Game on the Month January

February 7, 2010

Game on the Month – January

By Dakota Grabowski

January was a thrill ride

After skipping out on the busy
holiday season of 2009, many titles instead moved into the New Year and have
benefited with time for polish and extra marketing space. The results are clear
and January, a month that is usually a wasteland for new software, turned out to
be a month packed with stellar titles that have satisfied the hunger of many
gamers worldwide.

So with so many superb titles
releasing so soon after Christmas, it was literally a shootout to win our
prestigious Game of the Month award that is handed out, of course, every month
of the year.  After much deliberation, our winner is…

Mass Effect 2

After a unanimous vote from all the
editors here at GameZone, Mass Effect 2 comes away with the first sweep.
Receiving a
9.5 in our full review, Mass Effect 2 was a breathtaking title by all
merits. Here’s what a few of our editors had to say on the title:

“Was there any doubt?”

“Even
more so than its predecessor, Mass Effect 2 moves leaps and bounds to give you a
true feeling of what it’s like to be in the shoes of the Commander Shepard. Each
choice you make has consequences large and small, and can have dire effects on
the course your personal story takes. The gameplay has received a substantial
boost, with vastly improved combat mechanics and fluid controls. This is
definitely one to check out if you’re at all an RPG fan,” said News Editor
Steven Hopper.

“After self-reflecting about the decisions I made in Mass Effect 2 in my first
and second playthrough, it’s apparent that BioWare created a title that draws
gamers in and keeps them coming back begging for more. It remains in your
thoughts, it comes up in everyday conversations and when you are playing other
games, all you can think about is getting back to playing Mass Effect 2. It’s a
one-of-a-kind game that delivers excitement in droves,” said Community Manager
Dakota Grabowski.

With a
scratch that we are dying to itch, we can only pray for a speedy conclusion to
the series with Mass Effect 3.

* * *

Our January runners-up turned out to
be …

Darksiders

“While some of the gameplay elements
were certainly familiar, the integration of story and game vision presented an
intriguing bit of entertainment that pulled the player through the game. There
always seemed to be a bigger boss, a new objective – and all underscored with
that sense of purpose born of betrayal and executed in a brutal and vengeful
way,” said Editor-in-Chief Michael Lafferty.

“Ain’t no thang but chicken wang.”

“Borrowing elements from games like
God of War all the way to Mega Man, Darksiders was a visceral and entertaining
romp. The game features great art direction, an interesting story, and more gore
than you can shake an oversized sword at,” said Steven Hopper.

Check out our
full review.

No More Heroes 2

“The tone and style of No More
Heroes 2 utterly reeks of ‘awesome.’ Travis Touchdown is a hero that I can
certainly root for,” said Dakota Grabowski.

“I’m dancing with joy!”

“I am hard pressed to think of a
game that has more creativity and personal style,” said freelance contributor
Caleb Newby.

Check out our
full review.

With January over and done with,
February is on its way to jam-packed month full of gaming with releases of
BioShock 2, Dante’s Inferno, Heavy Rain, Sins of the Solar Empire: Trinity,
Shiren the Wanderer, Last Rebellion and Star Ocean: The Last Hope
International.