by beachthunder
I know many people are considering this to be one of the best years in video game history. Unfortunately, I don't have much interest in a lot of this year's most renowned games. Thankfully, there were still a bunch of games I thoroughly enjoyed.
Runners Up:
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
I had never played a Resident Evil game before this one. And to be honest, I'm probably not going to check out any of the previous games. I'm just a real sucker for first-person horror games, and to my surprise, this is among the best. The game does a fantastic job of atmosphere/sense-of-place, the characters are...interesting..., and there's a lot of "oh, shit!" moments.
A really cool opening, some very immersive immersive sim gameplay, but a garbage ending. Thankfully, 90+% of the game is excellent.
A puzzle-based roguelike featuring a dog who must rescue his elderly owner. This game is just a charming delight all around - from the gameplay to the pixel art to the catchy music.
I was initially put off by the dumb flipping land animal animations. Thankfully, it's the only real blight in an otherwise 'Zen' and thought-provoking game. Also, it's an absolute joy to fill cities/planets/galaxies with all manner of non sequitur objects and animals.
Even after playing through all of it, I still find it hard to believe that this thing is real. Everything about this game's existence seems surreal. I was expecting a throwaway game with a great presentation. but the game is great across the board.
Aside from an annoying glitch (now patched, I believe) that prevented me from progressing, Endless Space 2's a very engrossing 4X game with much more complexity than its predecessor. Also, I absolutely loved playing as the Unfallen race, one of the most creative alien species in any video game.
I got 100% completion with both main characters. I just couldn't stop playing it. The incredibly granular weapon upgrade mechanic really hooked me.
Another Inti Creates game. This time, a reimagining of the original Blaster Master from 1988. Blaster Master Zero takes the skeleton of the original game and builds something wonderful around it.
An adventure game split into four episodes - each playing with your expectations of interactive fiction in clever and surprising ways.
A quirky house filled with quirky story vignettes; the quality of each is pretty hit or miss. But the hits feel jawdropping - particularly the fish one and the water one.