#2. 2018
2018 was a time of rich bounty. That makes sense- now a little over four years into the generation, we were starting to see the fruits of a truly diverse and amazing range of developers and their projects. We got what might be the best Sony game of all time, and definitely a contender for game of the generation, with Sony Santa Monica’s God of War, an audacious reimagining of their signature franchise delivering a masterful blend of gameplay and storytelling. Just six months later, we got another all time great release. Rockstar’s magnum opus Red Dead Redemption 2, which exceeded any other game till date in terms of the story it told, how it told it, and the people that inhabited it, while also being a breathtaking technical achievement.
This was also the year that Capcom’s long running Monster Hunter franchise broke out, with Monster Hunter World finally making the world understand exactly what it is that makes this loot driven action series so addictive and compelling. Ubisoft delivered their biggest and arguably best Assassin’s Creed game yet in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which gave players a massive recreation of ancient Greece and the earliest game in series chronology. Insomniac delivered their most successful game yet with Marvel’s Spider-Man, a title that managed to recreate the tone and aesthetic of the source material to an astonishing degree. There was also Astro Bot Rescue Mission, which was an inspired 3D platformer, and finally gave VR gaming a killer app.
And then there were others like the Shadow of the Colossus remake, Dead Cells, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Celeste, Detroit: Become Human, Tetris Effect, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Spyro Reignited Trilogy. It was an incredible batch of games that came together to deliver one of the best years this medium has ever seen.
