The Best Video Games of 2013

That's right, you knew it was coming: the obligatory 2013 year end video game best of list. Drink it in.

Avoiding the minefield of safely reliable hyperbole, 2013 will, without a doubt, be remembered as one of the the most important years in the history of the video game industry. OK, maybe there's a little hyperbole in there.

Looking solely at the broad strokes of 2013: the Xbox One's debut (and subsequent full reverse of certain policies in the face of mounting Internet backlash), Sony countering with the reveal of the PlayStation 4, the meteoric funding and crushing failure of the Kickstarter darling Ouya, the Occulus Rift bringing us all one step closer to virtual reality on a commercially accessible level, Anita Sarkeesian's series of videos dissecting the representation of women in video games, a new Grand Theft Auto, and Valve's Steambox (finally) making the tenuous first steps into the console arena all seemed to loom larger than actual video games.

Almost.

2013 was a year full of both stagnation and innovation. Indie wunderkind projects, AAA missteps, the Kickstarter dream machine bankrolling and breaking hearts, and some of the most anticipated titles finally seeing the light of day.

Here it is: Complex's Best Video Games of 2013.

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Platinum Games excels at making insane, over the top Japanese action games like Vanquish and Bayonetta, so it only makes sense that when production on Hideo Kojima's insanely ambitious Metal Gear Rising was cancelled, KojiPro had Platinum step in.

(Rising's original design had it so that Raiden could slice anything and everything in-game at any angle, effectively breaking it.) The result is the goofily-titled Revengeance, which pits Raiden against hordes of baddies to slash in a variety of stylized ways while keeping tone with Metal Gear's ridiculous political ideologies. This is to say nothing of the game's combat system, which you'll only be just be starting to really grasp when you start new game plus. It's sad that we'll never get to see what Rising would've been, but Revengeance is a fantastically madcap replacement.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons snuck up on me in the most enjoyable way possible.

I had no idea the title was being released digitally and didn't actually play the title until weeks after its release. Then I felt like a dummy for the better part of a week, that's when the shame eating finally stopped.

Anyway, the game hits all the right notes of a classic fairy tale and couches the story within one of the more novel approaches to character control I've seen in years. Players control two brothers simultaneously, with each brother assigned their own thumbstick. Solving puzzles and navigating platforms with two characters at the same time may devolve into a novel mechanic, but the game makes the directing the brothers seem like second nature. The game is beautifully charming and not a single word of English is spoken the entire time. Awesome.

The Stanley Parable developer Davey Wreden has said, in so many words, that you can't really describe what The Stanley Parable is about; you just have to play it for yourself.

That's a good way of putting it, since this isn't a game you'd want to have spoiled for you (nor is it one that will leave each player with the same interpretation). So, you'll just have to take Complex's word for it. Go play this one – you won't be disappointed.

Anyone who's ever wanted something more from video games than what boneheaded mainstream games can offer needs look no further than Kentucky Route Zero. This five-part opus, two acts of which have so far been released, is everything that's good about modern independent video games.

Its cryptic world is filled with nostalgic nods to romantic southern sensibilities, from croaking frog choirs to old men plucking banjo strings. It's like the first three minutes of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, with a touch of surrealism for good measure. Get it now if you ever want video games to evolve.

XCOM was one of the best games of 2012 for its deep tactical gameplay and audacious refusal to ditch permadeath, among other things.

Enemy Within brings a whole new set of gameplay options, including some that may persuade you to play fast and loose with the lives of your men – all while upping the difficulty and generally improving on what was already a stellar initial go. Sold.

When it was first announced that JRPG master Level-5 was partnering with Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli to make a new game, wild visions of a Dragon Quest-style game with Ghibli production values sprang forth.

The reality isn't far from that vision: Ni No Kuni is undoubtedly old-school in a very Level-5 way (with hints of Pokémon, too), and thanks to Ghibli's magical, mystical sensibilities, it has a great fairy tale-style story that, along with gameplay, sums up to one of the best RPGs since Dark Souls. (Read: Don't expect it to be anything like Dark Souls.)

2K Sports has a reputation to uphold, and when they announced that they were taking over the WWE franchise late last year, many fans rejoiced.

