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Gamers often complain that few good games came out in 2019. But collecting novelties for this material, we realized that everything is not so bad, and the outgoing year brought many worthy projects.
Below are the best games of 2019, in our opinion, in different categories. They also wrote about the failure of the year. You can probably guess which game deserved this unflattering title. Details below.
Biggest failure of 2019
Nobody expected from BioWare, but it was the game of this famous studio that turned out to be the failure of the year. Yes, we are talking about Anthem.
If you look at the situation now, then everything went exactly to this. Every BioWare project since Mass Effect 3 has been worse than the previous one: the beautiful but stupid and monotonous Dragon Age: Inquisition, the promising but failed Andromeda (to be fair, it’s worth saying that it was made by another team) and now Anthem.
In trailers, betas, and press shows, BioWare boasted great graphics, a vibrant and memorable world, flying characters, and spectacular effects. And they did not lie – all of the above is really in the game, but this is the problem – there is nothing else. Not only at launch, but even now, Anthem has almost no content, and the vaunted world is empty and lifeless. PvP was not delivered, as well as optimization. There are no raids, so there is nothing to do here right at the start.
The result – the failure of the year and big discounts on the game in all stores. But this does not help either – no one wants to play Anthem even for free.
The biggest pain of 2019
In 2019, a new game from the Japanese studio FromSoftware left no one indifferent. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice didn’t go unnoticed and basically evoked only two strong feelings: love or hate.
The first is typical for most Souls game fans who like to suffer, test skill and perfect the passage. Although some of them still moved to the second category due to slightly different battle mechanics compared to the Souls series.
Most of those who hate the game are casual gamers who want to enjoy the process, do not want to burn millions of nerve cells and smash gadgets against walls while playing. For them, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice turned out to be the same “butt pain” that you remember with dislike and shudder. Partially to blame here are the rumors that hinted at an unusual change in difficulty levels for the Japanese. But it didn’t happen.
Best Indie Game 2019
At the end of the year, Phoenix Point came out – a direct successor to the legendary XCOM series, developed by the father of the original game, Julian Gollop. A well-known game designer founded the Snapshot Games studio, raised money through crowdfunding and released a good tactical turn-based strategy Phoenix Point.
True, there are no aliens in the game – they were replaced by mutants – and procedurally generated maps were added, but otherwise, gamers are waiting for a classic XCOM-like game.
On Metacritic, the project has 75 points from the press and 6.3 points from the players. Not ideal, but for the most part, connoisseurs were satisfied. In our opinion, this is why Phoenix Point deserves the title of the best indie game of 2019. If you missed this novelty, but love the genre, then pay attention.
Separately, it is worth highlighting Disco Elysium, the indie game of the year according to The Game Awards 2019, which was received by both critics and gamers. True, it has only English and a lot of text, which means that only a gamer with good English can understand and fully immerse himself in the game, which greatly limits the circle of potential connoisseurs.
Best RPG 2019
Obsidian Entertainment and its The Outer Worlds were expecting a decent response to Fallout 4 and something even cooler than their own Fallout: New Vegas. The truth turned out to be much more prosaic, so the debate about the quality and importance of The Outer Worlds has not subsided so far.
Some say that Obsidian deceived everyone and, under the guise of a full-fledged RPG, issued a casual copy of the latest Fallout, but only in space. Like, some of the mechanics are screwed up for show, the world is relatively small, the plot is short and you don’t have to spend 60+ hours on passing, New Vegas time graphics and so on and so forth.
Others argue that it turned out great and even better than Fallout 4, although the scale here is smaller and it’s not about the graphics, and there are no bugs, which is what Bethesda’s creation mentioned above is famous for.
It seems to us that The Outer Worlds cannot be adjusted to the condemnation of the former and the approval of the latter. It’s its own game. Of course, the project takes Fallout: New Vegas as a basis and makes it a bright, topical and, most importantly, not a boring role-playing game that is pleasant to play.
Final Fantasy XIV and Kingdom Hearts III were also worthy options for the 2019 RPG title. But both of these projects in our area are not known and loved as much as the Fallout series and other Obsidian Entertainment games.
Best Sports Game 2019
Another duel between FIFA and PES ended in victory for the brainchild of EA Sports. This year, FIFA 20 turned out to be more beautiful, more dynamic and brighter than its competitor, which means it won not with difficulty, but with ease and pressure.
At the same time, FIFA 20 is quite different from the previous parts, and special emphasis is placed on the new street football mode. And this is like a new game in the game, which added points to the popular sportsman to win.
At the same time, each of these games has a lot of fans who will immediately find dozens of negative points in the competitor’s project. And our choice is FIFA 20.
Best racing simulator 2019
After the relatively casual DiRT 4, the fresh DiRT Rally 2.0 from Codemasters turned out to be a hardcore rally car simulator. This means that even fans of the series were stunned by the pretentiousness of races and complex controls: every skid, bump, turn, bump or other obstacle on the way to the finish line is felt on the track.
DiRT Rally 2.0 is a car sim for serious gamers who love to suffer. The game is even compared to the above-mentioned Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Naturally, not by plot or genre, but by the amount of nerves expended and pleasure on the verge of masochism.
Released at the end of the year, Need For Speed Heat is also worth mentioning, but mediocre implementation, technical issues and an emphasis on grinding prevented the new NFS from winning in this category.
Best fighting game 2019
Mortal Kombat 11 once again proved that the popular fighting game series not only does not stagnate, but sets records, improves and continues to delight gamers.
The new game has become even more beautiful and spectacular, the mechanics of battles have changed a little, and the naked parts of the body of female characters have been hidden by clothes.
But the main thing is different – without going into the explanation of new mechanics, plot stories and other things, Mortal Kombat 11 has remained the same fight from childhood, where it’s nice to crush opponents’ skulls, beat up and make finishchems.
