It's time once again for us to award the best games of 2019 a place on our list. Since we're restricting the pool of nominees to games we've played and reviewed this year, we may have left a few of your favourite games off the list.
But before we do, here are a few special mentions. Spoilers for Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order.
Disaster of the Year - FALLOUT 76, Bethesda Game Studios
While Bethesda’s latest Fallout game was technically released in 2018, the sheer amount of controversy since its launch means it easily takes the title for 2019’s Disaster of the Year. While other games may have failed spectacularly at launch before sliding into obscurity, the construction of a game so fundamentally broken that it continues to periodically spit out fresh controversy even a year later is a dubious kind of achievement in itself. Patches were introduced that not only included new bugs but also brought back old ones to break the game, and when players complained about receiving low quality nylon bags as part of the collector’s edition of the game, Bethesda compensated them with 500 Atoms, an amount of in-game currency roughly equivalent to $5. The saga continued throughout the year, with players reporting catastrophic bugs and malfunctions, more broken updates, and even a product recall of real-life power armour helmets as a mould risk. As icing on the cake, Bethesda launched the game’s exclusive subscription Fallout 1st, which offered dedicated Vault Dwellers private servers (subscribers later reported Bethesda had in fact recycled old player worlds for this purpose) and other minor advantages for the exorbitant price of $13 a month which, following this general pattern, managed to set off an in-game class war. A truly spectacular example of the vicious potential of Murphy’s Law.
Best Performance - ASHLY BURCH as PARVATI HOLCOMB, THE OUTER WORLDS
Usually, you might expect a best performance award going to a main character, someone whose performance in a lead role greatly improved the narrative, story or overall experience of playing a video game. But not this year. Often in RPG games, having a compelling main character isn’t enough and that’s where companions come in. Video game companions and the people behind them are often unsung heroes. But not this year. With Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds came Parvarti Holcomb and she absolutely steals the spotlight. Genuine, naive and thoroughly likeable, Parvati is the first companion you come across on your journey through the Halcyon system and she quickly wins you over with her endearing awkwardness and charming optimism. She identifies as asexual and bisexual, thereby serving as an understated champion for players who identify as either. In many RPGs you become a hero of legend. In The Outer Worlds, you get the chance to become the galaxy’s greatest wingman/wingwoman on Parvati’s planet-hopping personal quest to set up the perfect date for the engineer she’s fallen head over heels for. Voice actress Ashly Burch delivers yet another accomplished performance in the role, breathing plenty of life into a character who’s just too damn wholesome to resist.
Best In-Game Moment - CAL CRAFTS A NEW LIGHTSABER, STAR WARS: JEDI FALLEN ORDER
Although players of BioWare’s online MMORPG The Old Republic will already have had the chance to craft their own lightsabers, Respawn Entertainment’s Jedi Fallen Order offered us a moment all too rarely seen in the Star Wars franchise as a whole. The lightsaber, the elegant weapon for a more civilised age, is an icon of science fiction and giving us the chance to craft our own is quite possibly the greatest thing a Star Wars game could ever do. While Fallen Order didn’t quite manage to secure a place on our list this year, its greatest moment sees Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis falter in his task in the icy caves of the world of Ilum, only to have hope restored in true Star Wars fashion by his faithful droid and companion BD-1. Able to come to terms with the trauma of the Jedi Purge, Cal forges - with a colour crystal chosen by the player - a new lightsaber to take into the final battle against the forces of the dark side.
And now onto our list.
For proving the strength of narrative, dialogue-based games with a fantastic original story.
We kick off our list with a particularly unconventional pick. In Afterparty, college graduates and best buddies Milo and Lola die unexpectedly and find themselves quite literally in the waiting room of Hell. Their only chance to return to the mortal coil? Beating Satan himself in an epic drinking contest the likes of which only the Buddha and a particularly earnest velociraptor have won. With the tone of an irreverent and darkly funny adult cartoon, Afterparty is an absolute riot with a truly wicked sense of humour. Alongside fourth-wall breaks and gags, a fantastic cast featuring Janina Gavenkar and Khoi Dao as Lola and Milo give their all to create the drama of life dragging apart two previously inseparable people, and about struggling to come to terms with personal flaws, life after college and devastating insecurity. All this is buoyed by plenty of sharp wit and Night School Studios’ unique dialogue system.
For creating an immersive world, and for daring to go further than ever before with an epic tale of survival.
After roaming through the dark depths of the Moscow Metro, Metro Exodus succeeds on its willingness to venture above ground properly for the first time. The world beyond the Metro is stark, harsh and unforgiving, but beautiful in its own way. Exodus goes to extraordinary lengths, painstakingly establishing both realism and immersion for this world, and populating it with a cast of memorable characters desperately seeking a better life in the post-apocalypse. Blending harsh survival gameplay with an epic tale of survival and hope for the future, it makes for a fantastically haunting conclusion to the Metro saga and an impressive game in its own right.
