Games I played from 2018

Published on December 18, 2018
Last updated on January 10, 2020
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These are the games I played in 2018: the good and the bad.


Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

What a ridiculous year for Sega and the Yakuza franchise. Yakuza 6 debuts the Dragon engine, making for the most immersive Kamurocho experience ever and also scales back from Yakuza 5 to tell a focused story about Kiryu and what it means to be family.

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Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

Setting a Yakuza game in the Fist of the North Star universe was a stroke of genius, as the combat fits the classic manga/anime like a custom made spiked shoulder pad. The lore of Fist of the North Star is seamlessly integrated with the new hub world, Eden, with the new characters blending in with the classic cast. The biggest surprise of the year for me.

Yakuza: Kiwami 2

It feels like cheating to include a remake of a game that was released almost ten years ago, but Kiwami 2 is every bit the quality product the first one was, even putting the game into the new Dragon engine used in Yakuza 6. It absolutely feels like a new experience, and is the definitive way to play the game.

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Horizon Chase Turbo

Terrific arcade racer with a ton of content that never outstays its welcome.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The latest and greatest in the series brings with it the biggest roster of brawlers yet as well as an interesting single player mode with World of Light, which while the mechanics are deeper than Subspace Emissary I didn't find it quite as charming.

Mega Man 11

Another great entry in the classic Mega Man franchise.

Marvel's Spider-Man

A great open world New York, great swinging mechanics, and a story that doesn't screw it up make this effortlessly the best Spider-Man game ever made. There are some forced stealth sequences (that I usually have low tolerance for) that really didn't bother me in this game, and the open world has the expected "go check a bunch of samey objectives off your list" but this does little to mar the experience. Really it just makes me excited to see how much better a sequel can be!

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

With it's 8 bit aesthetic and multiple characters and paths, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is obviously playing homage to Castlevania III. But with multiple modes and endings it really goes above and beyond what people would have been satisfied with considering it was a Kickstarter goal for a larger game and released at the crazy low price of 9.99. It is a great Castlevania game that easily stands among the classics, and at that price gets my vote for value of the year.

God of War (2018)

Beautifully told story of fatherhood and breaking the cycle of vengeance and violence. It took me a while to warm up to it, but by the end I was fixated on it.

Octopath Traveler

A new JRPG from the team that did Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler shares many of the former's strengths as well as weaknesses. The combat and soundtrack are absolutely outstanding, but the end game grind required to see the "true ending" was a bit of a turnoff.

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Iconoclasts

A great Metroidvania I missed out on when it came out. I enjoyed the story quite a bit though I agree that the dialogue is weird. I don't know how else to explain it, but it's definitely a great game. Shout out to the fun bosses!

Celeste

Fun platformer with a good message about mental health that will appeal to the speedrun crowd.

Timespinner

Another great Metroidvania game with some fantastic music and terrible writing. Doesn't add anything to the genre, but fans will have an enjoyable time.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

While I could complain about the uninspired voice acting, the unpolished storytelling, the ridiculous amount of menus and the leveling system that still feels out of place in an AC game, I did think the core game play was a lot of fun. Speaking of which, there is a lot here, almost too much, but I could never accuse it of not delivering it's moneys worth.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Completing the "trinity trilogy" of the rebooted Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider loses it's way a bit. The satisfying way the world branched out and wrapped around itself in the previous two entries is gone here for the most part, with much of the game feeling more linear. The custom difficulty options is a really cool idea, but the balance is all off as far as combat goes. Cover bases shoot outs are actually kind of rare, with many of the fights this time being in your face close encounters where I had a hard time finding the space to get off a shot or two. Worst of all, Lara's character arc is not resolved in a satisfying manner, I really don't feel that she has "become the tomb raider" so much as she's "just kind of a sociopath". Still, the flashback scene was well done and the climbing and tomb exploration are in top form. It is the weakest of the new Tomb Raider games, but it is still worth playing. As a special note, this game is jaw droppingly gorgeous on high end PCs, the best looking game of its time.

Detroit: Become Human

Yes the situations are still contrived, yes it's still daytime soap opera melodrama and packed to the gills with cliches, but I have to admit that I was taken in by the production values, and while nothing really made me super emotional I will say this is probably the high point for David Cage and Quantic Dream. Good job.


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