My Favorite Games of 2019

Video games are, I would argue, the perfect medium. I don't often write about them, but they contain the best elements of all other genres--books, movies, music, theater, sports, and can often wrap them all into a final product that transcends even the greatness of its parts. Unfortunately, due to cost and time, I don't get to play as much as I used to. But aside from the gym, it is one of my favorite activities to keep me sane in-between manic binge-research and writing sessions. In fact, honestly, I think that video games have made me a better researcher and a better writer, as they often open my mind to avenues of thought, or ways of looking at the world, that I would not have considered otherwise. Though I did not get to play too many this year, here are a few in particular that stuck with me in powerful ways.

1.) The Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds (not to be confused with another game this year, Outer Worlds which unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to play) is a gorgeous, whimsical adventure in which you assume the role of an alien who wakes up in an almost summer-camp like setting. A set of exploration of a hand-crafted miniature solar system, and a series of clever puzzles lay before you as you realize you are caught in a time-loop, resetting every time you die. As you progress, seemingly unknowable aliens who have left their artifacts throughout the fantastical planets you come to (which range from a world bedeviled with raging waterspouts that burst to the tip of the atmosphere, to a planet losing its inner core to a black hole) are progressively revealed, and without spoiling anything for something so cute this game really hits you with a sense of haunting lonlineness and wonder.


2.) Subnautica

I don't typically enjoy survival games (The Long Dark being an exception in recent memory), but Subnautica was honestly one of the most gripping games I have ever experienced. It is one of those games that is so brimming with personality, mystery, and indeed outright, unbridled horror that I would love to erase my memory and get to experience this game again for the first time. From the first moment where you are plunging down into the watery world from an escape pod, to the moments where you have finally salvaged technology to plunge past increasingly large and terrifying sea-creatures lurking in the dark to discover the mysteries that lay on the ocean floor, this game is really like nothing else I have ever experienced. Base building is satisfying, but honestly one of the most unique aspects is that you cannot really kill much of anything. Along with the visceral fear of being in the dark open ocean, this helplessness provides a very real sense of foreboding. But you are never without a series of tools to nonetheless navigate and manage your threats. The balance is wonderful. The sound design in this game is also some of the best ever, and rewards good headphones like few others. Tooling along in the muted sounds of the water as you hear a shriek peel off and echo in the distance is truly as terrifying as it is thrilling.


3.) Lost Ember

While Lost Ember has been in development for years, I actually had no idea of its existence until it came out recently. Attracted as I am to gorgeous, whimsical art styles, it immediately caught my attention. Playing as a wolf with the ability to jump into the bodies of other animals and use their abilities (swim as a fish, fly as a bird ...) you help a glowing orb (or, it helps you) discover your way to a place known as The City of Light. The path is linear, but the journey is peaceful, and has a touching narrative about self-discovery, compassion, and the conflicting nature of loyalty. I was looking for a beautiful laid-back game, and this scratched the itch. It isn't the most complex game, and there is practically no replayability value. But at the same time it also reinforces my claim that video games are the perfect artistic medium. It has a little bit of everything.

4.) Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

This is a good game. A very good game. In fact it is one of the best games I have ever played, even if the gameplay itself is hardly novel. A game that looks like it was made by a AAA company, but actually produced by a smaller studio, this isn't just a game but a fascinating and well-handled look into mental illness. Taking on the paranoid schizophrenia of the main protagonist (the trailer itself gives a wonderful snapshot, as the narrator is one of the innumerable voices you hear), the Celtic warrior Senua, a chorus of voices constantly whisper to you (headphones recommended). You set out on a journey into Hel to reclaim the soul of your dead lover. But is it just in your mind? Senua's journey is a fairly obvious metaphor for her self-discovery as she copes with trauma, loss, and her illness, the Celtic and Nordic themes give the weightiness of mythology to her journey. I struggle with my own mental health problems, and I am not ashamed to admit that the half hour ending left me in tears with how beautiful, heartbreaking, and hopeful it was. You feel the weight of everything she goes through because the game makes it so you are literally in her head at all times. But beyond even the game, the production has some amazing stories too. The lead character was not a professional actress, but a designer on the game who was going to be a motion capture stand-in temporarily, but was so good she became the main character. The team even hired not just psychologists, but actual schizophrenics, to call upon their experiences to get as authentic and as empathetic a portrayal of schizophrenia as possible. I live for that sort of thing.

5.) Death Stranding

Since 2016 I have--along with everybody else--sat back in puzzlement as we waited to find out just what on earth this game is actually about. Hideo Kojima is known for is off the wall, bat-shit crazy stories that are Baroque in their intricacy, over the top with melodrama, and, well, usually really enjoyable for those who can put up with the level of pretentiousness that also tends to creep in. This game was released to about as polarized reception as one gets: some absolutely loved it, feeling it fit the auteur status that Kojima is known for; others hated it, saying it was boring, nonsensical, or a walking simulator. I neither love nor hate Kojima. I started his work way back in high school playing Metal Gear Solid 2 (yeah I'm old), so I went in with few expectations and was blown away. This game has some of the most incredible world building I have ever experienced. And while it can feel like a walking simulator, to be honest those who critique it for such I would bet quit too early. This  is a game that rewards 60-100 hours of play. About 40 or so hours in, I can say the game absolutely opens up after the first 20 or so hours (which themselves are great, just really different). I'm not sure what else to say except that I'm loving this game for what it is, in all its bizarre, melodramatic glory.

6.) God of War

This also gets the honor of being one of the best games I have literally ever played. Making Kratos an empathetic character is a miracle of story telling in itself. Having become the Greek God of War in the previous games through acts of absolutely unbridled savagery, this game opens with Kratos having again suffered the loss of a new wife. Alone now with a somewhat estranged son, they prepare to bring the mother's ashes to the highest peak in their new home--which happens to be the abode not of Greek but of Norse gods. Animated in a revolutionary single-shot camera style akin to something like Birdman, this is not only one of the most gorgeous games ever created, but its art direction and acting are stellar.

7.) Divinity 2: Original Sin (Definitive Edition)

I've just started playing this, but it is an incredible RPG that hails back to when I used to play Baldur's Gate when I was a kid. A game with mind blowing depth and flexibility, one of the most compelling mechanics is how environmental effects can combine for unique strategies. Pushing your enemy into a puddle will give you the ability to electrocute them; covering the ground in tar then teleporting away to high ground to ignite the tar is extremely satisfying. Mind controlling an enemy to collapse a structure on his friends? Yup you can do it. The difficulty can be a bit frustrating, but this is a game that rewards even a few minutes of play at a time and is one of the best RPG's I have ever played.

8.) They Are Billions

Zombies. Base Building. Tower Defense. Honestly I don't have much else to say than that this game combines three elements I love into one of the few real-time strategy games I have enjoyed since Starcraft 2. Also, look at some screenshots when you get the chance. While the zombies might not literally be billions, they come in absolute droves. Its intense. Its gross. Its fun.


9.) Frostpunk

Another great base-building game with a steam-punk vibe, this nonetheless could not be more different from They Are Billions. From the creators of This War of Mine, a game that broke my heart a few years ago, Frostpunk puts you in charge of managing a fledgling settlement in an apocalyptic world covered with ice. You have to keep your citizens warm, send out scouts to try and find other survivors in the unyielding white of winter, and make some truly hilariously diabolical laws to try and keep everything together.