you all probably dont give a shit but does anyone know of a way to get back into an instagram account?? I stupidly lost my login password. I would love any tips you can offer me.
I just wanted to say that Outer wilds is god damn amazing, easily one of the best games I have ever played. It is just really fun exploring the solar system on your own and finding clues yourself. If you're going to play it, DO NOT watch anything about the game. The less you know about it, the better the game is. It is just a fantastic game.
Totally agree. It's crazy what they pulled off; a story told in almost completely random order for each play through, depending on the order you visit or stumble upon new places.
Laughed hard when I heard him say that. I'd argue Pathologic 2 is the most dread-inducing game I have ever played. If that doesn't count as horror I don't know what does
@@bimasetyaputra8381 : You can use the website "Baba Is Spoiler" to look up hints. I had to look up hints for about 5 levels and the solution for 2-3, and I consider myself extremely good at puzzle games. Sometimes it just takes time to figure them out. Try moving around stuff and experimenting. You never know when it will click in your brain as new patterns emerge.
i really likes outer wilds a lot, it's up there with the RE2 remake for game of the year for me. but anyone reading this and is interested in playing, DO NOT LOOK UP ANY WALKTHROUTHS!!! i only did at the end after i explored all i thought there was to explore and even tho that was only like 3-5% of the game that was left over, i still regret not trying more to find the stuff i needed to know in-game
While I mostly agree, there is no way I would have ever figured out the final puzzle on Ash. I would have never finished it without help, the answer seemed so out of left field for me personally.
@@jaysonagli6210 I wrote a long reply explaining why i thought that the puzzle wasn't that bad (even though I did end up needing a hint to figure it out), but I did a little digging and found out that the devs patched the game recently to make that particular puzzle a little less obtuse to figure out. Just thought I'd mention that in case anyone is turned off by the idea of a bad puzzle so near the end of the game.
This is probably one of the first respectable list of games I've seen on youtube in like 10 years. Its always 10 games I've already heard of, and half of them are up for game of the year and they're all $40-$60. Yeah, I've heard of them all, I don't need a sweaty boy to tell me about them again. But your list is so pleasant. :D I loved a few of them, overlooked many, and need to play some more of them!
Never heard of pathologic before today. Saw it in a random CZcams comment on another video, now I'm seeing it listed in this video. I think it's a sign I should check it out.
@@Denkart watch mandalore's video about it if you want more info, even if you don't, mandalore is to me, the best review channel on youtube, even if you're not interested in the game the review is still entertaining and you can find lots of obscure games on his channel. (and some mods as well if they're good enough.) he also has a list of requested reviews on his pinned comment so you can know if the game you want him to review is already on the list.
Those two and Outer Wilds are the three released this year I haven't gotten around to yet and I absolutely need to play at some point. Also Sekiro once I start feeling like raging at a game for a change...
Played Disco Elysium and while it had some really really high highs when it was good, I feel the game has been way too uneven to be compared to the quality of a game such as Baba Is You. It's a great game, but there are parts of the game that are a real slog. I also think people who liked Disco Elysium should *really* get into Adventure games because this is literally just a good Adventure game only with some RPG mechanics like skills and randomness mixed in. Adventure games deserve a comeback. People have forgotten just how great they really are. It's sad. But it's also the fault of developers' lack of vision and writing capabilities. I just really miss Adventure games and in its best moments Disco Elysium reminded me of that.
i'm glad frog detective is getting some recognition, all the hard work frog has done solving cases deserves it jokes aside though, the games are super short (1 hour each) and super simple but also really charming and heartwarming, if you are feeling kinda down they will cheer you up (: totally recommended if you want a short and sweet, feel-good experience.
"you will regret it, and thats kinda the point" reminds me kinda of playing "this war of mine" and a description someone said of reading "there will come soft rains"
It's great to have this nice, calm and even profound (as I see it) take on released games and industry in general. I think it may be a year now that I subscribed and I feel like at home with your channel. Keep up great work Adam! Happy Christmas.
Outer Worlds is my game of year, nothing could even compare to the amount of feels it gave me. One of my goals for the next year is to try out Baba Is You.
