- Control
- Death Stranding
- The Outer Worlds
- Resident Evil 2
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- Disco Elysium
- Asgard's Wrath
- Simulacrum: Chapter One
- Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
- Shenmue 3
Just like the previous year, 2019 has been a great year for gaming overall. There are a few honorable mentions that didn't make this year's list simply because they weren't technically 2019 games. Blade And Sorcery is an early access VR sandbox game that has the most amazing melee combat of any VR game. Obra Dinn is technically a 2018 game, but it was some of the most immensely satisfying 9 hours I've ever spent on a video game. Not a factor in the ranking, but it also doesn't hurt that it's probably the best tech demo for ray-tracing out today.
But going into 2019 I have to pick what, for me, might be an unusual choice: Control. I say it's unusual because at a glance it's a fairly standard Remedy third-person shooter/platformer with superpowers a la Quantum Break, but when you dig in you find some pretty tight action gameplay surrounded by some rich X-Files/Twin Peaks inspired world-building that's incredibly engrossing and often hilarious. "The Oldest House" may be a single location as the setting for the game, but the non-linear progression (and often non-Euclidian architecture) keep the game interesting throughout. In spite of a slightly underwhelming ending, this game makes the top of my list for the year because even after I beat it, the first thing I wanted to do was go back and close out every sidequest I could find and max out every ability. I haven't wanted to do that in a game since last year's God of War.
After that, the rest of this list gets a bit interesting. While I mourn the loss of the Silent Hills we never had the opportunity to be traumatized by, Kojima leaving Konami at least means he can make the games he really wants to make. And the result? We got the most Kojima game that has ever been Kojima-ed. A regular day in Death Stranding's world entails climbing mountains and crossing rivers to deliver packages in a supernatural post-apocalypse while fending off ghosts with poop grenades, all while trying to keep my bottle baby ghost detection system from crying. Also, you'd occasionally stop to urinate on mushrooms.
In spite of how meandering and often uneventful this game can be, it's kind of all I can think about when I'm not playing it, so that's why the game that has a bizarre focus on going to the bathroom gets my "Number 2" slot.
From out of nowhere, The Outer Worlds became one of my favorites this year. It raises an interesting question: Can a game be really good even if it doesn't necessarily do anything new? The answer appears to be yes, provided that all of the familiar stuff it does is done as well as it can be. I had hoped for something that deviated more from the Bethesda RPG formula, but what Obsidian put together is a tight and fleshed out a microcosm of a Fallout-style game, but in a more interesting setting than another irradiated wasteland. It's nice to play a retro-themed sci-fi game that is capable of displaying more colors than brown, grey, and green.
The Resident Evil 2 Remake ended up being far better than it probably should have been. In all honesty, it's about as good as a remake/re-imagining of a classic horror game could be, even if I don't agree with them bringing Mr. X into the A scenario in the new game. In the original, he didn't show up until your second playthrough and the game suddenly throwing an entirely new terrifying adversary at you out of nowhere was one of my most memorable gaming moments.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is really fun, and I look forward to beating it, but it came out late in the year and I haven't had the time to devote to it yet. At its core, it's essentially Force Unleashed but with more exploration and less "being a somewhat awful game," which is absolutely what Star Wars games needed right now.
Disco Elysium should probably be higher on this list, but it came out late in the year and I haven't had the chance to put too much time into it with everything else in my queue. This game is the antithesis of Outer Worlds, as it breaks the mold of what an RPG is in nearly every way. By the time I beat both games, I suspect this game will have ranked higher in my list but I have to give a shout out to a game where on my first playthrough I damaged myself turning the lights on too brightly while hungover and I tripped and died of a heart attack.
Asgard's Wrath is a new Oculus game that just beat out the James Bond-themed Defector as my current favorite VR game (besides Sairento, which I will never stop playing). VR needs more games that feel like real games and not linear story experiences with a handful of gameplay elements thrown in as seasoning. Asgard's Wrath has that AAA feel that we got with Lone Echo and Robo Recall, and it's a very creating mix of different gameplay elements.
Simulacrum: Chapter One is a bit of an unknown, but for any Silent Hill fans, it's a must play. Dubbed as a "spiritual successor" to the series, this free indie game may look like a blatant rip off of my favorite horror series, right down to the fonts and menu-style. But if you look deeper, it's clearly a very sincere homage that really nails what I enjoyed about the best games in the series--which includes great lore and puzzles plus a pervasive sense of dread.
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is one that I'd been salivating over for a long time prior to its release. Even though there wasn't much gameplay footage ahead of it dropping, the promise was for a game that filled that gap left by Wing Commander: Privateer so many years ago, and in that department, it did not disappoint. A space sim that's a little light on the "sim" elements, it delivers on exploring an open universe without long boring stretches.
Finally, Shenmue 3 makes this list. Not because it's a good game but because for all its mediocrity and complete lack of keeping up with modern gaming standards, it’s the game that I wanted for decades and never thought I'd see. So yes, I will grind my way through hours of terrible minigames and wooden dialog because the fact that this game even exists is frankly a miracle.
(12/20/2019: Please note that this blog was edited by the GameSpot staff)