My Top 10 of 2018

The year is coming to a close and there is no better place on the internet than videogames.com to present and talk about my 10 favorite games of 2018. According to my list, around 90 games have been played in some capacity.

A lot of the games mentioned here were played on my german youtube or twitch channel. If you wish to check these games out and get a more detailed impression, feel free to visit the "About me" section.

Before we start, I would like to mention that not every game listed was released this year. Also I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum.

Mentions

• RUINER - Fast-paced action combined with a dirty cyberpunk setting, thrilling soundtrack and a world filled with morally corrupt enemies, waiting to be executed with what the game oozes: Styyyyyyle.
  The silent but still talkative protagonist thanks to his stylish headgear-display gets send out like an attack dog to rescue what he holds most dear: His brother.
  Every level you enter on your search will instantly be met with hostility. Enemies can appear throughout the level, but the bulk of them are fought in open-space areas that are conveniently barricaded during these sequence. Once the arena combat starts, the game throws either a lot of people and/or firepower at you. In these situations, good weapons, strategy, and abilities you unlock during your playthrough, are needed to succeed.
  The game offers close and ranged combat with a wide arsenal of melee weapons and firearms. Every weapon, minus your starter one, the Pipe, has a set amount of durability. This forces you to either be quick in picking up new ones as the old ones are exhausted, or become skilled enough by focusing on the slow-down and the dash ability to start the clobbering while zipping around all over the fighting area.
  Having either a strong weapon or being able to "Tracer"-around the fighting area to take out the opposition has been my playstyle of choice, there are other options, like relying on shield or using stun and explosives. A big plus is that you are not bound to your choices when it comes to abilities. You can relocate your skill points whenever you need to.
  RUINER is a visually pleasing, compact experience that executed what it set out to do flawlessly. The only disappointment stems from its length. A short game isn't always a bad thing, but the game's ending caught me by surprise, as it felt like you only just reached the mid-point.
• Tacoma - An significant improvement on Gone Home's exploration formula thanks to a more satisfying visual presentation of the story. You are not just un- & discovering the story by look at pictures and reading messages that were left behind, the help of FutureTechnology(TM) allows to witness what has transpired through holographic projection. This allows the game to, not just figuratively, add more character to the story.
  Learning about Tacoma's emotional story and meeting the, if indirectly, charismatic crew of a now deserted space-station is only pushed off the list as there have been even better games.

10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

We are smashing through the snow with the December release of the fifth installment of this series. This time we didn't get to ponder who is in it or who is not. Everyone was invited. We can accept that there are roughly five Fire Emblem clones (now called Echo Fighter) in the game as no one has been booted for it. You got what you wanted. Its a huge service to the fans.
Unless you are a genuine fan of Waluigi. According to Nintendo, you don't exist. Whoops.

The amount of content Ultimate offers is enormous. The amount of fighters, stages, game modes. Just listing it in this way feels like a huge disservice.

Smash Bros. has always been the way I personally enjoy fighting games the most. While there is something to the idea of having to invest time to master a fighter, at the same time, buying a game filled with so much just to limit yourself to so little always felt like a waste.
Obviously there are still things to learn and master, but its great to see this huge amount of fighters, pick any one of them and, thanks to the control scheme, being able to play immediately.

The game only sits at the start of the list as its release date didn't allow for that much time to be allocated to it. With a little bit more time, this game could have easily climbed a few more spots.

09. Heroes of the Storm

Being turned from a fan of Blizzard games to a Doomsayer in such a short time hurts. Starting with the release of World of Warcraft's latest expansion Battle for Azeroth, which is riddled with bad decisions and an unwillingness to change course, a lackluster Blizzcon with a little bit of tone-deafness on top, to the announcement that Heroes of the Storm won't see the same level of support anymore, as Staff has been relocated and content plans halted.

Heroes of the Storm is for me in the same category as Smash Bros. I never understood the craze for these other MOBAs. They require so much out of you, yet are filled with archaic and unrewarding mechanics or ideas.
This game cuts out all the unnecessary parts and focuses on a more enjoyable experience. Blizzard also had the brilliant idea of relying on their already existing IPs for their playable characters.

Next they identified that its incredibly dull to just play the same map more than maybe thrice in a game session. Creating maps with different objectives, once again themed after Blizzard's other IPs, allows for even more variety, as well as strategy.