Crying Suns, Dark Devotion and Hades are the games I had the most fun with this year. Crying Suns for its unique take on the FTL formula, FTL being perhaps my most favourite game of all times Dark Devotion for an interesting take on the side-scrolling action RPG genre, with many interesting mechanics and really fun progression Hades for being the best damn game I've played this year simply because of its story, characters and narration. The outstanding gameplay is just a cherry on the top, really.
Thanks for this! A fantastic video, there were quite a few games on this list I'd not heard of, and look right up my alley. I'm usually good at keeping up with most indie games, but I managed to miss several of these. So, thanks, for bringing them to my attention!
I really appreciate you putting the names of games in the description. I googled Adam Millard Descenders, because thats what I wanted to rewatch, and this video was the first result!
Another good one I recommend is Bug Fables. It's an RPG very reminiscent of Paper Mario TTYD with a bunch of unique mechanics that makes the whole experience both fresh and nostalgic
Its an interesting list of games which are very different from one another... None of them appear to be AAA titles, but all of them seem to have something unique to offer. It's refreshing to find a list that isn't common with other video-game lists. Great compilation.
Some of my favorite games of the year coupled with games on top of my whishlist and a good amount of new discoveries that I'll check out eventually. Thanks for sharing!
Just came here to say thank you for mentioning Katana Zero because I feel like I haven’t seen anybody else talking about it, yet it’s such a great game with an amazing art style, soundtrack, and obviously action.
Excellent Video. Love that you highlighted many smaller games. I tend to pay attention to the indie space, yet even some of these slipped under the radar.
it's fun seeing how many of these games I already own! also, just picked up Forager! looks fun and thanks for these videos! really helps to find good games I otherwise would have missed!
Nice to see Heavens Vault grab a mention in at least one game of the year video. Really fantastic piece of work, the writing is superb and the central mechanic is very interesting. You can tell it was a real labour of love for the developers.
4:55 "The game is about playing as a doctor in a spooky russian steppe town haunted by *Bird headed cultists."* *Hmm sounds like theres a* *_Lunatic Cultist_* *in that game.*
I'm a little disappointed that MO: Astray didn't make it onto the list, as it's probably one of my favorite platformers of the year, but seeing how crazy and off the wall some of these games are, I can't be too mad. Thanks for another great list!
i subbed to you a long time ago. but now I've decided you're my new favourite teacher on zeh inturnetz. watching your videos among other youtubers makes me feel more enlightened than those spiritual gurus.
Katana Zero was definetly my Game of the Year. So good. However, there are a few in your list that I have yet to try and will be happy to take a look at in the next year (I know, I'm a bit late, but hey, better late than never...?)
I had this video playing in the background while doing schoolwork and I was immediately confused as to why I was hearing A Short Hike music behind Pathologic 2 at 4:45
im glad you made this channel and focus on indies too. The triple A already gets so much money pumped into the ads compartment and then coverage by social media, it's a shame tbh, as it overrules the often better indie games
Thanks for this great list of recommendations! People keep complaining about the decline of gaming, not realizing that it's only AAA games that are hurting. But each year there are more and better indie games like this than ever before.
Great list, have played most of these games and loved Outer Wilds, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Heaven's Vault, Katana Zero, A Short Hike. Also want to give love to Void Bastards and Lovely Planet 2 as the best FPSs of the year!
