2013 was a very strange year for gaming, albeit, in my opinion, a fantastic one. As the console generation entered its transitional period, many big budget games of the year were met with disappointment, sequel fatigue, or some combination of both. As such, and more so than any year previous, I found myself drawn to dozens of remarkably clever and well designed indie games. For fans of smaller, riskier, and more personal games, 2013 was a continual treasure trove.

What follows is a ranked list of my top 15 games of 2013. I had done a top 10, but realized I just played way too many excellent things, so I felt the need to loosen the belt, so to speak.

For people out there who are as big of soundtrack junkies as I am, I paired each title with one of my personal favorite tracks from its score. I embedded the tracks from YouTube, so apologies if this bogs down the load time of this article.

There were two games who’s soundtracks were not on YouTube, so, regrettably, I could not feature them here. But they are two of my favorites, so definitely look them up.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my list of my 15 favorite games from 2013. Enjoy.[[MORE]]

15. Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine – Pocketwatch Games

Music: Monaco – Title Theme

I won’t lie: the first time I played “Monaco,” I got so frustrated with it that I never wanted to pick it up again. I learned later what I had been doing wrong. As a “stealth purist” of sorts, I assumed that getting caught, tripping an alarm, or otherwise not executing perfect playthroughs was grounds for a level restart.

“Monaco” is not that kind of game. It’s level evaluation isn’t concerned with kills, KOs, alarms, or getting detected. It’s simply about how fast you completed the level and how many coins you managed to collect along the way. This form of open ended stealth, combined with the special abilities of each class, make for tons of viable options for approaching game’s dozens of maps. Pick The Lookout and you can swiftly retreat to vents like a mouse running off with a cheese cube in its mouth. Pick The Hacker, and have a string of viruses traveling just in front of you, disabling lights, lasers, and even alarms, all from the moment you enter a room. Or pick The Cleaner, if you simply prefer to knock out every guard that gets in your way.

Combining all these options with other players cooperatively can lead to even greater strategic depth and more elaborate heists. Or an even bigger shitstorm when everything goes completely south. But it’s all part of “Monaco.” The clever sneaking, the strategic planning, and even the chaotic dash for hiding spots as you set off every alarm in the entire building, it’s all fair game amongst thieves.

14. Grand Theft Auto V – Rockstar North

Music: Sleepwalking

Between its misogynistic tendencies, heavy reliance on the “GTA” legacy, overly linear mission designs, and desperate need for a smoother framerate, “Grand Theft Auto V” gradually fell from one of my most anticipated games of 2013 to barely making it on this list. Given all that disappointment, however, the fact that the fifth installment in Rockstar’s blockbuster series remains here should speak volumes about how awestruck I was, and still am, by its sprawling, gorgeous, and unbelievably detailed recreation of Los Angeles and its surrounding countryside. Los Santos might not have been the most exciting open world to navigate, but like “GTA IV’s” Liberty City before it, it remains a true sight to behold, an ultimate virtual tourism destination.

Besides that unmistakable attention to miniscule details that Rockstar North is known for, they also bring to “GTA V” their talent for creating wonderfully interesting and hopelessly flawed characters. Between Lamar Davis, Michael De Santa, and the uniquely crazy meth and arms salesman Trevor Phillips, the cast of “GTA V” makes it absolutely worth the journey. Though the narrative arcs all pretty much taper off into a surprisingly lame conclusion, the first ¾ or so of the game had great story beats and action set pieces. The big heist missions were particularly brilliant act breaks, especially in how they brought the triple protagonist structure to a natural high point. In this way, “Grand Theft Auto V” was a particularly difficult game for me to comes to terms with. It is a jam-packed game, filled with hours of incredible content that I enjoyed thoroughly, but it seemed for every hour I was loving it, I spent 2 or 3 reviling it for it’s torture scene, continual sexism, horribly sluggish fast travel system, or its goddamn technical limitations. Weirdly enough, I can whine to you all day about “GTA V,” and I also absolutely think you should play it.

13. Year Walk – Simogo

Take a second to Google a list of the “best” games for your mobile device of choice, and what you’ll likely find is a depressing article half-heartedly offering praise to a collection of cheaply made and bland ripoffs of existing game ideas (I’m looking at you, “Candy Crush”). Given that grim reality, the iOS game “Year Walk” came as a brilliant surprise this year.

