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danielstolz · 6 years

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Danny’s Best Games of 2018

Here we go again. 2018 was a very transformative year for me, taking new turns, exploring new areas, and finding the new me. It was a year full of beautiful human-constructed chaos, which left everyone of us wanting to escape the real world. And we all know that the best possible way of escape is: dru... Eh, I mean video games!

2018 was a weird year for gaming. It seemed like everyone was sleeping and secretly working on something big while releasing just filler-titles. AAA-games were either non-existent or more of the same action-openworld shtick we’ve seen a hundred times. I was rather disappointed by the big players this year.

But the Indie scene flourished. It’s like someone opened the floodgates and all the creative small gems suddenly started rushing in. I’ve played around 20 games this year and I still have 30 games left that I want to check out, mainly indies of course. So as always: If your favorite game isn’t on the list, probably I didn’t play it, or I played it and it just sucks. As easy as that. Here we go:

10. Bad North

The RTS. A long forgotten genre that seemed to be dead for the last few years. It used to be one of the biggest genres back in the days and then suddenly publishers decided that Its just a niche-thing. But it’s slowly being resurrected by MOBAs and bite-sized strategy games like Bad North. This little Gem is polished to perfection. Bad North is a randomly generated RTS in which you try to defend tiny but gorgeous islands from incoming boats of enemies. The beauty of this game comes in its simplicity. There’s only 3 types of units and the only thing you have to do is positions them accordingly. Sounds simple, but it gets nerve-wrecking really fast, especially when you only have 2 units left and 5 boats are approaching. Bad North gives you a few tools and you need to improvise strategies on the spot often having to compromise. Tightly designed and visually striking, Bad North is the finest indie-RTS I’ve played.

9. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Smash Bros used to be a fun party game where you could beat your friends up, but over the years it turned into something much bigger. Not only is Smash celebrating the history and legacy of Nintendo, it also celebrates the entire medium itself. It shows us the best of videogames, having a blast with your friends, or honing your skills online for the next big tournament. Everybody can enjoy this game and when creator Masahiro Sakurai said “Everyone is here!” not only did he mean the characters from franchises across the entire medium, he also meant people from all different kinds of backgrounds. This is a game where a professional veteran can have a great time with someone who never even held a controller in his hand. The best Smash to this date where “Ultimate” isn’t just a marketing term, but an understatement.

8. Artifact

Artifact is 2 of my favorite things combined: Dota and digital card games. When they first announced it I was skeptical. It seemed like Valve wanted to simply jump on the Hearthstone hypetrain to grab some additional cash. Then I heard that Richard Garfield was going to design it and I was sure that this is going to be something special: and it truly is. Not only is Artifact juiced out the max it’s also one of the best designed card games I’ve played in recent memory. Every decision you make is crucial, and the randomized board and item pool keeps you on your toes even when you seem to have the upper hand. I’ve never felt like I’ve had worse cards than my opponent, which Hearthstone made me feel constantly. Let’s talk about the controversy surrounding Artifact: its cost. You need to pay 20 bucks to play the game which will give a few starter decks and 120 random cards. Additional cards cost you extra. This sounds crazy, but I think this business model helps the game stay competitive, while just being the regular business models for every other non digital card game. People aren’t used anymore to pay for stuff. But hey: they just miss out on the best cardgame of the year.

7. Minit

In an age where games need to be 100+ hours long and have to have a billion dialogue options and a massive storyline with thousands of quests, it’s refreshing to see a game that just oozes simplicity, charm and only takes you a few hours to complete. Minit is that wonderfully delightful game. Every playsession takes you exactly 1min before a curse kills you. Minit takes this little concept and blows it up into a full game, filled with incredibly clever interactions that play with the medium and make up for a wonderful time. Like the old man who takes forever to tell his story... far longer than a minute. Minit not only makes you think, but it makes you think in ways not explored by previous titles. It’s refreshing, lovely and a beautiful contrast to the current trends in gaming.

6. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

This is just a Kickstarter bonus game for another Bloodstained coming out in 2019, and it was one of the best games I’ve played this year. Somehow whenever developers take an old NES game-concept and make a modern reimagining of it, it never disappoints. This time it’s Castlevania and it’s the best Castlevania ever made. I’m not kidding, this hidden gem is better than Castlevania 4 and Symphony of the Night. The levels are tightly designed, the difficulty is just right, the game has multiple paths for different playthroughs, the bosses are incredible, the visuals are stunningly beautiful, the sound is crisp, the music is catchy and all that while just being a sideproject for a bigger game. This is a classic Castlevania like it come out back in the 80s and nails everything right on the head. You can play this through in just one sitting and you won’t be disappointed. Sometimes the only thing you need is a blast from the past.

