Bookend Game Awards: Best Narrative

Hmm, a tough one, because I am not easily impressed when it comes to narratives, in Games, books or films. I’m very good at enjoying things, then ripping the shit out of everything I perceive to be wrong with them when I’m done. Plus, not a great deal of games I played this year have been particularly story driven, but let’s see.

• DOOM – Kinda cheeky this one, the story itself is fairly generic doom fare, but I love how the doom marine can pretty much just opt out of it and keep fucking up demons with no context if he wants to, in a more active way than just the player skipping cutscenes.
• Hollow Knight – A little cheeky here too, this is more a matter of interesting lore coming together than the narrative itself, per se. But wanting to understand what happened to Hollownest and how the Knight fits into it all was definitely a further motivator to keep playing.
• OneShot – Super interesting story about restoring the sun of the dying world, being a sort of god, breaking your programming and more that would be a spoiler to mention here.
• Red Dead Redemption – You know, it’s about revenge, atonement, family and stuff. Mostly well done but I’ll be honest, the ending that everyone else loves I found horribly contrived.
• Uncharted: A Thief's End – A competent tale of Nathan Drake being left somewhat unfulfilled living a life without adventure, finding out his presumed dead brother is alive and getting dragged into a mad story of racing a British rich boy with an inferiority complex and a south African Mercenary Lady to find the lost treasure of Pirate Captain Avery. It was fun in an Indiana Jones kind of way, as Uncharted generally is. But it kinda loses me when it starts taking itself too seriously.

And the winner is...

                OneShot

You know, until I wrote out their nomination texts, I was thinking this was going to Red Dead or uncharted by default, but after I actually stopped to think about it I realised that OneShot was the only one that actually made me think or feel an iota of emotion. It’s one of the few games I’ve played twice this year, because... let’s just say the second time round is a very different experience. It’s hard to say much more without spoiling it, but I do recommend OneShot very highly.

Join me next time for Best Game Direction!

Bookend Game Awards: Best Action Game

Like I say, I really don’t approve of the distinction between Action and Action/Adventure, I think the Game Awards just wanted to hand out more awards to be honest, but here we are.

My Nominations:

• Cuphead – Beautiful little side scrolling shooter, the mechanics are hardly mind blowing, but are very well implemented. Deserves most of the accolades it’s been given in the actual game awards.
• DOOM – The best FPS I’ve played in years, mechanically tight, really fun, one hell of a game.
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengence – Take Raiden through a mad fever dream cooked up by Platinum. With Platinum working on a Metal Gear property you should know what you’re letting yourself in for, and if that sounds good to you you’re more than likely to have a great time.
• Transformers Devastation – Platinum having their take on the transformers franchise. Not their greatest game, but a fun time if you like what platinum does.
• Uncharted: A Thief's End – The Uncharted series, you know what you’re getting yourself in for. I’m a little burned out on it because I a person very susceptible to sequel fatigue, but it’s mechanically the best one yet and a class act all round.

And the winner is:

                DOOM

DOOM has no right to be as good as it is, Doom 3 was good, but nobody was expecting a return to form like this. If you love FPS games, play it. If you have been lukewarm on the genre for the last few years, then still play it, because not one do you have to staple your face to cover to survive an encounter. Shoot rockets into a demons face, then gouge out his eyes and eviscerate his friends with a chainsaw. You won’t be disappointed.

Next up we have the Best Independent Game!