#9 on the list, Thor: God of Thunder

*Pre-qualifying non-sense barrier*

Before we get started, let's just get this statement out of the way. Metacritic scores Thor: God of Thunder at a lowly 38 on Xbox and 39 on PS3. That's out of 100. So, needless to say, it's a bit controversial to put this game in any list, let alone a top 10 for the full seven years. However, I would not have chosen this game if I didn't have many reasons to think it was defensible in every regard. Some games, such as Bourne Identity didn't hold up well at all, and received whopping 8-9 out of 10 scores in the early days of the console. But every time I sit down to play this game, I seem to be enjoying myself and easily getting dragged into playing a few hours. This is evidenced by my achievement list, which is now at 1000/1000 on this game. 

*End Pre-qualifying non-sense barrier*

Thor: God of Thunder came to me a bit late. I received it for $15 dollars at a FYE store, expecting some respite from a horrible experience playing a few other overhyped titles. I was excited to explore this game, as I didn't have the budget or as much interest in it originally. However, over the years I'd come to really like the Thor movie, and had been eyeing picking up a title like this. What I found surprised me in many respects, it was well designed, fun and challenging to the last fight. The game gets better as it goes on, starting off in a relatively generic scenario with few moves. Once you begin to advance through the game, which is linear, you should unlock more health and more moves. By your 2nd or 3rd playthrough, you should generally be maxing out health and ability points, probably with some help online. On your 4th or 5th playthrough, if you are like me, you'll have doing the challenges and finishing the game on your own terms. This is a great way to absorb the story and explore all the challenges the devs have to offer. The major flaw of the game is that Easy, Medium and Hard difficulties aren't very well done. Easy is very easy, but Medium and Hard are both very challenging. For this reason, it's advisable to play through the game once on Easy if you are easily frustrated by long boss battles, which can be tough in themselves. Furthermore, the stats carry over, so there's no reason to start on the highest difficulty unless you really want to challenge yourself. It's a pretty basic combo based game with a fair number of quick time events you'll need to be prepared for. The art, and character are what should keep you interested. Its use of the control pad to offer a wide variety of options, despite only one basic attack, add to the brilliance of a simple game. A simple game matched with a relatively simple character, making for a perfect experience.  Were you to put Batman or Superman or even his brother Loki into Thor's shoes, this game would not be the same. But his personality passes on well. The other big windfall is that you learn to appreciate the subtle art of using a war hammer, which takes more than a little finese. Thor has some big shoes for you to fill. It's not at all an easy task, so make sure you're up for it.

Let's start our breakdown of the game.

a. Graphics
Very good graphics. These are not superior beyond the known stratosphere next gen graphics, but more than serviceable. Once you take physics, particle effects, and style into account, you'll see the graphics are pretty good. The most important parts, such as Thor's cape and armor, are done well. It's actually invigorating to be using Thor, with his flowing cape. I was on a 720 TV and I felt I got a pretty good glimpse of the epic and grandiose scenes they were depicting. I'm sure it'd look even better on a 1080 or a next gen console, even. There's always a sequel.
b. Gameplay
I'm told this is a God of War style combo system. But I have never played God of War, so my own frame of reference is that it's a well designed combo system. A super nice touch is that the achievement system plays into the move system, so you'll find yourself eager and pushed to learn new moves and expand on your style of play. This was very important, and a great move. A lot of poor choices can be made with achievement systems, carrot on the stick type situations that can lead to unsatisfactory experiences, but used in this method turned out to be fun. The boss fights, mini boss fights and puzzles are also a romp. Generally speaking, the game does not repeat itself too much, and is over well before it becomes a bore. The thing is, you'll need to play it again on different difficulties to round up the achievements. As mentioned before, Medium and Hard can be pretty taxing, and Easy mode is a little too easy. The good news is that your abilities, moves and collectibles carry over between playthroughs. Sadly, there is no open world option, so careful planning will be needed to achieve your goals.
c. Story
A nice story that fits in well with the movie. It's actually a precursor to the movie. A nice bit, you get to see Thor, Loki and their father fight together near the end of the game, which was a unique and fun experience.
d. Cultural significance
I'm becoming a real fan of Thor. He's an old world God, has a hammer, what's not to like? He makes a great role model, for the most part, and there's really not a whole lot to want, besides perhaps a love interest, which I hope is coming. (See the movie)
e. Achievement placement
As mentioned before, the achievment placement is done well. It plays into your abilities and moves and health bar. It's also quite easy to get up to high numbers, and topping it off at 1000/1000 wasn't terribly difficult. I put in probably 30 hours and played through 4 times, did a lot of careful planning. That's how I did it. It wasn't optimal, except when you consider that the game is actually very fun, so playing through it repeatedly is a joy.

