The five best video games I played in 2019

I had less time than ever to play video games in 2019, completing about thirteen single-player games – an average of one every four weeks. As I get older, lack of time means that I have to be judicious in choosing what to play, and many of the games I selected in 2019 had been on my must-play list for years.

Since early childhood, playing and thinking about video games has brought me joy, but it has also helped me deal with stressful situations at school, work, or elsewhere. It continues to do so, even if I don’t play as much as I would like. I’m now at a time in my life where collecting games gives me almost as much pleasure as playing them: and like most grown-up gamers, I find it has become increasingly difficult to settle down with a game for a long session like I used to. I’m much more easily distracted by work, chores, or other tasks that need taking care of. Of course, that’s a natural corollary of having responsibilities, trying to live a meaningful life, and simply getting older. But it’s also important to relax properly. Otherwise the need for psychological relief will find expression in other ways.

Moaning aside, I still played a lot of good games this year; and with an average review score of 8.4, they were even better than in 2018. Clearly, I’m prioritizing quality over quantity as the years roll by.

So, the best five games I played in 2019 were…

5. Doom (2016, PlayStation 4)

My score: 9/10, Metacritic 85/100

For two decades after the 1997 release of Goldeneye, the first-person shooter genre was dominated by “realistic” military-style games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. With its relentless focus on movement and aggression, Doom re-interpreted its own legacy and, returning to the roots of its own series, re-invented the genre in the process. The style of play that this game innovated – characterised by fast paced, violent, impactful, close quarters combat – is now quintessentially and identifiably Doom. It plays like a (nightmarish?) dream, its tempo and rhythm never interrupted by a touch of slowdown, regardless of how many demons are on-screen. And some of its encounters are intense. Doom is not a difficult game, precisely, but it does demand that you approach it in the right spirit, and embrace its philosophy of non-stop motion. Inertia means death. Once you learn the ropes, playing Doom is an exhilarating and incredibly satisfying single-player experience. Doom’s brutality is enabled by the fact that your victims are non-human, and it provides a kind of thrill that is relatively rare in modern gaming, where violence is so often sanitized as well as glamorized. It may be a Freudian’s dream, but Doom is also bloody good fun.

4. Bayonetta 2 (2014, Wii U)

My score: 9/10 (tbc), Metacritic 91/100

I was distinctly underwhelmed by the first Bayonetta, but matters weren’t helped by the fact that I played it the better part of a decade after its release. Bayonetta 2, by contrast, far exceeded my low expectations. A Wii U exclusive, the crisp graphics are a major improvement on the port of the muddy-looking original, while good design choices trim the game’s fat and allow the combat to truly shine. The core gameplay in Bayonetta 2 is absolutely outstanding – fast, fluid, hard-hitting, and visually spectacular. The titular witch has access to a host of awesome moves, combos, and weapons, and controlling her in combat is a delight. Most of the inane platforming that marred the first game is gone, as are the punishing Quick Time Events that previously caused so many Game Overs. In general, this feels like a more forgiving game, and it is much easier to succeed in combat (and look good while doing so) without relying on items and continues. The dialogue and voice acting is as uninspiring as before, but leaving that aside, developer Platinum Games deserve credit for bringing out what makes Bayonetta special. The result is something that is huge fun to play, and probably one of the best action games of all time. It bodes well for the upcoming Nintendo Switch-exclusive, Bayonetta 3.

3. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen (2017, PlayStation 4)

My score: 9/10, Metacritic 93/100

The original PC version of XCOM 2 made it on to my GOTY list back in 2016. I loved the setting, tone, atmosphere, and gameplay, but like many customers I was frustrated by the myriad technical problems that undermined the experience. It was in the hope of playing an optimized version of the game that I decided to play the expansion, War of the Chosen, on console rather than PC – which meant purchasing the game again. Sadly, playing XCOM 2 on console is still not nearly as smooth or seamless as one would expect, and at their worst, the technical inadequacies can be immersion-breaking. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that XCOM 2 is a hugely absorbing video game, unparalleled in its field, and War of the Chosen adds a mammoth amount of content that completely remixes and overhauls the rest of the game. Developing a squad in XCOM 2 is a singularly pleasurable and engaging experience, and developer Firaxis has hit upon a gameplay formula that attains near-rhythmic perfection, with research and development, tactical combat, and resource management balanced in fine equilibrium. If and when they decide to make XCOM 3, I pray that they use an appropriate game engine, because it would be unconscionable to repeat the mistakes they made last time around. (Note: the Metacritic score above is for the PS4 version, the PC version is scored slightly lower.)