Heck yeah, Disco Elysium! It's a masterpiece for sure. The use of heavy internal dialogue lets them make the protagonist more memorable and interesting than the most memorable and interesting NPCs of the best other games, when normally they're who RPGs have to turn to for character and colour since the protagonist is often a blank slate with boring, "safe" dialogue picks and very little else in the way of personality. Yet, because Disco Elysium's inner voices are skill-based, you can give different weighting to the ones you want to focus on, and produce a different personality of your own design even before you make the choices that are presented to you... choices that can be far more compelling, because they're informed by your internal soliloquy. The result is lots of fun to handle, and it doesn't end there. The first time I played through I made one interpretation of the main character that I really liked, and the game told me a beautiful story that will stay with me forever. The second time, I made the protagonist into a very different sort of man, and made a fair few different calls, and while the overall structure of the game was fairly similar in its broad strokes, I found things that had worked before for one reason, still worked and produced their own resonances for entirely different reasons. In particular, both of my characters picked up on a sense of fellowship with the murder victim, but what elements of themselves they saw in him were entirely different each time. A character that had played on my first character's sympathies to great effect in that run through, played on the intellectual curiosity of my second guy... to great effect in both cases, and a completely different outcome which had knock-on effects through the rest of the story. Another thing that Disco Elysium did amazingly well was fail-forwards. Blowing a skill check, or a series of skill checks, could produce laugh-out-loud moments, incredibly poignant scenes, secure additional information and advantage (possibly at the cost of some embarrassment) or breadcumb me down into a significant side-area of the game with added motivation. One of the big emotional climaxes in my first playthrough was when I botched a certain check and my character painfully bared his soul in a public venue only to be left hanging dead in a stunned silence afterwards, and start to lose it, yelling into the void. It sure beats the hell out of save-scumming. Even the thing that the game did sparingly and arguably half-heartedly, combat, played to its advantage. Rather than knowing you were going in a fight and being able to prebuff and set up a grenade throw or whatever, you could enter a tense situation with the same interface as dialogue, never knowing when the bullets were going to start flying, or even after they did, whether you'd really reached the point of no return and needed to take action, or could still get through to somebody and keep on trying to talk them down. It was incredibly tense and effective. My only concern about the legacy of the game is that adopting its greatest innovation, the internal dialogue, would seem to be very expensive in terms of word-count. Even at a million words, Disco Elysium is not a particularly long game. Is it possible to use some of its mechanics in future titles to elevate the genre, or is it simply not feasible without a five-year development cycle? Regardless, I'm very thankful that we have this title. Not just a top game of the year, but a serious contender for top game of all time- even though it has flaws, it can certainly stand on its many merits.
It's refrshing to see many games that don't fall back on killing or combat on this list. I love some ultraviolent gorefests as much ad the next guy, but it's good that the gaming landscape is expanding to different tastes, and it's great to see nonviolent games like Untitled Goose Game, Outer Wilds or Baba is You among the best of the year
As you read the names at the end you sound like a principal calling students to his office. Nonetheless, thank you very much, received many excellent recommendations and this had a lot of value.
So glad Sayonara Wild Hearts appeared here. Simogo also managed to get Queen Latifah on board after securing Annapurna as their publisher, since Annapurna do a bunch of movie publishing too and have various acting agencies in their address book. Pretty sure they just pulled on some of their strings after the idea surfaced. 👍
One thing I will say about hypnospace is that, despite loving it, the visual style hit my asperger's in a certain way that made it incredibly energy draining to look at.
Talking about games aside, I'm enjoying the jokes littered around your videos. It's keeping me entertained, but not too distracting to where it throws me off-track
Okay, I was already super intrigued by both Baba is You and Outer Wilds since Mark Brown did videos on these, aaaaaaand kinda forgot about'em, but now you too? That's one dirty move, I'll tell you that! Guess I'll buy *sigh*
Watching this video has inspired me to create a list of my own. This list will honor some of the most incredible indie games to release this past year. There will be no repeats of games featured in the video above and all of the games listed are my personal favorites. Additionally, the games listed below I personally believe are either underrated or underrepresented in the gaming community at large. I would love to hear input from the rest of the comment section as to what their favorite indie titles released this year are. With that being said, let the list begin: 1.) Blasphemous 2.) Valfaris 3.) MO: Astray 4.) Anodyne 2: Return to Dust 5.) Children of Morta 6.) Carrion 7.) Blacksad 8.) Superliminal 9.) Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince 10.) Gato Roboto 11.) Moons of Madness 12.) Deliver Us the Moon 13.) Lost Ember 14.) Arise A Simple Story 15.) The Takeover 16.) Minoria 17.) Fallback 18.) Dark Devotion 19.) Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom 20.) Skybolt Jack Honarable Mentions: 1.) Terminator Resistance 2.) Devil's Hunt 3.) Daymare 1998 4.) Showdown Bandit: Episode One 5.) Light Fairytale Episode One 6.) Cathedral 7.) Darksiders Genesis 8.) Oninaki 9.) The Caligula Effect: Overdose 10.) AI: The Somnium Files 11.) Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid 12.) Apsulov: End of Gods 13.) Dry Drowning 14.) Sunless Skies 15.) Observation
By the way, Adam, thank you very much for making a subtitles for every video. English isn't my mother language but thanks to your subs I can easily enjoy all the stuff you are doing. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart from Ukraine :3
In spirit of the end of the decade you should do a video about iconic games of this decade you should have played :) (Ideally singleplayer story driven games to shorten the list)
Just because I like games doesn’t mean I want to play 2019 games in 5 days
Weak
H20wizard
I could never play that many games in just 5 days.
