2018 was an incredible year for video games. Clever indie games like Into The Breach are getting real attention, huge on-going multiplayer juggernauts like Fortnite: Battle Royale are capturing mainstream attention, and some of the biggest open-world action games ever materialized for at least three major franchises — can you say God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Red Dead Redemption 2? It’s a crazy, crazy time and I played a truly unhealthy amount of games. For every massive triple-A title, there were small indie experiences to balance out my over-stimulated brain. It was a huge year for games, and I was asked to come up with my personal top 10 list for 2018. It wasn’t easy.
So, let’s just get this out of the way; I wasn’t able to play every big game that released this year. I missed some serious Best of All Time contenders. I didn’t have time to play God of War or Marvel’s Spider-Man, and I’m still (slowly) making my way through BattleTech. Many of the games I did play were over 100 hours long (Dragon Quest 11, Red Dead Redemption 2) — and let’s not even talk about the multiplayer games with no end. Black Ops 4: Blackout, Fortnite: Battle Royale, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and more games strangled the life out of me this year with the sheer amount of content on display. Some of these games, I absolutely adored — and some of them I probably need to play more before I can easily place them on an arbitrary list of favorites that will probably change by the time 2020 rolls around.
So, with all that out of the way, let’s get into my top 10 list. You’re probably going to disagree, but I (personally) prefer lists that look at their favorite games in the most subjective way possible. These are the 10 games that connected with me personally in some way. In the future, I might change my mind — I probably will — but for now, I’ll happily list the following 10 titles as my favorite games of the year.
- 10. Earth Defense Force 5
- 9. Minit
- 8. FAR: Lone Sails
- 7. Yakuza Series [Kiwami 2 / 6]
- 6. Return of the Obra Dinn
- 5. Valkyria Chronicles 4
- 4. Into The Breach
- 3. Hitman 2
- 2. Phantom Doctrine
- 1. Red Dead Redemption 2
If you’ve never played (or heard of) some of the games in my list, I absolutely recommend that you track them down and share your support with the developers. These are incredibly hardworking people, and they deserve all our love for the incredible work (and fun!) they’ve provided us in 2018. The world might be in turmoil, but as far as video games go, 2018 was an awesome year. Here’s hoping 2019 is even better.
