GO TO HELL
Spelunky has many secrets, chief among them the hidden sequence of feats you must perform to reach the secret bonus levels and conquer the true final boss. Beating it normally is just the beginning.
Assassin’s Creed II
PS3, PC, X360, MAC
First Released Nov 17, 2009
There are few franchises in video games as adept at transporting you to another time in history as Assassin’s Creed. From the Holy Land during the Crusades to the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy, Assassin’s Creed games excel at bringing places to life, and nowhere is this more evident than in the magnificent Assassin’s Creed II. The cities and countryside of Renaissance-era Italy are the subjects here, rendered in such loving detail and astonishing complexity that a simple stroll down the street is enough to dazzle you. It’s well worth taking a brief respite from your century-spanning struggle between powerful secret societies for the fate of humanity to stop and smell the roses.
But don’t tarry too long, because as Ezio Auditore da Firenze, you’ve got a lot to do. There are secrets to ferret out and mysteries to uncover and Templars to kill, and not necessarily in that order. Though the story follows a set path, you are often free to carry out missions as you see fit. You may rely on stealth, blending in with the crowd in the bustling piazzas of Florence and knifing a target with your spring-loaded hidden blades. You might choose speed, clambering up the side of a building and racing across rooftops to escape unwanted attention. Or you could use brute force, elegantly dodging and parrying the attacks of numerous guards as you cut them down one by one.
There’s an elegance to all of Ezio’s actions that make it a thrill to don his hooded robes, and unraveling his connections with the modern-day protagonist, Desmond, is an exciting and gratifying endeavor. Characters with character, cities with soul, action with style, and conspiracies with depth all combine to make Assassin’s Creed II an incredible adventure.
Dead Space
PC, X360, PS3
First Released Oct 13, 2008
To play a video game is to give up some control over your emotional state. No matter how stoic you may try to remain in the face of fast-paced action, witty dialogue, dramatic storytelling, or plaintive music, some part of you is feeling what that game wants you to feel, providing that game is any good at what it does. Dead Space is very, very good at what it does, and what it wants you to feel is nerve-fraying, gut-churning, heart-pounding terror.
To accomplish this goal, Dead Space uses all the tricks in the horror book and then some. The game is set on a large spaceship overrun with gruesomely mutated humanoid creatures. These monsters are terrifying to behold, and even the sound of one scuttling through the walls is enough to set your skin crawling. The sound effects and musical cues in Dead Space are impeccably designed to draw you deeper into the experience, and as they echo through the oppressive, claustrophobic corridors of the spaceship, you may be tempted to yell at the screen, “Don’t go in there!” But this isn’t a horror movie; you are in control. You are the one that is going in there, and that makes it all the more frightening.
Fortunately, you are not defenseless, and the arsenal of repurposed mining tools that you use to fight back is formidable. The creatures don’t die easily, so you’ll have to take time to dismember them instead of just blowing them away, and this ingenious system heightens the tension of combat. The story of your mission to figure out what’s going on and evacuate survivors is a harrowing one, suffused with dread and punctuated by some jaw-dropping action sequences (did someone say zero gravity?). Dead Space is a master class in horror, destined to claw its way into your mind and never, ever leave.
The Last of Us Remastered
PS4
First Released July 29, 2014
What really happens when it all goes to hell? In The Last of Us, a pandemic has turned most of humanity into vicious creatures and the survivors, like the cities they shelter in, are ruins of their former selves. It’s a beautiful, richly detailed world that tells the story of how badly something can be broken, and how hard it can be to mend. The two lead characters represent both sides of this coin: Joel, the gruff, unkind guardian whom you play as, and Ellie, the guarded, headstrong teenager that you must guide across the wild country. Their fraught, tender relationship is the driving force of this game, and you’ll find yourself rapt with attention to see how their journey ends.
Playing the guardian isn’t easy, however. In addition to the vicious mutants that stalk you, there are packs of bandits that survive by taking what they want by force. Indeed, combat in The Last of Us is forceful and violent, and though a stealthy approach is often best, there are many times when brutal melee attacks or loud gunfire are your only recourse. Fights have a hard-edged intensity that is both stressful and gratifying.
You simply must play the remastered version of this game because it includes Left Behind, and these extra chapters are a paragon of video game storytelling. Playing as Ellie, you venture just outside of your walled city with your friend, Riley, in the post-apocalyptic version of a day at the mall. Participating in their teenage mischief involves some sublimely inventive gameplay, and the dialogue and character performances are utterly captivating. Even if you’ve already been playing them for years and years, Left Behind is the kind of experience that makes you fall in love with video games all over again.
Portal 2
PC, X360, MAC, PS3
First Released Apr 18, 2011
The story of a woman with a portal gun and an artificial intelligence with a sadistic sense of humor first captured our imaginations in Portal, a spectacular, if short, game released in 2007. By shooting this gun at one surface and then another, you could create two oval-shaped portals. Walk in one and you come out the other. Jump off of a ledge into one and fly out the other. Put one on the floor, one on the ceiling above it, and you can fall forever. Playing around with the portal gun was great fun, and using it to solve the tricky puzzles was very satisfying. Tie it all together with an A.I. guide that slowly transitions from innocuous instructor to malevolent manipulator, and you’ve got a lovely little game.
Portal 2, then, is this lovely little game blown out in every direction to make a sequel that is bigger,