Why I continue to play ‘Dead Cells,’ ‘Spider-Man,’ ‘Red Dead Redemption 2,’ and ‘Into the Breach.’
These were the games I enjoyed the most over the second half of 2018
Last week, I chronicled the games I enjoyed over the first half of the year. Today, I’m writing about the titles I enjoyed from approximately August to December.
As I continue to think about the video games that I loved this year, I keep coming back to this common theme: 2018 was a fantastic year for games. God of War is a transcendent title in its own right, and some of the games I’m about to reflect on are also incredible accomplishments. Last year, Nintendo’s Zelda and Mario games stood pretty clearly above the rest of the pack. This year, there are at least three or four games that could all be the best of the year. However, I’m not going to litigate which of these amazing titles is better than all the rest. What I want to do here is explain why I found so much joy in each one.
Dead Cells
Dead Cells is a two-dimensional roguelike game that leans heavily on melee and ranged combat. There’s a rough outline of a story, but this game excels on the quick, precise beats of its action sequences. The game also separates itself from the rest of its crowded genre with permanent upgrades that persist from game to game. After unlocking a few of these attributes, and finding enough good items, players will quickly gain a strong sense of progression and feel more empowered during future runs.
There’s a certain joy that comes from playing a game like this. At my best moments in Dead Cells, I quickly switch between weapons, make use of grenades and traps, and move seamlessly from enemy to enemy. At my worst moments, I move too slowly and die a slowly animated death, though that’s the fault of my own shortcomings rather than anything in the game. I still have only made it past the second chapter a few times — which reveals how much of this game I’ve yet to play — but I know enough to call this title one of my favorite of the year. Dead Cells rewards quick reflexes and good strategy, and the result is a beautiful action game that rarely gets old.
Spider-Man
Most reviews of Spider-Man start with the action sequences, but I want to start with the writing and the characters. Insomniac has already established itself as one of the premier studios for creating interesting, beautiful worlds and fun action, but the attention to detail and narrative here should boost this team’s reputation even further. I wrote about how compelling the characters are before, but I want to echo that praise again here. Every main character in the story is interesting, believable, and well-acted. The end result is that the world feels real and the characters’ motivations build a strong sense of investment.
The central narrative of Spider-Man isn’t new or especially original — some of the moments are fairly easy to see coming — but it’s still compelling because the moment-to-moment to writing is so strong. Take for example, one cutscene that revolves around Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson exchanging text messages, which Kotaku’s Kirk Hamilton called “subtle, relatable, and above all believable.” The game is filled with scenes like this one, moments that make well-worn characters feel new and interesting again.
If Spider-Man were purely based on narrative, it would succeed. It’s also an action game, though, and the action sequences are unbelievably fun. As one might expect, a large part of this game consists of swinging around Manhattan, and this mechanic is both satisfying and easy to master. Insomniac made the process of swinging from building to building simple enough to draw players in, but there are also a few moves that allow for even faster traversal that unmask some deceptively complicated design. After about half an hour, I felt that I had mastered moving around the city to the extent that I never used the optional fast travel.
There’s also a great deal of combat, which involves melee combat aided by Spider-Man’s growing library of gadgets. The combat isn’t necessarily unique in terms of the mechanics, but the balance, freedom, and speed of each encounter help elevate it above other action games. Turning up the difficultly level (which I recommend) turned most fights into tense, exhilarating encounters that always left me with a feeling of accomplishment. Finally, the impressive list of moves and attack options mean that it’s easy to approach every fight from a different angle.
As a whole, Spider-Man is a deeply impressive accomplishment that has been overshadowed (to an extent) by God of War and Read Dead Redemption 2. As excellent as both of these other games are, it would be a shame to pass this one by. Through writing, characters, and action, Spider-Man establishes itself as one of the best PS4 exclusives ever.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Years in development, and sequel to one of the most beloved games of the last console generation, Red Dead Redemption 2 is easily the most-anticipated game of 2018. The appeal of this game lies primarily in its attention to detail and freedom. There are in-game systems and mechanics for almost everything, and there’s a nearly indescribable joy that comes from testing the game’s possibilities and finding how intricately every part of the world fits together. In this rich, vibrant place that Rockstar created, it’s easy to lose hours and even days just riding around and exploring.
The game is also beautiful, even on a launch PS4, which adds to the sense of immersion and wonder. From snowy mountains, to grassy plains, to humid swamps, every locale is painstakingly rendered. The best example of the game’s visuals that I can think of is the lighting — from the way the sun breaks through trees to the rendering of lantern light, every effect is carefully designed and animated.
As someone who values writing, I also have to mention the strength of the game’s narrative and characters. There’s a deep cast of interesting people here, and they all have real motivations and compelling backstories. The camp of outlaws where players will spend a great deal of their time feels like a living, breathing place, which is no small accomplishment when one considers how many characters are there at any given time. The collective efforts at world-building lend a certain richness to the writing, a sense of realism that’s hard to define, but easy to appreciate.
However, there are also parts of this game that aren’t enjoyable. It’s treacherously difficult to control the horses that are pivotal to traversal, for example. There are many times when I rode into a town and inadvertently bumped into a character, raising the ire of the local police. The shooting mechanics are also unwieldy, something that is especially noticeable after playing faster-paced games (like God of War or Spider-Man). None of these faults are game breaking, and the richness of the surrounding world more than make up for them, but it’s impossible to deny that Read Dead 2 is often awkward to play.
Into the Breach
Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy game about protecting the earth, fighting aliens, and erasing mistakes via time travel. Some time ago, I wrote about how much I love FTL: Faster Than Light, the first game by creator Subset Games. These two games share a great deal of DNA, but Into the Breach is more polished, deeper, and has more replay value. Although the titles are stylistically different in many ways, it’s difficult to escape the feeling that Subset Games introduced a formula in their first game, only to perfect it the second time around.
The game’s appeal comes from its randomized levels and engrossing strategy. Because every run is different, the enemies, levels, and goals will always change. The game is fairly balanced though, and I’ve yet to run into an impossible situation that wasn’t my own fault. Much like its predecessor, Into the Breach is fiendishly difficult, and I still feel pretty far away from actually beating it.
The joy of this game — which I’ve played exclusively on my Switch — is that I can launch the software and be engrossed in a run within minutes. Because it’s turn-based and single-player, I can also put it down quickly whenever I need to. Finally, because the game is so fine-tuned and well-balanced, I can also lose myself in the endless cascade of missions until my inevitable (so far) failure. Strategy games rarely click for me, but Into the Breach is special.
At the end of this list, I should clarify that there are a few games I have yet to play that could have easily earned a spot here. I just started playing the new Super Smash Brothers, for example, and I still have a sealed copy of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey that I bought on Black Friday. I don’t know when I’ll have time to do a deep dive into the games that shaped my 2018 though, so I’ll leave this list here with the acknowledgement that it’s incomplete.
As for my favorite out of all of these? I don’t know, though I expect that it’s either God of War or Spider-Man. Red Dead is fantastic as well, but there’s something that keeps drawing me back to these first two. The reality, though, is that any one of these three games is a viable winner of game of the year. Celeste and Hollow Knight are also incredible experiences as well, and their low price tags make a compelling argument that there’s more value per dollar spent than with anything else that came out over the last two years.
Ultimately, this list is subjective, and comes down to my personal preference. There are plenty of smarter people than I who write about games, and their opinions may be more worth your time if you want something closer to an objective ranking. If you’re curious about what I played this year though, here it is.