😆
challenge accepted
you all probably dont give a shit but does anyone know of a way to get back into an instagram account??
I stupidly lost my login password. I would love any tips you can offer me.
If next year's video title isn't "20(20)20 games you should have played" I will be dissapointed
I hadn't even thought of that! Now I think it has to be
@@ArchitectofGames if I can butt in, I think "20 20 (20) games" would be better, since the games are from 2020, and there are 20 of them
@@creepnt1080 I think 20 (2020) would make the most sense, although it does feel wrong somehow...
@@kondzior553 yeah, it's not symmetrical
Why not (20)20?
Untitled Goose Game is basically child friendly wholesome Hitman.
I just wanted to say that Outer wilds is god damn amazing, easily one of the best games I have ever played. It is just really fun exploring the solar system on your own and finding clues yourself. If you're going to play it, DO NOT watch anything about the game. The less you know about it, the better the game is. It is just a fantastic game.
Totally agree. It's crazy what they pulled off; a story told in almost completely random order for each play through, depending on the order you visit or stumble upon new places.
Unfortunately I never beat the game, but I had no choice but to look up how to get past the sleeping things and to reach the depths.
This list actually feels sincere and curated, as opposed to the hundreds of videos listing the same 10 games over and over
Outer Wilds is easily my favorite game in years. Wish I could experience it again for the first time.
I just played it and am planning on sending some kind of letter to the team telling them how impactful it was to me
I doubt that Untitled Goose Game needs any more exposure given how massive it was
*HØÑK*
@Headhunter_FRANK Just play it on switch
Also disco elysium and outer worlds and baba is you.
Donald Baird it’s also on PS4 and Xbox gamepass now.
No horror games... has Pathologic 2 on the list.
:)
Maybe it's a drama instead?
@@Mewseeker It's that, but it's also definitely a psychological horror masterpiece.
Laughed hard when I heard him say that. I'd argue Pathologic 2 is the most dread-inducing game I have ever played. If that doesn't count as horror I don't know what does
it's so much a horror game, that I actually feel anxiety before booting it up, every single time
Baba Is You is so good that the music creeps over to the other titles. You know that's how good it is!
Its too hard for me, i felt like an idiot trying to solve it
@@bimasetyaputra8381 : You can use the website "Baba Is Spoiler" to look up hints. I had to look up hints for about 5 levels and the solution for 2-3, and I consider myself extremely good at puzzle games. Sometimes it just takes time to figure them out. Try moving around stuff and experimenting. You never know when it will click in your brain as new patterns emerge.
@@bimasetyaputra8381 i thought "quit and rest , answer will reveal" is fake, but it happen a few time , dont even have to think when you quit it
Pathologic 2 needs more support holy shit it is a masterpiece and it isnt even fully completed yet
i really likes outer wilds a lot, it's up there with the RE2 remake for game of the year for me. but anyone reading this and is interested in playing, DO NOT LOOK UP ANY WALKTHROUTHS!!! i only did at the end after i explored all i thought there was to explore and even tho that was only like 3-5% of the game that was left over, i still regret not trying more to find the stuff i needed to know in-game
While I mostly agree, there is no way I would have ever figured out the final puzzle on Ash. I would have never finished it without help, the answer seemed so out of left field for me personally.
Outer wilds or Star Wars?
@@jaysonagli6210 I wrote a long reply explaining why i thought that the puzzle wasn't that bad (even though I did end up needing a hint to figure it out), but I did a little digging and found out that the devs patched the game recently to make that particular puzzle a little less obtuse to figure out. Just thought I'd mention that in case anyone is turned off by the idea of a bad puzzle so near the end of the game.
