1.
Zelda had gotten itself into a rut over the years — an increasing reliance on dictating what the player had to do to make any progress, stripping out the independence of the search; the hunt; the
thrill.
Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Link Between Worlds: all of these games are great, but all of them walked away from the vastness of dropping a player into a world and letting them just
go. Breath of the Wild gives players all of the tools in the first couple hours in a self-contained tutorial that explains the narrative and motives to progress, and then pulls the creator’s hands back to let the player uncover the massive environment on their own terms. What a damn good decision this is. And the game is captivating to be in thanks to impeccable graphical and aural design cribbed from Studio Ghibli, a cast of major and minor characters that stand as some of the best in the franchise, and a bevy of goodies to go track down perfectly teased out and carefully placed. The overall design is nearly flawless.
It saddens me that it’s
not flawless, but there are some problems. The bestiary is great (
Lynels OMG SO GOOD) but is lacking in depth. It gets fatiguing to keep fighting Lizalfos in areas it doesn’t make sense to be fighting giant lizards (like snow fucking covered mountains!). The rain has no real relief in terms of climbing, which intensely restricts the joys of wandering. And a few other tiny quibbles that I can’t really remember at the moment (thankfully,
I’ve written a lot of articles on the game!). But
Zelda: Breath of the Wild is excellent. It is the best game of the decade, and very much one of the greatest examples of the medium I can point to. Worth your time.
2.
Splatoon 2 is, for all intents and purposes, the best multiplayer game I’ve ever played. And that’s not a knock against the solo campaigns, which are quite clever and certainly worth the playtime. But that mode alone is not what made these games so special. It’s the mechanics coupled with the camaraderie the multiplayer so expertly blends together.
Splatoon 2 takes the third person shooter into novel directions. Your Inkling can shoot ink (which damages opponents of a rival color), toss specialized bombs, launch Specials once the meter is maxed, jump, and transform into an alternate squid form that can swim faster in your team’s ink and potentially lurk in ambush for your foes. While blasting your rival Inklings is still a crucial part of the gameplay, there isn’t a single mode where that is the ultimate goal of a match. Instead, there’s the unranked Turf War, where covering the ground with your team’s ink is the way to win, while Ranked spins common multiplayer modes like Capture the Flag (Rainmaker) and King of the Hill (Splat Zones) into this ink-drenched world of combat. And it’s bloody brilliant. And teaming up with friends IS THE BEST. There have been so many legendary moments I’ve shared with some friends (shout outs to my forum buddies!) in this game to even try to document. Once I was playing Tower on my own and managed to sweep the entire rival team by myself in two seconds. Four splats. It was amazing. And this game lets you relive moments like that again and again and again. Plus I can’t ignore the chaos that is Salmon Run’s horde mode, nor the
Octo Expansion, brimming with spectacular writing and world-building, great single-player level design, and adding in the ability to play as Octolings, who have unique animations and styles to play around with. Add in an incredibly appealing visual and aural aesthetic, responsive controls and great map design and you’ve managed to picture the nigh-perfect world of
Splatoon 2.
Despite a few small problems (occasionally the camera gets locked into bad spots that hamper you; Splat Zones is a bit dull and too easy to dominate at higher level play; your squid/octo form sometimes doesn’t latch onto your ink like you want; Clam Blitz has some weird input problems that irritate me to no end) and a desire for even more customization options, I can’t complain. I LOVE
SPLATOON!
3.
XCOM is probably the biggest shock for me when I consider my favorite games of all time, as it’s probably not one I would have ever suspected to be this high. That’s not to say it’s undeserving or anything — I just didn’t expect my innocuous purchase of
Enemy Unknown to enamor me so hard, and then for
Enemy Within to then take that launching point and send it even further into my heart. Let me put it this way: I have done two full campaigns for
EU and essentially two for
EW (the first glitched out close to the end) in the past five years.
EW was 2015 AND 2016. And the genesis of this essay prompted thoughts of replaying it AGAIN. But why has it taken such a foothold in my brain?
