TSA’s Top 100 of 2011 Recap: 20 – 16

The games are certainly getting more interesting now that we’re into the top 20. With most actually coming out (or already out) this year, we’ve only got one that is MIA. We’ve compiled all we know about them though, so here you go…

20 – Deus Ex: Human Revolution

As we near the end of this recap, we also come close to the release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Out next week, the prequel to the acclaimed Deus Ex follows Adam Jensen – a security officer forced to go under biomechanical augmentation (think Cyberman) to survive horrific wounds after an attack.

Published by Square Enix and developed by Eidos Montreal, Human Revolution is set in 2027; the game deals with these biomechanical augmentations and a conspiracy involving evolution itself, with Jensen’s aim to discover, overcome and, ultimately, conquer this conspiracy. It’s not all just about shooting as you might think – you will be exploring, hacking and working your way through Jensen’s story, spanning the globe as you go.

Naturally, there have been quite a few trailers, including a gritty live action one which shows the consequences of augmentation and thirty minutes of footage. Early reviews have been quite positive; there’s no Metacritic score yet but individual scores are great: PC Gamer giving it a score of 94%, Official Xbox Magazine scoring it a 10/10 and Official PlayStation Magazine scoring it an excellent 8/10.

19 – Red Faction: Armageddon

We were all excited for Armageddon to come to Red Faction. And that’s exactly what we got; with THQ not being happy with the response to RF:A and causing armageddon for the franchise, stating that there would be no more games to come.

What went wrong, then? Guerilla was an extremely fun, open world game which brought extreme joy as you smashed up literally everything around. Well there’s the problem – gone are the large plains of Mars, as you’re forced quite literally underground into tunnels, leaving you with a claustrophobic feeling as you’re thrown into a fight against aliens rather than an uprising of factions.

The destruction is still king, however; Lee praising it in his review, claiming the Geo-Mod engine’s destruction provides a “gleeful exuberance”, comparing it to the grown-up version of a child knocking down a building block tower. He goes on to state that the magnet gun is extremely fun, and it’s “glorious, mindless carnage”. What more could you want? Well, apart from a more open area to explore.

It’s a bit of a let down compared to Guerilla, however – Lee says that it “feels more like a predecessor to Guerrilla than a sequel”, which is a complete shame. That didn’t stop us from giving it a good score of 7/10 though; it definitely seems that it’s worth a shot if you can look past the changes. The Metacritic score agrees, sitting at 71 for the console versions and 75 for the PC version.

18 – Thief 4

I hadn’t heard of Thief 4 (stylised as Thi4f, which I don’t agree with as it looks to spell ThiAf and I have no idea what that is) until our Top 100, and I haven’t heard of it since. It seems that Thief 4, despite being popular with staff members and achieving number 18 on our list has snuck into the shadows and decided to stay there until it’s ready to pounce.

It’s in production, apparently, but information is thin no matter how much you search, apart from a few miniscule mentions in reports about Deus Ex and one blurry off-screen screenshot.

Perhaps it’ll sneak out of the shadows soon, now that Deus Ex is ready to be released. It might even sneak up on us and take us by surprise. It exists, at least; it’s lurking somewhere… but not in 2011.

17 – RAGE

Pushing id Software’s Doom 4 aside at this year’s QuakeCon, we know quite a lot about Rage by now, with release looming around the corner, this October. Rage begins after an asteroid strike, with your character being one of the survivors – most of the human population has been wiped out.

A shooter at heart, with sublime weapons, Rage also incorporates driving mechanics to help you explore what’s left of the world. Likened to MotorStorm, the vehicles hold up well, according to our Hands On preview. The way the game handles the fetch quests isn’t great, though; involving “travelling to place A, meeting character B and picking up item C”, a standard formula for RPGs yet one that provokes rage in Rage.

Unfortunately, the game isn’t as good looking as it first appears: with textures popping in frequently and the jagged edges poking your eyes out as you move through the environment. It seems to be stable, however – certainly more than Fallout ever was, and gains a rating of a cautious thumbs up from Tuffcub. That’s good enough for me.

16 – Batman: Arkham City

Arkham Asylum was frankly awesome. It had everything that made Batman great: detective skills, sublime combat, superb voice acting, a genius setting and a good plot. A surprisingly excellent superhero game, then, will the sequel have the same fate when it releases mid-October?

From what we’ve seen, yes. It’s bigger and bolder than the first game and looks to refine every problem we had with Arkham Asylum. With new gadgets, side missions littered around Arkham City and Catwoman, I simply can’t convey my excitement for this game enough; if it does nothing but improve on its predecessor then there’s nothing to worry about, right?

Well, Alex has seen it and confirms that it looks great – it’s “much, much bigger” and “even generic side streets seemed packed with detail”. Good to know that the scale hasn’t detracted from the setting, then. Alex noted that Catwoman’s tale runs alongside the game and it looks as if it will work very well, giving us a break from the main story and a chance to get to grips with a different character.

Speaking of characters, Arkham City is packed with them – naturally, it is holding most of Gotham’s criminals. We’ve got Hugo Strange running the place, The Joker up to his old tricks with Harley Quinn, The Riddler providing another intriguing sub-plot with his challenges, the menacing Penguin (voiced by Nolan North, so it’s a confirmed video game) doing what it takes to defeat Batman, Two-Face gaining infamy in Arkham City and finally Mr. Freeze being his cool self.

And that’s just the villains: Bane returns as an ally this time round, Robin is confirmed, with concept art appearing and we have the aforementioned Catwoman, along with many other non-super companions. Phew, that’s all of them then. Oh wait, there is of course Batman himself – with many different skins.

Join us tomorrow for the countdown of 15-11. That’s just three more days of recaps left.