@@lamentz27 that's great news! I'll have to check it out.
This is probably one of the first respectable list of games I've seen on youtube in like 10 years. Its always 10 games I've already heard of, and half of them are up for game of the year and they're all $40-$60. Yeah, I've heard of them all, I don't need a sweaty boy to tell me about them again.
But your list is so pleasant. :D I loved a few of them, overlooked many, and need to play some more of them!
Pathologic 2 and disco elysium are a must
Never heard of pathologic before today. Saw it in a random CZcams comment on another video, now I'm seeing it listed in this video. I think it's a sign I should check it out.
@@Denkart watch mandalore's video about it if you want more info, even if you don't, mandalore is to me, the best review channel on youtube, even if you're not interested in the game the review is still entertaining and you can find lots of obscure games on his channel. (and some mods as well if they're good enough.) he also has a list of requested reviews on his pinned comment so you can know if the game you want him to review is already on the list.
check out hbomberguy's lovely tribute to pathologic, its 2h and afterwards you'll still think you could listen to it some more
Those two and Outer Wilds are the three released this year I haven't gotten around to yet and I absolutely need to play at some point. Also Sekiro once I start feeling like raging at a game for a change...
Played Disco Elysium and while it had some really really high highs when it was good, I feel the game has been way too uneven to be compared to the quality of a game such as Baba Is You. It's a great game, but there are parts of the game that are a real slog. I also think people who liked Disco Elysium should *really* get into Adventure games because this is literally just a good Adventure game only with some RPG mechanics like skills and randomness mixed in. Adventure games deserve a comeback. People have forgotten just how great they really are. It's sad. But it's also the fault of developers' lack of vision and writing capabilities. I just really miss Adventure games and in its best moments Disco Elysium reminded me of that.
Bro I just realized Untitled Goose Game playability is similar to Hitman wtf
People saying that 2019 wasn't a good year for games obviously don't play indie games
InsertHere on switch indie games have dried up
@@gasternecross what abt touryst?
@@gasternecross at least half the games on this list are on it
@Fart Party Plus You should read the news more often, if that's the dumbest thing you've ever heard. Prepare to have your mind blown.
Nobody is saying that
i'm glad frog detective is getting some recognition, all the hard work frog has done solving cases deserves it
jokes aside though, the games are super short (1 hour each) and super simple but also really charming and heartwarming, if you are feeling kinda down they will cheer you up (: totally recommended if you want a short and sweet, feel-good experience.
Noita was one of the nicest games I've played this year, the gameplay is so damn fun, I strongly recommend that hidden gem.
yeah definitely
its still early access & i dont think early access games are counted as being released this year
"you will regret it, and thats kinda the point" reminds me kinda of playing "this war of mine" and a description someone said of reading "there will come soft rains"
It's great to have this nice, calm and even profound (as I see it) take on released games and industry in general.
I think it may be a year now that I subscribed and I feel like at home with your channel.
Keep up great work Adam! Happy Christmas.
Great video. Really stands out from other best of 2019 lists I’ve seen.
"Anthem"
the viewers, the people behind disco elysium and adam himself: "no wait"
Outer Worlds is my game of year, nothing could even compare to the amount of feels it gave me.
One of my goals for the next year is to try out Baba Is You.
Wilds?
Crying Suns, Dark Devotion and Hades are the games I had the most fun with this year.
Crying Suns for its unique take on the FTL formula, FTL being perhaps my most favourite game of all times
Dark Devotion for an interesting take on the side-scrolling action RPG genre, with many interesting mechanics and really fun progression
Hades for being the best damn game I've played this year simply because of its story, characters and narration. The outstanding gameplay is just a cherry on the top, really.
I love Hades, but apparently it released December 2018
Supergiant Games never fail us
@@voices0000 Hades is expected to launch in 2020, it has been in early access for a while now.
Thanks for this! A fantastic video, there were quite a few games on this list I'd not heard of, and look right up my alley. I'm usually good at keeping up with most indie games, but I managed to miss several of these. So, thanks, for bringing them to my attention!