Naturally, in the 11th part, not everything is perfect, for example, few fighters were brought at the start, and there are still not enough naked heroines. But these are trifles compared to the buzz that you experience when starting another fight. And new content is already on the doorstep, by the way.
And if you are a lover of outstanding female charms, then pay attention to Dead or Alive 6. And the eye is pleasing and the fighting game is more or less worthy.
Best Strategy 2019
In the new part of the Total War: Three Kingdoms series of global strategies, the developers decided to turn to the history of Ancient China and did not fail. The guys from he Creative Assembly literally made two games in one, allowing in the first case to wage realistic battles in the historically verified Celestial Empire, and in the second case, to become an ancient Chinese hero, plunging into the well-developed mythology of the country.
Total War: Three Kingdoms surprises with a huge, even by the standards of the series, global map, but sea battles were removed from the previous parts. But the strategists were delighted with deeper diplomacy and a new system of reforms, and the generals and governors were endowed with character, so they are able to conflict or put up with each other. For a huge original world and new features in the mechanics proven over the years, which only added gloss to it, Total War: Three Kingdoms and receives the title of the best strategy of 2019.
Worth mentioning is the new installment in the popular Anno franchise, Anno 1800, and another installment in the fun yet economically savvy dictator sim Tropico 6.
Best shooter 2019
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was not a breakthrough in the genre and could not surpass 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. But still, it is as close as possible to these two good shooters and shows that Infinity Ward has more bullets in the clip. Therefore, if the studio is not able to surpass its own games from the past, then at least it knows how to make new ones no worse.
In our opinion, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the best shooter of 2019. Almost everything is good here: an addictive, but a little pathos and naive plot, as well as peppy network battles – easy, fast with convenient controls, and almost without bugs.
Worthy of mention is Wolfenstein: Youngblood. The game turned out to be controversial, but still mandatory for fans of shooters, meat and gore.
Best action game 2019
Capcom studio burst into 2019 with two very cool projects at once, and one of them is Devil May Cry 5. The new game of the legendary action game partially repeats the achievements of its predecessors and even steals bosses and locations from them. And there is also a strange plot, weak motivation of the characters and an ambiguous range hero. But they are more dissatisfied with ardent fans of the series, although many ordinary gamers have really gone.
But Devil May Cry 5 is just remembered for its recklessness. This is a bright, crazy, funny and non-committal action game that is pleasant to play, and after a strange ending, you still want to restart on a higher difficulty level.
Best Platformer 2019
The end of the decade in the gaming industry is rich in pixel platformers. Last year, we named Dead Cells the best hardcore 2D action game in the genre. Naturally, 2019 was no exception, and Katana ZERO became the best platform game.
The game skillfully puts pressure on fashion trends and nostalgia, mixing in itself references to pop culture, neon, retrowave and a tribute to console gaming. At the same time, this is a classic 2D action game where the main character skillfully wields a katana, which effectively crushes crowds of monsters and bosses into small beautiful pieces.
Gamers call the only drawback of Katana ZERO its duration – they say, 4-5 hours is not enough for us, give us more. And this is an excellent backlog for the second part.
Best Online Shooter 2019
At the beginning of the year, Respawn Entertainment, the creators of Titanfall and Titanfall 2, suddenly broke into the popular battle royale market and severely pressed even the Fortnite mastodon. Almost no one knew about their new battle royale shooter Apex Legends before the release, because everything was kept secret, and the advertising campaign was deliberately not launched before the premiere.
We counted on surprise and hype and did not fail – Apex Legends literally immediately conquered the world, and on the very first day after the release, 2.5 million people launched the game. Now the number of registered users is in the tens of millions.
Almost a year later, Apex Legends holds the bar of quality and is not inferior to Fortnite. The game has a convenient and easy-to-learn combat system, as well as nice graphics. At the same time, there are few heroes and very lame optimization on the PC.
Special mention deserves a cooperative shooter with elements of survival horror GTFO and an unusual battle royale in a fantasy world with magic and spells Spellbreak. Both games are in early access and judging by the feedback from gamers, they have great potential. But in 2019 they were not officially released, so perhaps both projects will make themselves known in 2020.
Best Game 2019
The above mentioned two great games from Capcom in 2019. If we voted Devil May Cry 5 as the best action game, then after a long and painful debate, Resident Evil 2 Remake became the game of the year.
It is unusual and strange that this is a remake, but let’s remember – we are not dealing with the usual improvement of textures and figures of heroes, but a full-fledged and already iconic new game created on the basis of another no less famous project.
Resident Evil 2 Remake has enough advantages (addictive unhurried gameplay, interesting puzzles, a lot of action, scary stories and unforgettable steps of the Tyrant behind your back), but gamers do not like deliberate backtracking and walking through puzzles from one end of the map to the other. And even though the tasks and conditions of the game for different heroes are different, and so it was in the original, you still have to go to the same places with similar actions, and in 2019 this easily repels a large part of gamers.
Here it is worth mentioning other games that hooked us. There were votes for the technically perfect Control, which will also appeal to fans of the story in the games, and indeed of all the past games of the Finns from Remedy.
The candidates turned out to be an unexpectedly catchy and beautiful adventure stealth action A Plague Tale: Innocence from the French from Asobo Studio. If you are not a fan of genres, then still try it. Almost everyone likes the game, so for many it has become a discovery and an unexpectedly pleasant surprise in 2019.
There were votes for Wolfenstein Youngblood and Death Stranding. And these games, in our opinion, also deserve the title of the best, but you already know the winner.
What did you like about the past year? Which of our decisions do you agree with and which do you not? Share your opinions in the comments. And good games to all in 2020!
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