1. Monster Hunter World - I wasn't expecting to find that at my number 1 spot this year, but there were a number of games that I bounced off of for any number of reasons. MHW suited that style of play, though. take on some missions, craft some new weapons and armor, hunt for items, drop off for a few weeks and come back and play it for several days. I still have to beat the 3 elder dragons but I think I've done most of the story content.
2. Iconoclasts - the true forgotten game of 2018, in a year where there were a ton of indie Metroidvanias, Iconoclasts delivered theirs with an ambitious story (that doesn't always hit) interesting characters, and a more "world" or "area" type level layout that certainly felt different than what you normally get in these types of games. The weapons and tools are fun to use, but the power up system was a bit lacking in oomph.
3. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of the Elusive Age - I'm in the post game now (act 3) but I feel this game does enough to freshen up DQ's traditional formula to where it doesn't feel like a relic, sort of like like YsVIII from 2017. Shame about that soundtrack.
4. Divinity Original Sin II - theres a lot to love here in terms of the base combat, skills, the story characters, the different locations and the stories in each area. It would have been a universal improvement and probably my GOTY but the encounter balancing, especially in the later chapters is pretty terrible. There won't be many fights that you won't be on fire, poisoned, damaged and possibly cursed and or charmed before you take your first turn. That stuff got old. Despite that, the overall package kept me enthralled for 70 hours and I played nothing else in the interim.
5. Shadow of the Tomb Raider - I guess its my most controversial choice given the general sentiment but in SOTR got Arkham Origin'd. Most everyone decided it would be a subpar experience before ever starting the game. Square-Enix deserves some blame for that as their insistence to portray Lara Croft as a ruthless killing machine rather than an explorer that can take of her self did them no favors. In truth there is no consistency in how the character has been portrayed since the start of the reboot project, and they really didn't know what to do with her beyond that initial game. And it doesn't help that trinity is a completely lame villain. What the game does well is it builds on what Rise focused on, exploration, puzzle solving and tomb navigation. These are the best moments of the game and thankfully there are a lot of them.
6. Tetris Effect - Style over substance can work when you are working with a solid foundation like tetris to begin with. The music and backgrounds are certainly memorable.
7. Red Dead Redeption 2 - I'm still on chapter 2 on this thing but spent some good time with it over the Christmas break. I think the complaints about the controls and the deliberate pace of the game are legit, but its still the old school R* mission structure that holds these games back. Despite that, the spectacle and atmosphere are top notch and worth experiencing.
8. Kingdom Come: Deliverance - I've put in over 30 hours on this, havent finished it yet, but I think its take on a medieval setting is pretty noteworthy. I understand the game comes with some baggage from the developer that I don't endorse, and I still can't quite get the hang of the clunk combat, but I did enjoy its scope and its detail.
And thats it. I have GOW, Hitman 2, Soul Caliber 6 and Spiderman but haven't played them at all. the only other game I've put any time in this year was Shining Resonance Refrain, which was better than expected, but not sure if I'd put it in my to games of the year. I did like it better than Ni No Kuni II.
