If you haven’t read it yet, you can read about our Editors’ Choices here: Page 1
This might sound like us repeating ourselves but we treat each editor’s personal Game of the Year as a category in itself. So once again, here are their choices. And our overall Game of the Year in the iLL Gaming awards 2014.[divider]
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Editors’ Personal Game of the Year
Ajay Verma
Shovel Knight
It was a surprise no one was expecting. In the year of 8 bit and voxel games with the remastered Duck Tales included, who would expect a game about a knight with a shovel that mixes platforming and combat to surpass every other sidescrolling platformer in the way that this did. As a game that recreates the old styled platformers it had to differentiate itself from the masses of other similar titles on kickstarter but eventually due to its strong personality and timeless gameplay that hits right on all the nostalgia from a good nes game it succeeded in its goal. To create something so fun, fast paced with an amazing soundtrack, in such an overpopulated genre elevates this above other games for me.[divider]
Anikait Makkar
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Lack of any improvement in Call of Duty games have successfully kept me away from the franchise, but 2014’s release by SledgeHammer games powered by the exo suit does enough to bring me back on board. The cinematic approach of the campaign of previous titles has been retained with higher production qualities. The efficacious delivery of speech by Kevin Spacey will keep you hooked for sure. The real meat comes in the multiplayer where the exo suit comes into play and opens up brand new horizons for engaging in combat.[divider]
Chirantan Raut
Divinity: Original Sin
Divinity Original Sin has a brilliant system of interaction between your protagonists that can potentially give you a split personality disorder unless you can find someone to co-op it for about 100 or so hours. The game’s turn based combat allows for interesting strategies and there are lots of secrets to be found by exploring the game’s large areas with only the level of enemies being the barrier to progress.[divider]
Sahil Arora
Hearthstone
I could even call this the game of the century. Blizzard have pulled of a card game with finesse, mind boggling depth, a deep challenge, and with that, have kept the free-to-play versus pay-and-play balance strikingly good. I would have never imagined my 2014 being consumed by a card game. There has to be a reason why more than 20 million people registered for Hearthstone in just 6 months after its launch. Its a great gaming story, one that shines in the dismal gaming year that was 2014. And one that proves the other free-to-play games terribly wrong. Fundamentally, it is possible for a player who hasn’t spent a dime in Hearthstone cards to beat a player who has spent a thousand dollars. That kind of balance is so good, its scary. Kudos to the devs at Blizzard for having given us yet another game to dedicate a part of our lives to.[divider]
Tathagata Ray
Alien: Isolation
If there is something as punishing as Dark Souls, it is Alien: Isolation. The game defies everything for the sake of an intelligent enemy AI, that will hunt you down if you do not know shit about the survival/stealth genre. It abhors going Colonial Marines with guns, instead you sneak your way out of the Sevastopol station with some mere Noisemakers. The SFX, visual rendition, immersive atmosphere of the Ridley Scott Alien series have been punched in hard. The Sigourney Weaver voiced DLC is the icing on the perfect cake. The Xenomorph is beautiful, even when it spreads saliva on you and kills you instantly. Do not miss this for the mere mortals out in the market.[divider]
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Game of the Year: Alien Isolation
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Thanks to Gearbox and SEGA, we never thought we’d love playing an Alien game again. The whole tribe at iLL had their share of Alien: Isolation and firmly believe that this is the game to beat in 2014. Creative Assembly, a studio that specialises in strategy games, comes redeeming the good name of the Xenomorph and adding the tension that was missing in an Alien game. Alien: Isolation is cohesive, brutal and at the same time, brainy. The level design and the Alien AI will play tricks with your best tactics. If you are planning to go in all guns blazing instead of patiently and fearfully hiding in a locker for hours, then this game’s definitely not more than 5.9 out of 10 meant for you. We gave it a 9.7 out of 10 by the way, our highest rating for the year: Review[divider]
But these aren’t all the awards we have to give out. You can find our other awards here: Page 3