“Year Walk” is an eerie adventure game, with a visual aesthetic which blends a child’s popup book with silent film to strangely unsettling effect. It draws inspiration from the disturbing folklore of Sweden, in which the siren calls of forest spirits lure men to their deaths and horse headed creatures inhabit rivers along with the ghosts of drowned infants. The way it utilizes the iOS hardware and interface are exceedingly clever, and occasionally manage to subvert player assumptions about how touch screen controls are supposed to work. It’s a brief but haunting experience, and one which, by its shocking and genre-bending conclusion, will force you to reevaluate how you think about mobile games.

12. DmC Devil May Cry – Ninja Theory

Music: Lilith’s Club

If being an unapologetically over-the-top and brazenly stupid character action game is wrong, then “DMC” has zero interest in being right. Between its writing – which had just the right balance of wittiness and fuck-you attitude – and its action – which had the right balance of stylish simplicity and rewarding depth – Dante’s reboot treatment was a resounding success. It wields some of the most wild level concepts and boss designs of the entire year, including one that has you platforming through the animated infographics of a Fox News parody, of all things. Consistently fun and frequently surprising, “DMC” is one of my favorite character action games in years, and it managed to get me on board with a series I previously couldn’t care less about.

11. Outlast – Red Barrels

Music: Outlast Main Menu

“Outlast” was by no means the smartest game that came out this year, but it was by far the best thrill ride. From that first nerve-racking first encounter in Mount Massive Asylum’s flooded basement, it was clear to me that “Outlast” would be the sort of game I would need to play in about a dozen sittings; it’s just that exhausting. The way the game cleverly augmented the “no-combat-horror” of “Amnesia” with a basic form of the first person free running of “Mirror’s Edge” led to some remarkably intense chase sequences. Plus, that moment when the surgeon with the giant medical scissors pulled me out from under a blood stained gurney still sends shivers down my spine.

10. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs – The Chinese Room

Music: Mors Praematura

As a proper sequel to the 2010 cult classic “Amnesia: The Dark Descent,” The Chinese Room’s take on the “Amnesia” series may prove a bit disappointing. “A Machine for Pigs” does away with the prior game’s elaborate puzzle designs, inventory, and even its insanity mechanic. However, devoid of the expectations of its predecessor, “A Machine for Pigs” is one of the most audacious horror games in years. It takes the philosophy of “what you don’t see is scarier than what you do” to the extreme, crafting entire hour long sections of the game composed of little more than pure, surrealistic atmosphere.

“Outlast” may have had more intense, in-your-face moments of horror this year, but “A Machine for Pigs” takes the spot on this list because of how fantastically well it is written. The lines of dialog ooze with horrific imagery and gothic language, painting an image of a misanthropic industrialist at the turn of the 20th century. It’s a story about the redemption of the protagonist’s soul, all told via a setting that never quite feels like reality.

Some players might find the game’s over reliance on slow-mounting tension to border on tedium. For those with active imaginations, however, the steam-belching mechanisms of “A Machine for Pigs’” hellish abattoir will chew you up and spit you out a ruined mess.

9. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Ubisoft

Music: The High Seas

“Assassin’s Creed IV” was the comeback kid of 2013. After the bloated, messy, and frankly boring game that was last year’s “Assassin’s Creed III,” it seemed like the annualization of the series had finally driven it off a cliff.

But “Black Flag” proved that there’s still plenty of exciting new possibilities for the French franchise to mine. Setting the clock back to the early 1700s, “Black Flag” zeroes in on the pirates of the New World during that time.

The lush visuals and inspired environment design of the Caribbean immediately make an impression, and beg to be explored to trinket-hoarding completion. And that vast open world of gorgeous ocean, with its swashbuckling naval combat, is enough to make any diehard fan of “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker” go weak at the knees.

“Black Flag” is much less self-serious in tone than prior games in the series, going so far as to openly poke fun of itself during its strangely meta contemporary segments. Though it never quite claims to be a reboot, it can certainly seem like one, at times. It sets up plenty of new potential directions while backing slowly out of the corner it had been written into.

That “Black Flag” manages to string together its dozens of gameplay mechanics into a cohesive whole is an impressive achievement. That it does so while returning the series to its roots of exploration and open-ended stealth makes it the best “Assassin’s Creed” in years.

