The past year in games has been a weird one. 2017 brought us a seemingly endless barrage of instant classics, with the likes of Persona 5, Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey. When I created my list in 2017 I was so passionate about almost all of my list and then as I got to the later numbers I had actually struggled to decide what should be on there, not in a “oh man there’s way too many good ones” way but more so “I don’t feel passionate enough about the games vying for the nine or 10 spot”. This year, however, I found the opposite was true, while there were no huge releases that I am incredibly passionate about, instead the year was littered with a barrage of solid releases the whole year round.

Honourable Mentions (or how I learned to stop worrying about being too lazy to write about all 10):

 10: Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Hitman 2 (I haven’t played enough of either to justify putting them any higher, but I know they would probably take a higher spot on the list)

 9: Donut County

 8: God of War

 7: Into the Breach

 6: Dead Cells

 So, with that out of the way, here are my top five games of 2018.

 

5: Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar Studios

I could not tell you any other time I have hated a game that I love this much. Red Dead Redemption 2 proved to be one of the most divisive games of 2018, with some people adoring it and others absolutely hating it. I turned out somewhere in the middle.

Open world games are a hit or miss subject for me, since the releases of Metal Gear Solid V and Breath of the Wild and the absolute freedom those games offered, I find it difficult to go back to the more constricted designs of standard AAA open world games. Red Dead 2 offers that absolute freedom in its open world, by far Rockstar’s best world design especially compared to Grand Theft Auto V. Which makes it even more disappointing that Rockstar’s archaic mission design is so limiting on the player.

Red Dead’s attention to detail and world building is absolutely phenomenal, they do everything they can to just fully immerse you in the 1890’s wild west, this however, comes at the expense of gameplay. Breath of the Wild caught some flak with some of the more “un-fun” features, the weapons breaking, rain and stamina being a contentious, sometimes game ruining feature for people.

Red Dead follows in the footsteps by sacrificing ease of use and sometimes fun for the sake of realism, this isn’t an inherently bad thing as it was clearly the creator’s vision, but I would be lying if I didn’t struggle with it a lot over the games 40+ hour run time.

Red Dead also boasts perhaps the best original soundtrack of 2018, with the range of instruments and vibes ascending it above the usual yeehaw affair the first game offered. It can go from anywhere from an epic battle theme to a song that would fit right into ‘Paint that Wagon’ and yet manages to fit every scene perfectly.

Where Red Dead Redemption 2 really shines however is in its story. At the start of the game, the protagonist, Arthur Morgan feels like a gruff grumpy blank slate video game protagonist, however the arc his character goes on through the course of the game cements him as the single best protagonist Rockstar have ever created. In concept it would seem hard to stretch the story of a gang who consistently keep messing up and the leaders struggle to keep power over everyone to the 40-hour runtime but aside for occasional downtime (chapter 5) the story remains engaging throughout.

While the mission design can be kind of limiting and standard Rockstar fare, the big story moments in these missions make for some of the most incredible moments in a game this year, the first train robbery, the gang riding up to Braithwaite manor, the final mission. The cinematic direction and narrative moments more than make up for the shortcomings in the gameplay.

 

4: Marvel’s Spider-Man

Insomniac Games

Marvel’s Spider-Man is perhaps one of the single most derivative games I have ever played. With a Ubisoft style open world, combat lifted from the Arkham games and swinging that chases the highs of 2004’s Spider-Man 2 it doesn’t really do anything new or unique.

Yet somehow, I still loved it.

From dying in Infinity War to having one of the biggest games of the year and then having the best movie of the year in the form of ‘Into the Spider-Verse’, no one had a better year in 2018 than Spider-Man.

Like I said during Red Dead I very much struggle to enjoy the standard AAA open world game formula made famous by Ubisoft. Climbing towers, infiltrating enemy bases, random combat encounters and tonnes of hidden collectables. I rarely find myself able to finish games with this structure. However, this is one of the only games I have 100% completion on in the past few years (which not even my gold standards of open world games MGSV or BOTW can boast). So, while that opening feels maybe a tad negative, in reality it is testament to just how fun and engaging Spider-Man is to play.

The star of the show is obviously the swinging, something that every Spider-Man game since Spider-Man 2 has been chasing. While not exactly 1:1 with that game this is the best the swinging in a Spider-Man game has felt since then, it makes traversing the virtual Manhattan an absolute joy with the games fast travel system feeling completely unnecessary with how fun the world is to traverse.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Spider-Man is how fantastic the story is, the game stands as one of my favourite Spider-Man stories of all time (possibly my number one Spider-Man story had Into the Spider-verse not shown up a couple months later). The relationship between Peter Parker and Otto Octavius may seem the single most obvious set up for a twist in the world but they manage to make it one of the best storylines of any game this year with an incredibly emotional payoff. Yuri Lowenthal’s Peter Parker ended up as my favourite version of Peter ever……. Until ‘Into the Spider-Verse’s’ Peter B Parker. We have been absolutely spoiled this year with two of the absolute best stories about everyone’s favourite swingy boi ever.

