1/ Death Stranding.
Like many, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Hideo Kojima. Too many times when his self-indulgent cutscenes have delayed an already too late gaming session on a work night beyond any acceptable hour of the morning; and I canât really forgive him for that time when he compared himself to Hayao Miyazaki. I mean, Hayao Miyazaki has never wasted my timeâŚ
But, I love his gameplay genius. Itâs what makes it ( for me ) worth enduring his eye-rollingly egotistical and self-referential otaku tropes. And for that reason. I canât help but place Death Stranding at the top of my 2019 list. Itâs an exercise in elevating and layering the very greatest gameplay elements from games of the last 10-15 years.
I keep on spotting little things that I enjoyed in other great games which heâs clearly taken note of and tried to elevate as a gameplay mechanic. Like the simple act of keeping your balance with a heavy load as you âSkyrimâ it up the side of a mountain, or the signs you leave around a la Dark Souls, but then you notice other peopleâs structures and paths forming from use not just by you, but by other players⌠other Sams.
Thereâs so much stuff like that that just keeps being layered on top, it can be quite tough to keep up at times.
I love the weird, exquisitely obtuse world. In fact the only other game thatâs given me this sensation of âbeyond the end of everythingâ, was The Tomorrow Children, another weird, obtuse game that polarised opinion ( and I refuse to delete off my hard drive for some undefinable reason).
It really is a polarising game, but I see it as the work of someone who has maybe decided to stop trying to please everyone, and the work of someone like that can become wonderfully intense. Undiluted even. I wish more devs would try and please less people tbh. Just stick to their visions.
In my opinion, if youâve made half the gaming community furious because they donât âget itâ, thatâs the best contribution you could make to gaming as a whole, because itâs challenged the medium. Something that doesnât happen anywhere near enough right now.
In some ways, I think I love it soo much precisely because it caused so many toys to be thrown out of prams.
2/ WRC 8
I think itâs worth being thankful to WRCâs previous guardians. Milestone kept hope alive during the dark days of the Great Racing Game Crash. Without them I think we might not even have the sublime Dirt Rally. They were shonky games, but they were made with love, and they echoed the old PS2 WRC games from Evolution quite well.
When Kylotonn took over the licence, I was initially dismayed. Yes, they stated that they were going to start from a very basic starting point, but by the time WRC 6 came along, it seemed clear that WRC games were no longer about replicating the sport I love. Then somehow over the last two years or so, first with the surprisingly good WRC 7 and then with WRC 8 which imo, genuinely rivals Dirt Rally 2.
WRC 8 is such a swing towards the sim market it still surprises me when I fire it up. No longer do the cars handle on rails, theyâre actually so feisty that running the junior classes for a while comes highly recommended. It doesnât quite handle like Dirt Rally, but I donât think itâs any less simmy for that. It doesnât quite have the same sense of place as Codies stages do, but my god itâs so much more generous.
Compare the copious quantities of stages in WRC 8 with no DLC, to Codiesâ disappointing approach, with the game only having a handful of locations at the start and the new ones being added as paid for DLC all mealy-mouthed like and thatâs really what nudges WRC8 over the finish line first for me. I realise many will disagree, but their handling models while admittedly different, to me are equally âsimmyâ; itâs the way WRC 8 genuinely replicates the championship that gives it the nod.
3/ The Surge 2
Itâs a pleasure to watch Deck 13 grow into this genre. LotF and The Surge 1 left me a little cold because (imo) they missed the point. The Souls games have never been just about the combat and the difficulty (and I take issue with the idea that theyâre that difficult anyway, theyâre masterclasses in psychology really), the other key element is the online and offline systems that underpin the whole experience.
The Surge 2 is the first non-FROM example of the genre that Iâve experienced, that seems to have learned that lesson. Sure, there were times where it felt a little too unfair and little too grindy, especially early on, but this a realisation of Deck 13s journey from Soulslike imitator, to masterful exponent.
4/ Dauntless
I know many dismiss this as a poor manâs Monster Hunter, but I disagree. I love Monster Hunter. Iâve put a horrendous number of hours into it, but itâs a hell of a time investment and can be incredibly obtuse.
Dauntless took that and streamlined it perfectly. Itâs not a competitor to itâs big sibling, but itâs a brilliant âbubblegumâ game that can give people that Monster Hunter kick quickly and satisfyingly. Itâs a gateway drug, in my opinion, and will serve to expand the MonHun community.
Not to mention pretty much the fairest F2P system Iâve yet come across, and the absolute best cross-platform experience Iâve come across too. Being able to pick up and continue my progress on Switch is a revelation.
5/ Kind Words
A thank you to Robert Purchese for pointing this out.
Just a week after reading about it, I went through a very stressful period where my anxiety demons were misbehaving terribly. Out of desperation, I gave Kind Words a go. The literal Kind Words that came from strangers within minutes of my cry for help really did go a long way to helping me through a brief but extraordinarily stressful period.
Not only that, but I paid it forward too. Itâs a force for good, perhaps not really a game, but it shows the power of the gaming community is not in its destructive and violent fantasies. Itâs a nurturing and welcoming culture too.
