Here we are for our second post celebrating the best games of 2018! If you missed Monday’s post for our best PlayStation 4 games of the year, you can review it right now – 2018 PS4Blog.net Gaming in Review – Part 1.
Today we’re keeping the spotlight over the best PlayStation 4 games we played this year. Please keep in mind that we didn’t play all of this year’s releases, but hopefully this list is useful for you.
And once you’re done reading today’s article, we want to hear from you: which were your best games played this year? It doesn’t matter what console you played them on, we want to know about them!
PlayStation 4
We continue our breakdown of the best games that released on the PlayStation 4 this year with ThaRaven403 and the_nmac!
Guacamelee! 2
Wow, 2018 was another great year to be a gamer, with so many games that came out that were just awesome. If we set aside all those big AAA titles that came out during the year, for me, this would be the year of the Metroidvanias. They just kept dropping every now and then (and I got the chance to review a vast majority of them!), each with their own approach to the genre. The tough but rewarding roguelike Dead Cells, the mercenaries swapping Omega Strike and the time traveling Timespinner were all games I’ve spent a lot of time playing. And then there was that one Metroidvania game that comes in second place for me as overall game of the year, and that’s Guacamelee! 2. The mix of brawl, humor, challenging platforming and story makes for one of the best games I’ve played.
God of War
As for my personal game of the year, this is hands-down the new God of War. I’ve been a fan of the series ever since the first one back on the PS2, and I’ve Platinumed all the games and remasters, and even though I felt like the “angry guy killing everything related to Olympus” pattern was getting a bit overused, I still loved the franchise.
But when this masterpiece dropped earlier in 2018, I was blown away. Yes, the visuals were awesome, but that’s just the surface. The way the story unfolded with a much more emotional Kratos on a painful journey, trying to move on and forget about his past was one of the best scenarios I’ve played in recent years. There’s one moment in particular (which I won’t spoil) that is one of the most emotional scenes I’ve seen in the 30 years I’ve been gaming. Cory Barlog and Santa Monica Studios have done an incredible feature in breathing a new life into the series with such a drastic change in gameplay.
And it’s crazy because there were so many other games I played this year! I was late to the party, but I played Nier: Automata at the beginning of the year, and this was also an incredible game with a unique story. There’s obviously Red Dead Redemption 2 that I am slowly exploring in between matches of Injustice 2, and just recently the great Darksiders franchise finally made a return with their excellent Darksiders III game!
Game on my friends, we’re lucky to have all those hits, and I hope 2019 comes in just as good!
Marvel’s Spider-Man
Holy Crap Insomniac did it. They made an excellent Spider-Man game! This is what I’ve been waiting for since Spiderman 2 on the PS2. Without a doubt, I had the most fun all year playing this game. It’s not the best – GOW is – but it’s the most fun game on PS4. Swinging through New York just feels awesome. Finding the collectibles is great, and they give you some the back story of this Spider-Man entry. The story and narrative had me glued throughout the game, building to an epic and emotional boss fight at the end that, to be honest, made me tear up. It’s not perfect though, as there are some pacing issues, specifically with all the things that need to be done around the city – I’m looking at you science missions and random crimes. I skipped them throughout the game focusing instead on the main missions, and it was a slog getting those done for the Platinum trophy.
God of War
What a game. Like ThaRaven403, this game is definitely my 2018 Game of the Year. Unlike some other critics that have had issues with the GOW games in the past, I always appreciated them as brilliantly designed adventures. This one took the game to the next level as Kratos is now a fully formed character, and his past comes into play. Atreus (Boy!) adds to a game which is usually impossible to say about NPC characters. The world is fleshed out with its own mythology and world building. This game is a masterpiece and the best game this year. You know a game is good when Kratos is telling a story while you are on a boat, you reach your destination, and you don’t want to get off just yet, as he hasn’t finished his story and you want to hear how it ends.
Detroit: Become Human
WOW! I hadn’t played a David Cage game before but picked this up a few weeks ago. My wife saw me playing it and noticed one of the main characters, Markus, was played by Jesse Williams from Grey’s Anatomy, a show she likes, so she sat down and watched me play. It turned into a date as she enjoyed the story and helped make the decisions that helped fill our ending that we worked towards. The narrative was awesome, and it’s the prettiest game on my PS4 Pro – you can see the pores on the character’s skin! The stories of Kara, Connor, and Markus were all interesting, so much so she wants to replay it with me making other decisions to see what would happen. Once we’re done with Detroit, we’ll go straight into Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls on PlayStation 4.
Stay tuned for our best Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita games post which goes live this Friday!
And now, what were YOUR best releases this year? Tell us in the comments below!