Since the release of "HotS 2.0" I have played this game almost every single day. I look forward to the new announcements of characters and stages. They may appear less often, if at all, but I will stay on this ship until Activision will push the Iceberg into the water.

08. Two Point Hospital

Management simulations are all about building something from the ground up. Starting small and improving step by step. In Two Point Hospital, the spiritual successor of Theme Hospital, you are in charge of building hospitals throughout the county.

The game is filled with charm. From the graphic style, the announcers, to the numerous and comical diseases. It feels rewarding to build a functioning hospital, to expand and adapt when new challenges appear and master the objectives of your current level until you move onto the next and do it all over again.

As much as I enjoy "city" builder of this kind, Two Point Hospital sadly slipped considerably in my rankings as I progressed through the game and learned more about the inner workings.
Your hospital can quickly fall apart through bottlenecks, as patient always have to, often multiple times, return to the general practitioner after every visit in one of your diagnostic rooms.
Its possible to train your staff to reach a diagnose faster and have a higher chance of a successful treatment. These qualifications they can have or learn make a huge difference, but what skills they initially have when you hire them are random.
As you unlock more and more special qualifications, your doctors and nurses tend to be more and more Jacks-of-all-trades. With the later on more difficult illnesses, you can't allow to have these kinds of people on your staff. You need specialists.

The next horror is the end game of the last few levels. Despite its lemming-like nature where you see a lot of patients die, the final objectives of the level require to reach a certain percentage of successful treatment. Often times 90%.
Even with the best staff and upgrades, I had a level that took an additional 4 hours of playtime, as people wouldn't stop dying. The problem aren't the four extra hours. Its that you hospital continues to grow. Especially your staff's desire to get more money. With more experience, raises are demanded. If your hospital is having problems treating its patients (as treatment gives the most money), you can quickly be in the red and never recover from it.
It luckily never happened to me and I hope that this will never change.

Despite all these problems, the good points outweighs the negative ones. It also helps seeing the developer continue to work on the game's problems.

07. Marvel's Spider-Man

We had our fair share of games with New York as a setting, but being able to traverse through it once more as Spider-Man was a blast.

One of the first things you look at in a new Spider-Man game is the swinging. This is one of the few, if not only, that does Spider-Man 2 on the Gamecube justice. It feels great to whizz through the city and even has some neat "I wanted to do that" animations for when you gracefully smack yourself against a building.

The open world is filled with stuff to do. From collectables to random encounters. Everything the typical Open World game has to offer is in it.

The fighting system is inspired from the (Batman) Arkham games and tuned to Spider-Man's powers. Its great to incorporate the spidey gadgets into the fight, launch enemies into the air, sticky them against walls and cars, and dodge and smash your way through them. But at the same time, it can easily happen that the enemy overwhelms you in numbers or in the types of enemies you encounter. Its easily to get around an enemy with a shield. Less so when you also get shot, charged and grabbed at.

The graphics are beautiful. Seeing the textures of Spider-Man's suit and being able to recognize what material he is wearing is amazing.

The game also shines with its story. It thankfully doesn't retell the beginning of Spider-Man as especially the movies have done so over and over again. Peter Parker as Spider-Man has been established. He is known to the people. His opponents know him and his quips. Its as we know it. Just not to 100%. There are a few things they changed and while surprising at first, they are done well.

But with all its strengths, there are weaknesses. For one the constant change of perspectives. Towards the end you don't get to play as Spidey for a number of times. Also. Its pacing. It feels like the story of two games where pressed into one, where the first part roughly takes up 90% of it.
You can definitely argue that the game focuses too much on the first part, but I would rather say that its sad how little time we got for the second part.

The new Spider-Man does a lot of things right and I'm excited about what Insomniac has in store for us with the sequel.

06. A Hat in Time

This adorable little 3D Platformer is the execution of what we remembered Super Mario Sunshine to be. A fun, beautiful and charming game.

While we learned that Sunshine isn't all that great (anymore?), A Hat in Time presents colorful worlds filled with charming and hilarious playable and non-playable characters.

One of the big gameplay aspects I grew to dislike with Super Mario Odyssey was how trivial collecting Moons became. With the exception of a handful of rather difficult ones, every world was cluttered in them, offering little to no challenge.

