My 2nd Annual belated top 10 games list

Well I originally planned to have this thing done in the first two weeks of the new year then a bout of procrastination followed by dose of the wonderful rhythm game Cytus 2 resulted me putting this off for another several weeks. Anyways hope you enjoy the list!

Games that came out before 2018 that I played in 2019:

Assassin’s Creed: Origins - I played maybe the first 10 hours of this game in 2018, and it just didn’t grab me. When I returned to it in early 2019 it finally got its hooks in me and it's basically all I played until I finished it along with its DLC. Aya and Bayek are the best protagonists in the series. The world is gorgeous and fun to explore, and the game play is simple but fun. I honestly wasn’t expecting that Origins would become my favorite game in the series after its initial reveal really turned me off, but boy am I glad I was wrong.

Pillars of Eternity - I never thought I’d ever actually finish this game. In all my previous attempts I’d follow some elaborate build guide to make an optimized character that was way beyond my understanding of the games systems, and I’d inevitably stop playing before finishing Act 1. After picking up POE2 on a sale I decided to buckle down and actually play this game to completion. I decided to roll a fighter since that's the class I usually play in tabletop RPGs. My character was a Wild Orlan (think halfling but more furry) from Deadfire Archipelago so I decided she would use sabres and pistols basically becoming a pirate tank. Anyways turns out this game is really good when you stop worrying about being optimal and just enjoy the cool world and story Obsidian crafted.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen - Turn based tactics has become one of my favorite genres since picking up Fire Emblem: Awakening years ago. I had owned XCOM 2 for awhile but never finished it, and while I think base XCOM 2 was already a great tactics game War of the Chosen is truly on another level. The 3 new factions and respective classes add some great diversity to the standard XCOM classes. The Chosen showing up on missions always created an interesting (and sometimes terrifying) wrinkle in my plans, and while the strategy layer remains the weakest part of XCOM 2 the new covert ops helped keep it more engaging than before.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

CrossCode, Return of the Obra Dinn, Yakuza 6, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden - These Games all fall into the “I haven’t played them long enough, but I’ve enjoyed what I have played” category, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say about most of them in 2020 when I write this article late again.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - This game didn’t make my list simply because none of my friends played it. As far a mechanics go this is the most enjoyable fighting game I’ve played. I mostly spend time in the lab working on combos when I play. When I do take my team (Yang, Gordeau) online I always have fun even when I usually get crushed.

Destiny 2: Forsaken - This was the most fun I’ve had with Destiny since Taken King. The shooting feels as good as ever, and the stuff around the shooting is the best it's ever been. The new competitive multiplayer mode Gambit puts the crucible to shame in terms of fun factor, and the dreaming city patrol zone is both a great piece of endgame content, and experimental storytelling. I hope Bungie can keep making Destiny 2 a game I’m excited to jump back into whenever I feel like it, and Forsaken was a step in the right direction.

The Messenger - I heard the back half of this game is kind of a drag so I just played through the ninja gaiden like part of the game. That part of the game was really fun, and I enjoyed the humor with the shopkeeper. So even though I’ll probably never finish this game I can say the parts of it I did play were very enjoyable.

Dark Souls: Remastered - The souls games are some of my favorite games of all time. Particularly the first Dark Souls so having a version I can play on the go is great even if the frame rate still struggles, but I have the PC version for a stable 60 so it's not that big of a deal.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey - As you read above I fell in love with Origins early this year which made me much more excited for Odyssey. I did enjoy my time murdering my way through ancient Greece as Kassandra, but overall I think this game is a step down from Origins. The story and characters in Odyssey are overall weaker than Origins, and some of the conclusions are baffling in their over the top stupidity. I also found the combat to be less fun as the added complexity hurt my enjoyment rather than help. The option to force enemy level scaling also dragged the experience down for me as part of the reason I enjoyed Origins so much is that I was vastly overpowered for the majority of that game.

Top 10 games of 2019:

10 - Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate

It’s nice to have Smash Bros game I’m excited to play again. After playing a ton of melee and brawl in high school, I barely touched 4, and the time I spent with it was primarily the 3DS version. Maybe that’s one of the reasons Ultimate is working so well for me, but that's selling the game short. Ultimate boasts a staggeringly large roster of characters coming from every single entry in the series along with some great newcomers, and I’m proud to say I finally unlocked the full roster a couple of nights before writing this. Classic mode hasn’t changed much structurally from the 3DS version of 4 but each character has a unique theme to their version which determines everything from what kind of stages you’ll fight on, who your opponents will be, and even the final boss can change such as fighting Dracula as the Belmonts, or a Rathalos from Monster Hunter as Marth. The new adventure mode World of Light is a love letter to video games history Nintendo and beyond mixing battle modifiers, opponents, and music to reference the most popular characters to the deepest of cuts. It’s also still a blast to play with friends whether your a no items final destination purest, or item loving agent of chaos.