f. Achievement difficulty
Not too difficult, but does take some planning and consideration.
g. Multiplayer
None.
h. Leaderboards
None.
i. Characters
 Good. Comic characters Thor and Loki are well represented. The villain, not so much, but it's still a nice adventure.
j. Length of a experience. Longer not necessarily better.
A good length. Varied enough to keep it interesting.
k. Bugs
Few and far between. I think I may have had the game freeze up on me once.
l. World building Great world building.
You play across 5 different landscapes, and 4 worlds. The worlds all have unique enemies, with different animations, which adds to the style. The personalities of the enemies are fun to interact with, as is Thor's sometimes overly harsh punishment of them.
m. Sequel or not
This is the first game that I know of. So, that considered, it's very well done.
o. Challenging the platform
This seems like an exercise in realizing an incredibly well thought out idea. The game doesn't play change ups, but that's its strength. We need simplicity and support for our platforms, as we build a culture for our games, and this does that, which is a challenge in itself.
p. Uniqueness
There really aren't a lot of places where the game attempts anything unique, but its style and moral character are true, which is a blessing for our collections.
r. Sound effects and music
Great.
s. Animation
Varied enough between worlds to keep it interesting. The grappling animations change between worlds and bosses dramatically, and that's one of the selling points. Some have argued for more animation, but that might confuse people who aren't sure what move they performed. For instance, one grappling animation regains health, while the other regains ability points. They do change dramatically from world to world, depending on who you are performing the move on. Excellent.

t. Acting
Very good, the actors from the movies.
u. Time in development
Enough time was taken, but I'd like to research just how long it took. Two years seems like a good guess.
v. Production value
High enough by far.
w. Effects and lighting
Good enough by far.

#10 on the List: The Darkness (2007)

To continue the top 10 of the Xbox 360 generation of games, I'm starting to analyze the games again, starting at #10. This is both to check my errors, and make sure I'm true to my word in recommending these games.

The Darkness originally struck me as a game with a lot of nice subtle humor, earned exhilarating moments, fun achievements, and good all around game. It stuck with me over the years, but now it's time to revisit it and break down its features one by one.

I've done some minor research and can not find much about the development of the game, so I'll come back and edit later if I find out anything unique.

The Darkness II is included in this review because it is wildly different in many respects, and adds a good contrasting note. However, Part I is superior and much more recommendable as a complete experience. Part II should be considered a fun, worthy and probably necessary supplement to the material.

a. Graphics
Very good. Unlike its sequel, it went for a realistic look. A lot of hard, dark, and seedy textures. Many areas are very dark and when you shoot out the lights, they tend to read well. Even in complete darkness, the look is cinematic. This isn't an over the topic cinematic look, but it holds up well enough 6 years later. There's cut scenes and death screens and load screens applenty, so many you'll likely not see them all in multiple playthroughs, and they even progress with the story! That art alone may be worth the playing hours.

b. Gameplay
Nice mechanics. Fun gunplay. It's an FPS which unlocks new abilities and ramps the difficulty throughout the game. Finally culminating in a black hole ability, while still keeping the difficulty even with this totally OP and fun mechanic. Great work and more than enough toys to keep you interested. The aiming is occasionally very inaccurate, even with a laser pointed red dot, you can't hit enemies every time and some models aren't built to be shot through, you must shoot around them, though this is rare. You may need to get used to dated ideals, such as (Y) to jump, which are switched around in the sequel.

c. Story
This is an unravelling story centered around a depressed and spiraling dark character. This turns out to be its strength, but if you don't have a taste for dark subject matters, steer clear. This continues into part II.

d. Cultural significance
Great use of comic book material to bring a game to life. The main character is an anti-hero, so I'm not sure if this would be relevant to most people. But those who enjoy dark and gothic characters will enjoy this game a great deal. As stated before, the subject matter is about depression and this plays out as a strength. For this reason, you may think at times it has become too graphic, or too violent, or too explicit. I believe this is balanced out with the subject matter of a character who is trying to commit suicide, but can't. This reads well in the sequel as well, though the first game is by rights much better all around. The Darkness is most likely meant to represent the deep down hard wiring of our bodies and minds, to win at all costs and never say die, even when the odds are totally insurmountable. It's questionable why the character continues on even when he has lost everything, and this is further explored in the Darkness II, which I recommend for anyone who thoroughly enjoyed this endevour.

e. Achievement placement
The achievement placement is good. I got 805/1000 with a few online achievements, though I wouldn't recommend those. They're placed well, and you are rewarded for second or third playthroughs, while still keeping many achievements attainable through luck or normal interaction with the campaign.

f. Achievement difficulty
Very good. You can get 700 or so out of 1000 easily enough. The online play is likely a loss due to the poor online mode and lack of a community around it, but the majority of the points will be easily attainable by most.

g. Multiplayer
Yes, but it is awful and not what the game was designed for.

h. Leaderboards
Not that I know of.

i. Characters
Jackie is a very dark hero, but the other mobsters don't add a great deal, culturally speaking, beyond another group of gangsters a la Sapranos or Godfather, etc. The exploration of depression in the main character is worthy enough to warrant a second look for this game and the sequel.

j. Length of a experience. Longer not necessarily better.
A reasonable 8 hour experience, not too long by a longshot, but perhaps longer than some would desire. If you trod through the clues as I have and don't cheat, it may take longer the first time around, due to load times. Changing difficulty will also add or subtract.

