GameSided Game of the Year 2014 | Honorable Mentions

11 – Dark Souls II (18 points)

It’s truly, deeply a shame that Dark Souls II didn’t make it into our Top 10 for 2014. Alas, it only showed up in mine and one other person’s lists, so here we are. The brooding, atmospheric action RPG is much more deserving, as it contains one of the deepest lores and stories in JRPG gaming this year. It’s a dulled down version of Dark Souls, however, as nitpicks truly do hold back the title from what could be an overwhelming Top 3 candidate. I need to get more staffers a copy of this game!

In the final DLC review for Dark Souls II, I wrote: “While many look fondly to the future of the Souls series in its spiritual successor, let us also remember that there are great gameplay experiences to be had with the Crowns DLC series. They set a high standard of quality that the vanilla title can’t quite reach, but when the Souls standard is set so high, even falling just short will still land you among the stars.”

With Honorable Mentions out of the way, you can check out our Top 10 Games of the Year for 2014 here.