Game Of The Decade For You

I am sorry If there is a topic but not I would like to make one. Yes, I know The Last Of Us is a show in but I was blown away at the time and very cynical at games. A follow up would be FTL because I can simply sum it up in one word as a review as "Brilliant".

Dark Souls, probably. It triggered something in my lizard brain I can't get enough of. Like when people say 3D Castlevania doesn't work and then they effectively do it for a decade.

WWE All Stars, the most revolutionary wrestling game since wrestling games went 3D.

Hidden underneath all of the over the top moves and cartoonish graphics was a wrestling setup very similar to the much beloved AKI system with the roster split into four fighting styles each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and unique tactics. Wrestlers in each were also further varied offering hybrid techniques of gameplay. While it did lack a comparable create-a-wrestler editor to the Smackdown legacy titles which hurt the replay value for some, the diversity of play between characters just reinforced the competitive fighter approach taken which made getting to know the ins and outs of each superstar and legend the main drive of the game, and a breath of fresh air in a genre where most rosters share the same controls across the board.

It was a deceptively deep offering that was sadly overlooked by most wrestling fans turned off by its more apparent arcadey nature and not being the legends based sim they had been begging THQ for years for, and almost got with the disappointing Legends of Wrestlemania, but that unfortunately had its controls and movesets neutered in an attempt to attract casuals.

All Stars was also damn-near perfectly balanced for online play outside a glitched move or two and reversals played heavily into gameplay with blocks and counter reversals being necessary for success. That along with multi-knock out situations in multi-man matches and the most fluid non-restrictive wrestling engine imaginable allowing an endless amount of double team finisher opportunities made it the most creative wrestling game experiment ever attempted. It's a shame 2K didn't have the sense to resurrect it when they acquired the WWE license.

Dark Souls, I spent so long deciding if I should buy the game or not, looking at the game on the shelf that day, I never thought that it would be one of my favourite games of all time. The sprawling world, the bosses, the weapons, the unnerving sense of tension from even the simplest of enemy's or invaders, never-mind the bosses. Then, you finish it and it becomes this warm fuzzy feeling inside, it's a place you know, it's relaxing in a weird way. Somethings are just hard to put into words about how they make you feel.

Edit: Gotta give a shout out to Breath of the Wild too.

Binding of Isaac Rebirth/Afterbirth+ I've probably put well over 2000 hours into that game on multiple platforms and I will still somehow find new things occasionally.

Without thinking too hard, i'm saying it's among Just Cause 2, Skyrim, Bayonetta (2010 in the west) and Max Payne 3.

MGSV

I tried to do a top 100 games of the decade list if anyone wants to take a peek!

Maybe Dark Souls for me too, for many of the same reasons already mentioned. Changed the way I thought about what kinds of games I enjoy and what I get out of them. The sense obfuscation, the difficulty, the limited explicit narrative, all things I would not have imagined liking but ended up seeking in every game I played from then on. Definitely the game that defined this decade for me in gaming.

But... my favorite game of the decade is probably BOTW. More like a once in a lifetime kind of experience. Would feel weird to me to call it the game of the decade because it almost seems to stand outside of it, and I can't imagine anything capturing again what I felt playing that game.

Some honorable mentions: FEZ, The Witness, Sekiro, RDR II, MGSV, Persona 5, HITMAN, Outer Wilds, Mario Odyssey,

I am probably forgetting a lot of smaller games, like XBLA releases, and others from the first half of the decade. I don't usually do game of the year lists but now feels like a good time to take stock of the great decade it's been for games.

@liquiddragon: Oh man, I just looked at your list and... I can't believe Ghost Trick came out this decade. That seems literally impossible to me, like a lifetime ago. I guess add that one to the short list as well

Sorry to be a bit dull, but the Game of the Decade for me would have to be Breath of the Wild. My expectations were actually low because a lot of what I saw and read seemed like stuff I'd hate, but that game captivated my brother and I in a way I didn't think I could be as an adult.

