GOTY 2019 - Oliver Luddy's Top 20-ish Games of 2019

Video games are wild at the moment, from the walls between platforms falling down to actual international political incidents, a lot happened this year. Yet weirdly enough, I didn’t play many of games that came out this year, so instead, I decided to talk about the ones which I either completed or feel I’ve played enough to speak somewhat authoritatively about.

18. Link’s Awakening

I bought the amiibo for this game before I bought the game itself. You can’t shame me! Look at this handsome boy!

Considering many regard this as one of the best Zelda games of all time I almost feel guilty Link’s Awakening didn’t connect with me more. It has a beautiful tilt-shift art style and all these years later its nuanced story still surprises, dealing with a moral ambiguity not seen in the rest of the franchise. However, while this game ages incredibly in some regards, you often feel the decade and a half since the original catching up with Link. The Switch allows for a great many quality of life improvements, but this was still a game designed for a handheld with nothing but a D-pad and two buttons and some puzzles are so obtuse that a wiki and guide are almost requirements for first-time players (a remnant from the days when games liked to strong-arm players into buying copies of Nintendo Power). And while the remake’s new coat of paint looks amazing, it is hampered by the technical limitations of the Switch. In motion, the frame rate chugs at the best of times.

Unless you have a nostalgia for this game or at least a strong reverence for the franchise Link’s Awakening is a great game reduced to a good one by time and expectations.

17. Steamworld Heist

It’s always high noon when your a space-faring robot.

Turn-based strategy is not my genre, I have a bad habit of rushing in and everyone getting killed. Which is why it was such a surprise that I found Steamworld Heist was able to pull me in more than any other tactics game. The two-dimensional perspective makes it easier to approach than any X-Com game has ever been. And there’s a freedom afforded to you by the free aiming system, leaving hitting enemies more down to skill, positioning and timing than percentage chances.

Image and Form continue to be a constant delight by subverting all expectations of what an indie-studio can produce, chancing genres with almost every new release (Steamworld Dig, Dig 2, Heist and now Quest). And if each new game continues to be this good I more than happy for them to keep going.

16. Apex Legends

Lifeline might be a Queen. But Mirage is a sexy, stupid dork and I love him.

One of the first pieces I wrote when getting into this whole games writing thing was a 3000-word rambling behemoth love letter to this character-based battle royale, it was also a cheap dig at Anthem. The piece is awful and I wouldn’t curse anyone to read it, but I stand by that word count. Apex deserves a novel worth of praise. I make my love of Titanfall and its world no secret and while initially disappointed, not having a direct continuation of the franchise, I’ve been delighted to see this universe garner a new fanbase and re-enter the zeitgeist.

Respawn continue to prove themselves some of the most talented and innovative folks in the industry and Apex showed they don’t even need mechs to do it. 

15. Katana Zero

Devolver DIgital must have a thing for retro-looking throwbacks. And 80s synth. And tough as nails bloody action. And bleak, mysterious, drug and hallucinogen fueled narratives. I’m not complaining, Katana Zero like Hotline Miami, Not a Hero, Ronin, Ruiner and My Friend Pedro is awesome. But Devolver, are y’all ok over there? Are you trying to tell us something? This feels like a cry for help, who are you in deep with?

Here’s a fun way to pass the time, watch a Katana Zero speedrun if you want to feel bad about your video game skills.

14. Sayonara Wild Hearts

Love, life, letting go, moving on and riding through a forest on a motorbike while fighting a giant-mech-laser-wolf as pop bangers blare around you. In short, Wild Hearts is pretty great. Even if it only lasts a bit over an hour and a half, I’d be hard-pressed to say it wasn’t worth every second.

Told you there was a giant-mech-laser-wolf in a forest.

13. Bayonetta and Okami

I’d never latched onto a hack-and-slash before Bayonetta but if its ridiculous angel killing opening doesn't grab you and pull you into the genre nothing will. With rip-roaring action and a bombastic story, it should be no surprise that this game holds up real good, even on the small screen of the Switch. However, what I was not expecting was its progenitor, Okami, would glow-up too. I shouldn’t be surprised with the now-defunct Clover Studios being a who's who of talent; Hideki Kamiya, Ikumi Nakamura and the bones of what would become Platinum Games, it's obvious why Okami managed to strike a balance between beautiful landscapes, thoughtful storytelling and satisfying stylistic action. Not every element has held up, some of the combat feels simple for modern sensibilities and characters vary from endearing to very mid-2000s annoying.

Sunset Overdrive is like Jet Set Radio going through an angst teenage phase and yet somehow it’s like really likable and cool and not annoy as all hell.

12. Sunset Overdrive

You know what, it made me laugh and more games should do that. Also, wall running is dope.

11. The Outer Worlds

Can Obsidian please create a game where I just set my buds up on dates?

When I got my gaming PC setup one of the first games I bought was Fallout New Vegas. I had a grand plan to load it up with mods, fan-made expansions and quality of life updates. I’d finally play through it with a solid frame rate, acceptable load times and fewer crashes. But then the Outer Worlds came out and everyone told me, “no, this game is basically that”. The lineage is in the credits and it can be felt in every open-ended quest, branching dialogue option and NPC. Almost all choices are accounted for, the world blends biting satire with blinding stupidity and every companion’s backstory is considered and endearing. The game runs better than almost anything created using or taking inspiration from Bethesda’s Build Engine. Bar one nasty bug that caused my game to crash every time I entered one of the final rooms. Eventually, I was forced to sneak behind the dialogue trigger that was breaking things, which while matching my non-confrontational, quick-talking character, was a really poor way to leave that universe.

