ArbitraryWater's Favorite Games of 2018 (that came out in 2018)

Boy, 2018, am I right? It’s been a weird rollercoaster for me, with plenty of good stuff and goals accomplished to go alongside the endless nightmare of our current political reality™ and the more personal nightmare of sometimes life sucks.™ For better or worse, I haven’t exactly written as much as I thought I would. I wouldn’t exactly say the Giant Bomb’s blogging community (or the forums in general) is super active these days, so motivating oneself to pump out a 1000+ word internet blog can be difficult. Somehow, my incredulous teardown of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was the most successful thing I’ve posted since 2015, which probably says something about something. That said, the less depressing reason I only ended up writing three blogs this year is simply that I’ve been pretty busy between school, work, and various other adult-ish responsibilities. I plan on still doing what I can, when I can, and I hope you’ll join me along the way.

If I’m going to be totally honest, I’ll be glad to see another fresh year of video games. This list was harder to compile than I thought it would be, and I wouldn’t say it’s because I had an overabundance of games to choose from. While I would happily, unabashedly recommend the games on this list, I wouldn’t say anything blew me away quite like the top half of my 2017 list. For better or worse, it seems like many of the standout hits of 2018 were big-ass open world games and tighter, run-based experiences. If you know anything about my gaming trajectory at this point, it’s that I’m pretty tired of big-ass open world games and run-based roguelikelikelikes. Red Dead’s ponderously slow, indulgent animations seem like a pretty big indicator that it’s not my thing, and after my first successful run of Dead Cells (at the 10-hour mark) I kinda lost motivation to keep going.

Thus, my list for 2018 is a pretty eclectic assortment of everything else, and to be perfectly honest I think the ordering is pretty fluid here. You could switch most of this list around and I’d probably tell you that it looks totally fine. All you really need to know is that I think these games are good. Starting from 10 and going down.

The Holiday Backlog Catchup Award for “Game I’m still playing”: Pathfinder Kingmaker

Partially because I couldn’t think of a great #10 to round out the list, and partially because I’m really enjoying going through it, I’m going to put Pathfinder Kingmaker on this list. Sure, I’m only like a dozen hours into it and have just barely encountered the kingdom management side of things, but it’s good. When the game launched in September, it was in a decidedly rough state, with multi-gigabyte hotfixes being released weekly to try and address stuff like broken quests, abilities, and inflated enemy stats. In an increasingly common trend, it was something I was going to wait on.

Having decided to jump in a few weeks ago, I’m glad to announce that it seems a lot better on that front. Underneath is a decidedly ambitious attempt at recreating one of the the more ambitious Pathfinder adventure modules. Sure, it’s still occasionally buggy, the ruleset is terrifying in its intricacies, (even as someone who knows it) and the writing can occasionally skew generic, but I’m having a surprisingly great time. Might have more to say about it next year.

Tie: Dragon Ball FighterZ and Under Night In-Birth: Exe Late[st]

Man I wish I still had it in me to play fighting games on a regular basis. Between last year’s pleasant discovery of Samurai Shodown V Special and this year’s discovery of “Anime Fighters I’m Capable of Comprehending” I’ve had plenty of games to play during those brief periods when I’m interacting with a friend who also plays fighting games. If I liked the sensation of getting curbstomped online or perfunctory AI battles, these games would likely be higher on this list. Similarly, if I had played Blazblue Cross Tag this year, that sounds like it would’ve been up my alley as well.

While I am still one hundred percent trash garbage at Dragon Ball FighterZ, it’s probably the first Arc System Works fighting game I’ve wanted to get better at. I certainly respect the likes of Blazblue and Guilty Gear, but I’ve always found them impenetrable. Dragon Ball solves this problem with a (mostly) straightforward roster and (mostly) streamlined systems underlying the same kind of 3v3 tag battle insanity of a Mahvel that I’m one hundred percent trash garbage at. Oh, and also it’s Dragon Ball and there are no less than four characters named “Goku” so I’m pretty into that.

By contrast, UNIST is all the trappings of your usual bonkers anime fighter, but for humans. That’s my secret way of saying “You can mash shit out and it’ll probably work” which turns out is my favorite kind of fighting game mechanic. It also has a fun cast of characters who are esoteric enough to feel pretty different from one another without being impossible to pick up and figure out.

Best Left 4 Dead: Warhammer Vermintide 2

While partially responsible for the repetitive stress injury in my right arm, Vermintide 2 takes that Left 4 Dead formula of the first game and takes it to a logical next step of “what if there were subclasses and way more kinds of loot” to give the player some motivation to play levels more than once. It worked for me, and I not only sunk around 30 hours into it earlier this year, but also tricked multiple others into also playing. While playing cooperative games on the internet with strangers is always a dicey proposition, my experiences were mostly positive.