5. Dead Cells

This action-roguelike finally came out this year and it devoured me. Dead Cells is a loot based 2D-dungeon-crawler that picks you up the beginning and won’t let you go till the end. The gameplay is hypnotizing, running, rolling, fighting your way through hordes of enemies, collecting gear and trying to get closer and closer to the end. A journey filled with failure, triumph and the occasional rage-quit. And after a few hours you realize that you didn’t look at the time and wasted your whole afternoon. Dead Cells captures you with this unbelievable sense of flow, which you can’t escape. Everything feels natural and you really start losing yourself in the combat trying the be faster every run, trying to get an even more ridiculous combo. Dead Cells is a game of flow, a game of mastery, a beautiful exercise for your fingers. And after all those hours you realize that none of it was time wasted.

4. The Messenger

While Bloodstained:Curse of the Moon brought back classic Castlevania, The Messenger seems to reimagine classic Ninja Gaiden. Or does it? The Messenger hides itself under the skin of the recent trend of revivals and throws a curveball at the player. Or should I say a barrage of curveballs, The Messenger is a Metagame a cleverly selfaware exercise in how often you can break the rules, twist the plot, and change the whole game itself. I think this is the game that breaks the 4th wall more often than anything else I’ve ever seen You could even say that there is no 4th wall. The Messenger is all that and in addition it’s a wonderful Ninja Gaiden game. The gameplay is smooth and the Metagame aspects of it make you lose yourself in a game that doesn’t really want to be a game. Sometimes it just wants to be clever, or funny, or it just wants to screw you over and throw another new thing at you that breaks all the rules all over again. I don’t wanna give away too much because this is something you need to experience on your own. What a whacky, weird and gorgeous experience.

3. Yakuza 6

Over 6 games and this is the long awaited and dreaded finale. Yakuza 6 is an example of how to end a show with the most over the top way. I said show because essentially that’s what Yakuza is. The great thing about this show however is that you get to play it, and that you probably will get off track while doing so. I spent hours showing off my skills at the mahjongg parlor, after beating a street gang that tried to harass a girl and his boyfriend, afterwards I flirted with a bunch of hostesses, created a clan and then got dragged in a big Yakuza conspiracy while trying to defend my baby from being murdered. I didn’t make that up. That just happened. Yakuza 6 turns it down a notch, however, there are less playable characters, less minigames, less plot-twists, less of everything to be honest, all this in order to serve the main story which is the star of this show. One character means more focus and more finesse. While Yakuza 0 was all about the twists, Yakuza 6 offers a thrilling, heart gripping story that resolves the whole narrative in such an epic and iconic way that It’s hard to stop playing. Yakuza 6 is a masterclass in building up tension and never letting it go. You’ll get sidetracked but you don’t want to get sidetracked, you wanna know how the story continues and trust me you have to know.

2. Celeste

Celeste is a game about depression, a game about atmosphere, and a game of mastery and finally overcoming your own personal problems. Most games tell a story and then there’s gameplay. Celeste tells a story through its gameplay. It’s an example of how to use the medium as a compelling and unique way to tell a story. Not only does Celeste tell a story through its mechanics, but it also invokes an unforgetable atmosphere through the beautiful pixel aesthetic and the ear melting music by Lena Raine. All if this is accompanied by the best designed levels I’ve seen this year, pushing the boundaries of clever level design. Celeste is challenging, but that’s what it wants to be. Showing you how hard it is to deal with personal drama. It certainly helped me a lot and shows how videogames can be much more than entertainment. Celeste is a game I won’t forget.

1. Into the Breach

This game... is a designers wet dream. If you’d asked me if there’s a perfectly designed game, then my answer would be Into the Breach. We started off the list with bite sized strategy and we’ll end with that. Into the Breach is a randomly generated turn-based-puzzlegame, which shines with perfection. What makes it special is that this game has perfect information, meaning that the player knows everything. Every move in Into the Breach has to be perfect and if you make a mistake you cannot blame the game, because you knew everything. You just need to make the right decisions and that is incredibly difficult. Into the Breach may not look like much, but it’s the most tightly designed I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t boast with flashy visuals or a gripping story, Into the Breach knows exactly what it is, and it’s nothing more. A minimalistic yet perfect game that can entertain for hours on end. This is the new golden standard when it comes to gamedesign.

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