I think
XCOM manages to find the right blend of tactical consideration alongside compelling mechanics, making each skirmish an absolute delight. As your soldiers muscle through maps and gain experience, better gear and more knowledge of the alien menace, you increasingly grow fonder and fonder of your squad. You wince when they take severe damage and panic as they fall, and you hope that they aren’t dead because of the time (and emotional) investment. But as the troops rise in power, and you gain the instincts of how to best proceed with each wrinkle of gameplay, storming maps and utilizing the environment to your advantage becomes second nature. Setting up overwatch salvos, ambushing enemies by flanking them, just taking out the most dangerous foe before they ravage your squad — these are amazing moments that build and build the more you play. And
EW adds in a bevy of new modes for combat maps and additional opportunities for your team to grow (MEC suits and bio-engineering), as well as all of the DLC and extra content from the last game, making it the definitive way to enjoy this marvelous package. And I haven’t even discussed the base aspects hardly at all, which is compelling enough to serve as a nice distraction from the shooting in between missions.
That all being said, the game has its shortfalls, and they are mostly technical. This is a glitch-ridden title, and the only PS3 patch for it actually makes it worse (by locking you out of a crucial mission late in the game!). The camera can spiral off into nowhere, units can fall through the ground, some weird physics issues, occasional collision problems, and weird artifacting to the cutscenes are a small handful of the issues that can arise. It’s also not super attractive to look at, and the color scheme is a little too monotone. And dear god, sometimes this game is merciless even on easier difficulties. Plus the aircraft element of the base is undercooked and feels tacked on to the rest. But despite all of those concerns, the core of the game is SO GOOD I can’t be mad at it. I mean, I’ve replayed the whole game nearly FOUR times in six years. And it’s not something that is a quick little breeze — it’s a 20 – 40 hour investment, at least. So
XCOM, you’ve sure done something.
4.
Intelligent Systems took a gamble with
Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Following the unexpected success of
Awakening, the developer attempted to strike gold again with the three-pronged narrative of
Fates, and
subsequently failed to recapture the magical formula that made its predecessor such a welcome update to the older games. While much of the structure of
Fates was adequate to excellent in execution,
the torpid story and the mostly uninspired cast — especially Corrin and the two families — dragged the overall execution towards mediocrity. Thankfully, the sublime
Echoes: Shadows of Valentina proved that
Fates was merely a misstep, and the recent
Three Houses all but confirms it.
Three Houses attempts to adapt some of the pieces of
Fates that worked well — a homebase to wander around and interact with your characters, primarily — but builds upon that foundation with a clever gimmick: borrowing heavily from
Harry Potter‘s house system and
Persona‘s social link dynamic, the game casts you as a mercenary turned professor at a monastary smack in the middle of a huge continent with three major political players. Trusted by the church with a artifact weapon and the choice of a house to teach, the player is introduced to a selection of the best cast of the series both in design and in personality. Each month lets you design a class outline to train your units, as well as every Sunday giving you the option to explore the monastary to chat with your students and others on the grounds, accept sidemissions, find lost items to return to your pupils, and try out some miscellanous activities like fishing, gardening and cooking. You can also conduct a seminary session, engage in battles or choose to rest to build motivation for your instruction sessions. When fights break loose, the classic
Fire Emblem formula takes over, with a few modifications. The weapon triangle is more or less absent, reduced to a skill you can gain through weapon mastery. Battalions can be equipped to characters for an extra attack or support ability that is relatively safe to use; the pair-up from
Awakening and
Fates is scaled way back and is more an opportunity to level up a benched character with the lucky shot of getting a bit of support from them in the throes of war. As you progress through the story, the character’s excellently written backstories come out, and dear god they are great. Easily the best part of the game is meeting and befriending your motley crew of students, and the most agonizing is when you face off against ones you didn’t recruit later on. Add in a phenomenal soundtrack and superb voice work and you have a masterful experience.
It’s not flawless, naturally — the graphics are adequate but Intelligent Systems’ 3D skills continue to underwhelm. Normal mode might be a touch too easy. Gender-based classes suck (I want to have lady brawlers!). The inability to customize Byleth at all kind of hurts, and female Byleth has a silly default outfit. And there’s so much content here with four (!) paths to explore to fully embrace all of the narrative threads within, and each is like 80 hours or so to complete. Which isn’t a
bad thing per say if you have the time, haha. In the end, as the game’s placement may indicate,
Three Houses is a triumphant reinvention of the series, one that truly seemed to be made just for me. I adore the socializing with the game’s cast, the educational trappings, and then demonstrating their prowess on the battlefield.
Three Houses is another stellar offering on the Switch, and well worth a look for fans and newcomers alike.
5.