Wrestling games are notoriously inconsistent, but 2K14 does so many things properly. It has smoother animation, an improved reversal system, and a nostalgic, Wrestlemania centered campaign that recreates the greatest moments of all. A new sports title every year can admittedly feel exhausting, but for 2K14, marks and marks should definitely take note.

Tearaway is not the first game to try to make an entire virtual world out of paper. Paper Mario has been doing it for years, and LittleBigPlanet, the previous series from Tearaway makers Media Molecule, did a grand job of making its environments feel cobbled together from DIY materials.

But Tearaway takes that mentality to loving extremes, surpassing a simple aesthetic to become an entire philosophy. An island made of paper is sinking into an ocean of glue; your fingers, using the PS Vita's rear touch pad, can punch through the papier-mâché floor.

If the PS Vita has a Zelda or a Mario—in other words a must-have exclusive that makes the system worth buying—Tearaway is it.

There was a long period of time when Nintendo was releasing Fire Emblem games only in Japan, before the series made its Western debut. And boy were we missing out.

These medieval-romantic strategy games made their way over here when the characters began appearing in Super Smash Bros. Ever since then we can't get enough of the character-based drama, fantasy heroics, and solid turn-based strategy action.

Awakening is another A+ entry in the Fire Emblem series, and yet another great reason to pick up a 3DS, or pick yours up again if you already have one. Remember when people thought this handheld was a failure? How times change.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds suffers from the same issues that have plagued all recent Zelda titles—too much familiarity, a reliance on old patterns and conventions, a nagging feeling that you've done this all before. And yet something clicks in our minds all the same, and we love it nonetheless.

OK, maybe a little bit the less. But still, A Link Between Worlds is a loving throwback to A Link to the Past, a game that many Zelda fans consider to be the best in the series. If it feels a little too similar, it's because A Link Between Worlds was originally a simple 3D remake.

Surely it can be forgiven for that.

It's probably not unsafe to say that comparatively few reading this probably know much about social welfare in the USSR circa 1982, let alone have any actual experience struggling to survive living in a Soviet-era country.

Think of Papers Please as an emotional primer: as a lowly border inspection officer, it's your job to approve or deny entry to anyone trying to get into the economically unstable Eastern European country you call home, based solely on their documentation and overall level of suspicion. (And failure to properly do so could mean a suicide bomber gains entrance.) If that weren't grim enough, you have to process enough applicants without error per day to eke out a living on your meager salary, all while juggling the health, safety and well-being of you and your family.

Papers Please is unnerving and relentless, sure, but what's truly great – and chilling – is its meta-commentary on current affairs, (the inherent guilt in first-world inconvenience notwithstanding), delivered with the gut-punch effectiveness of a Herzog documentary.

I hadn't played a hockey game in years before NHL 14 came along and gently reminded me that I can sometimes behave like a fucking idiot.

EA rebuilt NHL 14 with the same collision physics found in the Player Impact Engine in the FIFA series. The results were some of the most satisfying fist fights this side of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Deftly smooth with super tight controls only made NHL 14 that much more impressive of a win.

Also, the modernized version of NHL '94, NHL '94 Anniversary mode was endlessly enjoyable.

A remake of the Warcraft III's popular mod Defense of the Ancients (DotA) jumped off from similar roots of Riot Games' League of Legends. But by making the game easier to understand, codifying the complex sets of rules into a more beginner-friendly format to become the most played game of the huge Steam gaming network.

For all its fantasy heroes and magic casting DOTA 2 has more in common with sports games than it does any Warcraft titles. The battlefield is a pitch where a gamers must learn a massive amount of strategy, memorization and have perfect timing to pull off a successful victory. Gamers who take the time to learn Dota 2 are unlikely to give it up. Why is that? Because once you've made it through the tutorial gamers feel like they've really accomplished something. Once you've been through the masterclass that is just getting started it's not something that's easily forgotten.

DOTA 2 is a sport, or more accurately, an eSport and as such it has fans, players, superstars and hooligans but the overwhelmingly positive nature that has become the DOTA 2 community since the game's official launch on Steam earlier this year means you'll make friends, enemies and learn just as much winning as losing.

