By Adam Robles (J-101 Staff Writer)
Every year, the gaming industry seems to positively and negatively impact the perspective on video games as a form of art, 2018 is not an exception.
Unfortunately, games like “Super Smash Bros,’ Ultimate” and “Just Cause 4,” which are definite contenders for being in the top 10, aren’t coming out until December. Therefore, titles within that release window will be excluded from this list.
Each game will be provided with its current metascore, which is its overall graded score that it earned by critics on metacritic at the time of making this list.
“Dead Cells” is a 2-D action platformer that has randomly generated levels. It was developed by indie developer Motion Twin and was released August 7. It is one of those gaming experiences where you die a lot and become stronger by using the cells from the enemies you kill to gain new abilities when you respawn. This game has satisfying controls and relentless enemies. It is currently sitting with an 89 metascore.
“Celeste” was developed by Matt Makes Games Inc. and is a 2-D action platformer. This game was released January 25. It has a very deep story that deals with overcoming depression, which is rare for video games. It has a lot of replayability, with an lots of collectables such as the golden strawberries, which are always located in hard to reach places, for the post game adding to the replay value. It currently has a 92 metascore.
The “Spyro Reignited Trilogy” is simple, it’s the first three Spyro games. They’ve been completely remade from scratch to run on modern consoles. This trilogy was developed by Activision and Toys for Bob. It is a 3-D action platformer and was released November 13. It has an 82 metascore.
“Starlink: Battle for Atlas,” the Nintendo Switch version to be specific. The reason why, is because it comes with the legendary cast Nintendo’s Star Fox crew. The switch version is seemingly a different game compared to the PS4 and Xbox One version due to the fact that you can play as Fox McCloud throughout the whole game. “Starlink” was developed by Ubisoft and released October 16th. It is a space simulator that tasks the player with traveling across space, exploring new planets and assembling your own spaceship. This game has a 74 metascore.
“Monster Hunter World” takes a big step forward in the right direction for this series, finally jumping onto powerful consoles. This game was developed by Capcom and released January 26. It is a role-playing,action game that allows you to go on quests to hunt many big and dangerous monsters in order to improve armor and weapons. “Monster Hunter World” currently has a 90 metascore.
“Detroit: Become Human” is a third person, action-adventure game available only on PlayStation 4 that is very plot heavy and allows you to interact with the game environment. This game was released May 25 and was developed by Quantic Dream. “Detroit: Become Human” is a lot like “Heavy Rain” in decision making interactivity of story. It had a futuristic plot that will make you cry depending on how much you let your heart invest into the characters. It has a 78 metascore.
“Marvel’s Spider-Man” was extremely anticipated by many Marvel fans for years because it had lots of potential. Fortunately for the fans, the developers at Insomniac Games delivered. This Spider-Man game is an open world action adventure game that puts you in the suit of Spider-Man. It is a PlayStation exclusive and came out September 7. It has an 87 metascore.
“God of War” came out April 20 This game is an action adventure with some RPG mechanics. It was developed by Santa Monica Studios and the game allows players to play and know what’s going on without needing to play the previous six games. It takes place in Norse mythology and has a very intense story. It has a 94 metascore.
“Red Dead Redemption 2” was developed by Rockstar Games and released in late October. RDR2 serves as a prequel to the previous entry, “Red Dead Redemption.” It is an open world, action adventure game that takes place in the old west.
This game is nice to look at and has a very good story. This virtual world is very alive and full of unique experiences.
You might start off with the mundane task of cleaning your horse, and then some random bear attacks you. This game has a 97 metascore.