What makes a game a landmark achievement, or an important one? Gorgeous graphics? An immediately timeless character? A unique plot twist? Perfect game mechanics? Maybe all the above and more? It's easy to forget just how good things are in the industry overall, as it feels like the top-tier consoles are struggling to maintain exclusivity libraries, instead falling back on multiplayer-only shooters, half-baked HD upgrades and arbitrary third-party releases. The reality though, is gaming as an expressive artform is more accessible and expansive than ever. We may have lost the 'mid-tier' of development across the last generation (your THQs, Acclaims and the like) as budgets for triple-A titles number into the tens of thousands just to get them off the ground, but to judge the medium's output by things like the latest Halo or Star Wars Battlefront remake, is to miss the point entirely. To some degree, indie titles have become the new mid-tier; a middle ground of production values comprised of studios positively bursting with new and creative ways to express themselves. Many smaller studios or individuals simply just want you to play their creations, far removed from the budgetary hamstrings of higher-tier agreements that insist every title must have guns, gruff protagonists and loot grinds all for the sake of 'guaranteeing' recouped funds once they hit shelves. Back to that opening question, and it's clear many games regardless of scale have within them all sorts of important attributes. Whether it's because of the aforementioned qualities, something more unintentionally negative or another entirely unique trait, the following games dared to dream in all sorts of different ways, but whether it paid off, is up to you...