Superb, Adam. So glad that there are still crazy games being made. Gives me hope for my own!
I really appreciate you putting the names of games in the description. I googled Adam Millard Descenders, because thats what I wanted to rewatch, and this video was the first result!
Love that you mentioned A short hike! That game made me so feel so happy and relaxed when I played it. It's just, good, you know.
Sadly I already knew all of these.. so I basically agree with your list and hence liked this video^^ Nice job:) as always:)
Merry christmas! Cheers!
Another good one I recommend is Bug Fables.
It's an RPG very reminiscent of Paper Mario TTYD with a bunch of unique mechanics that makes the whole experience both fresh and nostalgic
Thanks for another year of great content, all the best to you and your channel for 2020
Its an interesting list of games which are very different from one another... None of them appear to be AAA titles, but all of them seem to have something unique to offer. It's refreshing to find a list that isn't common with other video-game lists. Great compilation.
Some of my favorite games of the year coupled with games on top of my whishlist and a good amount of new discoveries that I'll check out eventually. Thanks for sharing!
Just came here to say thank you for mentioning Katana Zero because I feel like I haven’t seen anybody else talking about it, yet it’s such a great game with an amazing art style, soundtrack, and obviously action.
Excellent Video. Love that you highlighted many smaller games. I tend to pay attention to the indie space, yet even some of these slipped under the radar.
it's fun seeing how many of these games I already own!
also, just picked up Forager! looks fun and thanks for these videos! really helps to find good games I otherwise would have missed!
just discovered this channel, and gotta say this is literally what i´ve been lookin for in the last months. great job dood
Nice to see Heavens Vault grab a mention in at least one game of the year video. Really fantastic piece of work, the writing is superb and the central mechanic is very interesting. You can tell it was a real labour of love for the developers.
The video I wait all year for. Thank you Adam!
katana Zero:
"there is also a followup SLASH sequal on the way"
I see what you did there
Great video, I think MO: Astray deserves to be on the list, if you haven't play it I highly recommend it.
4:55 "The game is about playing as a doctor in a spooky russian steppe town haunted by *Bird headed cultists."*
*Hmm sounds like theres a* *_Lunatic Cultist_* *in that game.*
The Outer Wilds is probably my GOTY.
Outer wilds over Star Wars??????
@@jasondp3546 star wars was shit
where did you get it? on steam it doesn't have a launch date yet
@@yovanatoru epic games store
@@teli4181 ty
Watched, loved, subbed. Fantastic list dude.
Very good list. I may have to come back here when I save up to buy some games.
I'm a little disappointed that MO: Astray didn't make it onto the list, as it's probably one of my favorite platformers of the year, but seeing how crazy and off the wall some of these games are, I can't be too mad. Thanks for another great list!
i subbed to you a long time ago. but now I've decided you're my new favourite teacher on zeh inturnetz. watching your videos among other youtubers makes me feel more enlightened than those spiritual gurus.
Katana Zero was definetly my Game of the Year. So good. However, there are a few in your list that I have yet to try and will be happy to take a look at in the next year (I know, I'm a bit late, but hey, better late than never...?)
I had this video playing in the background while doing schoolwork and I was immediately confused as to why I was hearing A Short Hike music behind Pathologic 2 at 4:45
seeing this made me realize that i've been following you since the 2017 games you should have played video. cheers for 2 years, adam :)
I think it might be stockholm syndrome at this stage
I love these kind of videos from CZcamsrs that have the same taste in games as me.
Gonna pick up 3 or 4 games you recommended.
im glad you made this channel and focus on indies too.
The triple A already gets so much money pumped into the ads compartment and then coverage by social media, it's a shame tbh, as it overrules the often better indie games
Great list as usual. Thanks for the recommendations
Of all of the end of the year list I've seen on YT, I think yours has the most interesting games.
I can't see snippets of Pathologic 2 without hearing the pillar men theme in my head..
When you realize Apex was THIS YEAR, not like 2 or 3 years ago...
Merc at Arms It really feels like that, even though i play it all the time
Wait !! You sure about that !!
Informative Video! Thanks a lot!
This is a great list man! Didn't even know about half of the games.