2. Resident Evil 2 (2019, PlayStation 4)

My score: 9.5/10, Metacritic 91/100

Resident Evil has been one of my favourite game series ever since the Nintendo Gamecube era, but Resident Evil 2 is one of the few I had never played. As such, Capcom’s remake of this much-loved classic was perfect for me. With Resident Evil 7, Capcom proved they have a vision for the series that can succeed in the future; but Resident Evil 2 showed that they understand the appeal of the older games, too. This was a fresh interpretation of the survival horror genre, as the developers successfully translated the old horror and atmosphere using modern technology. With excellent graphics and sound design, Resident Evil 2 boasts high production values that belie its B-Movie subject matter. Playing Resident Evil 2 is a riveting, and frequently frightening, experience, and the winning depiction of series favourites – Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield, and Ada Wong – helps foster audience engagement. It really adds to the tension if, you know, the player actually likes or cares about the protagonist. The lack of variation between the multiple campaigns feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, but there is still plenty of replay value here, and the inclusion of unlockable bonuses is a welcome throwback to a more innocent time when extra content was not locked away behind paid downloads. Indeed, Capcom actually provided free DLC; though the punishing difficulty perhaps limited its appeal. Overall, though, this was a loving recreation of a classic game, an outstanding horror experience, and a great way to start the gaming year 2019.

1. Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (2019, PlayStation 4)

My score: 10/10, Metacritic 81/100

A remaster rather than a remake, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is nevertheless a new experience for Western audiences. Based on the Japanese PlayStation 3 port of what was once an Xbox 360-exclusive, the Definitive Edition contains a huge amount of content that was never released in the West. The vanilla version of Vesperia has long been regarded as one of the best entries in this long-running series, and this new edition should serve to cement its reputation as one of the best JRPGs ever made. Vesperia’s clean and colourful graphical style has aged well, and looks good spruced up for modern consoles; while its outstanding soundtrack and voice cast help ensure its characters and locations are distinctive and memorable. Its combat is rich and rewarding, while the plot, though occasionally convoluted, is engaging, and has rare texture, not to mention moral and philosophical depth. But its cast is Vesperia’s strongest and most distinctive asset. Few video games have attained such heights of character writing, and Tales of Vesperia should be used to educate those who aspire to write or design video games in how to craft rounded, credible, and sympathetic characters who undergo meaningful development. In one respect, this remaster shows how little the state of the art has progressed – or conversely, how much it has regressed – in the last decade. But put more positively, it reminds us what potential there is for video games as an art form to tell powerful, inspiring, and elevating human stories of compassion, connection, and redemption. Revisiting Vesperia was my gaming highlight of 2019, making this remaster of a ten-year-old classic my Game of the Year.

Honourable mentions

Persona 3 Portable (PSP, 8/10 tbc) is an expanded port of a game first released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. The PSP version plays almost like a visual novel: the player character is only visible when exploring dungeons, and other environments are navigated using simple point-and-click commands. It’s no less absorbing for that; the great strength of the Persona series is its script, and the visual novel presentation leverages that to good effect. Persona 3 Portable features some great characters and scenarios, with a dramatic story, fascinating symbolism and mythology, a magnetic atmosphere, and cool soundtrack. The inclusion of a second playable protagonist offers significant replay value, and I am grateful that P3 is so much easier to play than most early Shin Megami Tensei games, including P2. We’re fortunate that its charms aren’t gated behind unrewarding and frustrating gameplay mechanics. But as a video game, its pacing is uneven, and the decision to only have one really big dungeon, which is explored in stages over the course of the campaign, was probably a mistake. Still, it makes for a great experience which all Persona fans should seek out.

Zero Time Dilemma (PS4, 8.5/10) was the culmination of the Zero Escape trilogy of visual novels. Released almost ten years after the first game appeared for the Nintendo DS in 2009, Zero Time Dilemma had a long and difficult gestation period, considering which it’s important to be grateful that the game exists at all. Zero Time Dilemma continues the mind-bending scientific and philosophical themes of its predecessors, and (also like them) features some deeply moving human drama. There’s no doubt that it’s a satisfying conclusion to the series, that builds on the strengths of the first games and provides a resolution of sorts for some beloved characters; which is as much as anyone could have hoped for. Nevertheless, one major plot point proved to be a bone of contention with a lot of fans, including this one. It doesn’t matter how ingenious the trick is, any audience resents the feeling of having been cheated; and there was an unmistakable element of that here.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4, 8/10) was yet another remake. Like Persona 3, Sega’s action-RPG was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006, and the remake was part of Sega’s concerted efforts to promote the franchise in the lead-up to the 2016 release of Yakuza 6. Like many Western gamers, I have fallen in love with this series in recent years: its combination of masculine, hard-boiled drama and absurdist humour is, considering the dross being brought to market by Western publishers, like a drink of water to a man dying of thirst. Kiwami 2 is a significant upgrade on the remake of the first game, with a much larger and more fully-developed story, as well as a “host” of different minigames, including the returning hostess club management simulator. With great graphics and audio, it’s an absorbing and entertaining experience. I’m looking forward to picking up the PS4 ports of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5, when they are released in the UK next year; but without the high production values of the Kiwami remakes, I’m anxious to see how well Yakuza 3 in particular holds up after all this time.

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So, that’s that! Thank you for reading, and if you are one of my regular readers or subscribers, thank you for following my blog over the past year. As well as forthcoming reviews of Bayonetta 2 and Persona 3 Portable, the coming year is likely to contain reviews of several Nintendo Switch games, perhaps starting with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. My other gaming priorities this year include Dark Souls 2, Persona 4: The Golden, and at least one more game emanating from the Yakuza development studio. That’s at least half the year accounted for already!