I don’t play many games when they come out, but here are a few I’ve played from this year that were really great:
Octogeddon
Chuchel
Into the Breach
- Into the Breach
- Battletech
- Subnautica
- Football, Tactics & Glory
- All Walls Must Fall
Did no one play God of War?
My top 2018 releases?
#1 (by far) - Cytus 2
#2 Subnautica (it’s weird to think of this as a 2018 game)
#3 God of War
#4 Deep Sixed
#last Monster Hunter: World (I didn’t really like this one, but I apparently just haven’t gotten that many 2018 releases yet.)
Gorogoa just barely misses the cutoff. It would be #4.
Have not tried but want to: Fe, Moss, Chuchel, Unravel 2, Surviving Mars, A Way Out, Frostpunk, FAR: Lone Sails, Vampyr, or Far Cry 5.
- Subnautica
- Rance 10
- God of War
- Pillars of Eternity 2
- Battletech
- Vampyr
- Into the Breach
Some other candidates for the EOY list: Slay the Spire (technically EA I guess?) and Hollow Knight for the Switch (didn’t play enough but enjoy it so far)
I wish I could participate in this poll, but I wait a few years for the 60%-75% off sales usually. (Summer Steam sale was pretty great!)
I almost did pull the trigger on Battletech, though. I would have bought it, but the complaints regarding the performance issues put me off.
- Slay the Spire
- Into the Breach
- Battletech
- Space Tyrant
In that order.
It would be great to revisit the best of 2017 game thread now that people have had a chance to play more of them.
As if we didn’t see through your Hollow Knight fandomishly scheme.
I hope I didn’t screw anything up by moving these posts into the thread for the front-page post. I figured it would be better if the conversation got put into one thread, and I don’t know WordPress well enough to figure out how to hitch a post at the top of a pre-existing thread and, so…here we are.
Anyway, 2018! w00t!
-Tom
This is probably my personal favorite list of yours. Every game on here I have either played and agree wholeheartedly with, or is on my wishlist and I’m eager to check out. Nicely done.
I’d pick Slay the Spire and Into the Breach as the really special games for me so far.
After those two, there’d be a bunch of pleasant games, like One Deck Dungeon, Cultist Simulator, probably Six Ages.
And Cogmind if it is released this year.
I think the only 2018 video game I’ve played is God of War, and that was pretty good, so that’s the one.
EDIT: oh, State of Decay 2: disappointing.
Through the Ages (digital so new to me, never played the boardgame, it is fantastic)
Surviving mars
BattleTech
Star Traders : Frontiers
Yugo girl! I really like what this game is doing, and how it plays intentionally on the idea of limited information. Very creepy, very alien. I kind of felt like I’d seen all this had to offer after a couple of deaths, but I’d love to be wrong. I got through two playthroughs, but died early both times. Can you speak to whether there’s any meaningful content as you get deeper in, or is it just a matter of surviving as long as you can for a higher score?
You can only pick this if you promise you didn’t play it on the iPad when it was released last year!
Also, everyone stop picking early access games!
That’s cheating, just like early access itself.
What on earth…?
These can’t possibly be any good because I’ve never even heard of them.
Oooh, have you played Golf Wars 2? I think it would work really well for people who appreciate Football: Tactics & Glory.
TimJames gonna TimJames. :) These are all in my library and I’ve spent a grand total about about 0.2 hours on them. I feel like they deserve at least 0.8 hours.
-Tom
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BattleTech. It’s everything I want in an SRPG, with a campaign, loot chase, narrative, and a theme I love. Extra points for being incredibly faithful to the source material.
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Space Tyrant. Who knew that after all these years of trying and failing to stay engaged with most 4X games all it took was… Making them shorter and putting combat in real time.
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Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way. Not sure if this was 2018 or not, but it reminded me why I cut my teeth on interactive fiction in the first place, and it’s nice when the old Implementors pop up with old tricks (see also: Thimbleweed Park).
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For The King. It’s a co-op boardgame, but don’t tell anyone. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun, even if the map does get a little incoherent the further you get into the game.
Six Ages is the long-awaited sequel to King of Dragon Pass, and I am loving it so far, but ever since I discovered KoDP I have been an absolute Glorantha nut, so I am super biased.
Into the Breach is sublime.
I’m sure there is, but I had to stop when something came back up with the rover and began knocking around the ship. Eventually some creepy crawly thing latched itself to the locked bridge door, and I screamed and quit the game, never to reload (there’s video, but I’m too scared to look it up).
I’m a big scardey cat.
That said, apparently, each run is a different character with a different goal, but the core loop is much the same. You find tools to make your rover better and what not, but in the end you’re less likely to find what you’re looking for than to die from radiation.
It’s a fascinating game and I love what’s it’s doing with varied worldbuilding even within the confines of this small ship (you’ll notice little things are different each playthrough). The dev is also pretty great.
We’re the prophets of gaming. We’re making a prophecy. You’ll bow down to the Spire when it happens.
Ewwww, it’s only on the iPad! I’ll add my voice to the inevitable whiney “why isn’t this on Steam?” cacophony. :)
Wait, what. You mean on the ship with you? No way.
As near as I can tell, the only material difference is what doo-dad you have in your cabin. Otherwise, I think it’s just text, right?
How come none of you jokers – err, “prophets” – is picking Book of Demons? I mean, yeah, Slay the Spire yadda yadda yadda, but the early access deckbuilder I’d be playing is Book of Demons.
-Tom
I’d argue that book of demons isn’t a deck builder, but merely switched the inconvenience of resetting and redistributing skills into a nifty card interface. And it is also far from finished, and I feel personally its developers have lost some of their enthusiasm, if not interest, in it. I am still looking forward to it.
Slay the spire is probably ten times better than when you played it on stream and it being labelled early access is a gross marketing mistake to me.