It was a rough year but I managed to come up with some favorite games anyway. There are titles I cut off this list that were probably more fun to actually play than some of these games but didn't do as much to capture my imagination quite like these did.
Near the end of the year I was really struggling to think of what my favorite game would be. I finally got around to this and in the beginning I was honestly sort of unimpressed by it. It's a very slight and simple control scheme based on the few actions you're capable of and the physical laws of a given space. Most of the tutorial won't really prepare you for the somewhat wonky navigation. The REAL useful information is meant to be read and will be the true tutorial of navigating through the secrets of every incredibly unique celestial body that function as levels. Outer Wilds is an archaeology puzzle game where the very construction of this game's universe itself is THE puzzle to unravel and discover. It's easy to take level design for granted but without it this narrative couldn't function and vice-versa. Needless to say at the end of this game the story felt complete. I still have trophies I can track down if I ever decide to play more but now whenever I try to play it, I get sad that I can't ever have the experience of playing through it ever again. Games are made to be finished. It's nice to have something be replayable for the sake of added value in a product purchase but everything in media we consume is meant to end. It's a strange melancholy that matches the themes of the game itself; if a game HAS to end and might as well end definitively. This piece of interactive fiction is exactly what it sets out to be within the means and scope of the studio that poured a solar system's worth of heart and soul into it.
Didn't come out in 2019 but I don't care. I hadn't even played a Divinity game until playing Original Sin 2 this year and I had a fantastic time with it. Once I figured out the quirks to the challenging combat my party rarely wiped even in some of the diciest combat encounters. I was really into how the story leans into the power fantasy of the chosen main character and at the same time depicting the very concept of Divinity as incredibly nefarious and unreliable. I can't say that my ending was particularly satisfying, but I think it was exactly what my character deserved considering what a weirdo he had been. The choices I made as The Red Prince in my first time through ended up weaving one of the strangest tales I've experienced in a high fantasy setting. I have no choice but to concede to the fans who constantly prop this up as an all time great fantasy RPG.
I'm not afraid to admit that I am a fan of this series. It's had ups and downs but it's survived horror(heh) long enough to remain relevant in modern video games. Before playing it I was genuinely like "what is the big deal?" but I wasn't prepared for how good a remake it actually is. Despite how overused zombies are in contemporary fiction (including this franchise) the normal zombies in this game manage to be the most interesting enemy in a setting full of twisted monsters. Their resilience to bullets and aberrant movement patterns mean that backtracking through areas remains tense whether or not you dispatch them and that's even if they're not accompanied by other Umbrella endorsed monstrosities. That dread is further intensified as you start being followed by an imposing and unstoppable tall detective. While it lacks the amazing sense of humor of RE7 it somehow manages to retell the events of RE2 in a way that was familiar yet still scary in a believable way thanks largely to stunning graphics engine and killer sound design.
I personally have not latched onto the trend of battle royale multiplayer games or as I like to call them "sneaky bastard sims". And I absolutely understand the appeal. I can't deny the satisfaction of feeling like you cheated 99 other people out of a victory. It's absolutely where deathmatch style had to go in order to survive. The problem is when I looked at the most popular ones the approach they take to visual design feel either too dull or too all over the place for me to be anything but repulsed by the thought of playing them. Respawn managed to borrow some flavor from Titanfall and Overwatch to make for a much more vibrant feeling to this type of multiplayer. Some may prefer playing alone but I love rolling the dice on teammates as well as opponents. I still have 57 other players to worry about so it's not that big a loss to have two players to possibly back me up in a gun fight. Whether it's with or without your team, engaging a squad will require you to utilize the unique character abilities whenever possible. It's the game I put the most time into this year and yet for as much as I love it I still think Titanfall 2 is more fun. The only reason I didn't play more TFall2 in 2019 is that the matchmaking isn't as quick as it is in Apex. This creative team continues to be on the cutting edge of multiplayer innovation and it will break my heart if that talent never goes on to making a third Titanfall game.
I finally played this and was immediately reminded of why the new immersive formula for Hitman is so great. It's crazy to think that this game could be improved in every way to its predecessor and yet here it is. It might as well be retroactively added to a 'best for all time' list because it is one of the largest concentrations of single player content available on the market.
For the time I played it this game exuded a sense of styyyyyyyyyle like no other. The grimy yet cartoony sci-fi comic book aesthetic, a Rogue-esque-ish-lite-like approach to progression, and the 90's throwback First-Person Shooter game play that brings it together. Not sure that I could bring myself to playing on higher difficulties but my first time through this game was a good time while it lasted.
I gotta be honest I've been chomping at the bit to leave Kiryu's story behind. Rather than continuing that thread Judgment tells the story of Yagami, a brash lawyer turned detective with a sordid past and ties to a Yakuza family. It still has the cliches of a martial arts crime story but also has enough twists and turns that cause me to actively root for these cool dudes to take down some bad fools. The side quests remain goofy little diversions and sometimes will grant some pretty nifty benefits. I also sort of figured out Mahjong so that's a noteworthy feat. If there's a reason this game can't be higher on my list it's that it sticks a bit too close to the Yakuza formula. Even so it manages to weave a tale I personally liked more than most of the threads involving Kiryu.
This was the last game I played for the year. I've been trying to put my finger on why I still think this game is good in spite of the messy subject matter. I think most of the appreciation I have for it comes from the realization that this probably couldn't ever be made by a North American studio. It expresses a complexity of indie development being from all over the world these days and the exceptional ideas that spring out of it. It's not exactly a clean project, not design wise and certainly not thematically. It's a provocative story less about watching a hero overcome odds to save the day but rather just witnessing this human-shaped trash bag stumble his way into the most bizarre epiphanies. If streamlined a bit and given a higher scope for production it could be one of the best RPGs ever made. As it stands it is still just unrefined enough that I'd only call it one of the most interesting games to come out this year, but far from the best.
Another thing from last year I didn't get around to until 2019. It's not a particularly fun or cool character action game but it is positively fascinating how the narrative and progression are structured. There is a veritable smorgasbord of NPCs to prey upon and it's rarely presented as a profound loss to society given how morally ambiguous so many of them end up being. Although this game seemingly has no ties to the Vampire the Masquerade fiction it is undoubtedly one of the coolest interpretations of that setting I've seen in games.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit let down by this considering it's a follow up from the director of the Zero Escape games. In the end I think it was worth playing. It's got a great looking art style and some terrific English voice performances. I think I'm just not nearly as horny as this game thinks I am.