 

3: Tetris Effect

Enhance Games

If you polled everyone on the planet earth to decide what the single greatest video game ever made was, Tetris would probably be the answer. Everyone has played Tetris and knows what it’s about so I’m not going to sit here and lecture you on the gameplay of Tetris.

Tetris Effect is the latest game from the mind of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the man behind Rez, Every Extend and Lumines. Unsurprisingly Tetris Effect also deals heavily in the idea of Synaesthesia. Imagine Lumines but with the gameplay of Tetris and you have the general vibe.

This is a really hard one to write about because what makes Tetris Effect so great is how much of a personal experience it is. I can tell you that the music and visuals go along with your movement of the pieces but that really doesn’t sell the actual feeling you get when you play it. Full disclosure, the first time I played this during the weekend trial demo I was brought to tears with just the sheer beauty and the feeling that playing it gives off.

I really can’t do this game justice by just writing about it, all I can really tell you is it was enough of an experience to convince me to spend £40 on Tetris, a game I can get for free on my phone right now and then to call it the third greatest game of 2018.

 

2: Monster Hunter World

Capcom

It’s been a struggle being a diehard Capcom fan this decade, from kicking Mega Man to the kerb, the absolute shitshows that were Street Fighter X Tekken, Resident Evil 6 and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite and the ongoing saga of Street Fighter V. Capcom has hardly been in the publics favour as of late.

In the last couple of years Capcom have been absolutely knocking it out of the park. Resident Evil 7 breathed new life into the series, they continued to improve Street Fighter V and now they have finally brought Monster Hunter to consoles.

Monster Hunter World is a dream come true, as someone who has adored the series for years but struggled to play a lot of it due to it being shackled to the 3DS. World not only brings the series back to consoles but does wonders in making it far more accessible than the former games without sacrificing depth.

Messy matchmaking system aside, the Co-op in World is the most fun I’ve had with a Co-op loot grind game ever. Where the likes of Destiny fail Monster Hunter manages to make every encounter exhilarating, the highlight of which being the monster AI and ecosystem that makes the world feel lived in instead of the kind of boring arenas of past games.

With that being said, I haven’t properly played Monster Hunter World since like March, but the way it absolutely dominated the start of my year absolutely warrants it a spot this high on my list, and I’m keen to eventually get back into it once the expansion drops this autumn.

1: Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Bandai Namco Studios/Sora LTD

I’m always hesitant to put fighting games at the top of my year end lists, truth be told, I get salty as fuck at fighting games, and will just have an awful time playing them sometimes.

Something about Smash pulls me back in every single time.

E3 2018 and Nintendo hits out with a trailer that lists off characters in the game, about halfway through they reveal that Snake (and by extension, Metal Gear content) was back in the game. That alone was enough for me, Snake was the biggest exclusion from the Wii U version so him being back had already sold me.

August 8^th hits and they have a Smash Bros direct which opens on the reveal of Simon and Richter Belmont, both of which are cool but then at the end of the direct the screen starts shaking and they cap it off with the reveal of King K Rool (with one of the best CG trailers I’ve seen for a fighting game) So not only did they bring back my favourite series to Smash they also included my number one most requested character. Then one night before launch, blew my expectations for the DLC away by announcing Persona 5’s Joker. Smash was, barring a MAJOR fuck up pretty much destined to be my Game of the Year.

No game absorbed my time as much this year as Smash, for the first time in years I got caught up in the hype cycle of a game so much that I was thinking about it almost daily, which hasn’t happened to me in years.

The core fighting is the best it’s ever been and the roster of 74 is for the most part great (too much Fire Emblem for anyone’s liking but otherwise pretty good).

Where the game really shines is in the fan service. One of the things I consistently look forward to with every new Smash Bros game is the plethora of remixes that come with it. From the now legendary version of Gangplank Galleon, complete with a rap verse, or taking Kass’ theme from a melancholic solo accordion piece into a hyped-up flamenco piece. Special mention to whoever’s idea it was to get the Daytona USA guy in to do a F-Zero Medley.

Fan service also plays a huge role in the games adventure mode ‘World Of Light’ which in all honesty I haven’t played a huge amount of, from fighting a Little Mac that only does jump attacks to represent Ricky from Links Awakening or a gang of Wario that only do shoulder charges to represent Chargin’ Chuck from Mario World every single battle is some form of reference. The mode also boasts themed areas with the one based on Street Fighter 2 being a total delight.

Fanservice doesn’t just come in the form of Nintendo’s own content either, Smash shows more love to Street Fighter, Mega Man and Castlevania than any of those series’ have shown to themselves in years, my one disappointment being the lack of new Metal Gear remixes and content but it’s easy to ignore when there is so much love poured Into every single aspect of this game. Smash may make me tilted as all hell a lot of the time, but I love it regardless, because ultimately, it’s the greatest celebration of video games that the industry has at this point.

I also really hope that Doom guy is DLC.