However, I should note Super Mario Maker 1 and 2 might be my favorite things released this decade as I've always wanted an official way to make Mario levels. The reason I don't list it as game of the decade though is that I enjoyed the making far more than the actual playing so it felt more like a toolset than a game.

Honorable Mentions include Portal 2 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for both being absolutely fantastic games, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Overwatch for how much fun I've had with friends playing it, and Gravity Rush 2 for being the most underappreciated game I loved.

Rocket league!

I'm torn between Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls. On one hand, nothing made me feel like a little kid who couldn't sleep because he couldn't stop thinking about a game like BotW did. The sense of wanderlust and discovery unparalleled since World of Warcraft.

On the other hand, Dark Souls changed how I play and enjoy games, preferring to play games on a harder difficulty setting and dig deep into their mechanics. I find myself unable to play games on lower difficulties now, it had such a profound effect on me.

I'm gonna go with Breath of the Wild. I imagine we will see the inspiration it caused to open world design in the coming years, like we did with Dark Souls & difficulty.

Spelunky, probably. It's a perfect game and I can pick it up and enjoy it any day. Not to mention the two years where I played it every single day for those dailies!

Its probably between XCOM Enemy Unknown or Celeste.

XCOM because I haven't found myself this hooked in a turn based strategy game in a while and I was hooked on this game from 2012 to 2014. Well, I took big breaks in between those times on one campaign. But when I got back to finish the second half, I was hooked with everything with the gameplay. The combat, the research, the base management, the international council support, equipping the right items for each soldier and their progression. Everything. And everything with the progression going from having a nervous XCOM squad with low-tier equipment to having a badass crew with top notch weapons, equipment and Psychic skills felt incredibly satisfying. It might unseat Rome Total War for my favorite strategy game and its without a doubt my favorite PS3 game. It has also been my inspiration to play other quietly TBS games such as Mario + Rabbids, Steamworld Quest and my 2019 GOTY Fire Emblem 3 Houses.

Celeste has a good case too because never did I feel more obligated to complete a game's entire list of levels as I did with Celeste. I adore the hard but tight gameplay and its a game that got me more confident to take on hard games. I felt pretty pumped that I beat the game's 7th and 8th levels, but then the B Sides open up after getting them from the base levels. Throughout Summer and Fall I beat those and then golden strawberries and C-Sides open up. I only got 2 Golden Strawberries, but I wanted to take on the C-Sides. And I managed to beat all of the C-Sides by early November of last year and it wasn't easy. At All. Celeste is honestly the hardest game I beat and I consider beating the C-Sides (namely getting through Chapter 7's C-Side) my best gaming related accomplishment as far as beating incredibly hard game challenges. Celeste's gaming alongside the amazing music, relatable story and characters and the nice visual style made for becoming my favorite platformer as well as one of my favorite games ever.

My reflexive answer to this is Dark Souls but honestly, I'm not sure that's true. Partially because there were a staggering number of great games released this decade, and partially because I think Sekiro is probably be the better game. The only problem being that I still haven't finished it so, I can't call it "the game of the decade" . So, I'm going to punt on both and go with the actual true answer.

Factorio. I know its still in early access but, its still more fun in its current state than most games in their finished state. The design and balance of the game is just soooo good. Like, alot of management-style games try to walk the like of giving you just one percent more things to keep track of than you reasonably can but, don't just don't quite get that balance right. Factorio, manages to get that balance perfectly right. Always making you feel like your just one small improvement away from getting your factory running at peak capacity despite the fact you'll never get there.

If you want me to pick a game that was technically released released this decade, I'd probably choose Hollow Knight.

Honorable mentions go to The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Hitman, Portal 2, The Talos Principle, and The Witness.

I really wanted to say Demon's Souls but then I saw that came out in Feb, 2009. Dang, that game is more than 10 years old?!

