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. Continue reading →