Video Game Retrospective for 2018

By: Cam Wohlfeil
Published: 2019-02-05 1330 EST
Category: General

This year was a great game for video games, both for games released and the games I played. My feelings from last year have not only carried on, but grown stronger. My FOMO is dying, and I only want to play games I actually am enjoying going forward. Furthermore, I'm done with consoles and buying games at full price or just to stay in the zeitgeist. I may buy the PS5 or whatever if Bloodborne 2 comes out, but there's no way I'm buying a Switch or Xbox One just for the few exclusives that interest me. My consoles, and particularly the handhelds, just sit around collecting dust, adding to the mountain of stuff I own that I don't use and games I own that I haven't even tried to see if I like them.

Games I Loved

Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition
Amazing game, really cements my love for CRPGs. Excellent story, characters, world, and only a few complaints about certain combat dungeons. Truly something special I can see myself coming back to again and again. Some people complain about them, but the enhanced edition made it a relatively smooth experience for me, with minimal cruft you have to expect with games of this vintage.
Hollow Knight
This is the first game not made by From that really gets what I think makes the Soulsbourne games special, though it's more of a Metroidvania. So polished, beautiful, perfect controls, and tons of quality content. I have no issues calling this a perfect game and recommend it to anyone who like Metroidvanias.
Deltarune
I don't know how Toby Fox does it but he knocked it out of the park again. Looking forward to what he does next.
STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl & Clear Sky
Amazing games despite the bugginess and lack of polish, there really is nothing else like them. I like how they build on each other and tweak things over time to mix up the experience.
Fallout 1
While Fallout 2 is the game I really want to dig in to, once I became familiar with the systems and controls this proved to be a very svelte and high quality CRPG. Read the manual!
Deus Ex (w/ GMDX)
Legendary game despite old computer game wonkiness, very glad I finally got around to playing it. Great writing, systems, and environments. Probably the best immersive sim, though not the smoothest, especially with the gunplay in the beginning.
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
Excellent 2D Soulslike, a near perfect bite sized experience. Excellent art.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Such a rough experience but a lot to like here. I wish Troika style games could still exist, but they're not big enough for AA/AAA studios and too hard for most indies. Maybe we'll see a revival, like with CRPGs.
Cave Story+
I can see why this is so highly regarded as one of the notable early indie games, though I didn't appreciate the ramp in difficulty with the final boss.

Games I Liked

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
A little too long, a few too many same-y puzzles, and the combat system could have used a bit more polish, but maybe I just wanted it to be more like Dark Souls combat.
God of War
Great game from beginning to end, but again I wanted the combat to be a bit better. When the work opened up I enjoyed exploring and doing side content, but I got bored of it quickly and just mainlined the story.
Observer
Again, a bit too long, but so much retrowave style and dealing with Cyberpunk topics that I always appreciate.
Silent Hill 3
I would really love a full remake of all these games, but I think they may be too much of a time and place. While few games can compare to how incredible Silent Hill 2 is, this definitely competes with Silent Hill 1.
Alpha Protocol
Such a mixed bag, but I found myself enjoying it the whole way through, and it ended right when it needed to. The combat wasn't good at all though.

Games That Were Okay

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Very poor level design, only a few good moments, and the difficulty felt like padding. Disappointing follow-up to a game I loved, but not terrible.
Child of Light
Cute enough, but a bit too complicated for kids and poor writing. Overstayed it's welcome despite being so short.

Games I Started/Kept Playing

Games I Dropped or Disliked

Steins;Gate
Nothing against the visual novel, but I guess I got everything from the anime, so I wasn't engaged at all.
Star Citizen
Tried a free fly weekend, feels so barebones but at least it seems to be stable now. I do still think it's not going to happen, and if it does it will be a nightmarish grind or P2W, but if it does come out and is good that will be cool.
Fallout 76
Much like Borderlands 2 this is a bad game but fun to play with friends. The bugs oscillated between frustrating and hilarious. Still, while Fallout 4 turned me off immediately, this game got a good amount of time out of me. Exploration was enjoyable.
Watch Dogs 2
Not only did I drop this, I refunded it on Steam within 2 hours. I could tell it was just more open world BS with poor gameplay and maybe an okay story, and I have no patience for that.
VRChat
Fun enough for a little while, but watching YouTube highlights gave me most of the experience.
System Shock 2
This hurt, I really wanted to finish this game since it's so influential but my god is it a slog to play. I really didn't enjoy my time with it, I was okay watching it on YouTube and listening to critiques about it.

For the rest of these, I have basically nothing to say. I either had my fill, didn't enjoy the experience, or just wasn't engaged.