9-Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

This game is mostly here because of how much I enjoyed my time playing through the first game this year, but I wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t picked this game up during a sale. So far the bits I’ve played of Deadfire are all improvements on the previous game. The setting is more interesting focusing on a pirate infested Archipelago instead of a relatively standard fantasy setting. The story is a great continuation of the first game, and starts off in a way I really didn’t expect, but I’m excited to see where they’ll take the premise. Combat is mostly the same with some cool new features, and leveling is easier to understand than it was in the first game. The character I rolled in the first game also comes from the Deadfire Archipelago so in a weird way playing this game feels like coming home.

8 - Tetris Effect

I’m so glad I got over the price tag for this game. I’ve been playing tetris since I first started playing games on my parents NES, and this is one good tetris game. The different stage effects, excellent soundtrack, and the stellar tetris itself make this game an absolute joy to play. The game also has little musical flares when you perform actions like rotating pieces or clearing lines making you feel like an active participant in the music further drawing you in. Once your done experiencing all the stages in the main journey mode you can check out a bunch of different modes of play, including a classic endless mode, marathon mode, and the ever impressive master mode. It's nice to be excited to play tetris again, and know I’ll have a destination for any such tetris related desires for years to come.

7 - Dragon Ball FighterZ

I’ve enjoyed Dragon Ball for several years but more as an onlooker than an actual fan. This game helped me change that. Not only is FighterZ an excellent fighting game both to look at and play it's also a nostalgic love letter to the series featuring many small details, and easter eggs only people who love the source material would bother including. FighterZ was also the most fun I had watching esports in 2018 as I checked in on the scene watching the wonderful rivalry develop between SonicFox and Go1 culminate in that amazing final at EVO. So thanks Dragon Ball FighterZ for turning this fair weather fan into a true believer.

6 - Battletech

Did I mention I like turn based tactics games? In terms of traditional tactics games Battletech takes the cake this year. Every mission in this game feels tense simply because Victory isn’t as simple as completing the mission objective. Victory is completing the objective while not taking so much damage that mission becomes a wash financially. This game tasks you with running a merc company which spends most of its time floating just above the red (which is extremely my jam). It's also a game where you’re never going to have a perfect victory, something is going to get damaged and you better hope it's not severe enough to push you over the ledge. The game’s writing is also great and especially shines during the periods where you’re traveling between missions, and your team tries to find ways to kill time in some… interesting ways. The new career mode the team has added since I last played sounds cool as it takes away the lucrative story missions making progression more meaningful, and new mission modifiers giving your team a reason to keep the smaller mechs around.

5 - God of War (2018)

This is only the 2nd God of War game I’ve played. I bought the original God of War based on a recommendation from a friend, and quickly tired of it. At the time I just got bored with the gameplay as I found it very repetitive, but looking back now those original games do even less for me. Which is why I’m very surprised I liked this game as much as I did. First off it's a damn gorgeous game even on my standard PS4. The combat is probably my favorite action combat barring Bloodborne thanks to its variety and brutality. Wandering around the different realms of Norse mythology completing combat challenges, doing side quests, and exploring dungeons was a blast. God of War found a great way to handle exposition dumps with the character of Mimir who acts as a storyteller for all things Norse mythology making the boat rides from place to place in the central hub something to look forward to rather than dread. I also enjoyed to story of a father and son connecting, and growing closer through shared grief. However the story doesn’t treat its female characters well often shunting them into positions of plot devices rather than real characters which is very frustrating, and the overall pacing is all over the place. Also as a huge Stargate SG-1 fan I fanboyed out when I realized Christopher Judge was the voice of Kratos.