Too bad. I can't think of a better answer. Playing Demon's Souls for the first time felt like being a kid and discovering a new genre of game for the first time again. I haven't had an experience like it since and it would go on to be the game I grade other games against for a long time.

Forza Horizon

Skyrim for me. Runner-ups are a bit harder to rank, so I'll just lump them all as one, but I loved Borderlands 2, Life is Strange/Before the Storm, Tales from the Borderlands, Saints Row 3, Witcher 3, and What Remains of Edith Finch.

Either Dark Souls or Dota 2. Both permanently changed my tastes in games and the way I play and look at games. I spent more than 1000 hours with each, and they're each ingrained in my memory as deeply as any game I've ever played.

My eccentric choice: World of Final Fantasy. I love monster capturing games and this was just such a gigantically polished one of these. Other similar games just feel so embarrassing now looking back on what they don't even care to do. Recent additions very much included.

More popular choice: REmake 2. While I still love REmake 1 more: REmake 2 feels like the perfected idea of a third person action/horror game.

I think I'm going to go with Persona 5. I also want to give a shout out to FF XIV, just because it made such an incredible come back. Also Bayonetta 2 for best action game of the decade. Oh and Doom 2016 for best FPS!

Toss up between Dark Souls & Binding of Isaac: Rebirth with Fallout: New Vegas trying to jump in the ring.

edit: Trying to think about this led to me throwing together a quick list.

Witcher 3 by a country mile.

Mass Effect 2. One of the first games of the decade and the best game of the decade.

It's the Witcher 3 for sure. Very possibly the best RPG.

Mass Effect 2. It's probably not as influential as some of the other games people have mentioned, but playing that game for the first time was a revelation. When I think about what I want from story-driven, action-adventure games more often than not I'm looking for something that'll make me feel what I felt the first time I played Mass Effect 2.

Witcher 3. I'm a basic bitch.

Ummm.. hmm. I started making my GOTY user lists in 2014. So in the three years before that I don't have nice thorough lists to remind me what I played and thought.

I guess my initial thought is Dark Souls but really, its everything From Software has done this decade. I know a lot of people believe Dark Souls (or Bloodborne) is the best of any of the games.. but I kinda like them all equally. But I guess you'd have to pick the original Dark Souls because of what an effect it had on the industry as a whole. Design wise, but also critics and coverage. After basically an entire decade prior to it of progressively "easier" or simpler games. More forgiving, let's say. Dark Souls reminded people what a genuine sense of accomplishment felt like after overcoming a challenge . What it felt like to discover a game and world for yourself. I loved the unique aesthetic and the relatively straight forward combat but it was about crushing all these lazy bad habits you'd developed as a player, but also a person. Having patience. Knowing when to walk away. Execution and rising to the challenge. You are your own worst enemy. Then the mysterious narrative, which was fun to read and puzzle it out online via a forum with people. Reading tons of posts of people brainstorming theories and trying to connect the dots. Before there were talented people putting together lengthy lore videos online.

So much of these concepts have found their way into titles over the decade. There is Demons' Souls of course, and I did beat that at release, but Dark Souls is where those games really found their audience and took off.

There is also The Witness.

I really am that guy mad about how Demon's Souls gets overlooked, both as a better game and the one that actually started it all. Don't get me wrong, Dark Souls is next best in the series but there are things they walked back in Dark Souls that have never been as ambitious and out there as Demon's Souls.

Not saying it would win here anyway since it came out in 09.

The Talos Principle. I would entirely understand if someone were to play it and see it as "just Portal but without the humor" or "The Witness but not as painstakingly crafted," but I have no reservations considering it my top pick. There's a lot that goes into that assessment, but I guess the short version is that it felt surprisingly personal. Plenty of RPGs have tried and failed (or not really tried at all!) to connect me to their world, but The Talos Principle drew me in, and did it with the pretty limited toolset of a puzzle game.