Great video as always, time to carry on watching
I can't thank you enough for introducing me to Sayonara wild hearts this felt more like a dream than dreams I already have.
Thanks for this great list of recommendations! People keep complaining about the decline of gaming, not realizing that it's only AAA games that are hurting. But each year there are more and better indie games like this than ever before.
I love how he sounded surprise when crying suns came up
"Smaller, Cooler Indie Games" is how I describe my favorite games, so yeah this is a great place to go to find the games I missed this year.
Great list, have played most of these games and loved Outer Wilds, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Heaven's Vault, Katana Zero, A Short Hike.
Also want to give love to Void Bastards and Lovely Planet 2 as the best FPSs of the year!
Heck yeah, Disco Elysium!
It's a masterpiece for sure. The use of heavy internal dialogue lets them make the protagonist more memorable and interesting than the most memorable and interesting NPCs of the best other games, when normally they're who RPGs have to turn to for character and colour since the protagonist is often a blank slate with boring, "safe" dialogue picks and very little else in the way of personality. Yet, because Disco Elysium's inner voices are skill-based, you can give different weighting to the ones you want to focus on, and produce a different personality of your own design even before you make the choices that are presented to you... choices that can be far more compelling, because they're informed by your internal soliloquy.
The result is lots of fun to handle, and it doesn't end there. The first time I played through I made one interpretation of the main character that I really liked, and the game told me a beautiful story that will stay with me forever. The second time, I made the protagonist into a very different sort of man, and made a fair few different calls, and while the overall structure of the game was fairly similar in its broad strokes, I found things that had worked before for one reason, still worked and produced their own resonances for entirely different reasons. In particular, both of my characters picked up on a sense of fellowship with the murder victim, but what elements of themselves they saw in him were entirely different each time. A character that had played on my first character's sympathies to great effect in that run through, played on the intellectual curiosity of my second guy... to great effect in both cases, and a completely different outcome which had knock-on effects through the rest of the story.
Another thing that Disco Elysium did amazingly well was fail-forwards. Blowing a skill check, or a series of skill checks, could produce laugh-out-loud moments, incredibly poignant scenes, secure additional information and advantage (possibly at the cost of some embarrassment) or breadcumb me down into a significant side-area of the game with added motivation. One of the big emotional climaxes in my first playthrough was when I botched a certain check and my character painfully bared his soul in a public venue only to be left hanging dead in a stunned silence afterwards, and start to lose it, yelling into the void. It sure beats the hell out of save-scumming.
Even the thing that the game did sparingly and arguably half-heartedly, combat, played to its advantage. Rather than knowing you were going in a fight and being able to prebuff and set up a grenade throw or whatever, you could enter a tense situation with the same interface as dialogue, never knowing when the bullets were going to start flying, or even after they did, whether you'd really reached the point of no return and needed to take action, or could still get through to somebody and keep on trying to talk them down. It was incredibly tense and effective.
My only concern about the legacy of the game is that adopting its greatest innovation, the internal dialogue, would seem to be very expensive in terms of word-count. Even at a million words, Disco Elysium is not a particularly long game. Is it possible to use some of its mechanics in future titles to elevate the genre, or is it simply not feasible without a five-year development cycle? Regardless, I'm very thankful that we have this title. Not just a top game of the year, but a serious contender for top game of all time- even though it has flaws, it can certainly stand on its many merits.
I was really hoping Risk of Rain 2 was going to be on this list. Man that game is really good.
Its still in early access so makes sense why he hasn't included it
Man, you're so awesome. You should have subscribers by the millions, I tell ye
It's refrshing to see many games that don't fall back on killing or combat on this list. I love some ultraviolent gorefests as much ad the next guy, but it's good that the gaming landscape is expanding to different tastes, and it's great to see nonviolent games like Untitled Goose Game, Outer Wilds or Baba is You among the best of the year
I swear to you Adam. I will add every game in this list to my steam library RIGHT NOW
I have Trailmakers :D
Might try out “Baba is you”, looks pretty insane XD
As you read the names at the end you sound like a principal calling students to his office.
Nonetheless, thank you very much, received many excellent recommendations and this had a lot of value.
wow. super super solid list. 2019 was quite a decent year for gaming!
