Best of 2019: Clint's Picks
2019 was a hell of a year for gaming. Coming off of the blockbuster-heavy 2018, we disappointingly saw a lot of heavily anticipated titles get pushed off into 2020, making for a fairly light holiday release schedule this go-round, but all was not lost. Due to a strong spring release season, some great showings from the Indie scene, and a few sleeper hits, we managed to get some great new games this year. Check out some of my favorites for the year below.
Best Action Game: Resident Evil 2
This game was a huge winner in my book, not just because it was a great game in and of itself, but also because of what it did for the industry as a whole. Lately, it seems like every AAA studio has been running out of new ideas and have been feeding us a never-ending stream of “HD Remasters” where they lazily slap a few updated textures on their old hits in the hopes of extracting another $60 from our wallets. Resident Evil 2 (2019) is not a remaster, it’s a total remake. Capcom originally released Resident Evil 2 on PS1 in 1998, and while its remake shares a lot of the same basic story, settings, and ideas, they have completely retooled the game into an over-the-shoulder action game and rebuilt the world and mechanics from the ground up, keeping enough to maintain its identity but reinventing itself with 20 years of gaming quality-of-life updates. The resulting product was an epic thrill ride and what I believe was the best action game of the year, hands down. I know that the horror elements of this game could make it a bit of a comfort zone stretch for some people, but it has far more fight than fright and is more of a thriller than anything else. If more developers start taking this approach with their old classics, I think we’re all in for some great games in the near future.
Best Multiplayer: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
If I were rating these games by how many of my precious hours I’ve spent playing them, this game would certainly take my top spot of 2019. Despite the fact that it only released a little over two months ago, I’ve managed to drop over 75 hours into this beast of a game and there seems to be no immediate end in sight. Call of Duty has been around forever, and if I’m being honest, I haven’t been much of a fan of the series for almost a decade. When Infinity Ward announced that they would be rebooting CoD 4: Modern Warfare, the 2007 trailblazer hit that essentially set the stage for what the modern multiplayer FPS would become, I wrote it off as another gimmick in a series of yearly installments that haven’t pushed the needle forward in years…and I was wrong. Infinity Ward has stripped CoD of nearly all the bullshit and mistakes from the past decade, gone back to the solid framework that made the series great in the first place and took lessons learned over the past 12 years since the original to put together something truly special and admittedly, highly addictive. This installment is a breath of fresh air for the series and has brought a new, more mature perspective to the subject matter of war in the single-player campaign as well as what I think is the best multiplayer shooter experience on the market today. If you’ve been ignoring Call of Duty for years like me because of all the stupid antics and rushed releases, I can confidently say that it’s time to check back in and see what they’ve put together in 2019, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Best Indie Game: Celeste
The indie game scene had a lot to offer in 2019 but this game managed to find itself a champion amongst champions. Despite the fact that this game was created by just two guys, what they managed to put together was one of the tightest platforming experiences that I’ve played in recent memory. Beyond that, the soundtrack was killer and the story was deep and heartfelt, which is not something I’ve seen from the platforming genre in the past. Tackling some tough issues such as anxiety, self-acceptance, and learning to be okay with personal failures, this game is a prime example of how video games have become a true, mature art form. On the flip side, if you’re just looking for a strong, platforming challenge, this game can scratch that itch too.
Best Story: Disco Elysium
For a game that was released with very little fanfare or press, this game took the world by storm in late 2019. I only picked it up because I noticed that a game had been topping the Steam charts for weeks without me ever having heard of it before (which never happens) and I was intrigued. What followed was one of the most unique gaming experiences that I have ever had - beyond the wonderfully crafted story and immersive world, this game brings a wildly entertaining perspective to the genre in which the main characters of the game aren’t the people, but the conflicting layers of the demented psyche of the degenerate detective that you are playing as. I don’t want to ruin any of this awesome story for you so all I’ll say is that even if you only have money/time/whatever for one game in the coming months, you should definitely be checking this one out (just don’t look up too much about it first). If you want to hear more, check out our podcast in February, we’ll be discussing it in detail then.
Biggest Personal Achievement: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
The latest FromSoftware title came out this year and for once, it wasn’t a bleak tale about some nameless grunt who is tortured incessantly by brutal bosses and the dying world around him...this time the main character got a name (Sekiro) and the rest of the formula stayed the same. Although I had played nearly all the FromSoftware titles at some point (Dark Souls 1,2,3 and Bloodbourne) previously, I had never become immersed enough in them to carry me through the long, intense, and brutally punishing gameplay to the end. Sekiro changed that for me. This game is just as difficult as the Souls games (some would argue far more difficult), but something about the world and the story this time around sucked me in and kept me playing through each and every seemingly insurmountable challenge. In the end, I prevailed and with that, came my biggest gaming accomplishment of the year. It was exhilarating and gratifying and I’m glad that I pushed through to the credits. To any hardcore gamers looking for a fun challenge, you need look no further...just start saving your quarters for the swear jar.
Best Old Game: Dying Light
Although this game released back in early 2015, I hit it up for a second (or maybe even third) playthrough this year and am happy to report that it’s still just as good as I remember it. While the whole zombie apocalypse genre has been fairly played out, this first-person parkour-heavy zombie survival thriller is truly a unique experience and sets itself way apart from others in that genre. As mentioned before, this game uses a well-developed parkour system rather than the standard combat system as your primary means of survival in this terrifying world. While you can fight back to a minimal extent, your best tool is your mobility and the ability to run, climb, swing, and dodge your way past zombie hoards to safety. This creates an extreme level of tension that is wildly escalated at night when the real big bads come out to play. It’ll only take one heart-throbbing midnight “volatile” chase through the rooftops of Harran to see what makes this game so exhilarating and special, and I honestly can’t think of a game that has gotten my heart rate up so high since. I would strongly recommend checking this game out and if you like it, good news, the long-awaited sequel will be hitting the shelves in 2020.