4 - Monster Hunter: World

I’d tried to get into this series once before on the 3DS but playing a complex action game on a portable has never been something I enjoy. So I was really excited when Capcom announced that they were finally bringing Monster Hunter to modern consoles with World. I took me a bit of experimenting before I found my weapon of choice, but once I got a handle on the switch axe I never looked back. Monster Hunter basically took over my life for the next two months as I moved my way through the story getting to newer and more exciting monsters as I went. The loop of fighting Monsters to get parts and craft better gear was satisfying especially as you started to learn a monster’s quirks, and exploit them for faster kills/captures. Despite the frustratingly obtuse multiplayer of world it’s probably the game I spent the most time online in besides Destiny 2 as I would jump into other players hunts to help them take down tough prey, or call for help when a Monster was giving me particularly hard time. Even though I haven't played much since early summer I still think about jumping back in and checking out the new monsters, quests, and events the team has been adding to the game since I put it down.

3-Into the Breach

Into the Breach is the best puzzle game I’ve ever played. Yeah it's technically a turn based tactics game where your squad of 3 time traveling mechs takes on giant bugs (vek) that are wiping out the last of the human race, but the act of playing it feels much closer to solving a chess puzzle. This is largely due to how much information the game gives you before you take your turns. The vek telegraph exactly what they will do at the start of every turn and it's up to your squad to minimize the damage to buildings, and objectives you’re tasked with defending. You do this by killing, moving, or blocking the veks attacks by using a variety of mechs with different abilities ranging from a simple punch, artillery strikes, switch places, and much much more. Into the Breach is also a roguelike where you must complete 4 missions on an Island each with their own set of objectives before facing off against the boss bug of that island. Depending on how well you do on those missions you’ll get currency to spend after finishing an island that you can spend on things like new abilities, more power for the grid (your overall health), or power cores for your mechs. You can complete anywhere from 2 to 4 islands before attempting the final mission which scales accordingly allowing runs to be as long as you want them to be. This game is also incredibly fun to play with friends where you spend 10-20 minutes on each turn discussing what the right moves would be. One of my best memories of the year was beating into the breach on hard with a friend.

2-Red Dead Redemption 2

I like this game a whole lot, but I also agree with almost every criticism it has received from reviewers and fans. First off no game is worth the human cost it seems like Red Dead 2 took to make. The stories coming out about Rockstar’s labor practice are horrendous and deeply frustrating especially when you consider that out of every company in the games industry Rockstar is the one that can afford to take their time and not overwork employees. As much as I loved my time with Red Dead 2 I can’t help but look at parts of it and wonder if it was really worth the cost. That being said I absolutely loved my time with RDR2. I enjoyed the game so much I played through it two and a half times by the time this is being written. Arthur Morgan has maybe my favorite character arc in games, and while I think the macro story isn’t well paced his personal story along with other strong characters like Sadie, Charles, and John kept me invested even when I was becoming frustrated with the macro plot. The last mission is maybe the most I’ve ever cried while playing a game. I also enjoyed the epilogue which I thought did a great job of setting up the events that would result in the start of RDR1. Gameplay wise it was pretty much what I expected from a Rockstar game with simple cover shooting, lots of horse riding, gambling, and a potentially more complex than it needed to be hunting system. I do want to applaud Rockstar for giving the player more verbs than violence while interacting with the world as I loved walking around the towns exchanging howdys with everyone, or bonding with my horse. In the end Rockstar made what I think is the best version of their style of open world game, but that style feels outdated now with games like Breath of the Wild using their open world in much more interesting and engaging ways.

1-Celeste

I knew this game was going to make my list back when I played it in the early part of the year, but I never expected it would end up on top. I do love 2D platformers, as Super Mario Bros 3 was one of the first games I played, and beat. However the super hard platformers like meat boy never did much for me. So while the great level design and fine tuned controls of Celeste did a great job on-boarding me the aesthetics of the game are what really drove this game up my list. First off the music in this game is beautiful, and it's easily my favorite game soundtrack of the year, each level’s song fits so perfectly with what you’re doing, and builds accordingly as you reach each levels climax. Some songs will fill you with joy, and excitement, or discomfort, and anxiety reflecting what Madeline is feeling as she makes her journey up Celeste Mountain. The story itself is a simple tale of learning to understand, and accept the parts of yourself that you don’t like, but it's told in a very affecting way. While I enjoyed the story well enough when I first played the game all those months ago it came to mean much more to me over the course of the year, as I dealt with being unemployed for a long time, and the many different feelings that situation can bring. Not long ago I revisited Celeste, and finished a 2nd playthrough where I got all the collectables in the main game. That playthrough helped cement my feelings on Celeste as my number one game of 2018. Now onto the B-Sides!