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Top 10 Games of 2019

Video Games have been a part of my life since I was 6 years old. I love the stories, the sense of discovery, the mastery of a good challenge, and the connections with people I’ve made through them.

Like many people, throughout the year I kept finding myself thinking that this wasn’t a great year for games. On the precipice of a new console generation, it felt like most games were already “solved” for this generation and that we didn’t have heavy hitters like 2018’s God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, or Red Dead Redemption 2.

Looking back now I realize that feeling is utterly false. 2019 was an amazing year for video games large and small. I didn’t get around to nearly all of the great titles that looked like they’d be right up my alley but here are my ten favorite titles I spent time with in 2019.

I’ve never really liked a From Software game. I can appreciate and respect why people love them, but multiple attempts at titles like Bloodbourne and Dark Souls over the years left me feeling like maybe these games just weren’t for me.

I’m only a few hours into Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and this might finally be the one that clicks. I came at this with an open mind ready to give myself over to the systems I need to learn in order to succeed against increasingly difficult challenges. By not fighting against the game’s systems I’ve found myself really enjoying the process of learning how to succeed in the game.

Couple all of this with the world building, character design, and setting and I’m all in on Sekiro being the game that finally helps me understand what people love about the work of From Software.

I’ve heard folks call this game “Zelda meets pinball” which isn’t incorrect if you’re trying to describe this game to a friend but it’s much more than the pieces it may draw inspiration from. The gameplay is tight and there are plenty of new tools that adjust your gameplay along your journey.

What I loved most about Creature in the Well was the art direction. Everything from the character design, UI elements, and various machine designs were all integral pieces to help build the world the player inhabits. The overall sense of place was beautifully crafted and I can’t wait to play more.

I’m not a golf guy. Heck I’m not even a video game golf guy. What the Golf? is, at the same time, a golf game and not a golf game.

What starts as a pretty standard drag-and-flick mobile golf game with a few fun gags quickly explodes into a wacky mashup of mini-worlds that took over several afternoons for me this year. The lengths the team went to to not only add nods to famous videos games but also mimic their controls is admirable. What’s even more impressive is just how many levels there are to explore. Typically a game with a lot of depth might not be overly long but What the Golf? manages to do both in a simple to pick up package.

Over the last few years I’ve become a big fan of rougelikes. Any game that plays well and let’s me finish a run in an hour or less is perfect for a quick dopamine hit. I was never able to get into a popular title like The Binding of Isaac but Undermine takes that formula in a much more approachable and adorable way.

What I love most about Undermine is how seamlessly a given run can go from really good to hilariously bad. One of my first runs was going super well until I was cursed with enemies that explode spiders and then a room full of those spiders caught of fire and I died immediately. Any game that ends your play session with exploding fire spiders is okay in my book.

Man, this thing came out of nowhere. I tried several times to get into Crypt of the Necrodancer but it never really hooked me. But drop the gameplay into Hyrule, let me play as Zelda, and add some bangin’ tracks and you’ve got a recipe for a great game.

While the game isn’t super long or deep it felt like a dance-able version of all the most memorable Zelda titles. The option to play the game on fixed-beat mode and memorize the various enemies patterns was a welcome one that I employed throughout the back half of the game.

If there was one thing I wished for was more variety or necessity to switch up item builds. I felt as though after I found a few items and weapons that I liked, I stuck with those for the bulk of the game. I also wish I was able to explore the Dark World more as it’s one of my all time favorite places from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

While these minor things might have been better in my own mind, Cadence of Hyrule is an incredible package that any Switch owner should give a try.

Just when I thought I was fell out of love with League of Legends, Riot Games pulls me right back in. Earlier in the year I saw the popularity of the auto-battler genre start increasing but I didn’t really give them a fair shake. The honest reason is that I’m not a DotA guy; I’m a League guy.

Teamfight Tactics lets you draft popular champions from the League of Legends franchise and battle them against seven other opponents in a chess-like setting. Every champion has unique stats and synergies that inform how you can build your army for a given game. Items can be constructed and added to your champions to help increase your strength even more. The recruiting of champions and various synergies feels a lot like a dynamic deck building game but with miniature versions of your favorite characters.

This game is also really fun with friends. A lobby of a game contains 8 players and while you’re all competing to win the game, you take turns battling each other player throughout the game. It’s a great game for strategizing and just chatting during the game and one that I definitely want to continue playing more of.

I fell off later in the year but I continue to follow the developer updates and what I see looks amazing. They’re constantly iterating and making the game better based on community feedback. I can already sense that when the mobile version launches next year that I’ll dive headfirst back in.

