Michael takes a look at what looks to be the Game of the Year.
Date: Thursday, December 04, 2008
Author: Michael Barnes
Another part of what makes BATTLESTAR GALACTICA such a success is that it isn’t a game about the show despite the license. It’s a game that occurs in that setting but is ultimately about the same concepts, questions, and ethical situations that the show is about and in that I think the design reaches for something beyond what we usually see in genre games. I think it, like the show, has something to say about human nature, fear, and conditional morality that most adventure games have never bothered to- or simply couldn’t- address. Even someone who has never seen the show is going to have a reaction when they realize that the person they’re sitting next to is working at cross purposes or when they have to decide between accepting the loss of population or food supplies. And since the level of interaction is so high- it is persistent and almost constant throughout the game- there is always a sense of engagement with not only the game but these themes and ideas.
It wasn’t until the very end of last year that Fantasy Flight and Corey Koniecszka delivered STARCRAFT, the best game of 2007, which was also ironically enough a licensed game and here it is in the tail end of 2008 and it looks like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is poised to be the game of the year with only Kevin Wilson’s ANDROID looking like firm competition. After all the mediocre games I’ve played all year, all the repetitive and uninspired designs, it’s refreshing to experience a game such as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA that invites you to become totally engrossed in a narrative that is created by interaction with other gamers and skillfully deploying an array of game mechanics that support rather than impede the experience. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA receives my highest recommendation, and if the recession means you’re only buying one game this year then you’ve just received your marching orders.