A Hat in Time returns to the level structure of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine in that most time pieces are connected to the stage of a world and those can change. You can have the World in the normal stage, one where it rains and another where all hell broke loose. With every stage, things are different. I loved seeing the game change with its story. It made it feel alive.

There are many platformers out there, but there aren't many that have managed to captivate me as much as A Hat in Time.

05. Slay the Spire

This card-based Roguelike became my addiction during the summer months of this year.

Slay the Spire lives from the choices you can, and maybe sometimes can't, make. You choose a character, each focusing on different playstyles. Whenever you encounter an enemy, with each turn you draw cards and have to spend your energy(/mana) to play these cards to defend yourself and defeat your adversaries.

With each victory, new cards can be added to your deck. Sometimes even relics are available, which can have a huge impact on your playstyle. As they offer bonuses, or maybe even restrictions. You have to plan ahead, as not only enemies await you. There are random events, shops and rest stops. All of them are important as they are needed to prepare yourself for the fight against the Boss at the end of each world.

But even with the best preparations, unlike a game like The Binding of Isaac, there are certainly moments where you feel like you couldn't have done much against what just happened.

Yet Slay the Spire still manages to draw you in. You want to try again. Try to improve on what you did wrong last time. If you succeed, it feels incredibly rewarding. If not, you just try again.

Slay the Spire became the game I played whenever I wasn't sure what to do. It reached a point where I played 5-6 runs a day and it needed an 18 hour Marathon run to stop my addiction.

For now.

04. Hitman 2

Hitman 2 is more of Hitman 1. Thats all I every asked for.

Hitman 1 laid an incredible groundwork and the sequel continues to make use of it with improved gameplay, more locations and targets, as well as a heavier focus on a story.

Hitman is a hidden in plain sight stealth game. You don't crawl through the shadows. You are a master of disguise. Steal the right uniform and you can infiltrate the place right under their noses.

Obviously there are limitations. You can't get everywhere with a disguise and there are others who can identifiy you, but once you get past these checkpoints, you are somewhat free to explore.
This is where this game really shines. It is filled with a huge variety of assassination options and other details. You could just shoot your target. You could also throw a knife. Or drop a chandelier. Or poke him with a poison syringe. Or push off a cliff. Or. Or. Or.
There are also a few more elaborate ones. Often times scripted. There are clues on how to find them, but the game also offers to just point you in the right direction. Its a welcome option as most levels are gigantic in size and finding whatever hint you might have heard of isn't always easy to decipher.

As there are so many ways to eliminate your targets, the game's idea is to replay these missions and see and do all these options. The game isn't that long if you only play each mission once.
Every level offers so much. I personally enjoy the more glamorous areas. The fashion show in Paris, the beautiful and sunny Sapienza. The Race Track in Miami or the exclusive and mysterious Isle of Sgàil.

At the same time, there are also some levels that aren't that beautiful. The crowded Marrakesh, the always-hostile military compound. Santa "Dirty Sapienza" Fortuna, the streets of Mumbai. They are still impressive and entertaining, but certainly not my favorites.

What I interestingly somewhat dislike is the story. There already was one in the first game, but it wasn't as pronounced as with the sequel. Its fascinating to hear more about this World's events and characters but at the same time it felt like the game is heavily pushing towards an ending.
I don't want this to end. I want to play many more hitman games. I don't need a timeline trying to pin point every event that maybe leads to plot holes or other problems. Just send me to exotic locations and give me a reason why my target deserves to be impaled by a swordfish.

03. Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu / Eevee

I waited for years for this game to come. To finally leave the handhelds behind and catch Pokemon on a proper resolution and with beautiful graphics.

The announcement of Let's Go certainly wasn't without its doubts, as Nintendo / Game Freak / The Pokemon Company also wanted to draw in the Pokemon GO crowd. As it features different mechanics, people feared that the changes would skewer too much into the direction of the mobile game.

Thankfully, we got a game that still feels like a Pokemon game that also successfully dared to change some things.
After being impressed by the beautiful graphics of the game, the first welcome change is in the way of catching wild Pokemon. No longer do you have to shuffle around on a patch of grass. No longer do you have to fear getting swarmed by Zubats in a cave.
All wild Pokemon can be seen in the world. Don't want to encounter a Pokemon? Just walk past them. Want to catch a specific one? Wait until one spawns and run into it. Its simple, its effective. Please never remove that feature in future games.