For staying faithful to their roots, and to the imaginations of a game’s original creators.
The true genius of the remake of Link’s Awakening is that it’s a game meant for the kids inside all of us. In true Legend of Zelda fashion, it has an unmistakable flair and tells a tale that surprises with its subtle emotional intelligence. Its reworked visuals are a charm offensive from Nintendo, and a perfect representation of how the creators of the original game must have pictured Link’s adventure on the mysterious tropical idyll of Koholint Island unfolding in their minds. The island is filled with adorable characters and meticulously crafted dungeons, and despite having being rebuilt from the ground-up, it all still carries the familiar charm of the much-loved days of the Game Boy with its wonderful tilt-shift toy box visuals. An extraordinary adventure, well worth taking for anyone who owns a Nintendo Switch.
For technical advances, and for embracing the strangeness inherent in all science fiction.
The realisation of a long-time dream for any fans of the SCP Foundation, Control takes up its crazy premise of a mysterious organisation collecting objects that violate natural law and securing them for protection and study, and just runs off with it. It wears its inspiration proudly on its sleeve. Over the ten hours I spent exploring the seemingly infinite depths of the Oldest House, Control proved its own excellence over and over again, with its fast-paced psychic combat and a willingness to hide a mind-bending set piece in every corner of its world. It embraces the inherent weirdness in its inspirations; while the main story is excellent, its side quests can be even more so, as we guide protagonist Jesse Faden as she investigates reality-bending items and secures them for safe-keeping after engaging in psychic battle set-pieces where reality itself shifts and changes. A richly imaginative, unapologetically weird and incredibly punchy sci-fi adventure.
For successfully regrounding and recentering a franchise previously lacking vital direction.
It’s really no surprise that after going off in every possible direction, the people behind Call of Duty decided to head back to basics. As Modern Warfare proves, there’s a reason why people love those basics so much. The campaign represents the most sophisticated and intelligent Call of Duty single player in years, with electrically tense set-piece missions that draw on Hollywood’s military thrillers to attract your attention. Meanwhile, in the multiplayer mode, impressively in-depth customisation and the introduction of brand new realism modes ramps up the action and suspense to 11. But 2019’s Modern Warfare represents more than just that. After all, it’s been a long while since the franchise managed to put out anything other than mediocre duds. It feels fresh: it’s frequently thrilling, gritty and technically impressive, and offers everything a fan of the franchise could have asked for. A good sign that the franchise has finally found its feet at long last.
For doing things old-school, embracing true choice and consequence, and for razor-sharp writing.
A proper, substantial old-school RPG, The Outer Worlds embraces both choice and consequence from beginning to end. Ever since the release of Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian has been filling in the carefully carved niche of classic RPGs, and with this game, they’ve broken onto the mainstream with a bang. It’s a wild ride from start to finish, with a fresh and original space Western setting populated by fascinating, complex characters and steeped in a dark, dry humour and wit. The writing is razor-sharp, creating a nuanced story that revolves around the idea that there’s no perfect situation, that every action has consequences, and most importantly that there are no wrong answers to any given problem. The Outer Worlds makes you consider who you’re actually roleplaying as: liberator, mercenary, corporate stooge or something in between? Its willingness to bend over backwards to accommodate the player, whether it’s catering to ridiculously over-the-top playstyles or giving you a free hand to create outrageous character builds, makes it a fantastic RPG. At a time when games are swamped by ludicrous microtransactions and pay-to-win nonsense, The Outer Worlds serves as a powerful kick in the teeth from the single-player games of old.
For stellar game design, delivering a masterclass in survival horror, and for making zombies terrifying again.
Rebuilt from scratch for the current console generation, Resident Evil 2 gets its grip on you in its opening minutes and then refuses to let go until the credits roll. Thanks to Capcom, we can look back on 2019 and say that it was the year when somebody finally made zombies scary again. Everything about is expertly designed to inspire fear. Its environments are cluttered, claustrophobic and way too dark. The third person, over the shoulder camera means you can’t look around the next corner to see what’s lying in wait. The soundtrack creates a heady thrum that increases in pitch as you approach the next corner. You’re never sure if something is there, or if the game is faking you out. Sometimes you might not be able to see the zombies, but you can hear them, groaning and growling off in the distance. It’s the perfect mix for a truly terrifying survival horror game. It’s tense, atmospheric and most of all, it isn’t afraid to let your imagination fill in the blanks and create part of the horror. It represents the best of the survival horror genre, and for that reason, Resident Evil 2 is our official 2019 Game of the Year.
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