When I sat down to do the modest preparation I do for my year-end games posts, I made a conscious decision to limit myself in terms of volume and scope. I think better writing can come out of situations where you’re focused and limited in what you’re trying to say. But it doesn’t always have to be that way, so settle in for a while because I have some thoughts about games I expect to be playing in 2019. Today’s Part 1 is focused on the games you can play right now if my write up intrigues you.
“New” Games of 2019: Starting with a Backlog
I like to play a lot of games. I don’t play nearly as many as I wish I could. Here’s what I’m looking forward to playing in 2019 that came out in 2018 (or earlier) and I haven’t played a significant amount of yet.
Celeste - This difficult platformer got my attention with it’s win at The Game Awards 2018 and will be part of January’s “Games with Gold” promotion which offers free games to Xbox Live Gold members. I’d probably still pass on it despite the pedigree and praise from voices I respect if it weren’t for the developers offering numerous accessibility options to sand down the edges and make this “diffcult platformer” less difficult.
Hitman 2 - I still have a lot of mastery levels to earn in nearly every one of the new maps, across at least two platforms. IO Interactive will also be rolling out new content like Elusive Targets and Escalation challenges. Plus, I just really really like Hitman 2.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Siege: 2018 was the year I heard a lot of people I respect in the gaming world (Dave Lang, Mike Mahardy, Vinny Caravella) talk about getting into Siege after its December 2015 release. I grabbed a digital copy cheap for PS4 in the post-Thanksgiving sale period and have played a very tiny bit. IT didn’t grab me right away, but hearing Giant Bomb revisit it during their Game of the Year discussion and call it a modern day G. I. Joe game has piqued my interest again.
Moonlighter - I wrote this off at release as “It’s like pixel art Recettear” and I sort of stand by it. However, again going back to the Giant Bomb GotY discussions, Abby Russell spoke pretty highly of it and explained some systems that are present and make me curious to try it out. It’s also on Switch and seems like a great fit for that format, so I grabbed it during an eShop post-Christmas sale.
Frozen Synapse 2 - I completely missed the original Frozen Synapse, but Austin Walker of Waypoint had this as his game of 2018 and made a good case for it being not only a great tactics game, but one with a dope cyberpunk story that allows for some emergent storytelling. I’ve messed around with the tutorial and can see me sinking a lot of hours into trying to find the perfect turn.
Exapunks - Another game that hit my radar late in the year thanks to Jeff Gerstmann and Vinny Caravella of Giant Bomb, I’ve played the tutorial and this game makes me feel dumb. Like really, really dumb. It’s essentially a programming game, with cool visuals and a cyberpunk story that I’ve just seen the very beginnings of…plus physical ‘zines to help teach you the game’s programming language. When I get a puzzle solved, I feel accomplished for a minute. Then I Spend 40 more minutes banging my head on the next one. And again, that was in tutorial missions.
Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey - I still haven’t finished 2017’s Origins, but I really want to. I’ve started Odyssey and feel less of a pull, but I’m hoping I will as I get deeper into the story of Kassandra and her cool ship of doom that brings back the Black Flag naval combat I’ve missed.
Path of Exile - This is a Diablo-like action RPG with deep loot.leveling.skills systems. I’ve always admired it from afar and DO want to play it in 2019, but the truth is whenI wrote this down I was actually thinking of…
Pillars of Eternity and PoE 2: Deadfire - You can see how I get these two constantly confused with the PoE acronym, right? The Pillars franchise is a traditional CRPG focused on stroy and characters and party-building. I’ve played a dozen or so hours of the first, but these games are massive and deserve more of my dedicated time. Also add to this list: Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin 2 AND Wasteland 2. They’re truly all in the same boat for me. Also, Wasteland 3 which is supposed to come out in 2019, but isn’t getting a separent entry since I’m probably just buying it in 2019 and not playing it until 2022.
Subnautica - I’m usually not into these types of crafting/survival games, but this was free on the Epic Game Store and I am really intrigued by the underwater setting/theme. I don’t want to attach too many more rocks to sticks to make an axe, but something about Subnautica and its colorful world looks inviting.
Hades - Another roguelite game like Dead Cells, which was one of my 2018 favorites, but this one is from the people at SuperGiant Games. SuperGiant made Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre which are all games I like a lot, going as far to say I love Transistor and Pyre. It appears to keep their trademark writing and musical style, which is “really fucking good” along with their implementation of great feeling control.
Mutant Year Zero: Project Eden - XCOM-like tactics with an additional focus on stealth and using a talking duck. Nothing has changed since I shouted this out for not making my 2018 Games of the Year due to its late release, but I’m hoping to find time to play it in 2019. I must play this in 2019.