Tomas’ Personal Top 10 Games of 2019
As an adventure game lover, 2018 was an amazing year. I felt that the quality of games that came out that year was hard to beat. Turns out that 2019 was a spectacular year for adventure games and narrative driven games as well! I had an absolute blast playing and reviewing games for the Gaming Outsider and the Adventure Games Podcast this year. I can wholeheartedly say that I didn’t play any bad games this year. There were games that had elements that I didn’t like, but no game was truly bad, and almost all of them were really, really good. After much consideration, this is my Top 10 of 2019.
Honorable Mentions
I want to start out with two honorable mentions. The first one is the first DLC for one of my favorite games of 2018: Mutant Year Zero: Seed of Evil. Mutant Year Zero is a story-driven tactical RPG, based on a tabletop roleplaying game. It plays like X-Com, and I loved it a lot. The first DLC picks up exactly where we left the game and adds a lot of extra content. Besides adding a new storyline, we also get new side missions. There was enough to keep me playing for plenty of hours, and the new story was just as good as the first one. Great DLC!
My second honorable mention is She Sees Red. This FMV did everything right to be compelling, and the multiple play-throughs necessary to get the entire story were very enjoyable. It’s a brutal and bloody tale that is told, and I enjoyed it all the way. And since it was created by a Russian studio, I played it in Russian and found that the best way to experience it. I think this was the first time I ever played a game in Russian. Well done to make an FMV game that actually works; it’s a lot harder than it seems.
#10 – Night Call
2019 was a good year for taxi games. In Night Call, you play a cabbie who gets drafted to work for a not-so-kosher police detective whom you have to help find a serial killer on the streets of Paris. You do this by talking to your passengers, visiting possibly important places, and most important of all, by keeping your taxi running. This noir hit some nice spots with three increasingly difficult cases to solve, and I found it quite challenging to both investigate the killings and keep my job. Eventually, I succeeded, though. That felt really good. Trial and error works.
#9 – Golden Treasure: The Great Green
How could you not want to be a dragon? Golden Treasure: The Great Green gave me this opportunity, and it delivered on its promise. At least for an adventure game lover like me, because while there is action in this game, it is mostly narrative and choice-driven. It also uses RPG elements to create your own dragon character. I found it a great experience to live with my dragon throughout his years, from hatchling to great elder, collecting treasure and wisdom, exploring the great green and making sure those pesky humans don’t bother me again. The writing was very well done; it had a philosophical approach to life as a dragon as it’s completely written from the dragon’s point of view. There are plenty of surprises to experience and areas to explore, so the game kept my attention for several play-throughs. It’s good to be a dragon.
#8 – Neo Cab
This is the second taxi mystery interrogation game on the list, which seems to be a bit of a theme. I liked it, because Neo Cab almost felt like the cyberpunk side of the coin, with Night Call as a noir on the other side. In Neo Cab, you just moved with all your possessions in your cab to the big city, and you meet up with your old friend with whom you are going to live. The fun starts when she disappears and you have to find her by following her trail and talking to your passengers. Here you have to keep your job by keeping your approval level at 4 or higher.
As with every good cyberpunk story, many moral questions are asked, and many difficult choices must be made. Emotions play a very important role in this game, which gives it a very unique feel. I highly enjoyed Neo Cab, and it has a lot of replayability because of all the choices that need to be made.
#7 – Truberbrook
Truberbrook is a classic point-and-click adventure game, but one made in not a very classic way. This one is a stop-motion adventure game. Sounds intriguing? It was! Truberbrook is set in cold war era Germany, and it’s a retro sci-fi game filled with mysteries. It’s up to you to solve these mysteries, as your valuable data gets stolen, and you need to get it back. Truberbrook is a very charming game. The setting is unique, even more so because of the graphics. It was a happy time, hanging around in that quaint little town. I wish I could’ve stayed longer, but maybe developer btf will come up with more adventures like this.