k. Bugs
The game is plagued with a good amount of bugs. It's often difficult to tell how many bullets will kill an enemy. Sometimes you'll literally blow their head off with one shot, other times, you'll turn back to a target to find he's gotten up and is shooting you. The "Darkness" powers can at times feel inconsistent and hard to control. Both of these issues can be overcome with patience, and the game rewards you for thinking clearly in bad situations. The bugs are usually not game breaking, because the game is so immersive, it is difficult for small things to drop you out, but it can become irksome.

l. World building
The world building is very good. I'm inclined to think the violence is a little over the top, but the game sells it in a way that makes it very easy to work with. One particular break in immersion did irk me, when I had to take a service door that was inside an unused train to get to "Gun Hill." At this point, I'd rather see a fast travel, another train, anything but this. Issues like this lean away from this being recommendable as a top 10 game. Those looking for more world building should not visit the sequel, as less is done to add realism. For instance, there's no open world element. You simply show up at the mansion and do all your missions from there, with no ability to go back or revisit locations. The sequel advances the story in other ways, so I do absolutely recommend them as a set and encourage would-be enthusiasts to explore them.

m. Sequel or not
This is the first of the Darkness games that I've heard of or played. The sequel was not as good, but by no means unworthy. It just is not a top 10 game.

o. Challenging the platform
The Darkness pays off in spades for realism, while keeping a semi-open world, backlog of your general codex readily available. What I mean here, is you must use things like pay phones and subways, which are depicted in realistic ways. TVs will display relevant news, and the way characters speak to you is very realistic, making the game feel extremely real. There are less direct hints, which adds to the realism. No mini-maps, or compasses to help you get by. But the world is small enough that you can generally figure out where to go. The sequel is the opposite of this, has a mini-map, an imp guiding you and a trail of darkness you can summon to lead you to your next destination, which has an onscreen marker even, with actual meters away indicated! Completely different, and worth a compare and contrast. It's like they wanted us to know for sure they had a different engine, or were creating the game from the ground up this time which I can certainly appreciate.

p. Uniqueness
This was without a doubt a unique endeavor for the developers. The way the lights and environments feed into your abilities makes for a very nice combination, and without a doubt held its own unique challenges to the devs. The culture that the comic brings to the gaming platform is undoubtedly welcome, and well suited.

r. Sound effects and music
The music is at times over the top good. Other times, a cheesy guitar will make you feel silly. Overall, the screams and classic horror noises are more than adequate to keep you in the moment.

s. Animation
The animation can be subpar and poorly timed to the acting. At other times, the gestures and animation are very fun to watch. It's not distracting, even 7 years after its release. But time will tell if any great animation techniques are discovered, if this continues to hold up. There are occasional aliasing issues and the lack of fingers is already looking strange on some models. The sequel doesn't do much to add to the franchise animation wise. Using tentacles arms to throw things is fun in either episode, so watch for that.

t. Acting
It is all very good. In part 2, it tends to drag on a bit and doesn't feel as committed, probably targeting an 18-22 audience with less realism and more pop. The imp's dialog can at times annoy me in part 2, but others may find it adds flavor. In part 1, the acting is much better, but still can fall flat for any number of scenes. I'd say this has more to do with realism than a fault of the game.

u. Time in development
We don't know how long they worked on either game, but I assume they had at least a few years for each.

v. Production value
Very high for the time. TVs that show news, and a slew of options for FPS weapons beyond what you normally see.

w. Lighting and Effects
Very good, dark and feeds well into the game. Additional effects linked to the abilities are great. In the sequel, they dropped the ability to shoot out a lot more lights, making it feel more cartoonish. Some graphical elements will seem superior in the first episode, which is rare in a lot of titles.

Listing our top 10 games. An initial list.

This is my initial list. The point of this blog will be self exploration, to keep things in check. Each time I update the list, I'll post a new blog, until I'm sure the list is perfect. Here's the first draft. This is a top 10 for all 7 years of the 360. We'll not count anything once the Xbox One was released, since the climate has changed too drastically.

1. Fable II
2. Game of Thrones
3. Prince of Persia
4. Tomb Raider
5. Limbo
6. Arcadecraft
7. Halo 3
8. (tie)Charlie Murder
8. (tie)Scott Pilgrim Vs the World
9. Thor: God of Thunder
10. The Darkness
11. Alice: Madness Returns

Where applicable, these are my criteria for judging.

a. Graphics
b. Gameplay
c. Story
d. Cultural significance
e. Achievement placement
f. Achievement difficulty
g. Multiplayer
h. Leaderboards
i. Characters
j. Length of a experience. Longer not necessarily better.
k. Bugs
l. World building
m. Sequel or not
o. Challenging the platform
p. Uniqueness
r. Sound effects and music
s. Animation
t. Acting
u. Time in development
v. Production value
w. Effects and lighting

What I'd like to hear is what games you think should be on the list that are not on it.