Games of the Decade 2010-2019 - other sites thread.

To be clear, it’s their list of the 12 most defining games of the decade, not the best. For example, Broken Age was chosen for being the first big crowdfunded project. Spelunky for popularising/giving birth to the roguelite wave of indie games using roguelike elements.

It’s also not in any kind of ranked order.

The months I spent on the QT3 creative server early on in Minecrafts release was up there with other “firsts”, Q2 as my first online FPS, EQ as first MMOG, D2 as first ARPG etc. Very hard to recreate the pleasure and addictiveness of games that make you feel like that. I never enjoyed survival mode as much but those few months put Minecraft in my Decade List. The rest of the list I need to think about.

LIST

20: Undertale: https://undertale.com/
19: Florence: http://www.florencegame.com
18: The Witness: http://the-witness.net/
17: Towerfall Ascention: http://www.towerfall-game.com/
16: Gris: https://nomada.studio/
15: Kerbal Space Program: https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/
14: Limbo: https://playdead.com/games/limbo/
13: Gorogoa: http://gorogoa.com/
12: Stardew Valley: https://www.stardewvalley.net/
11: Shovel Knight: https://yachtclubgames.com/shovel-kni
10: Into the Breach: https://subsetgames.com/itb.html
9: Hollow Knight: https://hollowknight.com
8: Celeste: http://www.celestegame.com
7: Return of the Obra Din: https://obradinn.com/
6: Spelunkey: https://www.spelunkyworld.com/origina
5: What Remains of Edith Finch: http://edithfinch.com
4: Axiom Verge: http://www.axiomverge.com/
3: Her Story: http://www.herstorygame.com/
2: Journey: https://thatgamecompany.com/journey/
1: Dead Cells: https://dead-cells.com/

Sounds more like a top 20 of the last 4 years. But games got objectively better, right!

Limbo was a 2010 release, Journey came out in 2012, so a few oldies on that list!

Both sucked, so they don’t count.
Oh it’s the top 20 sucking but high profile indie games of the decade? Ok then!

Thanks for this list, I’ve only played 11 of these. And out of those 11, I even enjoyed 3 of them.

I doubt I’ll try Towerfall Ascention though, I think that’s a multiplayer-only game.

So, Polygon has continued this feature of the games of the decade to look at other things about the various games we had over the last decade.

Here’s one I enjoyed reading this morning, looking back at the decade of Fallout games:

And here’s one I’m going to read next about the new genres that defined this decade:

Well , it seems I dislike 3 of the 9 new genres.

Like:
DCCG
Clicker Games
Looter Shooter
Survival
Souls-like
Walking Sims

Dislike:
Auto Battlers
Battle Royale
VR light gun games

At least you have an opinion! I never played any entry in those genres. Well excepting Dark Souls, which isn’t a Souls-like but the best game ever. That’s not a genre.

Wait a minute, you have never played a walking sim / clicker game / card collector game?

Well I played Brendon Chung’s game, which could be placed in the Walking Sim thing if they weren’t so unique. As for the others, nope: I can hardly play mouse games, and I hate games with IAPs.
Ah, @Chappers made me play Paratopic, so I indeed played at least one walking sim. Wait, that was a driving sim, mostly.

From the Survival Games, I played Don’t Starve. And I love it. I just love it.

I love Souls-likes. So far I haven’t tried one that I didn’t like.

Battle Royales: I’ve only played Call of Duty black ops 4’s Blackout mode, and I never got a single kill, but I did love that game. It reminds me a little of playing GTA IV online, with all the civilians turned off. It’s just you and some other people in a vast area, and they’re out to kill you. And they do. Scary stuff. It’s the closest games have gotten to true horror.

Looter Shooters: I really enjoyed Destiny and the original Borderlands. They were both short and sweet, and I even liked doing the daily missions in Destiny as a long term way to play until they made changes to encourage me to buy expansions. Nope. So yeah, I could see going back to looter shooters if possibly they can be as good as Destiny in single player.

Walking Simulators: I really enjoyed Gone Home and Firewatch. And I still think about them from time to time. I think it’s a great way to use the medium of games to tell a linear story. I’m currently playing Edith Finch, and really enjoying that one too.

I haven’t tried the other new genres.

What the heck is an auto-battler? Does it play itself? Anyone seen my teeth?

edit: it amuses me that the term ‘walking simulator’ has been effectively wasted on a certain sub-genre of adventure game, when along comes Kojima who has created an honest-to-god walking simulator.

I don’t like any of those new genres! Does that officially make me old now? If so, get off my lawn!

I also never played Minecraft and have zero interest in it. Potentially related: I also hate – no, despise crafting in games, and only play games with crafting if they have enough other stuff in it that I like, too.

And is it me or are all of these top-whatever lists always very light when it comes to strategy games? (Haha, I nearly wrote “real” games. I’ll go away now.)

Pretty much. It’s games like Dota Underlords and Teamfight Tactics.

Think you meant 3 of 9.

86. KIM KARDASHIAN: HOLLYWOOD*

Really, Polygon?

And just a few spots below XCOM 2

Ah fixed it! Maths and counting are hard!

Random reviewer audio started when I loaded that page, but then when I reloaded it didn’t so umm? Ok!