We’ve already looked back on 2013, but now it’s time to look forward, and figure out what games we want to play in the upcoming year. I have to say, making this list was harder than I thought it was going to be. While I’m not excited for a whole lot of AAA titles this year, the world of indies is chock full of stuff I want to play, and it was hard to narrow it down. In no particular order, here’s my list of 14 great games I plan on playing in 2014. Let us know what you’re going to be playing this year in the comments!
1. Dragon Age: Inquisition
It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of BioWare, and a huge fan of Dragon Age in particular. While Dragon Age was a bit of a disappointment and an obvious rush job, it looks like BioWare has really taken into account what the fans love about the series, what they want more of, and most importantly, what really didn’t work for them in the previous installment. Dragon Age: Inquisition is shaping up to be a real labour of love, with the best graphics of any Dragon Age game ever, the return of multiple race options and origins for the main character of the Inquisitor, and the return of some familiar faces. (I totally squeed when I saw that Varric would be back. Now if he gets announced as a romance option, I may die.) There is no question that I will be preordering this game so I have it the second it comes out.
Release date: Fall 2014.
2. Watch Dogs
Watch Dogs was originally supposed to be a next-gen launch title this fall, but was pushed back after the release of Grand Theft Auto V because Ubisoft really wants to distinguish the title from that series, and make it as great as it can be. And while yes, I think that Watch Dogs, an open world game where you can hack pretty much anything with a computer in it, steal cars, and cause general mayhem in near-future Chicago, shares a lot of similarities with GTA, it does offer a very different narrative and experience. I’ve actually watched someone play through a section at Fan Expo, and my favourite part is not just the hacking, but the fact that you can pretty much spy on anyone, and learn about the world in that way. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag also confirmed that the two games take place in the same universe, so maybe we’ll even see some familiar faces from that Ubisoft franchise in the game as well.
Release date: Spring 2014.
3. The Banner Saga
An epic role-playing game inspired by Viking Sagas, made by former BioWare devs, with 25 playable characters and where player choice drives the narrative? Yeah, consider this pre-ordered.
Release date: January 14, 2013.
4. Transistor
Supergiant Games’ first new game after indie megahit Bastion in 2011, you play as a girl named Red, who finds a mysterious weapon called the Transistor. You fight through a beautiful sci-fi city as you find out the secret of the Transistor’s past owners, and of the meaning of the weapon itself. Everything I’ve seen of the game so far looks absolutely beautiful, and the game promises a combination of strategic and action gameplay, combined with a really great, atmospheric story, much like they did with Bastion. Plus, the soundtrack sounds like it’s shaping up to be pretty incredible. It’s also going to be released on Playstation 4, as well as PCs and Macs.
Release date: Early 2014.
5. Solstice
Holy crap, I am super excited for this game. Solstice is a mystery-thriller adventure game, about an exotic fantasy city, cut off from the rest of the world by major blizzards. When the town’s archaeologist goes missing, the doctor and a mysterious young woman who’s just come to town, try and solve the mystery of his disappearance, each with their own unique motivations and goals for doing so. Visually stunning, featuring a truly multicultural cast, and promising a cast of complex, colorful characters, how can I not want to play this? It’s a mystery game that truly focuses on people, and not item management like a lot of mystery games, making it pretty much everything I look for in a game.
Release date: Early 2014.
6. The Long Dark
We covered The Long Dark this past fall, when it crushed its Kickstarter goal. It takes place in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest, where you play as William Mackenzie, a stranded bush pilot. Your goal is to simply survive, against the weather, against the animals, and of couse, against other people. Hinterland Games, the Vancouver-based studio making the game, is full of former AAA devs, and the screenshots and gameplay footage revealed so far shows they really know their stuff. I backed the Kickstarter for this one, and am really excited to play a different kind of survival game.
Release date: October 2014.
7. Storyteller
Storyteller is another game that deal heavily in human interaction and relationships, though how it deals with them is pretty different than pretty much every other game out there. Self-described as “a game about building stories,” the purpose of Storyteller is to arrange props and characters into panels in order to reach the desired conclusion of the level. The stories are the gameplay, instead of being told by it, and there is no fixed solution to each puzzle. The only way to win is to exploit all the character personalities you have available. It sounds awesome.
Release date: Probably early 2014, though I can’t find anything to confirm this.
8. Rain World
Rain World is a visually stunning platformer featuring weird, super flexible weasel dudes. You have to both get through the level and sneak up on your prey, as well as to avoid larger animals that can eat you. The thing that really sets Rain World apart is its AI. They feature emergent reactions to your objects, your stance, and your actions, and actually seem to learn from what you’re doing. So they move and behave in a way that you don’t really see in other games. Rain World is currently pretty early in development, but you’ll also be able to create your own levels.
Release date: Unknown.
9. UnderTale
UnderTale is a unique new take on the RPG genre. Set in an underground world inhabited by monsters, what makes this game different is that these monsters come in a variety of hosility levels. So, some of the monsters in this game can even be friendly, and all characters and enemies are of questionable hostility. It’s supposedly even possible to play this game without killing anyone at all.
Release date: Summer 2014, but a free demo is available now.
10. Jazzpunk
A comedy game to beat all comedy games, I’ve been looking forward to Jazzpunk after seeing its first trailer, but especially after watching a playthrough at last year’s Gamercamp. You play as a spy, doing hilarious challenges and gags, in a truly delightful and weird world. Jazzpunk just wants to make you laugh, and I confirm that it’s actually pretty hilarious.
Release date: January 2014
11. Heart Forth, Alicia
Heart Forth, Alicia has been in a development for a looong time. (Sine 2007 at least.) Hopefully this is gonna be the year it’s finally released. It’s looking promising, since a beta of the game was just released last month. Alicia is one of the last wizards to be born in her world, and her childhood friend and fellow wizard is taken by an evil spirit and throws Alicia off their home, which is an island floating above the remains of a destroyed civilization they are survivors of. Your goal is to help Alicia get home and save her people from her friend and this evil spirit. The combat is, naturally, mainly magic based, with over 20 special abilities, skills and upgrades, and even the ability to use fairies in combat.
Release date: Unknown.
12. Tangiers
Tangiers is a surrealist sandbox game inspired by games like Thief, Shadow of the Colossus, and the movies of David Lynch. Your main goal is to find five beings and assassinate them, but first you have to learn how to navigate through a world not like our own, and even figure out how to communicate with its inhabitants. Language is your main resource and tool in this game, which is what really draws me to it. It’s currently on Steam Greenlight, so if you think it sounds interesting, definitely give it a vote!
Release date: Mid-2014.
13. Witch Marsh
Witch Marsh is also one of the games I’m most excited about on this list. A party-based investigative RPG (where co-op may become an option), where the goal is to both survive the post-Depression swamplands of 1920s Massachusetts, and to solve the mystery behind a swath of mass murders. There are four different classes, each with their own unique abilities, and gameplay includes a mixture of platformer, real-time melee and ballistics battles, as well as of course interrogating the crazy locals to get to the bottom of the mystery. It might be a little ambitious to call this a 2014 release, because the Kickstarter hasn’t even started yet (but is supposed to this month), so fingers crossed on this one.
Release date: Unknown.
14. Blood of the Ortolan
Blood of the Ortolan is a food-based murder mystery by Cart Life’s Richard Hofmeier. It takes place on a boat and involves getting to know all the characters over a neak, That’s…pretty much all we know about it at this point. But for me, it’s really all I need to.
Release date: Unknown.
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