8. Saints Row IV – Volition

Music: Saints Row IV – Main Theme

“Saints Row IV” isn’t afraid to break conventions, or even its own mechanics for that matter. Though it stumbles a bit along the way, it represents the self-actualization of the entire series. In its fourth entry, “Saints Row” has finally found itself. Granted, it found itself somewhere in a closet full of worn out comic books, 90s gangster rap CDs, and anime VHS tapes, but for that unmistakable and uniquely asinine personality, “Saints Row IV” is some of the most hilarious video game fun of 2013. Plus, I’d be lying if I told you that firing the Dubstep Gun for the first time didn’t put the biggest, stupidest grin on my face.

7. The Swapper – Facepalm Games

Music: Greenhouse

“The Swapper” channels a deep sense of loneliness and isolation. You, an anonymous scavenger in a spacesuit, board a space station whose entire crew has been killed. There is no sign of life anywhere, not even enemies. The only other thing keeping you company aboard the derelict station are the soulless, carbon-copy clones you create of yourself, using a science experiment called The Swapper.

It’s not only a clever puzzle game with a unique atmosphere, it also tells a story intrinsically linked to its cloning and swapping mechanics. This means that what the player is doing and what the game is saying are constantly in sync, in the sort of way that the original “Portal” did so masterfully.

When the player swaps to a new body, are they exchanging souls, consciousnesses, or are they effectually killing themselves to be reborn elsewhere? It’s these sorts of weird, metaphysical questions that “The Swapper” is obsessed with. Its ending offers the player a simple, binary choice, but a brilliant one that says more about the person at the controls than about the game itself.

6. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – Starbreeze Studios

Music: Brothers – Main Theme

The way we interact with a controller is something we don’t often think about when it comes to playing games. After learning what buttons do what, control schemes typically fade away to our subconscious, and playing the game becomes nearly instinctual. “Brothers” however, never lets its players forget about the way they interact with it. In it, players control both of the brothers independently, with the older brother mapped to the left stick and the younger to the right.

The resulting mechanics, which at first feel like a gimmick, slowly evolve into something much more powerful. Much in the way that “Ico” (2001) demonstrated how the simple act of holding a character’s hand can transcend a simple button press, “Brothers” illustrates the emotional connection that can result from the most basic form of interactivity.

Bright and cheery as it may appear, “Brothers” is actually a story about a loss of innocence. The disparity between what the pull of a trigger accomplishes in the first few hours of the game versus what it commands in the final stretch says more than any line of dialogue ever could. The fact that “Brothers” never loses sight of that interplay between its story and its controls make it 2013’s most artful game. Its final sequence is beautiful and poetic, a moment which must be experienced firsthand, with your hands on the controller, to truly be appreciated.

5. Gone Home – The Fullbright Company

“Gone Home” is not the most exciting game on this list. In it, the player doesn’t get to save the world or defeat some nefarious villain. In fact, there’s no combat in it whatsoever. But that is – you guessed it – precisely the point. “Gone Home” is about showcasing that video games can, with the right amount of care, tell small-scale and intimate narratives.

“Gone Home” is a story about a household, and all that our homes say about us, all the secrets they hide and all the memories they hold traces of. There’s an eerily voyeuristic quality about spending hours rummaging through bookbags, listening to cassette tapes and reading secret love letters, but that uncomfortably personal detail only adds to the complex atmosphere that is constantly morphing, shifting throughout the duration of “Gone Home.” The way the game deconstructs and subverts expectations of the medium, as well as the way it deftly conveys its deeply touching coming-of-age story, make it one of the most memorable games of 2013.

4. Bioshock Infinite – Irrational Games

Music: Will the Circle Be Unbroken

Arguably the most fascinating and drop dead gorgeous game setting of the year, “Bioshock Infinite’s” Columbia is the kind of city Walt Disney’s Imagineers would have dreamt up in their heyday. Every square inch of the city in the clouds begs to be explored, whether it might contain another tasty nugget of backstory, or just one more trashcan hot dog.

The game’s best encounters were those which opened up into large arenas, where players could take advantage of the roller coaster-like Sky-lines, Vigor traps, and reinforcements from behind Elizabeth’s tears in reality. “Infinite,” like the original “Bioshock” before it, never requires the use of its most exotic toys, but for players interested in experimentation, there were plenty of exhilarating options. In a genre full of stop-and-pop military shooters, “Infinite’s” ultra-mobile and lightning quick combat is a mighty refreshing take.

