammed into towers and knocked stuff down. I don’t think it’s so cute anymore.

Think of a 2D version of Boom Blox, only with birds swapping in for the balls. It’s easy to understand, and it’s a blast to play in short bursts while waiting for a bus, killing time in a line, or doing whatever else people are supposed to be doing while playing games on mobile devices.

If you want to play through the game getting three-star rankings on every map, be prepared for heartbreak. That’s about all I have to say about Angry Birds.