The video game industry will always have its ups and downs and it was no different in 2018, from the never-ending controversy of micro-transactions and loot-boxes to unexpected (and unwanted) announcements to the continuous popularity of Fortnite and Sony skipping E3 2019 with rumors of having a new console announcement in the coming year and while having a new set of video games gets us excited here at the labs, we think that the it is just right to give some recognition to the games that entertained us in the past year by presenting the Back2Gaming Game Awards 2018.
All nominees are judged by BossMac, Johnny and AG and were released during December 2017 to November 2018 and without further ado, presenting our first category is:
Best Mobile Game
For years, people have been waiting for this game and when it finally got released, it did bring out the nostalgic feeling of playing an MMO with friends but this time, we get to do it on-the-go. Giving the game with much needed graphical improvements, quality of life features such as the “Multi-Job” function. While some features have mixed reception like the “Auto-Battle” system and some players labeling the “Gacha” system as a “Pay-to-Win” system however with the current system and trend the MMO genre is going, this is probably going to be the closest thing we can have to the nostalgia of playing in one of the internet cafes we used to hang-out in and no other game released this year has done that better than Ragnarok M: Eternal Love
Runner-up: Star Ocean: Anamnesis
Best Action/Adventure Game
Insomniac Games have finally gave us the Spider-Man games we both wanted and deserved by capturing the adrenaline-rush of swinging around a reasonably sized New York City, above average story-telling including the post-launch content and a very satisfying combat design with a decent skill tree, a good list of suits (and powers) to use makes Spider-Man our winner for this category.
Runner-Up: God of War / Red Dead Redemption 2
Best Multiplayer Game
Monster Hunter: World gave us the solid monster hunting game we have always wanted. Focusing on a slightly casual approach compared to their previous games in the series, it is still the best monster slaying game that was available in 2018 but who cares about difficulty when you and three other players try to defeat the next Rathian willing to cross your path.
Runner-up: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Best Role-Playing Game
Turn-based RPGs are not dead, as proven by Square-Enix’s latest RPG attempt that gives us a “HD-2D” look at 16-bit graphics, great audio and sprites that make you want to check out game-play videos of older SNES games. Allowing the player to select and collect all eight characters to use and switch jobs once you unlock them and a slightly modified turn based battle system with its “Boost” system make every turn to be used strategically in order to maximize every attack gives Octopath Traveler our choice to win under this category.
Runner-up: Dragon Quest XI / Ni No Kuni 2
Best Fighting Game
In 2018, very few fighting games captured our eyes as there doesn’t seem to be many games that were worthy of being put in this category, with previous games focusing on updates rather than new releases but that didn’t stop us from liking Dragon Ball FighterZ. With its modern take on an older team-battle formula mixed with the gimmicks of the characters from the source material, mixed in with some new story arcs and the release of the game to multiple system, every attack felt like watching the actual anime with over 9000 levels of awesomeness.
Runner-Up: Soul Calibur 6
Best Sports Game
In a category mostly swamped by annual releases, there was no other game that gave us more fun to play with other than WWE 2K19. Boasting a huge list of playable characters as well as improvements in almost every game mode and the return of the much-wanted “Showcase Mode” featuring Daniel Bryan and moving away from simulation based game-play to a provide a more fluid and faster pace when it comes to combat. Much is left to be desired by the company still deciding on using virtual currency but at this point, there is nothing we can do about it anymore.
Runner-Up: Mario Tennis Aces
Most Anticipated Game
After more than a decade of waiting, Square Enix is finally ready to finish the final chapter in the “Dark Seeker” saga by releasing Kingdom Hearts 3. Retaining most of its hack and slash combat with a few improvements from their previous “side-story” games and increasing the party size from three to five, Sora and company traverse the multiple worlds of the Disney franchises with characters of both Disney and Square Enix woven together in order to combat Xehanort and his new army and the best part is we don’t have to wait any longer as the game releases January 29, 2018 world-wide.
Runner-up: Anthem / Shin Megami Tensei V
Worst Gaming Trend
We do understand the appeal of “Battle Royale” games, but it can’t be denied at how saturated the genre is becoming to the point that some games outside the genre are adding this mode in order to capitalize on this trend (eg. Ashes of Creation). Lawsuits being thrown around by the developers as well as fans of each game providing more toxicity to their respective communities not to mention that Battle-Passes and lootboxes are present in these games as well give us more reason to cleanse ourselves from this genre despite it having its fun moments, we think that has to be the worst gaming trend that was present in 2018.
Editor’s Note: Just to clarify, its not the genre we dislike, its the trend. The trend of everything having a BR format is saddening and the lack of innovation for each variant is even more disappointing.
Game of the Year
Rockstar Studios had a plan, to put all their studios to function as one team to produce the best product they could have and they gave us Red Dead Redemption 2, the third installment of their “Red Dead” series. Being unique by being set Western period and an open world map that is pretty big to the point that a part of the previous game’s area is accessible as well, it provided us with a great story that gave us a background of what happened years before the start of Red Dead Redemption 1. Each aspect of the game was improved upon with customization options or both clothing and guns, gun-play was pretty solid complemented by a living world that can be explored in either a Third or First person camera with various activities and dynamic quests give us more reason to try and stick around the Old West since the game was released last October 26, 2018, not to mention the beautiful graphics and soundtrack make Red Dead Redemption 2 our Game of the year for 2018.
Runner-up: Spider-Man / God of War / Monster Hunter: World