Best Games of 2019

It’s that time again for everyone to make their Best of the Year lists. A lot of people are saying this was a weak year and while I can see why, look at what we got in 2017 (Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, Nier: Automata, Persona 5, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, Cuphead) and 2018 (God of War, Spider-man, Red Dead Redemption II, Celeste, Assassins Creed: Odyssey). We were just blessed with some of the best gaming years of all time. This year just didn’t have the two or three consensus leaders in everyone’s mind.

What this year will allow though is for everyone’s list to be more varied based on individual preference. I definitely noticed that very few of the most popular games this year resonated with me. I get why people will like Sekiro, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Outer Worlds, or Kingdom Hearts 3 but they won’t appear on my own Best Of list.

So here are my choices, listed in order of release date…

 

The Division 2

Persistent online games have typically stumbled out of the gate (both Destiny games, the original Division, and especially Anthem), but Ubisoft seemed to do everything right with The Division 2. The gameplay mechanics were good, the story was more engaging than the original, and the was plenty of content for the beginners through to end-game players.

But even with all that, the game seemed to drop off everyone’s radar after a few months. This game will probably be forgotten by most, which shows why recency bias is a thing.

 

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

A series that has never been on my radar, but really scratched that JRPG itch. Part relationship sim, which allows the player to actually get to know and grow attached to dozens of characters, and part tactical RPG, requiring careful preparation and strategy in the skirmishes.

Impressively, the game allows for four story paths that diverge early on. I’m still eager to go back and try the other houses to experience their point of views.

 

Control

It’s disheartening to hear that Control was a disappointment sales-wise because I think Remedy really came up with a special premise. The paranormal juxtaposed with the mundane is something that the X-Files reveled in, but Control took it even further with physics bending, Inception-like surroundings.

People chaffed against the map system but I still believe the developer purposely relied more on the office signage for wayfinding. Another complaint was the shooting, but the point was to make more use of the powers that are gained along the way.

 

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

I know it’s a remake but I never played the original so was thankful that we got another chance to try it. While Nintendo didn’t do much of anything to change the story or progression, they most obviously reworked the visuals entirely.

Link’s Awakening bursts with charm and personality in its plastic toy-like, tilt-shifted dioramas. Nintendo again proves that it can do no wrong with continually re-imagining the Zelda series.

 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Take the traversal of Uncharted, add the combat and level design of Dark Souls, and infuse with the setting of Star Wars. The result is a solid bright spot in a rough era of the EA exclusivity for the license.

While both Dark Souls and Uncharted/Tomb Raider do their specialties better than Fallen Order, I appreciate the ambition to do so much in one game. There’s a certain amount of jankiness that’s still pervasive throughout the game and it could’ve probably done with a month or so of more polish.

The story is worthy enough to stand next to some of the better Star Wars tales. It has a surprising amount of heart and tension. Taking place after Episode 3 and before Episode 4, Fallen Order does a good job of bridging the gap between the trilogies.

 

Notable:

I have yet to play Life is Strange 2 or After Party which is why they aren’t on my list. I’ve heard good things about Life is Strange 2 so am eager to get to it soon. Anthem makes it 0-2 for BioWare lately and things don’t look good for the studio. I’ve started Death Stranding but it hasn’t done much to grip me yet. Feels like the game is just made up of fetch quests, which players usually hate.