While I can’t speak to the game’s current state, it sounds like things have maybe not been supported as well as they should, so I should probably throw that in as a caveat.

Octopath Traveler is also a video game I played.

I wrote a blog about Octopath Traveler that explains my feelings on it in detail, so I’m just going to leave that here if you care. I’m not sure if all of the game’s weird episodic storytelling works, but it worked enough that I willingly played through all eight character’s tales… before reaching the “true” final boss, deciding I didn’t want to grind, and turning the whole damn thing off. So… only about 60 hours.

Everyone is here: Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Smash Ultimate is more Super Smash Bros, and it turns out I’m still into that. I’m fully on board with most of the new characters, as well as Sakurai’s willingness to just shove in more Fire Emblem swordboys to make certain people on the internet very angry. Honestly, I don’t think as much of the single player spirits mode as some other people seem to. It’s neat seeing the various different ways spirits are represented in the game, but it can also be grating to work through a bunch of AI gimmick battles and numerical struggles.

Best game I didn't finish: Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire

If not for the part where I didn’t finish it (see: repetitive stress injury putting a damper on long PC gaming sessions) Pillars of Eternity II could’ve been my Game of the Year. It’s a pretty marked improvement from the first game on a lot of fronts, with stuff like multiclassing and subclasses slowly but surely inching toward supplanting Baldur’s Gate II as the king of the CRPG. It’s also that pirate RPG that everyone apparently wants (did you know there are no less than two Pathfinder adventure paths that involve being radical pirates?) and, in general, the prose is a little less purple and wordy than the first game. If Pathfinder Kingmaker is the rough around the edges attempt at directly converting Pen and Paper to computers, than Pillars II is the refined, polished take that says you maybe don’t need to

But, of course, I haven’t finished it. I’m to understand that the main story goes a little up its own lorehole, and some of the companion questlines feel a little sparse. While those may end up being true, I still think Pillars II is the best CRPG to come out this year. Hopefully Obsidian will make another one of these and just nail it, but between this game’s apparently poor sales numbers and the Microsoft acquisition, this could be the last one from them for a while.

Most Hitman: Hitman 2

Hitman 2 is more of the same great Hitman flavor, slightly improved and refined. Given how good Hitman 2016 was, I am more than okay with that. I think the general quality of the maps is better this time around than the last one, and I hope IO gets to make more of them.

Dad of War

If you want a case for what big budget, AAA video games are still capable of accomplishing, the God of War soft reboot is a pretty good one. While I didn’t enjoy every little bit of Kratos and Son’s journey, it manages to combine the kind of ridiculous, over-the-top spectacle the series is known for with more intimate, emotional moments. I’m sure you’ve heard that like a thousand times at this point, that’s fair. At least I’m not going to tell you about how the game relates to my own experiences of fatherhood, or whatever. But it works. They manage to make a God of War game that confronts the series legacy without betraying it, which is a tricky needle to thread.

Where God of War falters for me is where a lot of big budget AAA video games falter for me. I got over automatic climbing sequences a long time ago, the boss fights feel a little more flashy than interactive, and I don’t necessarily think the game benefits all that much from RPG-esque progression and loot. Like a lot of modern games, throwing in stats feels a boondoggle most of the time, and while you can kinda, sorta make a Kratos that works for your playstyle, by the end of the game you’re still going to have the same abilities as everyone else.

As a result, I didn’t find the post-game content all that compelling, and in fact I think it kinda reveals the shortcomings in the game’s combat. While the attempt at splitting the difference between a more deliberate, souls-y combat and a character action game works for most of the main story, it starts to fall apart in the challenge arenas and the Valkyrie fights. Between some ridiculous enemy patterns in those Muspelheim arenas and the part where Valkyries just sometimes have super armor, it feels less like you’re applying your mastery of the game’s systems and more that you’ve learned to exploit them. Still, I’m not going to drag any game through the mud too hard for the quality of its optional post-credits content. God of War is good and I enjoyed it quite a bit up to that point.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is at #2, because I felt like it.

Boy, remember Valkyria Revolution? No you don’t. Don’t be crazy, I’m pretty sure no one played that game. There was definitely a period when I was terrified that was going to be the end of Sega’s premiere “What if World War II, but anime” series, but thankfully Valkyria Chronicles 4 exists and I am better for it. Like Hitman 2, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the wheel in this case is Valkyria Chronicles 1, which came out a literal decade ago. In that context, I’m totally okay with VC4 playing it mostly safe, even if I wouldn’t have minded some of the more esoteric classes of the PSP games.