#6 – Mage’s Initiation
Mage’s Initiation is a love letter to the original Quest for Glory games by Sierra. It shows, and I loved it. It’s a blend of point-and-click adventure game and RPG, and it works like a charm. You have several schools of magic to choose from, giving the game a nice replayability, and it’s got that old school charm. It was challenging with the (live action) combat, but luckily I could adjust the difficulty to story mode and have fun without intense combat getting in the way. And the story was good! I saved my character, so when a new chapter comes out, I can just pick up where I left off. Or maybe I’ll play the game again with a different school of magic.
#5 – Clam Man
This little game was my surprise of the year. Clam Man is short, very funny, and a surprisingly deep point-and-click adventure game, developed and published by Team Clam. You play the titular Clam Man, who lives in a world of anthropomorphised creatures that otherwise looks a lot like our own. Clam Man himself is a serious guy, as he just lost his job. There’s a mystery regarding mayonnaise to be solved. Somehow a duck superhero is also involved in saving Snacky Bay.
I had an absolute blast playing this game. It’s really funny, the puzzles are smart, the story is interesting, and it even includes an original song! What is not to like? This is one of the titles that I will think of when thinking of adventure gaming in 2019. Not bad for a game that is about 4 hours long.
#4 – Interrogation: You Will Be Deceived
While Interrogation doesn’t take place in a taxi, I do consider this part of a trilogy of sorts, together with Night Call and Neo Cab. The difference here, is that you play an actual interrogator for the police. You’re in charge of a strike force tasked with finding and destroying a terrorist organization. Interrogation only takes place in one room, the interrogation room, and it gets incredibly tense there. Some missions are timed, some are not, but all are very well-written and go very deep into the psyche of terrorism and those that fight it. It’s one of those games that have you go one more time, especially after failing to get the answers you need. Interrogation is thrilling and educational, and I loved it.
#3 – Whispers of a Machine
Here’s another great classic style point-and-click adventure game. This one is set in an intriguing retro-futuristic setting that feels very much alive. In Whispers of a Machine, you play a detective who is enhanced and uses her gifts to solve a murder in a sleepy industrial town. Obviously, there is a lot more going on. The way you play the character and the choices you make really influence the way the game goes, and it allows for multiple endings. It will give you different powers during the game and will make you want to play the game again to make different choices.
I highly enjoyed the game, because it felt deep, it made me think and feel, and it has gorgeous pixel art. It’s a fascinating world to be in, and I hope this is not the only story we get to experience. I want to know more about the history of this world. Highly recommended.
#2 – Disco Elysium
A very good friend gave me this game as a Christmas gift. I started playing it before the holidays started, and I was cursing that I had no access to my computer. This game is amazing. It won several awards for its narrative, and that is very much deserved. Disco Elysium is a point-and-click adventure disguised as an isometric RPG, written by Kurt Vonnegut. Even though I’ve only played it for something like 8 hours, its brilliance was clear from the start. Had I managed to finish it before the year’s end, Disco Elysium might have ended up sharing the first spot with Heaven’s Vault. It’s that good.
#1 – Heaven’s Vault
What can I say about Heaven’s Vault that I haven’t said already? It’s gorgeous, it’s epic, it’s cinematic, it’s groundbreaking. It totally swept me away, and it makes me want to return to the Nebula again. The discoveries you can make, the amazing way the dialogue works, the unbelievable world building. It makes archeology and linguistics sexy again, as if Indiana Jones had a baby with Arrival. This game was made for me. It’s not only my game of 2019, it’s probably my game of the decade. It’s one of the best games I have ever played.
2019 Closing
The year has flown by. I played a lot of games, but I still feel I missed a lot of excellent games. This list is purely based on the games that I have played, and I felt spoiled last year. I hope 2020 will be at least as good as the last two years. Judging by what’s coming out, it just might as well be better. I hope everyone will have a great gaming year, i hope my reviews have sparked your interest in story-driven games, and I hope we have as great a community as we had last year. Keep on questing!
