So let’s continue our look at my Top Ten games of 2010. I’m releasing them in irregular-sized chunks but it really comes down to when I get a chance/inspiration to do some writing. Again, these are games that I’ve played this year and that were released this year.

You can read the first part here.

9. LIMBO

LIMBO - It's a bit creepy.

I’ve already written about LIMBO at great length and to be entirely honest, there’s not much more I’d say. I’ll give you a few choice quotes, but I think I covered it the first time:

“What’s so great about the opening section is just how bleak and scary it is. There is a genuine feeling of trepidation and fear of what is to come. Normally I’d be quite critical of things like hidden insta-death traps but […] the checkpointing is forgiving and the nervous trial and error nature of the game just made sense within the context of the story.”

Hopefully you didn’t miss the half-price deal Microsoft put out on New Years’ Eve. If you did, never mind eh? You should still buy it.

8. VVVVVV

This is a bit of a surprise (late) entry in my Top Ten. I’d played the demo months ago and really enjoyed it but I didn’t get around to buying it until I was trying to think of things that would run nicely on my netbook. For the record, it runs beautifully.

VVVVVV - Yes, it's tough.

Created by indie developer Terry Cavanagh, you play as Captain Viridian, tasked with rescuing your 5 crew members (can you guess what letter all their names start with?) after your ship runs into a few inter-dimensional issues. Drawn in a super-simple but incredibly charming retro style you only have three controls available to you: Left, Right and the ability to flip gravity. There is no jump button. With this limited move set you must navigate the “open world” map (open in as much as you can pretty much go wherever you want), flipping the gravity to navigate obstacles and avoid danger.

And boy, is there a lot of danger! The graphics aren’t the only old skool gaming feature here. VVVVVV is a tough game; brutally so, but as with the best of the genre you keep trying because you know it is possible, despite how it appears the first few hundred times you attempt a particularly tough section (SPOILERish: As an example, Veni Vidi Vici is probably the toughest section in the whole game).

You will die a lot; in the 4ish hours it took me to complete the main game, I died some 2200 times (that’s over 500 times an hour!) but a bit of nimble finger work and perseverance should see you right in the end! It’s important not to understate this: VVVVVV is beautifully designed. It features some of the best, most intelligent level design I’ve seen in a long time.

Try the demo, and then buy it. Please.

7. Halo: Reach

I like Halo. At their best, they provide small doses of bombastic, unpredictable chaos against an epic space opera backdrop. At their worst, they’re sluggish, repetitive corridor shooters with little to make it stand out from the hordes of other FPS games. How many games can get some levels so right (The Silent Cartographer) and others so wrong (The Library) over the course of just one game?

Clearly, I’m not your typical Halo fan; I’ve never really got into its highly competitive multiplayer component and I think each successive campaign has been better than the last (that’s right, I thought Halo 2’s campaign was better than Halo’s). Each game was fun while it lasted but none of them left me feeling genuinely excited.

Except Reach.

Halo Reach’s campaign is spectacular. I believe my good friend Mr Binks described it like a Halo: Best of album, and I only wish I had been smart enough to come up with the analogy first because it is absolutely spot on. Gone is the repetitive corridor trudging. In its place, the campaign is stuffed to the gills with the bits that we all love about Halo; fighting out in the open, pitched battles in confined spaces and set piece after epic set piece.

Halo: Reach - Very Noble

The guns feel as good as, if not better than they’ve ever felt and whilst I’m not a fan of the trademark low gravity movement style, the controls feel tight and responsive.

My main criticism of Reach and to be fair, it covers all the Halo games to date, is the story. And to be clear, it’s not that I think the story is bad. From what I can gather, there’s a very exciting, engrossing sci-fi tale being woven here. It’s just that it’s told so badly. Whilst I’m sure I could tell you what’s going on minute to minute, the over-arching story is a vague mish-mash of seemingly unrelated events. I know it’s epic and exciting, I just don’t know why it’s epic and exciting. There is a wealth of depth and background to the story but it’s never introduced in an effective way. A recent article on EG pretty much sums it up for me.

Halo: Reach - From dooown tooown!

Reach is also the first of the series where I’ve really got into the multiplayer. It might just be because it’s the first Halo game I bought at launch (and hence large numbers of my XBL Friends List were playing it) but I just found myself drawn to it. Add Firefight mode into the mix and you’ve got an incredibly compelling package.

With their final game in the series, Bungie have perfected the Halo formula and I for one, will definitely “Remember Reach“.