If there is a marked improvement, it’s in the mission design, which feels a lot more resistant to the cheese tactics I employed during my time with the first game. Sure, scouts are still king and I still find engineers borderline-useless, but as a whole the game is a lot better at forcing a variety of tactics from the player. The storytelling is… still very anime, and I’d hesitate to call it “amazing” or anything, but Claude and his crew of doofuses is at the very least more likeable and tolerable than Welkin and Alicia ever were. It has its share of emotional moments that work surprisingly well, which almost compensates for the multiple times I rolled my eyes!

Is this my game of the year? Maybe? Sure. Why not? It was pretty good. To hell with it. This is my Game of the Year: Monster Hunter World

I *only* put around 70 hours into Monster Hunter World, which seems scant compared to the 370 hours I put into MH4 Ultimate, or even the 120 hours I put into MH Generations. In another sense, it didn’t totally tank my grades and consume my life for a period of multiple months, so that’s actually a good thing. It’s still got all of the things that make Monster Hunter appealing, but with HD graphics and quality-of-life improvements that made it accessible to normal humans! While you could honestly put any of the top half of the list in this spot, let’s just say that this is my game of the year.

Honorable Mentions: Into The Breach, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

I was obsessed with Into the Breach for the space of about two weeks, and then basically dropped it completely. I think it’s an incredibly well-crafted game that feels like it owes less to turn-based tactics and more to puzzle games. Perhaps unintentionally, It made me come to the realization that I like the chaos and uncertainty of your average grid-based tactics game. I like being able to use random number bullshit to compensate for questionable strategies, and I like being able to use solid strategies to compensate for questionable random number bullshit. Alongside the aforementioned “run-based roguelikelikelike” thing, Into the Breach didn’t really have a ton of staying power for me. It’s good though!

As a Nintendo kid, I still have a soft spot for dumb collectathon 3D platformers, and Spyro is a trilogy of dumb 3D collectathon platformers. It’s a very chill, low-intensity experience and it’s also very, very pretty. Don’t really need to say much more than that.

I really hope the Bloodstained retro demake game doesn’t accidentally end up being better than the actual metroidvania that was kickstarted, but it’s very good. It’s short, sweet, doesn’t overstay its welcome (but still gives the player reasons to replay) and is a kinder, gentler take on those original NES Castlevania games. Also it was $5.

Mention: Battlefield V.

I’ve been playing a lot of Battlefield V with friends, because I couldn’t convince them to play Rainbow Six Siege with me, and it was already half off because holy shit video games barely hold their value anymore. When everything is working perfectly, such as when I have a full squad coordinating over voice chat, it’s a pretty fun multiplayer shooter. When I’m playing alone and everyone on my team is running around like a headless chicken and pretending it’s Call of Duty, things are less fun. It’s also occasionally stupid janky, with things like progression not registering, occasionally kicking me from games just because, and the menus being slow, laggy pieces of shit.

But hey, I’ll still play it, because no one wanted to get good at Siege with me. But really, it’s fine.

The backlog award for games I will totally, definitely get around to playing more of in 2019. Just you wait: The Bard’s Tale IV, Battletech, Forza Horizon 4

Like Pathfinder Kingmaker, The Bard’s Tale IV launched in a pretty rough state with technical optimization issues up the ass. Now that it’s benefitted from months of patching, it’s hopefully better on that front. Even if I feel pretty lukewarm on InXile as a whole, the little I played of BT4 seemed like a decently promising little dungeon crawler, so hopefully it will pan out when I eventually give it a look.

Battletech, also known as “The Most Austin Walker game in existence” features both turn-based tactics and giant-ass robots, which are both things I ostensibly am into. Admittedly, I never got an amazing grasp of Battletech’s various systems when I played it earlier this year, but I’m more than willing to give it another earnest shot.

I don’t actually own Forza Horizon 4, but I did get a month of game pass for $1 at one point to play approximately three hours of Sea of Thieves (oddly enough, we did not want to play more after those three hours.) After that mistake was made, the handful of hours I played of Forza Horizon 4 seemed very good. I’m usually not one for simulation racing games, or really racing games in general that don’t involve go-karts or Burnout Paradise, but I will happily make an exception for this.

Well, that was too long. That’s it for me. You can look forward to my other, far more important Old GOTY Blog and possibly something anime related in the near future. Have a good one.