Probably Breath of the Wild. No, not a perfect game - I could see why others do not like it. But the sheer joy of exploration clinches it at the top for me.

Runner up is God of War. I had zero interest in GoW before it released - while I enjoyed the original GoW, I didn't think it was especially groundbreaking or anything. GoW (2018), however - it was just a joy to play. It certainly doesn't hurt that it's also probably the prettiest game I've seen.

What's funny is that there was this HUGE"Game of the Generation" tournament we had on these forums years ago back in 2012/2013. Mass Effect 2 beat Dark Souls by a narrow vote. You barely hear the words "Mass Effect 2" uttered in 2019, where Dark Souls is basically ubiquitous.

Just goes to show how a zeitgeist doesn't necessarily follow immediately in the footsteps of a game's release.

@inevpatoria: To be fair, several Souls like games come out every year since 2015, while I struggle to find any game like Mass Effect 2 since Mass Effect 3. By "game like Mass Effect 2", I mean a cinematic visual novel with a science fiction setting and servicable cover based shooting.

The Witcher 3 because of its unparalleled characters and quests. Although Bloodborne comes close too because of its amazing gameplay and world and maybe even Skyrim because of its world.

The Witcher 3. Such a big, lush world with an incredible main story with great writing and so many side quests that also had great writing and made me care about them. Not to mention even to this day it’s still a fantastic looking game. Never have I been more immersed in a game before. Just an incredible game.

Monster Hunter World probably. It's hard to say. There are games that had higher highs like MGS V & Breath of the Wild but MHW has been consistently great since it launched and i'm still playing it.

I might do a top ten games of the decade list. I've been doing GOTY lists since 2010 but I skipped the last few years since I wasnt really feeling it.

@stephen_von_cloud:I just find it odd that in the reverence for Souls games, it seems like people forget Demons' Souls existed. I'd say Demons' Souls for sure is the root of the design. From what I remember, it's pretty much the same game except for it's world structure and the light/dark aspect. But yea, it wasn't from this decade and for whatever reason, it didn't gain it's momentum til Dark Souls.

@boozak I was thinking about doing a list while looking over this thread. Went and looked up a 2013 release list and threw a bunch of games down I remember playing. Talk about a trip down memory lane.. three more years to go.

It's such a long time frame that this sort of question doesn't have a set in stone answer for me. Right now I would say Final Fantasy XIV, but I'm also playing a lot of it again. I may have a different top spot in a week or so.

@seikenfreak: Demon Souls can, I believe, feel like a sort of prototype for a lot of people these days. It's important for what it introduced but can be hard to deny the problems that later games ironed out and perfected.

Your post is right on but there are notable differences, but the most notable ones are things that were actually walked back by Dark Souls for the negative. For example, Demon's Souls has a more closely integrated online component, it has a great message system they never replicated in the series, it has a multiplayer/invader boss in it. I also think it's difficulty level is exactly what I'm looking for, hard but not bosses with 3 different phases or way too many bosses. It even has a boss which is a cakewalk but on purpose and is hauntingly memorable, way more so than the overabundance of samey bosses in Dark Souls sequels at times since.

To your point about another difference, they have the light and dark tendency system which was not the best really but to your point other than that it feels like Dark Souls, which makes to me some of the talk around Dark Souls a bit annoying since it was not the first game doing this stuff.

Then personally I find the story and music far better, and other elements and you get to how it's my favorite. I really hope they do that big remake of it soon because it deserves more love.

So yeah, not to correct but agree with you because otherwise they play really similarly. It's what gets me a bit when you see everyone praise Dark Souls. I was big on Gamefly when that game came out and gave Demons Souls a shot and was blown away by it after an initial shock of difficulty and confusion.

It is surprising there hasn't been more of a ME rip off but then again EA can't even do ME right now so. It's definitely not an easy game concept.

I actually think Outer Wilds felt quite Bioware-y in ways but it wasn't that good of a game unfortunately.

