TSA’s Top 100 of 2013: 15-11 – Killzone, God of War & Aliens

Are we really here? Already? The last bundle of five before we enter our top ten most anticipated games coming next year? It looks that way; after this article we’ll be counting down the top ten individually.

Anyway, today’s article features the five games that we didn’t quite like enough to reach the highest height, though we’re still very excited  about them nonetheless.

15. Killzone: Mercenary 

Let’s be honest, this is the game that could truly make or break the Vita – after this year brought us the average Resistance: Burning Skies and the poor Black Ops Declassified, Sony’s handheld is really in need of a good first-person shooter to show off the capabilities of the console.

This could be just that – we’ve charted it at fifteen, which is just two places below where it sat last year (minus one point for each disappointing Vita FPS?) so we’re clearly excited for it, even though we still don’t know much more beyond the initial trailer at Gamescom this year.

We don’t know when it will release – though we’re told it’s some time in 2013 – but we are sure that it’ll have a similar premise to Unit 13: shorter ‘mercenary’ missions featuring payments and contracts, rather than a full blown campaign. It’s running on the same engine as Killzone 3, so it should play well at least and it offers a new perspective on the ISA/Helghast battle, as you’re actually able to fight alongside the Helghast forces as well as the ISA troops this time around.

Hopefully we’ll see some new details soon and it’ll be out before the year is old, but all we have now is this trailer.

14. DmC: Devil May Cry

Stop complaining, Devil May Cry fans. This is going to be quite a fun and fresh take on the series. Yes – Dante may look a bit odd and yes, it is set in a parallel universe meaning that it won’t continue on from the previous games, but they’re still there.

Anyway, DmC is going to be an enjoyable bit of hack and slashing with some other awesome elements in there, too. I’ve played it at EGX, though I don’t remember what the demo entailed exactly. Fortunately, Kris previewed the game and his time with it left him very excited for it, suggesting that it might take you by surprise. He praised the game’s pacing, saying:

Whilst it can take you a little while to get used to the possibilities the game throws at you, the demo on show featured one of the best tutorial levels I’ve ever played. It explained things to you at a good pace, but never left you feeling bored and threw just enough challenges at you to keep you interested.

Plus, it’s developed by Ninja Theory who have done some stellar work in the past with Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West; the later having brilliant platforming and adventure elements, while the former had some excellent hack-and-slash gameplay.

Dante is a fun character in PlayStation All-Stars, too, so he gets my vote.

13. God of War: Ascension

I am really excited at the prospect of a new God of War game; I’ve loved every one of Kratos’ adventures so far and the series is genuinely one of my favourites ever.

At the same time, though, I’m not really excited about Ascension; it’s basically just going to be a longer version of that ten minute cutscene in every God of War game explaining Kratos’ backstory. It won’t really advance the overall plot of the series, unless Santa Monica do some really smart stuff (which I’m confident they will) and Kratos won’t be facing bigger challenges than he has before.

To put it simply, Ascension should be better than the first God of War or Chains of Olympus, but there’s no way that it’ll ascend to the heights of God of War II, III or even Ghost of Sparta.

It plays extremely well, however; the combat system has had a bit of a revamp and flows even better than before. The game is absolutely stunning and there are some nice mechanics with freezing time in there, too. We can only hope that the story manages to match the other aspects of the game.

There’s a multiplayer mode too, the beta version of which Lewis recently played, concluding:

If, however, you tend to enjoy multiplayer gaming then this will certainly offer you a great time because it isn’t a tacked-on experience in an attempt to tap into a wider market, but rather a carefully considered and very well executed addition that, if the constant beta updates are anything to go by, is being cared for by a great studio.

So, that’s all well – I’m holding back my excitement somewhat for this entry into the series, but we’ll soon find out how it compares to the other God of War games as it releases on March 15th next year.

12. The Last Guardian

I always hope that I’ll miss out on writing about The Last Guardian as, while everyone else here in TSA towers is extremely excited for the game and it’s appeared near the top of our Top 100 the last few years, I really don’t get it.

I’ve always wanted to play Shadow of the Colossus – of which this game is the spiritual successor to but I really don’t see the appeal of The Last Guardian – it hasn’t quite caught my interest, though that might be explained by the fact that there hasn’t been any new footage since 2009, a lifetime ago in the gaming world.

Delays seem to keep halting the progress of the game and everything has gone suspiciously quiet recently, though when the trademark expired back in August 2012, Sony confirmed that the game was still in development, though technical issues had slowed progress.

If you’re not exactly sure what The Last Guardian is about, feast your eyes on the trailer below – it appears to be an enchanting tale of a boy and his winged turkey cat dog thing. It looks quite impressive for a 2009 trailer, mind, let’s hope we see it in 2013!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzHoMT5eRg

11. Aliens: Colonial Marines

I hadn’t actually watched the first two films in the Alien franchise until earlier this year, so due to that and the fact first-person shooters aren’t really my thing, this game was completely off my radar for most of its lengthy development.

Colonial Marines was first announced over six years ago, with SEGA to publish and Gearbox to develop. The first actual confirmation of the title was back in February 2008, though it went through plenty of delays and an Aliens vs. Predator game even launched in February 2010 – which will have been three years before the release of this game when it releases on February 12th, 2013. That’s a lot of February.

Hopefully the delays aren’t a bad thing and the game turns out to be quite enjoyable (it has basically been delayed every six months for as long as I can remember). It seems to stay very true to the film franchise, with the story being described as a sequel to the second Alien film, Aliens. Players will play as Corporal Christopher Winter, who is part of a search and rescue team exploring previous locations in the Alien franchise.

Enemies are, naturally, the classic Xenomorph Aliens although Gearbox are introducing new types of Xenomorph, too. The game features four player co-op and might even have connections to the recent Prometheus film – though we hope there won’t be as many plot holes.

We’ll be back tomorrow with the first entry in our top ten.