One element with the wild Pokemon that is controversial among fans is that you no longer battle wild Pokemon. Like in Pokemon GO, you now only capture them.
At first I wasn't thrilled about it. Roughly 100 hours later, I am now in favor of this change. In the past, there were only minor differences between wild and trainer battles. With wild fights being mostly boring, ignored or truly only done if you wish to capture one. Now there is something new to do.
Catching wild Pokemon also features a new reward system that allows for more EXP gain as long as you "chain"-catch the same Pokemon. This also results in more perfect IVs, more item drops as well as an significant increase in shiny encounters. Leading to me spending most of my time waiting for these different colored Pokemon to appear.

With this being the second remake of Kanto, the first generation's games, it was also time to make this game's story a bit more accessible. While hand-holding can cause some problems and horrible flashbacks to Nintendo games like Skyward Sword, the first Pokemon games had some serious problems in where you had to go at certain times. In Let's Go, the game has added a lot of little ingame cutscenes to hint (or rather: tell) what to do next.
If you don't think that's necessary. Try explaining what you have to do from Gym 2 to Saffron City to someone who hasn't played these games before.

There are certainly more things to improve upon and other mechanics I wished they changed or tuned a little (like the different types or that there are still some Pokemon that require trading to evolve) but Pokemon: Let's Go is an amazing start into the new generation of Pokemon on console and I know I will spend many more hours in this game, trying to catch them all.

02. Yakuza Zero

The Yakuza games always intrigued me. The little I played of Yakuza 4 on the Playstation 3 gave me a glimpse into a world I could very well enjoy. Since these games were scattered all across the Playstation consoles, a good starting point never really existed and just starting in the middle, even if the stories are only loosely connected, felt wrong.

The Yakuza games, like the name suggests, are action brawler with stories focused on the japanese Mafia and their actions in the somewhat fictional area of Kamurocho. Throughout these games you control different Men who are involved in some form with the Yakuza and their clans.

Now comes Yakuza Zero. A new game set before the original start of the series. Finally a starting point!
We got a game with stunning visuals, a complex fighting system that offering a lot of different moves and styles, while not being overbearing or hard to execute, and an engaging and thrilling story that helps laying the groundwork for the upcoming games.

As the main story is a serious and authentic-feeling depiction of how the underground world of the Yakuza works, there is the other side to these games. The side stories and activities.
In these, your otherwise stoic and hard-boiled characters (de?)evolve to loveable goofs that are thrown into the most chaotic and silly situations.

Going from contemplating the death of a friend in an emotional cutscene to helping a woman by pretending to be her boyfriend so her father stops worrying is quite the contrast. But I just have to be honest.
I love it. The game managed to strike the perfect balance. It is dead-serious during the story while allowing for a lot of silly fun outside of it. And there is so much of it! Hundreds of side stories, a bunch of minigames like Karaoke or Mahjong, as well as other activities to generate money or receive new equipment.
The world of Yakuza zero enamored me so much that I did almost everything. Story, substories, hidden Bosses. As I reached my goals and finished the game. I had the situation a few days later where, unsure what to play, I grabbed the Playstation 4 controller to play more Yakuza Zero.

Luckily. There are more Yakuza games! We are not even talking about the old ones from 2005. All the old games are being remaked as "Extreme" versions with Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2 already being out on Playstation 4. 2019 is going to be amazing, as I am able to play even more Yakuza.

This game is a masterpiece. One of the best games I have ever played. Yet it is only second on my list.

01. Persona 5

Persona 5 reaches a new height with the sixth installment of the Persona franchsie. Since Persona 3 its popularity has steadily grown as it found a more satisfying artsytle.

The gameplay of Persona combines leading the normal life of a japanese highschool student with diving into a strange world filled with strange monsters and twisted desires.

The story takes place over the course of a year. Every day is limited to a number of activities the protagonist can accomplish. Depending on the time of day, weather or other factors.
During the weekdays, the average life of a highschool student starts with going to school. During these school days, alongside the progression of the story, other events can transpire. Like answering school questions or getting a seat on the train that can be used to improve your social stats.
After school, a huge amount of opportunities open up. You can meet with friends, go to work to make some money, study, or go to the batting cages. To highlight once more: With a few exceptions, like buying or selling items, any activity you wish to do will advance time! Everything you do has its benefits, but you can only do so much at any given time.