Darkest Dungeon, with Stardew Valley just a fart behind it.

Senran Kagura: Estival Versus.

@seikenfreak@stephen_von_cloud

The world design took Dark Souls far beyond Demon's in terms of lasting appeal. You don't get the feverish lore discussion and speculation and that's arguably why Dark Souls endures. On top of that, it reached a bigger audience.

@shindig: All those aspects are in Demon's Souls and you can go find lots of lore and breakdown on that game as well if you want since it all started there. It was just done again in Dark Souls and then built on in subsequent Dark Souls games. Demon's Souls stands alone but I think the lore and story are best in the series in that one.

The bigger audience part is right and the why to the question, but for me when I play the second game in the series I go back to the first.

Both are great games just saying my point of view on it. If people prefer Dark Souls that's great but it was really a sequel. There's no doubt there were refinements in ways, but losses in others and I just think Demon's Souls deserves a lot more love and credit.

@stephen_von_cloud: The problem with Demon's Souls lore is that the areas feel like you just teleport into entirely separate vignettes and nothing has a cohesive feel to it. Whereas Dark Souls now is known, sometimes hyperbolically, for how incredibly interconnected it is.

That might well also apply to Demons Souls but clearly didn't establish it quite so well.

Jazzpunk. That's it, that's my post. Sorry!

It's been a great decade so I'd have a really tough time picking. Dark Souls, Persona 5, Breath of the Wild, Mass Effect 2, Witcher 3, Diablo 3 RoS, The Last of Us, Stardew Valley, Civilization V, and Monster Hunter World have all had a huge impact on me over the last decade. So that would probably be my top 10. I'd have to give it some more thought though.

Demon's Souls was released in 2009 anyway. So it doesn't qualify no matter how much you argue. If anything Demon's Souls was a "sketch" while Dark Souls was the "finished painting". Without Dark Souls, Demon's Souls wouldn't have been of much importance.

Dota 2 or Dark Souls. Probably Dota 2. If someone said 'make a teamsport that's entirely made for PC, with no resemblance of traditional sports' i think Dota 2 is the best thing you can make. Every aspect of that game, from the day/night cycle, the clock , the trees, the meeting point of creeps to the water has gameplay implications.

As of this year, it's Devil May Cry 5. It really took that kinda gameplay to its peak and managed to include a fairly heartwarming story all things considered and some stellar tracks on top of it. It's so focused and tight and there aren't any other viable competitors this decade - that I have played, anyway.

Persona 5, Breath of the Wild, Link Between Worlds, Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, Dragon's Crown, Undertale, Super Mario Odyssey, Skullgirls, Sekiro, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Skyrim, Rayman Origins and Street Fighter 5 are all justifiably games I would put on my top 10 of the decade. Bayonetta too, if we follow the Western release date. Some of them are definitely as good as DMC5 is within their own genres, while others I have a lot of personal affection for, and they might have taken the top spot on a different day.

Street Fighter 3 Online Edition might not count, but I adore that as well. I have also played loads of older games this decade, like Ratchet & Clank, Klonoa, or Chrono Trigger. Depending on what the criteria were, these games might be up there for my favorite games I played within the last decade for the first time.

Favourite game of the decade? Bloodborne. Honorable mentions to Banner Saga, Hotline Miami and a bunch of others, but I don't feel like listing them all out right now.

What do I think the most important game of the decade was? Dark Souls, again without a doubt. It's also very close to being my personal favourite game of the decade. Demon's was the first, but Dark Souls hit big and has had some of the most wide ranging influence on the industry since it came out. We're seeing numerous games every year, from the big budget triple A games in established franchises to small indie games, taking clear inspiration of Dark Souls. Also, something not often though about, it may not be the cause, but Dark Souls was there at the beginning when Japanese games started to get regular PC ports. Not sure if it was the cause, but the PC version of Dark Souls hit big.