I have a fond memory of spending my entire 6-week’s of allowance on Resident Evil 2 for N64 in 1998. I was super excited, got the game home, and immediately started dying over and over again. I remember crying a lot that night and also is probably why I overly analyze any purchase I make now.

That initial experience aside, I ended up finishing the game I can’t count how many times over the years and always consider it one of my favorite games of all time. So how in the world Capcom created a remake from the ground up in such a tremendous way was such an awesome surprise this year.

Using RE Engine to not only remake a classic but also modernize it is truly an amazing feat. The game feels like a modern game with updated character controls, one of the best and useful maps in video games, and impressive visuals but retains the soul of the original RE2 with it’s setting, lore, and puzzles.

The police station setting, one of the most iconic in video games, has been realized beautifully, the tension of running into Mr. X with limited ammunition feels terrifying, and the satisfaction of finally finding the correct key for a door you’ve run past 20 times all adds up to some of my favorite moments in a video game this year.

Man, I love Pokemon. I haven’t played a mainline series game since Pokemon Silver in 1999 and finally with the Switch I was excited to jump in.

The conversation around this game from fans of the series who have been playing these games all along has been… let’s just say largely a dumpster fire of anger. A lot of the criticisms may have some validity but I finally decided that as someone who hasn’t played a Pokemon game in 20 years, this seemed like the best place to jump in.

Boy did I have a blast with this game. Seeing some of my favorite Pokemon from previous generations while also discovering new entries to the Galar region always left me wondering what new creatures I might find next. The addition of Dynamaxing and the big fight feel of the gym battles were among some of my favorite moments throughout my adventure. Also the design of the gym leaders and towns made every place feel unique and specific to the type of Pokemon who inhabit the area.

I think something that made Pokemon feel difficult in the past was it’s inconvenience. Pokemon Sword and Shield strips away a lot of things that made previous games feel clunky and added smart optimizations such as being able to add/remove Pokemon from storage anywhere in the world. This might not be a perfect game by any stretch, but it’s the game that kept me smiling throughout my entire journey this year and I was excited to be back in the Pokemon universe.

I slept on Control until right around the holidays. I kept hearing great things but I wasn’t really sure that it was a game for me. Then I played it. Frickin’ frick this game has a VIBE.

The world building in this game is unreal. Even after playing for hours and earning only my third ever Platinum Trophy on PS4, I still can’t stop thinking about The Oldest House and all of it’s mysteries as a setting that I want to spend more time in. The abilities and gunplay felt foreign at first but you quickly get comfortable that by the time the end of the game rolls around you feel like an unstoppable psychokinetic force of destruction. Where early on I would struggle and play it safe when a wave of enemies spawned, in the end game I was laughing maniacally knowing they those same enemies were now trapped in here with me.

If I had anything negative to say about the game it’s the story in the back third of the game maybe isn’t as strong as the rest but with all of the other mysteries to uncover throughout The Oldest House after you’ve completed the main story it didn’t bother me as much. Finally, hands down my favorite moment of the year in a video game has to be the Ashtray Maze. If you play Control, you’ll definitely know when you get to this moment.

I’m terrified of space. I can recall a trip in elementary school to the planetarium in Boston and while the narrator was going over the scale of the Universe I just couldn’t comprehend how impossibly small we really are in the grand scheme of things. I’ve more or less avoided reading or watching anything to do with space since.

Then there was Outer Wilds. I’d heard all the praise from voices I trust that tell me this game was unlike any other gaming experience they’d ever had and I decided to give it a go. What followed was nearly three straight days of playing this game nonstop.

I won’t go into a super huge amount of detail of what you’re doing in the game because the value of this game is in discovering it. “The journey is the destination” applies here as the only currency on your expedition is knowledge. It starts a bit slow and aimless, but as you start discovering things, you can begin pulling at more threads to figure out why you’re here and what came before you.

The game plays out in 22-minute loops of time. There is a beautiful satisfaction when the game ends a given loop knowing that I discovered something new and that I can continue my journey on the other side equipped with new knowledge and a new direction. The final loop of the game was among the most emotional moments in a video game I’ve ever experienced.

The game also finds a way to stick the landing in maybe the most perfect way a game or story has ever ended. By the end of the game I felt a new sense of acceptance with my own place in the Universe and the possibilities of what else could truly exist outside of our tiny world. I never expected a game to rewire my brain on a subject but Outer Wilds is truly something special and an experience I would recommend to anyone as one of the best games I’ve ever played.

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