Best of 2019
Not the best year for games, but I've learnt something about myself: the Metroidvania rubs me in all the right ways.
There are approximately 7 games on my list that feature Metroidvania elements. That's nuts.
List items
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Bloodborne set in a Miyazaki-twisted feudal Japan. Obviously this was going to be my favourite game of the year. Soulslike combat at its very best, but sadly, Sekiro follows the Bloodborne trail of backgrounding the role-playing elements a little too much.
If the combat wasn't as spectacularly aggressive as it is, I think this might have been the first time a Soulsborne game didn't immediately skyrocket to my #1 spot. But alas, that combat is something special.
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A fascinating design experiment: how far can you push Metroidvania unlocks? The game starts with you acquiring basic HUD elements, to eventually unlocking the ability to leap across the entire map. Supraland is ridiculous and I'd have it no other way.
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Control nails world building in the AAA space unlike any game in recent memory, and that's largely thanks to some striking visual design combined with utterly fascinating lore.
You constantly walk into a room and say "WHAT THE FUCK" at how imposing the level design is. Or how ominous an enemy type looks. Or how much love went into nailing a particular scripted story sequence. Then you read the lore, and it only reiterates and solidifies things: there is so much more going on here than your puny human mind can handle.
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A roguelite System Shock. It was going to be on my list.
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Caveat: I haven't finished Outer Wilds at the time of writing this.
While I'm not enamored by how simplistic mechanics are, I am absolutely impressed at the design work that has gone into this game. So this is a lot less of a "my favourite game" and a lot more of a recognition of some of the most intricate design work I've seen put into a game. The consistent physics of the galaxy, the player-driven progression, the concept of player knowledge being the only gate to finishing the game. It's all fucking insane. I want a lot of games to take inspiration from Outer Wilds... even if I don't necessarily love it myself.
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Star Wars. Soulslike. Metroidvania. That's nosebleed-inducing for me. Obviously it's on my list.
That said, I really want to commend the storytelling. It's probably the best produced narrative this year (just in terms of acting, quality writing, animation work); moreover, it's the best Star Wars game story in over a decade. Honestly, a lot of the character work in this game puts Disney's newest trilogy of films to shame.
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The most literal Metroidvania.
Where Outer Worlds is a density of game design molded into something perfectly elegant, Bloodstained is density left as unmolded clutter. It's a fucking mess.
It tries at so many things, like having hundreds of abilities, a full cooking system, Street Fighter weapon combos, a million stats, Metroidvania unlocks that break the game, the ugliest and least cohesive art style I've seen in ages.... it's just a design by committee taken to the extreme. But honestly, sometimes the 9-year old screaming "and sharks! and lasers! and peanut butter! and wizards!" comes together to make a smorgasbord that isn't awful. That's Bloodstained. It's better than not-awful. It's actually pretty awesome.
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Darksiders turned into a pretty awesome Diablo-inspired action RPG. I actually think this game *plays* better than its full 3D counterparts, and that's largely thanks to some really polished design and UI work.
I wouldn't be too upset if Darksiders remained top-down from this point forward.
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I went into A Plague Tale expecting a walking simulator. What I found was actually a pretty competent stealth game with some clever puzzles sprinkled throughout. It's gorgeous, it nails some *incredible* tense cinematic gameplay moments, and it's wholly original.
Asobo Studio is a French work-for-hire dime-a-dozen studio. Prior to this, all they had ever done was contract work for THQ, Ubisoft, Microsoft... and they come out with this. Fucking incredible job. I'd love to see more original content from this studio.
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More Borderlands. There are a lot of smart design changes to the gameplay, and general refinements that make it easily the best playing game in the series. That said, wooooooooof.... that story is BAD. Somehow leagues worse than anything else in the series.
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