Wow, the end of 2018 drawers near and 2019 is ready to go! It's that time to take a look back on some of my favorite video games I played this year. This year I seemed to have played more games than usual logging in 42 new tiles yet picking my top 5 was pretty easy what was not easy ranking them one through five.
Number 5
Man what a crazy game Serial Cleaner turned out to be. This PC tile looks like a simple puzzle game but it is not! Drenched in a varnish of ‘70s retro stylings, from its funky soundtrack to its desaturated color palette, it’s incredibly aesthetically pleasing. This stealth game has you sneaking into a crime scene to clean up the blood, gather the evidence and bag the bodies. While the stealth mechanics are broadly similar to the cone-of-view Metal Gear Solid system; blunder into an enemy’s eye line and they’ll immediately pursue you. If they catch you, it’s instant death and back to the start of the level.
All though very frustrating for this simple gamer I would have to put down the joystick and walk away for a bit. But the whole time I can not stop thinking about the puzzle that I can not beat and end up back in the computer chair going at it again.
Number 4
State of Decay 2 seems to be a hit and miss with people on my end of the screen its a little of both. See when the game first starts out it is white-knuckle, balls to the wall zombie fest. As you gather your team and find a place to call home its time to grind it out with a long list of "To Do's". I simply could not put the controller down at first looking for food, ammo, health, and others to stay alive in its beautiful baron landscapes. Then the game turns on you and gets really hard for a simple gamer like me. All this did was make the old ticker beat faster and verbal obscenity flung at the tv screen, but I liked it!
Sadly the grind gets old fast and the lack of zombies gets old after while I like the building up your team aspect but sadly other games came along and took me out of the Decay that my State was in. The game looks good to play and honestly, I should go back and see what is going on with my team.
State of Decay 2 still stands tall as one of the best games I played this year.
Number 3
Friday the 13th is the second-spookiest day of the year, so when it rolled around back in April Jason fans where treated to Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle. With its light, silly, and utterly gore-drenched gameplay Killer Puzzle is a simple block-sliding puzzler dressed up as a slasher horror hooked on its splatter-rampage. He’s a good boy, really – listens to everything his mum tells him. What was really great about Killer Puzzle was Jason himself from all the flicks like Jason part 2 and Uber Jason from X. And if that's not enough you will also get a few other surprises along the way like Butcher Jason or Frozen Jason. And those cutscenes those glories blood splattered cutscenes!
For a free game, the challenge grows stronger never allowing it to get boring and challenging enough that you have to walk away from it even if just for a bit. I'm pretty sure this is still a free download for the PC check it out
here. Those poor poor campers.
Number 2
This is one of those games made for gamers like me with short races, simple controls, and easy layout and an open world letting me pick where to go next. And with some sweet rides, good tunes (although at one point I turned the radio off) and most of all Season's Forza 4 is a fun ride. In fact, when I first fired up my racing machine I was not impressed. Sure it looked good but the control took me a bit to get used to and honestly I just wanted to see all the seasons. So the other day I sat down to give this another spin trying to find my way to Autumn the greatest season of them all. As I was gliding through the races and time I found my self getting better at driving and started winning race after race. And once the leaves changed colors I was hooked. So hooked I played for almost 6 hours straight just to play through the final two seasons.
I was hooked no lie I just could not put the controller down, I get it the hype for this game is real and let me remind you I'm a simple gamer for those die hard's you can really tweak your car for an even better experience and yet here I was having a blast. Then I made it to winter and oh man the open world turned beautiful. From the colorful town's to the open rode Forza looks amazing and plays well. I'm glad I gave this one a second chance.
Drum roll, please...........
(Deep Voie) and now Number One!
Ask anybody that comes in contact with me from family to co-works to my faithful readers Stardew Valley is still my all-time favorite game and still played today! I have logged hundreds of hours into its gameplay and along comes Graveyard Keeper an edgy, much cooler, cousin of Stardew Valley. In this eerie sandbox style game, you take control of the Graveyard Keeper, an unnamed protagonist who is transported to this dark and gloomy world after a traffic accident. You are quickly introduced to your new best friend, the skeletal head of Gerry, who will help you out in getting started in your new morbid profession. After getting a lay of the land you will be introduced to comrade donkey, the capitalist hating, body transporter who will bring you fresh corpses regularly.
A majority of your time will be spent working all day gathering supplies from the surrounding area to bring back to your front yard and construct components for other crafts and items, then retiring to your home to sleep in your bed to regain energy and any health you have lost. The game has a multitude of characters and often they provide quests the progress the story and unlock new sections of the game. Often, these characters only come on a specific day of the 6-day week similar to Animal Crossing.
In fact, this game blends together Starwdew Valley and Animal Crossing very well giving it a simplistic in design and complex enough to get sucked in for hours at a time. The music is creepy and bouncy, like the perfect Halloween song you’ve never heard. The visuals are just as convincing, with rolling waves of fog, rainstorms, and all around a dark atmosphere of death that even during the daytime feels gloomy. I have thoroughly enjoyed all my time spent with this game and would recommend it to anyone looking for a low-stress virtual escape. Graveyard Keepers is by far the best game I played all year and as you can see I played a few great games this year. And even though I have not poured the hours into this one yet I will and plan on playing for hours over Christmas break!
Mr Keeper your simply the best!
So what was your favorite game of 2018? Let me know in the comments below and look for my not so favorite games played this year later today.
