by majormitch
Compared to other rankings, the "games of the decade" one makes for a weird list. A year is a small enough chunk of time where everything is pretty manageable and comparable, while a generation collects games together based on their shared hardware limitations. A decade, however, spans both more time and more hardware than either metric, and the beginning and end are marked only by our somewhat arbitrary base-ten number system. That serves to make this list itself feel even more arbitrary than your average rankings list, but such arbitrary restrictions are part of the fun, right?
This is my stab at the latest list-making trend, and includes my 25 favorite video games released in North America between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019. It covers an eclectic mix of games from many different genres, budgets, hardware platforms, and periods of design trends. Which, as initially stated, makes for a weird list. But it's also a list of 25 amazing games that I have a lot of fondness for, many of which I'd place among my all-time favorites. A decade is a long time, which affords it a lot (seriously, a lot) of great games. These are my favorite 25 among them.
Two quick notes before we get started. First, I tried my best to order these games by preference, but when ordering the best of the best, the margins are incredibly slim. So don’t put too much stock in the exact order; it’s all in the ballpark. Second, while I could easily write countless more words on why I think every game here is as brilliant as it is, I elected to keep it (relatively) brief here. I’ve written about nearly all of them on this site before, and if you do want to know more, feel free to ask.
And with that, thanks for reading, and have a fantastic day!
Showing 1-10 of 25 items
As an interactive medium, I often think of video games as verbs. One of my favorite verbs is “explore,” and this decade, Breath of the Wild emerged as possibly my favorite “explore” game I’ve ever played. This is a broken version of Hyrule, one that has been beaten down for 100 years, and your exploration reveals just how far it has fallen. You see monsters ravaging the land. You see people struggling to pick up the pieces and survive. You see immense death, decay, and ruin. But you also see so much beauty around the edges. You see gorgeous vistas with spectacular views, wondrous and majestic beings, and strong, optimistic people pushing forward. It’s a vast, diverse, and complete world with no shortage of striking things to see; it’s one of my favorite video game worlds to date. And the additional verbs involved -- climbing, observing, mapping, gliding -- make exploring this world highly rewarding for dozens and dozens of hours. When I think back on the decade that was, and what I look for in this medium of ours, there simply wasn’t a better version of “explore” than Breath of the Wild. For that, it sits here as my favorite game of the decade.
Into the Breach is as close to a “perfect” video game as I can imagine. One of its best traits is how it distills its ideas down to their purest essence; nothing is frivolous or wasted, and every move has clear and meaningful consequences. Yet it never feels watered down either. Instead, Into the Breach interlaces its simple systems in exceptionally smart ways to create stunning depth, and the result is an infinite puzzle generator I have yet to tire of solving. In its design, it’s one of the most elegant and beautiful games I've ever played, full of interesting problems that lead to exciting moments of triumph and disaster. I’ve never had a great answer to the “desert island” question, but with Into the Breach, the 2010s gave me perhaps my closest answer yet.
More than enough has been said about Dark Souls, by me and everyone else; the act of referencing Dark Souls is itself a meme at this point. Yet sitting here at the end of the decade, it’s impossible to look back and not see Dark Souls as one of the most influential and defining games of the 2010s. Few games have dominated “the discourse” so thoroughly, and that includes among game developers themselves. It had a clear impact on game design through the entire decade: games became more willing to challenge us, more willing to take risks, and ultimately became more diverse as a result of Dark Souls’ influence. It altered the course of the medium for the entire decade, and as a fan, I for one am glad it did.
A decade later, Mass Effect 2 still stands as one of the biggest steps towards realizing the dream of interactive fiction among video games I’ve played. Many games have great stories, great characters, and choices that affect their narrative in meaningful ways. But few of them pull it all together this well, much less in a cinematic action game that’s still fun to play in the ways games traditionally are. My journey with Mordin, Tali, Thane, and the rest of the gang is easily one of the most memorable I’ve ever been on, and holds a special place in my heart.
It’s difficult to remember a decade (and three games) later, but before 2010, StarCraft had been gone so long I wondered if it would ever return. Thankfully it did, and it delivered not only one of my favorite RTS campaigns, but also perhaps my favorite multiplayer game (from any genre) to date. StarCraft II's multiplayer dominated large parts of my decade, as I eagerly read patch notes, watched the pros, and spent hundreds of hours battling online. For someone who rarely plays multiplayer games at all, it’s hard to overstate how much of a mark StarCraft II left on me.
Doom is probably my favorite first-person shooter campaign I’ve ever played. That’s a bold claim I don’t make lightly, but this is a case study in great game design 101. It’s an incredibly smart and incredibly polished game where every facet of its design feels just right, and the action is top of its class. I couldn’t stop thinking about Doom for months after I finished it, and still can’t believe that a goofy game about fighting Hell demons on Mars is this good.
XCOM’s blend of strategic base-building and tactical skirmishes was a mesmerizing one that fit right into my personal gaming preferences; not to mention a brilliant, modern reimagining of a classic game. My ironman classic run remains one of my most memorable gaming experiences of the decade, and the handful of close calls that nearly doomed my squad are moments I’ll never forget.
Three Houses, through its spectacular world-building and engaging simulation aspects, got me to care about its insanely huge cast of diverse characters more than Fire Emblem ever has. The way it weaved its narrative trappings within the (still solid) game design elevated one of my favorite franchises to new heights, and absolutely consumed my life for months.
The 2010s saw a resurgence of explorative 2D platformers in the indie space, but none of them pushed the experience as far as Hollow Knight. Between its exceptional world design, precise combat, and striking audiovisual presentation, Hollow Knight was an ambitious, high quality game that elevated a genre that can often feel derivative to bold new heights.
After a decade of making awesome, influential games, From Software capped off the 2010s with perhaps their most polished game yet. They focused in on tight, responsive swordplay centered around parrying, and the result is quite possibly my favorite melee combat in any game I’ve played. Its boss fights are truly incredible gameplay moments that will stick with for a long time.
