2019 is an odd year for video gaming with too many great titles from huge names in the industry. Some of them have taken the spotlight on media outlets even far away from their initial launches, such as Red Dead Redemption 2 with its ultra-realistic cowboy experience, or Hideo Kojima's masterpiece Death Stranding.
Hence, some developers had to find a way to dodge the wave of influence from those titles to release their games, but some are not lucky like that. Their games were shadowed by the popularities of those giants, and can't find the prime that they deserve.
And since 2019 is coming closer to its ends, it is time for us to bring those games into the light. Below are the 5 best games in 2019 that you might have missed on its release. Hopefully, after this list, you can find the title that you'd love to spend your entire holiday on.
Not going to waste your time any longer, let's check out the first title:
1. Outer Wilds
Supported platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Outer Wilds has sparked on the gaming scene through Kickstarter, and also received a lot of criticism also for failing to fulfill its promise. The developer Mobius Games has followed the call of money from the financial support from Epic, and switch the game's storefront from Steam to Epic Games Store-only. However, we still can't deny that Outer Wilds is still one of the best games of this year, which allows you to create your narrative in your own way.
You can see the trailer below for the best illustration:
Even though Outer Wilds is still one of the most discussed games in 2019, it's still insufficient for such an amazing project. The reasons vary from gamers' confusion with other titles The Outer Worlds to its poor marketing strategy, so the thing bringing success to the Mobius' title is solely its gameplay.
It's the time-loop story where you'll embark on the journey to save the universe from the Sun's explosion again and again. With detailed graphics portraying multiple planets with a wide range of biomes, you will enjoy every minute finding clues to solve this mystery. A great game both to play and to feel - that's what makes Outer Wilds special.
2. Indivisible
Supported platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Also starting as a crowd-funding campaign, the road that Indivisible has gone through is quite different. Didn't catch players' eyes from the beginning, the game from Lab Zero only soared in popularity after its releases. It's the perfect blend of RPG and platformer with an intriguing story, but not many people laid their eyes on those features.
You can see its gameplay portrayed by beautiful hand-drawn graphics down here:
Indivisible tells the story of a young girl namely Ajna. She was living happily with her father on the outskirts of a remote area, but suddenly, her homeland was devastated by an army following the order of a warlord namely Ravannanar. Fortunately, a mysterious power rises inside her, saving Ajna from the disaster. Now, the brave girl will throw herself into the journey to learn more about her power and pay revenge for the village.
Its story is already intriguing enough and through the anime-like cutscene, it's even more lively. Adding the cherry on top, its gameplay was also highly praised by critics, with mixing perfectly the elements from RPG titles with real-time turn-based combats and platforming actions in the world inspired by South Asia mythology.
3. Void Bastard
Supported platforms: PC, Xbox One
First-person shooters mainly rotate on the guns or the gunplay, but that's not the case for Void Bastard. It's made to change the whole concept of the FPS genre by having you not only shot down everyone standing on your way, but also make a plan to help your teammates escape as well.
Together with comic-like visuals, Void Bastard is truly one of a kind in the genre that was outshined by many others. But it's not too late now to see how innovative the game is:
In this game, your objective is to lead the team of Void Bastards escaping from the network of spaceships Sargasso Nebula. You're not simply just point your gun and pull the trigger, since your ammo is limited, and you won't be able to find more supplies without having intense battles with the enemies.
Featuring a wide map with tons of tasks that you will have to make decisions with: whether to make a D-tour to power up the ship without getting noticed, or run straight onto the enemies. The strategical elements in this shooter are very different than the others in the genre, and together with the pool of playable characters and enemies in the cosmos, it's a huge loss if you haven't touched your hand on this game yet.
4. Samurai Shodown
Supported platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia
We've experienced a shooter, an action-platformer and a puzzle-adventure game, and Samurai Shodown will be our choice for the fighting game. Not much to mention about the greatness of this franchise, but with its early stagnant and poor marketing strategies for the franchise, not many young gamers know about the release of this 2019's reboot. Yet.
Bringing the titular characters and gorgeous actions back in the original games to full 3D models, Samurai Shodown is definitely a must-try for nostalgia reasons. Meet your favorite heroes in the trailer below:
The 2019's version of Samurai Shodown is considered as the reboot of the entire series, which takes the settings between the first game in 1993 and Samurai Shodown V for Neo-Geo. The game portrays Japan in 1787 (the Tenmei Era), where all of the bravest and mightiest warriors in Japan fight their way to prevent the sinister Shizuka Gozen to destroy Japan.
While the story is quite broad with a lot of details for each character, it is only made to embellish the beauty of the fights. Samurai Shodown welcomes the back of the fan-favorite characters like Haomaru, Charlotte, Ukyo Tachibana or Hanzo Hattori, but now portray them in 3D graphics and improve the smoothness of the combats. This means you can enjoy fighting in a more beautiful visuals and perform special abilities more easily but more satisfying.
If SNK advertised their game better, Samurai Shodown would not stand too far behind the major fighting games like Street Fighters or Mortal Kombat.
5. Disco Elysium
Supported platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Now I know that the winner of Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2019 - Disco Elysium should not be on this list, but I'm quite sure that it can be much more successful than that. At its first reveal, no one thought this game can be this widely acclaimed since its description of its story and gameplay is too vague to attract gamers.
But as time goes by, there are more and more sites praising Disco Elysium in their in-depth reviews. That's when people started to recognize the endless potential of this game, making its one of the best noir open-world games in might be a decade. Feel free to see its trailer down here for details:
Basically, Disco Elysium is an isometric detective game, where you take control of a detective investigating recent death cases. Unfortunately, our character somehow ended up in a drinking mess after a mental breakdown, woke up three days later without remembering who he is. Now, your objective is to both regain your memories and find the truth behind the killing scene.
This fictional city - Revachol is the developer ZA/UM's efforts to portray what's happening in real life: poverty, corruption and crime and revolution, and you can also become whatever you want - whether a bad detective or a good one. Its open-world allow you to travel everywhere you want, meets a wide range of people and use your wits in dialogues to get your clues.
The dialogue-choice mechanic in Disco Elysium is definitely the thing bringing its on top of the gaming scene. It does not follow the approach that role-playing games has over the last decades, but focuses on the things that make RPGs attracting: decisions. For example, upgrading your abilities in the Drama traits might allow you to open new topics with strangers easily, but might risk paranoia and mental issues. There are 3 more traits to follow, each has its pros and cons, which elevates the game's replayability to a whole new height.
And now, as you've known that Disco Elysium is the Game of the Year, it's no point hesitating about giving its a try!