#8

World of Goo

Hahahaha, such a fun game!

WoG is the best independent game which got released this year. It's really funny, inventive and in a strange way even stylish. And of course cheap! Because the guys behind this game know how the market works. Fuck the mainstream, World of Goo showed you how things work nowadays!

You could choose how much to pay for it. I payed one dollar, but nearly instantly had regrets about it, because it certainly is worth a lot more! On Twitter I recommended others to buy this game for like 5 dollars, and I keep up to this. I already bought games for 40 Euros and later found it to be worth less than 50 cent. So when I say about a game it's worth 5 dollars, that means something!

WoG is also cute as hell.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Short recap: It was out of question if this title would hit this top list. Because it's the new CoD – and CoD has always been a good example for great FPS in-depth gameplay and storytelling. Modern Warfare 1 was the best in the series and everybody expected the sequel to be something they put MUCH effort in. and they did and the result was as expected, in every way thinkable.

The first title was slightly better, but that's because they already putted their best ideas in it, and those were hard to top. As the sequel would show.

They sure recycled some ideas from the first game, what was a bit of a let-down. But besides that the rest of the game was really well-made and hell of an experience. I personally would only add one other critique: the build-up tension could have been more stressed if certain scenes would not have been as rushed as they were. Chill down, CoD!

#6

Dead Space

Yeah, that's some cool survival horror title!

By the way title, “Dead” and “Space” simply is what this game was all about: Dead in Space. And you have to shoot it in its face!

The whole scenario was quite cool and the atmosphere it build up were a great new experience. Many games have tried the same before, but Dead Space finally made it to the goal. Some cool features, like the (non existing) HUD, strange cool weapons, some RPG elements, nice graphics and especially frightening effects were thrown into it, et voila, the best survival horror title of the year. As easy as that.

#5

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Best superhero game ever. Simply put.

Remember the first darker Batman character which Tim Burton introduced us to in the late 80s? Gliding through the shadows, killing with cool gadgets, hanging from the roof, being cool and untouchable. This is what Arkham Asylum felt like!

So many superhero games were only okay to bad. None really came up to a level were you thought it to be realistic. The Wachowksi Brothers even apologized for their failed attempt in Path of Neo (IN the game!). But AS actually managed this high goal.

The gameplay was really great, the graphics extremely cool, the challenges rewarded fairly, the atmosphere was exactly right. And everything they tried to do with it was achieved. What a genius piece of work.

Well, it did not invent the wheel, but did everything right an open-world Third-Person superhero game could do.

#4

Silent Hill Homecoming

Mh, okay, I am still thinking about how good this game actually was. It certainly was a good game, but it changed so much of the SH universe again, that I might need some more time to think about it.

But basically it did everything I expected it to all right! And some other things I was not thinking about, too. Some of the changes, like the usage of the Otherworld, were a great idea in my opinion. On the other hand the graphics were surprisingly disappointing.

But I can't say much about the pros and cons. But what counts for this list is the following: It was fun, it was scary and it was a great SH title! I am still playing it and unlock certain things, but I can already tell you it's the best title since the third installment of the main series. I would place it second or third place of the best SH titles, and I think this fact alone would qualify it for this list on this position.

#3

BioShock

Finally a good RPG-FPS again.

I love First-Person Shooters with Role playing elements, but there aren't enough good titles out there. BioShock turned out to be the best since Tron 2.0!

Who did not enjoy the really great story and the whole scenario of a high-end-sci-fi-city under water, after its downfall?! Great ideas lie beneath the simple looks of a horror survival shooter. And who cares if most of them were only recycled from the firms previews games SystemShock 1 and 2...?

Anyways, I can only recommend this one. But one has to endure through the first few hours, that is was many gamers haven't really noticed and stopped playing after they decided that the game is terrible. I myself did not like it very much until th first ~5 hours. Then the game slowly started to completely shift its gameplay. The survival elements faded away and the deeper RPG elements came to daylight. And that is when the game started to make fun!

And I was really surprise that the game did this slight shift in gameplay 1~2 other times later in the game, and did last for 20 gaming hours – and even turned out to have a great and deep storyline, which you only start to notice after the first 10 hours!

But this was a sign for a good game. It did not bore you at all and kept you on attention mode for a surprisingly long time. Barely a game does reach that goal, but so many have tried...

#2

Assassin's Creed

Well, technically it's a 2008 game, but as it came out in late 2008 and early 2009, ans especially since I played it in January 2009, I count it to the 2009 releases.

AC1 was pretty much a fun game to play. The basics weren't all new at all and the game wasn't as perfected as everyone wanted it to be. The mission concept was repeatably as hell and the graphics punched my computer resources into its face. The Story was extremely straight-forward and nothing too spectacular. The end was a cliffhanger, which everybody hates. Especially with games. BUT hell was it fun to play!!

The gameplay sure was a step into the right direction and it created such a unique feel to it that is worth mentioning in gaming history. Even though the mission were a total pain in the ass, because you got bored from those after the first two hours, the fun the Parcours movement spawned was way worth it the efforts.

To sum up: It was stylish and fun to play. That's what I like to most with games. Hell yeah.

#1

Mirror's Edge

Sure, next to AC another Parcours game, but this one really put the topic into a all-correct gameplay which turned out to be the must-play-experience of the year!

First to mention would be the absolute cool STYLE of the game – in every possible point of view! The graphics were cool, the color scheme made sense, the story and cute scenes all fitted together, the atmosphere and mood the game arised was great. And all together everything fitted together like a finished puzzle. This game was nearly perfected in every possible thinkable way. Except for gaming duration (4.5 hours for finishing a game simply is too short).

But the best part of it was the gameplay. The idea of putting Parcours-experience into the first person was there for quite some time, but never has any gaming development firm ever tried to solve the problems around this feature. And who has thought that they would actually succeed with it??

Okay, there are still dozens of bad reviews about the bad handling and inaccurate aiming, but when I read those I stumbled upon a simple reason for it: all those reviews were made by gamers of the console version! Sure, that makes sense: this game is virtually unplayable on the consoles! I myself tried the demo version on PS3 and yes, it was horrible.

But on the PC version it's simply put perfect. I have no real complains about the handling and general gameplay. It plays like butter in a hot fry pan. And this combined with the overall style of the game it made Mirror's Edge the best gaming experience 2009 had to offer.