LOL the little guy at 4:37 ejecting and then just standing there like, "I've been going about this all wrong."
So glad Sayonara Wild Hearts appeared here. Simogo also managed to get Queen Latifah on board after securing Annapurna as their publisher, since Annapurna do a bunch of movie publishing too and have various acting agencies in their address book. Pretty sure they just pulled on some of their strings after the idea surfaced. 👍
Really enjoyed this, thanks!
I'm really happy that you gave Trailmakers some more attention, because it really deserves it
One thing I will say about hypnospace is that, despite loving it, the visual style hit my asperger's in a certain way that made it incredibly energy draining to look at.
I’m just happy someone mentioned Katana ZERO, really loved that game
Debussy as background music? Thank you, my friend.
Great video. Also, Ape out is currently availible for free on the Epic Store!
I always expand my Steam wishlist after watching one of these. Thank you.
Talking about games aside, I'm enjoying the jokes littered around your videos. It's keeping me entertained, but not too distracting to where it throws me off-track
Okay, I was already super intrigued by both Baba is You and Outer Wilds since Mark Brown did videos on these, aaaaaaand kinda forgot about'em, but now you too? That's one dirty move, I'll tell you that!
Guess I'll buy *sigh*
Watching this video has inspired me to create a list of my own. This list will honor some of the most incredible indie games to release this past year. There will be no repeats of games featured in the video above and all of the games listed are my personal favorites. Additionally, the games listed below I personally believe are either underrated or underrepresented in the gaming community at large. I would love to hear input from the rest of the comment section as to what their favorite indie titles released this year are. With that being said, let the list begin:
1.) Blasphemous
2.) Valfaris
3.) MO: Astray
4.) Anodyne 2: Return to Dust
5.) Children of Morta
6.) Carrion
7.) Blacksad
8.) Superliminal
9.) Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince
10.) Gato Roboto
11.) Moons of Madness
12.) Deliver Us the Moon
13.) Lost Ember
14.) Arise A Simple Story
15.) The Takeover
16.) Minoria
17.) Fallback
18.) Dark Devotion
19.) Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
20.) Skybolt Jack
Honarable Mentions:
1.) Terminator Resistance
2.) Devil's Hunt
3.) Daymare 1998
4.) Showdown Bandit: Episode One
5.) Light Fairytale Episode One
6.) Cathedral
7.) Darksiders Genesis
8.) Oninaki
9.) The Caligula Effect: Overdose
10.) AI: The Somnium Files
11.) Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
12.) Apsulov: End of Gods
13.) Dry Drowning
14.) Sunless Skies
15.) Observation
While I tend to have some beef with much of the points you make in your usual videos, this is a damn good list.
What a fantastic list. Thanks.
Supraland is such a good pick! Glad to see it here, the free demo had me hooked, with the line and sinker.
You're a good pick, suprafriend!
"Dicey Dungeons has an excellently paced difficulty curve"
Witch episode 4 wants to know your location
I used to love Extra Credits "Games you might not have tried, " but their channel is unlistenable now so I'm very happy to find this video.
I'm holding out for when Descenders adds VR. They showed a short vid on twitter last year of it being worked on and i can't wait
Thanks Adam! Just what I needed.
The way the title is worded makes it seem like your saying after 2019 we won’t be able to play em.
Aww man, shoulda played while I had the chance.
That Ladlow 8 days left, let’s gooooooo!
Ape out is free on twitch prime (which is included in amazon prime for free), if you grab it by the end of December.
By the way, Adam, thank you very much for making a subtitles for every video. English isn't my mother language but thanks to your subs I can easily enjoy all the stuff you are doing. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart from Ukraine :3
11:05
mechanic: a skilled worker who repairs and maintains vehicle engines and other machinery.
In spirit of the end of the decade you should do a video about iconic games of this decade you should have played :) (Ideally singleplayer story driven games to shorten the list)
These tops are so amazing!
Love the focus on good games independent of sales numbers / popularity.
Supraland is such a great game. It even has a demo so you can get a sense of what it will be like.
4:24 or you could, like Scrapman, build a haunted monorail that crashes your game and makes some weird-ass noises.