DOTA 2 is one of the best games of 2013 because it perfected a relatively new type of fantasy game while defining the standards of what's fast becoming the biggest game in an exploding eSports arena. But where DOTA 2 really takes the cake is by being just as fun to watch as to play, a rare feat that shows that careful development and fan dedication can pay off.

I had no right to love Guacamelee as much as I did this year.

The game is packed with Internet inside jokes that actually had me dragging people in front of the screen to show off all of the gems. Grumpy Cat? Yup. The me gusta meme? He can be found adorning a billboard in the small Mexican village. While all of the Reddit/Tumblr flavored meme service kept the game feeling fresh, it was the stunning, seizure-inducing (for real, there's a warning and everything) visuals that made Guacamelee so memorable.

Humor, a color palette that had me grinning like I was being given an IV drip of LSD, and a rewarding/challenging level of gameplay made me happy to include Guacamelee on our best of 2013 list.

Starcraft gamers are on another level of dedication - in South Korea, it's akin to a national sport, with sponsors, groupies, and historical rivalries.

When Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty dropped in 2010, there was a pushback from fans, many of who felt the game was imbalanced in Terran's favor (the Marine/Marauder/Medivac combo was responsible for many broken keyboards). When the Heart of the Swarm expansion debuted this year, it was clear that Blizzard was listening to the complaints. New units, varied strategies (Swarm Host pressure for the win), and an RPG-esque campaign that features Kerrigan - it all makes Starcraft II the last word in e-sports. We are the swarm.

What do you expect from an annual franchise?

Without any major competition to the NBA 2K franchise, one might expect developers to take their eye off the ball and rush out the same game as last year. While much looks familiar in NBA2K14 many small tweaks and improvements make this year's release tower over its predecessors.

Like pro basketball itself 2K14 is so balanced between offense, defense, breakaways, pick and rolls and other play styles that there is no obvious exploits in the game. Meaning you and your challenger - whether computer driven or multiplayer - get to face off in a battle of strategy, clever breaks and superstar dominance making this the best pro basketball game ever made.

One of the most shocking things about 2K14 is its almost disturbing level of realism. Not just in graphics, but in how players react to nearly everything. From whining about fouls to the disappointment shown in their eyes when missing a free throw. That mixed in with the TV-style presentation would fool anyone causally walking by to think you're mearly watching a game instead of playing one. In fact for some players it's too realistic. As revealed when users of the Xbox One received technical fouls because they used colorful language (as my coach would always say) during games, alerting the Kinect minder.

Besides the changes in realism NBA 2K14 keeps the core of basketball gameplay intact. Pace and flow feel near flawless and the occasion fast break blows it all open and keeps games fresh. Player stats are sometimes frustratingly true-to-life as proof by Dwight Howard's inability to hit a basket at more than a few feet away.

14 years into the series and 2K brings the virtual basketball game as close as its ever been to the real thing. Career mode still offers the chance for players to try to slog up from the bottom while offering a level of narrative that wasn't present on-screen in previous games. Giving your rookie a bit more depth and even some lighthearted teaching from fellow players.

Lebron James is the star of the newly realized Path to Greatness mode which allows players to look to the future; directing Lebron's career into a dynasty or looking abroad as a free agent. Where as past installments of NBA2K has gamers looking back to epic match-ups of the past, 2K14 allows us to heavily speculate on the future.

NBA2K14 put to bed the series on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as new installments will be released on their next-gen counterparts, the Xbox One and PS4. It's hard to imagine how much more realistic a basketball video game could actually be.

When a franchise goes annual, you're bound to get some ups and downs.

Thankfully Assassin's Creed IV is the most fun the series has been in years – though some of the land-based mechanics are getting a little long in tooth – which makes sense, given that when Black Flag started production Ubi didn't yet know the power of the next-gen consoles – the sheer joy of taking to the boundless ocean in Edward's Jackdaw without question makes the game's design.

The piratical life of arcade naval combat and seamless seizure of crippled vessels is so fun, in fact, that Ubisoft is considering making a stand-alone sequel that has nothing to do with the Assassins, the Templars or Abstergo at all – let's hope they do so. Whether you're playing ACIV on last-gen, PS4 or Xbox One, you're in for a high seas treat, without all scurvy.