  Standing out from what is a consistently solid game is Parvariti, the work put in by the writing team and Ashley Burch to create such an easily loveable character is staggering. She’s an instant classic of a gaming companion and brings a spark of optimism to an otherwise nihilistic world while representing an oft-forgotten group. The Outer Worlds proved that even in a dark, cynical solar system there are still reasons to smile. Whereas Borderlands 3 just made fart jokes after yelling “CORPORATIONS! HUH, AM I RIGHT?”

10. Ape Out

APE. You are an ape, trapped in a series of scenarios from which you must get out. OUT.

APE. The game has one of the best soundtracks of the year and you’ll never be able to find it online. OUT. Each level is a freeform ode to jazz and percussion procedurally generated by your actions. APE. It’s a personalised cacophony of madness. OUT.

APE. It is bloody. OUT. Violent. APE. Obscene. OUT. Wholly unique. APE. Pure catharsis. OUT.

PLAY APE OUT.

9. Destiny 2

The biggest expansion to Destiny since Forsaken released this year, Destiny 2: Moon’s Haunted… I mean Shadowkeep.

I have played thousands of hours of Destiny, I love Destiny. I love the crazy shit Bungie can pull now they are fully independent. I adore the world they continue to build and the stories they’ve taken to telling. The community is genuine and generally positive, in a way rare for most live-service games. And I most certainly got addicted to it again this year. In the two years since I last played the franchise has cut the fat and now focuses on what people love about it at every turn.

However, I don’t think Destiny likes me a whole bunch, maybe some of this is on me? I choose to play solo. But I reached a point where Destiny gave me a choice. Either make Destiny my one and only bae or try spending time with other games for a while and maybe we can get back together in a season or two. Destiny I love the time we spend together, I just wish you wouldn’t demand so much from me.

8. Donut County

I AM A TRASH PANDA. TOSS ME IN THE GARBAGE!

Donut County made up the majority of my Spotify Year in Review. Which I think reflects very well on me and shouldn’t be a cause for concern at all.

7. Tetris Effect

My Game of The Year last year was Tetris Effect, and I certainly didn’t stop playing this year. But honestly, this pseudo-meditation-acid-trip is only this high up the list for all the shit it’s gotten me through. Thank you… you dumb falling blocks.

“It’s coooooool Tetris” - Alex Narravo, 2018

6. Spec Ops: The Line

All these years later Spec Ops is still a hard game to play through but you really do owe it to yourself to see through it once.

Spec Ops has been examined plenty by those much smarter and with a lot more time than me since it was released. All I say is that almost 8 years later, in the same year Call of Duty: Modern Warfare showed the moral grey areas of war, Spec Ops remains the most affecting exploration of the violence that so ingrained in this pastime. If you haven’t experienced this 7th generation cult classic, steel your resolve and face this difficult experience.

5.

Resident Evil 4 and Deadly Premonition

In a choice between a Sinner’s Sandwich and a Jill Sandwich I honestly couldn’t tell you which would taste worse.

Resident Evil 4 is considered one of the best games of all time. Deadly Premonition is considered one of the worst games of all time. I played them back-to-back this summer and they’ve blurred together. I feel like this may cause me problems in the future.

4.

Night in The Woods

Night in The Woods deals with many things. Difficult things. Some comically relatable, like socialising at parties when you most certainly don’t feel like it. Some hit a bit harder; the uncertainty of actually growing up, the distance that can grow between you and friend when college experience differ, being gone, coming back and everything being different, loving people that don’t get it and being loved by people who you could never understand, alienation. Despite its zany anthropomorphic characters and its eldritch turns in the final act, its this harshly realistic depiction of coming to terms with change and growing that makes Night in The Woods deeply affecting.

I spent a long time shifting around my top four games of the year. And while eventually, I managed to shift Night in The Woods into fourth place, I couldn’t come to order the rest of these. 

For a long time, I’ve evangelised video games as an art form, proclaiming they can make you feel things other mediums just can’t. But I don’t think I ever wholeheartedly believed that. I’ve always played games as a distraction, only having glimpses of the emotional resonance they were capable of. Things like the joyous relief upon beating my first raid in Destiny or the engrossing engagement I’d felt for the narrative of The Last of Us. This was enough for me to understand that games could have a tangible effect on a person, just never me, beyond those fleeting moments. But this year a game made me engage with my emotions, maybe me reflect on myself and made me cry. Three games in fact. These games all stood apart from anything else I’ve ever played. I was left thinking not just about them, but myself also.

1.

Eliza

Eliza is a thoughtful meditation on mental health, technology and human connection that goes beyond every expectation I could have had for a visual novel produced by Zachtronics, the Exapunks folk. And left me questioning my relationship with all those things.

1.

Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero is only four-fifths complete and, as pretentious as it sounds, it is a genuine masterpiece of modern art. It didn’t make itself easy to get on board with, thanks to obtuse storytelling and a dreamlike aura. But I’ll be damned if I don’t get emotional every time I hear those bluegrass tunes. It’s just that good.

1. Oxenfree

And Oxenfree is something special. With surreal visuals, an ethereal soundscape and a cosmic narrative, it somehow  managed to pull me back to reality at a time when most people couldn’t even speak to me. 

I say all this with no hyperbole.

I don’t think any media has ever has been so personally affecting to me as these three games.  Eliza, Kentucky Route Zero and Oxenfree are all truly remarkable games. Maybe they were all just in the right place at the right time for me. But I for me these weren’t just entertainment, catharsis or a distraction but some of the most human experiences I’ve ever had.

It been a long year.

Video games are great.