My favourite games of the 2010s

After about 9 months of procrastination, I’ve finally been able to finish this list of my 10 favourite games of the past decade, and because this is the internet, I should probably preface this by pointing out that;

A) This is based off my own tastes, and therefore not the result of some objective, scientific ranking methodology.

And B) Notice how I said “favourite” and not “best”, because yeah, as at least one entry on this list will attest, sometimes you can really enjoy something in spite of its many, many flaws. This doesn’t make my opinions “wrong”, just my own.

Got it? Okay, let’s kick this off.

#10 Hidden in Plain Sight

Bit of a strange first entry for the list, but when thinking back on my favourite gaming memories of the decade, this is one kept popping up. It’s a local-multiplayer competitive stealth game which seems fine-tuned into extracting the kind of paranoid mind games and meta-strategies that really define the party game genre. Many a great night was spent with this, a friend or two, and plenty of beers. A great title on its own merits, but unforgettable with the right friends.

#9 The Witness

One of my earliest gaming memories is Myst, so as soon as I heard about this soon-to-be-indie-darling’s attempts to capture that same mood, I knew I had to give it a try. While I went in expecting a few tricky puzzles on an abandoned island, what I wasn’t counting on was an absolute masterclass in both puzzle and level design that utterly consumed my waking thoughts from beginning to end. There’s a few fiddly moments (looking at you desert temple) and some self-indulgent time-wasting nonsense that discourages a 100% play-through (which stopped me placing it higher on this list), but even taking those into consideration, this is a high point in puzzle games.

#8 Devil May Cry 5

Showing up over a decade after its famously rushed predecessor, Devil May Cry 5 had a lot to prove, and it knocked it out of the park. Not content with simply improving on the gameplay for the two previous protagonists, furnishing them with more weapons and moves than ever before, the game also provided us with a brand new playable character with a wholly unique fighting style. Considering the sheer amount of action they managed to pack into one game, the only criticism you could reasonably give is that it isn’t Devil May Cry 3.

#7 A Hat in Time

2017 was a roller-coaster for 3D platformer fans. First came the lead-up to Yooka-Laylee’s release, what promised to be a second golden age of mascots and collectibles. Then the game was released, and our hopes were dashed. Just as the year was coming to an end however, out came our saviour: A Hat in Time. It’s impressive enough that AHIT manages to evoke the feel of the late 90s/early 2000s so flawlessly, whilst at the same time being so confident as to do its own thing, mashing together several different gameplay mechanics and styles to suit each level. Add to this a stellar sense of humour and you easily have one of the best new IPs of this generation. The cherry on top is finding out it somehow accomplished this with a part-time dev team and a much smaller budget than Yooka, which really puts the Playtonic team to shame.

#6 Final Fantasy XV

Enough about the hastily cobbled together mess that was Yooka-Laylee, let’s move on to the hastily cobbled mess that was Final Fantasy XV, and how much I love it. FFXV could easily have been a complete disaster, what with its utter train-wreck of a plot that requires multiple pieces of DLC and a prequel movie to make a cohesive whole, the linear and railroaded ending sequence, and of course, the legendarily bad chapter 13 which cannot have been playtested prior to launch. But, for all its faults, I absolutely adored it. Compared to every other game I’ve ever played, this one really sold me on the feeling of adventuring with a party. Everything from setting up camp, getting woken up early to help prepare breakfast, taking bounties to help afford new equipment, all the way to the constant diversions like photo ops, diner pit-stops, and impromptu fishing opportunities helped ground the characters, and forged a sense of camaraderie I haven’t seen in a game before. Now if they can take this, and build an actually good game for it, FFXVI might be something really special.

#5 Resogun

One day, a game dev sat down to play Geometry Wars and said to themselves, “This is great, but what if it was Defender?” While the rest of us would have stuck to day-dreaming about what could have been, they were able to take this idea back to their team, and have it spun into the glory that is Resogun. Even stripping away the spectacle of neon voxel firework-shows so detailed and numerous that it almost causes your PS4 to melt, the game would be a worthy contender for this list off the back of its gameplay alone. Every level is a frantic battle to not just survive the onslaughts of crafty enemies, but to also to free the captured humans and carry them to safety, all the while grabbing the all important power-ups and keeping your score multiplier ticking upwards. If the base game wasn’t enough, free updates also brought a ship editor mode, so your can design your own craft and download other people’s renditions of licenced properties, as well as a challenge mode for those with a glutton for punishment. With paid DLC packs also bringing even more game modes (including one where you appear to play a stick-figure governator defending his home from meteorites) Resogun has enough content to keep you busy for a long, long time.

#4 Grand Theft Auto V

I know in recent years it’s become cool to hate on the latest entry in the GTA series (and with how the online mode has turned into a ridiculous pay-to-win shit-fest, many of these comments are not unwarranted) but can we not put all that aside for a moment and just appreciate how good this game was at launch? The shear scope of the game is almost beyond comprehension, and the interaction between every character, playable or not, is simply incredible. Just knowing that, at any time, there are two further protagonists wandering around, getting into their own misadventures, and being able to jump into them at any time just makes the game feel so alive in a way I’ve not seen in a game this huge, and the amount of stuff in the world, combined with the level of detail will never stop being amazing. On a performance level, this is also probably the most glitch-free, stable GTA game as well, which given the number of elements in play should be near-impossible, and yet somehow Rockstar pulled it off. Given the departures since, I feel confident in calling this the last “true” GTA, and in that case; what a swansong. Shame about the lack of single-player DLC though.

#3 Rayman Origins

From the opening few levels, it was clear that this was something special, and by the end, it had secured its place as one of my favourite platformers ever. The hand-drawn graphics are gorgeous, and the music is infectious, and the tough-but-fair gameplay lends itself well to both single-player and multi-player goodness. It takes everything great from the original Rayman, New Super Mario Brothers, and Super Meat Boy, as well as throwing in at least a full game’s worth of it’s own ideas, and spins it into pure, timeless gaming perfection. As for everyone saying that the sequel Rayman Legends was better, more than half its levels were recycled from Origins, so Origins wins by default.

#2 Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

My first few playthroughs, I hated BOI. Between the lack of any real instruction, the obtuse item description, and some truly unforgiving rooms, I was starting to get fed up with it. Honestly, if it wasn’t for just how well received it had been, as well as my love for Super Meat Boy, I probably would have just given up on it, and boy am I glad I didn’t. Once everything started to click into place, and the game really started opening up, I found myself dedicating the next few months to mastering everything the game had on offer, which in the base game alone is easily a hundred hours of content to an experienced player, and many more to a new player. The expansions (Afterbirth, †, and the upcoming Repentance) add hundreds more hours to the game, but honestly I think I prefer the vanilla release all the same. A high-mark for both procedurally-generated content and pixel art, and an instant classic.

#1 Minecraft

It seems like an obvious choice, but after putting hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into the game over the past ten years, what else could claim the top spot? Minecraft is a freaking cultural phenomenon, and a damn fine game to boot.

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