The persona games, at least since the third one, have managed to always improve on their formula. As there is so much to do on any given day, Persona 5 now offers the "Thieves' Guild". A new option hidden behind the touch of the touch screen. Here you can find out what other players have chosen to do. Its handy to get a quick overview what you can do and what others have done.

One of the important aspects of your daily life are the now-called Confidants. Friends you spend time with. They tell the stories of different people over the course of 10 Confidant Ranks.
Its not only interesting to see how these people develop with each new rank, it also has its benefits in the dungeon crawling aspect. In the past, most confidant links were only useful for their EXP bonus when fusing Personas.
With Persona 5, they added more incentives to going after the Confidants, as every one of them unlocks new helpful skills. At the same time, the Confidants themselves are far more interesting. Every one of them brings something to the table to the overarching story.
The social side of this game can take a lot of planning and thinking ahead. Its fun to figure out what needs to be done and be prepared when certain things pop up, but its still not easy to do. Even with the new feature.
There are so many days to go through and you will never remember on which day it will rain so you can buy special items or make use of certain special offers. That is not a bad thing. You aren't required to play through this game perfectly, but if you want go make the most out of it. At least for certain things having a guide to read up on can be helpful.

The other side of the game, the dungeon crawling, is for the most part focused on the advancement of the story. In every of these dungeons, called Palace this time, you get a time limit to reach the end and beat the boss.
As dungeon crawling not only advances time but also will take multiple days, some level of planning is required. In these dungeons, you go in as a team of four. The protagonist, who is fix but can have multiple personas, and three teammates that have their own set of skills, strengths and weaknesses.
This system was once again heavily improved upon. In three, you could only control yourself. In four, you could control all four, but quickly realized that a lot of your teammates were rather useless as they relied on the same attack types, so in five they expanded on the types of attack.
There are now Physical, Gun, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Psychic, Nuclear, Bless and Curse attacks. Every member of your crew now has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. So any latecomers to the story can still be useful, as they use attacks others may not have (besides the main character)

This is entirely subjective but your crew is also far more interesting and varied. As charming as the cast of Persona 4 was, they were just ordinary kids. Here you meet many interesting individuals. With a lot of them bringing skills that will play some role during the story.
Also there aren't as many annoying ones. The "Mascot" character especially, was atrocious in Persona 4. The one in Persona 5 certainly has its moments as well, but he is a far more likeable companion.

The combat in Persona has always been focused on finding the opponents weaknesses while protecting your own. Dealing damage to its weakness downs the enemy. When you manage to down them all, you are still capable to "Go all out" to deal a massive amount of damage.
With Persona 5, you now have three more options. Before choosing what to do, you "interrogate" them, allowing you to also ask for money, items, or to "join your cause". Which means your main character can earn the persona you are currently fighting against.

Another big improvement is that main dungeons aren't procedurally generated anymore. In the past, while it was interesting to see what kind of dungeon theme you get, the dungeons themselves were rather boring, as they were nothing but randomly connected corridors.
Now we get especially designed dungeons. There still are some parts that aren't always that thrilling, but its overall far more interesting. They also improved the way on how you navigate the palaces. The shadows crawling through the place could always be attacked from behind to enable a first-strike attack, but the execution was often times rather clunky.
In five, you can now hide behind objects and ambush enemies with a special animation.

Now the next important part is the fighting UI. In general, the UI oozes with Styyyyyle, but how fast you conduct the combat is a welcome improvement. Every button on your controller is used to do something. Want to attack? Thats a button. Want to change personas? Thats a button. Want to change strategy? Also a button. Its such a huge change. I fear playing other JRPGs will feel slow and archaic.

Next to the amazing UI and style choices. The soundtrack is one of the best I have ever heard. Persona 3 and 4 also featured some great songs. But Persona 5 is one step above them.

Nothing has pumped me up that much when the music starts for the final boss of each dungeon. They managed to craft songs that are not just fitting for the situation at hand. They are memorable. Songs you will listen to years after you have played the game.

Persona 5 has without a doubt its problems as well. The later dungeons for example can drag on for a little bit. But the total package is so overwhelmingly positive. Its not a game. its a masterpiece.

This year in gaming has been amazing.