The ending of “Infinite” toys with ideas about parallel universes, of their constants and variables. In a metatextual sense, it is examining its own existence as a video game sequel, and the sorts of limited freedoms that come with that role. Much as “Infinite’s” grand ambitions propel it skyward, the expectations of what a “Bioshock” game can and should be create a mighty undertow, harkening back, continually, to that iconic Art Deco metropolis at the bottom of the Atlantic. Torn in as many different directions as its multiverses, “Infinite” tries to toe the impossible line of being as creative, shocking, and revered as that original game, yet simultaneously being something completely new. Where its final moments take it are just as much about reconciling that difficult situation as they are about blowing your fucking mind.

3. Rayman Legends – Ubisoft Montpellier

Music: Fiesta de los Muertos

Between its gorgeous watercolor art, perpetually inventive level design, positively adorable character animations, and devilishly catchy soundtrack, “Rayman Legends” is just an absolute delight to play. The quirky personality that Michel Ancel brings to every one of his games is made even more irresistible in this follow-up to 2011’s “Rayman Origins.” Don’t let it charm you too much, though; it’s a deceptively challenging platformer, one which will put your timing, reflexes, and even rhythm, to the test. It can be tough, even brutal at times, but the challenge always feels fair. Plus, the controls are so good, you’ll have no one to blame for failure but yourself.

Not to mention, playing “Legends” on a couch with a few friends cooperatively is some of the most outright joy I’ve had playing a game in a long while.

2. Papers Please – Lucas Pope

Music: Papers Please – Main Theme

In “Papers Please,” the player takes control of a border guard in a fictional country called Arstotzka, attempting to discern which immigrants should be allowed to cross over and which should not. Gameplay involves sifting through paper documents, looking for possible discrepancies. What makes the game so special is how the context of these gameplay mechanics force the player to think, as well as the overwhelming and oftentimes comical situations that result from the Arstotzkan bureaucracy fumbling around, attempting to resolve its paranoia by throwing more and more paperwork at it.

Towards the end of game, the small desk which the player is provided transforms into a chaotic sea of documents, forms, filing cabinets, keys, and rule books, buried one atop the other. And somehow, despite how sleep-inducingly tedious the game may sound on paper, the actual act of playing it can prove quite satisfying. Catching a sly document forgery right before stamping a passport with green “Accepted” ink is deeply fulfilling, oddly enough.

And therein lies the brilliance of “Papers Please”: it takes its various NPCs, their plights and struggles, and reduces everything to the barest of gameplay mechanics, systems, and rules. Eventually, I found myself so streamlined and focused in my process that no amount of begging would be cause for an exception. Much as the human part of me wanted to fight against it, “Papers Please” had me far too locked into its cold, unflinching bureaucracy to care just how hungry or sick any immigrant was. I just stamped papers, and moved on. And to this day I’m still thinking about what that says about society, game mechanics, and even myself. That it manages to be so thought provoking while avoiding pretension makes “Papers Please” my ideal indie game.

1. The Last of Us – Naughty Dog

Music: The Path (A New Beginning)

“The Last of Us” is one of those once-in-a-console-generation marvels; the culmination of industry-leading technical talent, a AAA budget, exceptional writing, and a precision focused vision of the final experience driving everything. The gameplay, animation, even the music, all of it contributes toward what the game wants to say about Joel and Ellie’s harrowing journey across a post-apocalyptic America.

It is a grueling experience, one in which the smallest encounter with just a handful enemies can raise the hair on the back of your neck and make your palms sweat. It’s a stealth game where the sneaking mechanics necessitate from the fear of conflict rather than provide the player with ninja empowerment. It’s a shooter with truly limited resources, in which firing a gun feels less like instinct and more like a calculated decision. It’s a game that invites the player to laugh and develop a deep bond with its characters, just so that, in its darkest moments, it gets to twist the knife in your wounded soul just a few degrees further.

More so than any game on this list, “The Last of Us” has a mastery of mood. The way the game utilizes weather and seasons, moments of silent horror, and even its fleeting moments of beauty and humor, are truly things to behold. And at the end of it all, the player is left with an unbelievable conclusion, in which both Joel and Ellie’s deepest flaws are laid bare, along with the horrifying consequences of them.

Games are such a collaborative medium that it is incredibly rare to find one that feels as wholly singular as “The Last of Us.” It doesn’t feel designed by committee, or compromised, or like it’s setting up for another multi-million dollar franchise. Like a great novel, everything in it feels purposeful, like part of the story it wants to tell. And that story may well be one of the most powerful in the history of video games.