As Super Mario 3D World was just released in November of 2013, there may be some unintentional spoilers below. So if you don't want to know anything, look away. But before you do let me say that this game alone is reason enough to buy a Wii U.

Many console gamers gave up on Nintendo a long time ago, but for those who “want to believe” I can say with confidence that this is it. Not only did Super Mario 3D World score universally high scores, Metacritic calculated 94/100 (That's all reviews averaged), but it also does what any good Nintendo game should do: its cute, super fun with friends, expertly built by developers, has a great sense of humor and Mario wears an adorable catsuit.

This time around Mario and friends are heading into the Sprixie Kingdom which is firmly set in the Mario Bros. franchise roots where every level will offer something new. Building from easy early levels to super-hard challenges that remind gamers why they loved platform games so much in the first place.

What makes this game so enjoyable is that there is so much going on. You'll be amazed by how many different ways you'll play. The catsuit power-up lets you explore the world in a completely different way. Climbing walls and dashing through the air, but the game doesn't linger. Instead it's constantly changing; keeping the gameplay from ever becoming boring. Other franchises and developers would make an entire series out of all the things you'll do in Super Mario 3D World but Nintendo crams them into an incredibly tight, always challenging, but never dull game.

Another thing this Mario game pulls off that Nintendo hasn't been able to do in a decade is a make truly fun multiplayer game. Playing with friends in co-op is the most fun you're going to have in 3D World with its lightheartedness and constantly-changing gameplay. It'll get you up out of your seat and grinning like an idiot.

Pokémon is a rare series indeed. Every new game that comes out is incredibly similar to the last, yet it never gets old. There are countless spin-offs and dumb gimmicky features, but none of that cheapens the core experience of catching, battling and trading. It seems the same pitfalls that have put stains on series like Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda have only made Pokémon stronger.

Pokémon X and Pokémon Y are the biggest departure yet for the main series, with 3D graphics and more online features than ever. They inject so much new into these games, for noobs and for veteran players alike. But they're also achingly familiar.

Whether you're a hardcore Pokémon fan or you haven't played since Red and Blue you need to try these games.

BioShock Infinite is at its core a first-person shooter with many adventure and role-playing elements. That said, it doesn’t play like any other first person shooter you’ve experienced nor does it fit easily into these other categories. It's story is about the how the smallest decisions can lead to huge consequences later down the line in an utopian society slowly crushing itself under the weight of its own heady morals.

The story is full of decisions that the player has no way of knowing if the consequences will leave them the “good guy” or the “bad guy” and ultimately asked the question if either can really exist. The mixing of politics and science, giving people unlimited power then turned them mad has debased the perfect society its creators were trying to make.

BioShock Infinite does this to a degree that’s hard to grasp. The game is about many things: politics, freedom, racism, god and ultimately responsibility. But most of all it's about the small mistakes of our past and the effect and direction they can have on the rest of our lives. While trying to save yourself have you forgotten who you really are.

A beautifully detailed world is packed with high-flying combat set inside soaring set pieces - enormous blimps, floating cities, beaches in the sky – and sandwiched between jarring twists and turns in a story that you won’t want to end. The staggering ending really hits hard and you’ll be walking around pondering the story and plot possibilities of BioShock Infinite long after you’ve stopped playing.

BioShock Infinite is one of the best games of 2013 because it was bold. While it may not be shooter enough for shooter fans or adventure enough for adventure fans it blends to the two together and creates a game that is very worthy of your time.

What else can be said about a game that was given a $265 million budget, a six year development window, and cleared $1 billion in its first three days on sale? Rockstar's meticulously crafted world triumphs brilliantly in making players feel like they've discovered a world that existed long before they ever decided to make the trip to Los Santos.

A world inhabited by millions of citizens was already well broken in for the arrival of Trevor, Franklin, and Michael. Where Rockstar truly succeeds (aside from the flawless writing, impeccable voice acting, brilliant missions design, a radio station selection that never misfires, and a combat system that feels wholly realistic) was creating one of the most immersive, and technically precise worlds in the medium.

Yeah, we loved the game and we've got the review to back it up.