I’ve had a notice on the bottom of my blog for several years now. One of the sentences reads “I think critical thinking in games should be applauded.” The past couple of years have seen a rise in video games tackling some heavy, complex and sensitive topics with such a critical thinking approach —
Gris is the shining beacon of this evolution of using games to bridge difficult conversations and express the whirlwind of the psyche.
Gris tackles much within its relatively brisk play time; its titular heroine is heavy, burdened with an assortment of anguish, depression and loss that the platforming attempts to treat as her path to recovery. Along the way, Gris unlocks abilities she had caged away, unleashing emotional surges that restore color and life to the world around her. As she unchains her body and mind, the swoop of darkness (manifested here primarily as a bird) attempts to undermine her forward progress, and Gris has to escape its torment or be swallowed up in its bleakness. And in the end, when she has fully regained her voice and restored the richness of life to her environment, the full bore of her internal struggle with herself and its shadows rises and swallows her whole, but having come so far to overcome the underpinning reasons for its existence, Gris manages to herself rise and subdue it with her incredible voice. All of this is backed with the most sensational art direction I’ve seen in a game, gorgeously animated and delicately accompanied by a haunting score by Berlinist. It is a moving piece of art.
Gris is not flawless. Some puzzles are not immediately clear, but it isn’t necessarily difficult, floating in a space of platforming that may not be for everyone. Some platforms can be difficult to discern in the beauty of the game’s graphical design. There’s a couple of points I wished Gris moved just a tad quicker. But all of these are minor in contrast to the sweeping and revolutionary achievement that this game generates over its hours. Games are a source of healing, and of power, and of discovery.
Gris is a masterclass in all of the above. I personally cannot wait for whatever Nomada Studio does next.
6. Shovel Knight
Good: An incredible amount of content with four full campaigns with different characters (and a full on
Smash clone separate from all that). Retro homage in the best possible way: gorgeous visuals, impeccable music and stunning backgrounds that echo the 8-bit era. All three game modes are beautifully designed, with amazing controls and level design. Handles gender most elegantly — Shield Knight is quite capable, women aren’t sexualized, and there’s a Body Swap option for all of the Knights and the Enchantress.
Poor: Some cheap enemies (the green propeller guys are a shining example). And this is mild, but Plague Knight and Specter Knight take some adjustment to get used to, as they control so radically different than most other 2D characters.
7. Dead Space 2
Good: One of the best 3D action games of all time. It’s also the finest psychological horror game since
Silent Hill 2. Isaac gaining a personality allows him to actively be a part of the game’s world, and the new characters are fantastic. Combat is visceral and intense.
Poor: The game strips out most of the boss fights from the first game, which is disappointing. The god damn eye sequence.
8. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Good:
Ultimate is what its subtitle implies — this is the most dense, jam-packed, thorough
Smash Bros. in terms of characters, stages, music and items. The Spirits add a nice wrinkle for collecting Nintendo and other gaming memorabilia, with interesting fights and the meaty World of Light to unlock them. The game controls wonderfully given how chaotic it feels.
Poor: Character unlocks take an agonizing time to do, especially with a roster this deep. Online needs some refinement to improve frame rate/lag. World of Light is a great solo campaign, but it may be a bit long in the tooth.
9. Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut
Good: Evolves the
Deus Ex formula beautifully. Adam Jensen has a wide array of skills and augments that allows extensive customization on how to proceed through each level. Tight and responsive gameplay is blended with top-notch level design. The
Director’s Cut adds in additional content and much needed attention to the boss fights.
Poor: Questionable casting decisions (especially Letitia). Final level goes against a lot of the other design principles powering
DE:HR, making it stand out (it feels a little more cohesive in the
Director’s Cut).
The Missing Link DLC was solid, but I disdain the gameplay decision to strip away the skills you’ve earned in the middle of a game.
10. Untitled Goose Game
Good: A brilliant idea brought to life in a subdued yet ludicrous fashion. The Goose controls just like I think one should, and its simple moveset is so well executed that sowing chaos and discord is marvelous. Organically funny in ways most games dream to be. A masterclass in using music to back the action.
Poor: If you don’t buy into the conceit of being an asshole of a goose, this entire thing might be lost on you. A little glitchy, and maybe could have had one more area to muck around in.
Runners-Up: The Last Story, Steamworld Heist, Super Mario Odyssey, Celeste, The Alliance Alive
Honorable Mention: Dragon Quest VIII on the 3DS came out in the 2010s, and is definitive, but I feel that's cheating lol
