Benny

 

90. Deus Ex

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 77, down 39)

 

I have a confession: I was never the biggest, most number one fan of Deus Ex.

 

For all of the sheer freedom of player choice and multiple ways to complete it that the game offered, there was just something fundamentally off in how it actually played. This would have been part of the charm for many people, but the actual moment to moment play sometimes felt a bit janky.

 

However, viewed with a modern lens, we weren't to realise back then just what a real rare treat it would become to have so much player freedom, and still is.

 

I mean you can put experience points in swimming, when there’s nowhere in the game where you need to actually use it. Masterful.

But lest I get a bit too facetious about this excellent game, here is the game’s actually number one fan Wiper with his take:

 

“It may be all 1990s conspiracy theories and sunglasses at midnight, but for all its tropes Deus Ex remains a masterpiece. Over two decades on, this still better shows off the potential that games have to meld story and gameplay, to offer freedom of choice in mechanical as well as narrative terms, and to imbue the player's actions (and inaction) with consequence, than just about any other game out there.

 

Deus Ex is a game which rewards exploration with more than just perks or 'achievements', a game which respects the player enough to allow them freedom of action, does its best not to restrict their choices in service to a 'cinematic experience'. The graphics are shonky, the voice acting off kilter, but by allowing the player to express themselves, mechanically and narratively, Deus Ex continues to be a delight.

 

There's no other game quite like it: the sequels sought to control things too much, reduced the game down to something more manageable, less interesting, and nobody else seemed to want to make the effort to make such a complex, cross-genre game. So it goes.”

 

 

 

89. Red Dead Redemption

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 123, down 105)

 

Somewhat overshadowed these days by the game’s little brother in nearly every aspect - John Marsden’s story is for me, the more measured and poignant one.

 

How quaint my take in 2015 seems now:

 

“For sheer unadulterated atmosphere, Red Dead Redemption is completely peerless, beating even the GTA series for its truly unparalleled world building.

 

Proof that Rockstar have never just been a one-trick pony, Red Dead Redemption might just be the first and last word in Cowboy simulators. Riding around the desert on horseback just admiring the landscape is an absolute pleasure, and few other games (such as they are) can evoke the feeling of being in a classic Western with such panache.

 

If it were just a scenery looking simulator it would be great, but the GTA style mission structure has you taking part in the entire smorgasbord of Western tropes such as cattle rustling, dice playing, shootouts, and erm, zombie hunting (the DLC expansion is excellent).

 

The shooting mechanics are also evolved from the GTA series, enough to make shootouts tense and satisfying affairs. Nothing quite beats lining up a shot with a distant assailant in some bushes (no zooming here), firing, and seeing a body slump into view. Just like a cowboy film!

 

The story is also perhaps the best Rockstar have ever written, and is more gripping and carefully paced until the end than perhaps any open world game has a right to be.

 

The finest game Rockstar has ever made? Maybe.”

 

88. Day of the Tentacle

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 74, up 160)

 

It missed out on the last list for some reason, after coming back in 2015 after then missing out before that. The most returned game into the Rllmuk top 100s ever?

 

I had a few choice words in 2015:

 

“I'm going to come right out and say it: this is the single greatest point-click adventure ever made. That’s right, not just Lucasarts’ best, or Tim Schafer or Dave Grossman’s best, but just simply the best.

 

The fact that it has risen so dramatically in position since the last top 100 is incredible in of itself, but more and more people are starting to realise I think just how much Day of the Tentacle knocked even the Monkey Island games into a cocked time-toilet.

 

First, there is the humour, which is just more madcap, mercurial, and unpredictable (if that’s possible) than Ron Gilbert’s adventures. It has its own rules, and the weird world the characters inhabit is more specifically off-the-wall than nearly anything similar in gaming.

 

Grim Fandango may have more class and production values, but Day of the Tentacle succeeds over this, not just in terms of the exuberance of its storytelling (and the time hopping adventure does have some lovely surprises), but for the sheer twisted yet largely logical brilliance of all of its puzzles.

 

The first two Monkey Island games, despite their excellence, are often guilty of making solutions deliberately obtuse to serve the humour, but Day of the Tentacle seems to have achieved the perfect balance between hilarity and function - a tightrope act that all games of this type struggle with, yet here it is done deftly and still with more success than any other adventure game that I can think of since. A staggering achievement when you consider just how many puzzles are contained in the game - as far as value for money goes this takes the cake. It even has the entire Maniac Mansion adventure game, that it vaguely refers to the events of, included within the game. Take that, Shenmue, for pre-dating it with the game-within-a-game concept!

 

If you haven’t played Day of the Tentacle, then play it right now - I'm not sure you even need to wait for the recently announced remake (which will hopefully be SWEET), as the visual design still holds up even today, with just utter utter bags of character, and brilliant voice acting.”

 

The remaster (pictured) was indeed totally SWEET.

Though honestly I prefer the original pixel art.
 

Also Wiper said something:

 

“The absolute best adventure game ever made. Bar none. Day of the Tentacle manages that incredibly rare combination: it manages to be both brilliantly written, and filled with mind-bending but fair puzzles.

 

The characters are pitch-perfect; the comedy always hits its mark; the graphics haven't aged a day - a genuinely astonishing feat for a game now going on thirty years old; the voice-acting puts most modern games to shame (did I mention the game is approaching its third decade?); the time-bending, character-swapping puzzles have yet to be bested. I only wish that Day of the Tentacle - a sequel itself - had received a follow-up. How I yearn to explore maniac mansion on a new adventure one more time!”