The Games Top 10 Poll of 2019: Thread In Crunch, All Posting Now 100Hr/Week

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Games Top 10 Poll of 2019: Thread In Crunch, All Posting Now 100Hr/Week

Microcline: Jul 27, 2012

Let's start with the best:

1. Disco Elysium: What if Planescape: Torment had mechanics that supported its gameplay instead of hand-me-downs from a 1980s tabletop wargame? What if you could choose relevant stats like how much useless trivia you know or how much of a drama kid you are instead of running every game with Wisdom (god stat), Charisma (slightly less god stat), and Intelligence (slightly less god stat) while dumping useless Strength, Dexterity, and Consitution? It manages to be at once fantastic and grounded, as if while PS:T is New Weird in the style of Roger Zelazny then DE is New Weird in the style of Raymond Chandler.

2. Outer Wilds: Outer Wilds is what exploration games like Subnautica are ultimately grasping for. I can see why people don't talk about the game much. There's no inventory, so knowledge is both exploration keys and exploration rewards.

3. Slay the Spire: I picked this up during the Steam sale and was absolutely blown away. It manages to adapt the balance/variety of deckbuilding board games like Dominion to the roguelite format. Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds might push storytelling in videogames forward, but Slay the Spire shows just what can be done with a mechanically strong game.

4. Baba is You: I don't know what I can say that goons haven't already said except that Baba is canonically a sheep.

5. Hypnospace Outlaw: There's a wide gap between the first four and this, and the gameplay often gets in the way of the concept and writing, but at the same time it's a new concept and demonstrates a lot of ideas about what interactive art can be.

Now we get to the stuff that I don't think belongs on a top 10 list but I enjoyed nonetheless:

Dragon Quest Builders 2: Minecraft, but with structure, is a great idea. The problem is that DQB2 chokes itself on structure. Build this exact thing, follow this path, mash attack against this enemy. The structure was getting old after the second world but it continued rigidly for two more. Then you're let out into freeplay where the game just becomes Minecraft with less structure.

Untitled Goose Game: Someone above said A+ concept, C+ gameplay, and that stands.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: It's a new Igavania! But it also represents the worst of the Igavania design trends! Numbers go up, and they mostly go up based on experience points and random drops. Every special ability scales independently in number and power (i.e. exponentially), so you're encouraged to grind and discouraged from using abilities. On top of all of it the art and design is uninspired compared to Castlevania's Hammer Horror ecclesiasticism.

And finally we get to the disappointments:

Cultist Simulator: It works up until the point you realize the flavor text has nothing to do with the gameplay and it's just occult-themed solitaire, which is the exact opposite of the revelation you're supposed to have from cosmic horror.

Forager: I was debating whether to put this in the flawed but entertaining games or the disappointments, but it falls more on the side of disappointments. It's a game jam entry padded out to 10-15 hours and polished in some areas (but not a lot of important ones like user interface and quality of life), but it doesn't examine whether its many mechanics actually fit together.

Control: If there was a theme to the best games of the year, it's that they weren't afraid to buck genre convention to make story and gameplay into a seamless whole. Control is a great concept about a woman dealing with SCP-style reality warping objects while overcoming her self-doubts in order to take control. The gameplay is a third-person shooter about shooting wave after wave of identical dudes with generic guns, complete with 2010's obligatory tacked-on RPG elements.

(edited to add Slay the Spire, Hypnospace Outlaw, and Forager)

Microcline fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Dec 31, 2019

# ¿ Dec 12, 2019 05:58

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# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 15:16

Microcline: Jul 27, 2012

Updated my post to include Slay the Spire, Hypnospace Outlaw, and Forager

Microcline posted:

Let's start with the best:

1. Disco Elysium: What if Planescape: Torment had mechanics that supported its gameplay instead of hand-me-downs from a 1980s tabletop wargame? What if you could choose relevant stats like how much useless trivia you know or how much of a drama kid you are instead of running every game with Wisdom (god stat), Charisma (slightly less god stat), and Intelligence (slightly less god stat) while dumping useless Strength, Dexterity, and Consitution? It manages to be at once fantastic and grounded, as if while PS:T is New Weird in the style of Roger Zelazny then DE is New Weird in the style of Raymond Chandler.

2. Outer Wilds: Outer Wilds is what exploration games like Subnautica are ultimately grasping for. I can see why people don't talk about the game much. There's no inventory, so knowledge is both exploration keys and exploration rewards.

3. Slay the Spire: I picked this up during the Steam sale and was absolutely blown away. It manages to adapt the balance/variety of deckbuilding board games like Dominion to the roguelite format. Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds might push storytelling in videogames forward, but Slay the Spire shows just what can be done with a mechanically strong game.

4. Baba is You: I don't know what I can say that goons haven't already said except that Baba is canonically a sheep.

Now we get to the stuff that I don't think belongs on a top 10 list but I enjoyed nonetheless:

Dragon Quest Builders 2: Minecraft, but with structure, is a great idea. The problem is that DQB2 chokes itself on structure. Build this exact thing, follow this path, mash attack against this enemy. The structure was getting old after the second world but it continued rigidly for two more. Then you're let out into freeplay where the game just becomes Minecraft with less structure.

Untitled Goose Game: Someone above said A+ concept, C+ gameplay, and that stands.

Hypnospace Outlaw: As with above the gameplay occasionally brings the concept to a halt

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: It's a new Igavania! But it also represents the worst of the Igavania design trends! Numbers go up, and they mostly go up based on experience points and random drops. Every special ability scales independently in number and power (i.e. exponentially), so you're encouraged to grind and discouraged from using abilities. On top of all of it the art and design is uninspired compared to Castlevania's Hammer Horror ecclesiasticism.

And finally we get to the disappointments:

Cultist Simulator: It works up until the point you realize the flavor text has nothing to do with the gameplay and it's just occult-themed solitaire, which is the exact opposite of the revelation you're supposed to have from cosmic horror.

Forager: I was debating whether to put this in the flawed but entertaining games or the disappointments, but it falls more on the side of disappointments. It's a game jam entry padded out to 10-15 hours and polished in some areas (but not a lot of important ones like user interface and quality of life), but it doesn't examine whether its many mechanics actually fit together.

Control: If there was a theme to the best games of the year, it's that they weren't afraid to buck genre convention to make story and gameplay into a seamless whole. Control is a great concept about a woman dealing with SCP-style reality warping objects while overcoming her self-doubts in order to take control. The gameplay is a third-person shooter about shooting wave after wave of identical dudes with generic guns, complete with 2010's obligatory tacked-on RPG elements.

(edited to add Slay the Spire, Hypnospace Outlaw, and Forager)

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 08:04

Microcline: Jul 27, 2012

Rarity posted:

You still need to rank 5 games if you want your list to be counted I'm afraid

Congratulations Hypnospace Outlaw on being promoted to fifth place (original post has been edited)

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 19:00

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