Director's Cut 20(18) Games You Should Have Played (Patreon)

Hello! This video was a bit of a weird one, so instead of talking to you about cut content, let’s have a look at some more games I considered putting on the 20(18) games you should have played list but for whatever reason didn’t make the cut.

First up…

Celeste 

Celeste is probably this biggest omission from this years list, and the one I grappled with a lot. The game is a tricky, hardcore platformer that managed to challenge even veterans like myself. But that’s probably not why you’ve heard of the game, Celeste earned its fame with a very empathetic, warm take on what’s typically a very aggressive style of game.

Celeste’s story of staying true to yourself despite the odds and making sure to remain mindful forms a very interesting backdrop against what could have very easily have been yet another Meatboy wannabe. The presentation and music are brilliant as well, as is the addition of an assist mode that allows you to change the difficulty of the game at any time. 

Celeste ultimately didn’t make the cut not because it was too good, but because everyone has already played it! (also the contrarian in me thinks it’s a bit overrated but that’s an issue for another time)

Prey: Mooncrash

Well wasn’t this a surprise! Prey was a really interesting game with a crapload of issues ultimately stemming from an over-adherence to the immersive sim template - and so Mooncrash was a really awesome breath of fresh air for the game, turning it into a run-and-gun roguelike.

Where mooncrash really excels is in its metagame. Rather than everything resetting to zero when you die, Mooncrash has a semi-persistent world. If you pick up a useful gizmo with one character, it won’t be there when you come back as a new character. However, that might be okay! That’s because rather than starting off as a blank slate, all of Mooncrashes’ characters have unique powers and strategies, and even unique storylines. 

When you add a points system, gradually ramping difficulty and several ways to win into the mix, you’re left with a game that pushes Prey’s already great systems to the limits they were designed to shine at, without any rubbish story or overpowered gubbins to get in the way. Ultimately I have a lot of the same sort of things to say about Prey: Mooncrash as I do Dead Cells, so this got dumped as it isn’t quite on the same level quality-wise and is a DLC of a game I’d otherwise hesitate to recommend.

Artifact

Artifact was a preliminary contender for the 2018 list the day the release date was announced. It’s a Valve game, it’s a unique take on the CCG genre and it was even designed in part by the great Richard Garfield! What’s not to like?

Well, as it turns out, quite a lot. The game is hard to read, drags on way too long than it ought to and has a microtransaction model that is significantly less consumer friendly than the alternatives with no real good reason - even the highly touted real money card economy has crashed and burned. 

Ultimately, Artifact is still a very interesting game, but for all the wrong reasons, and it probably doesn’t deserve to go on a list of recommendations in its current state- particularly when it was competing for a spot with Eternal, a much better and more generous game.

Fallout 76

I held out the faintest hope this game wouldn’t be a total disaster and somehow it was more of a trainwreck than I feared. My condolences to those who brought into the hype. 

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Well there you have it, hopefully that’s a bit of an insight into why some games got in and others didn’t! Have a happy holiday season/Festag and I’ll see you in the new year.