While the 2000s was whenPClost its dominance over having the latest and greatest games, the 2010s was arguably worse due to how many titles skipped PC at launch, like Grand Theft Auto 5 and both Red Dead Redemption games. Still, you had plenty of great triple-A titles to chew on, with many being groundbreaking in their own right.
The 2010s was also when indie games stepped up big time on PC. Many Game of the Year contenders this decade were PC indie games, showing how the 2010s were the breakout decade for indie developers.
In order for games to be considered, they must have been released on PC during its launch year. Games like Grand Theft Auto 5 won’t count for 2013 or 2015 when the PC version was released.
The two best games of 2010 were Red Dead Redemption and Super Mario Galaxy 2, but the best game on PC was Mass Effect 2. Coming out in January, a strange time back then to release a high-profile game, Mass Effect 2 wasa near-perfect sequel.
The new characters were just as great as the crew from ME1, if not better; the story was significantly improved, with each character having their own issues that must be solved; and third-person shooting gameplay improved as well. Some bemoaned the use of traditional ammo instead of recharging guns, but it is a better gameplay system to keep you in the action. The only real downside was the removal of planet exploration, but everything else BioWare nailed.
Out of all the years in the 2010s, 2011 had the stiffest competition. You had Portal 2, Batman: Arkham City, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and a little-known game at the time called Minecraft. Deus Ex comes close, but Skyrim takes the edge as it became the new gaming zeitgeist of the era. Everything from its open-world design, RPG mechanics, storylines with multiple factions, and mod support made it the next big thing in gaming.
No other open-world game at that time had such a gripping, mesmerizing fantasy world you couldn’t help but be sucked into. To highlight the impact and influence of this game, Far Cry 3, which was released a year later, journalists called “Skyrim with guns.” When a game is frequently referenced in comparison to others, like Dark Souls or Halo, you know you hit it big.
Most 2012 Game of the Year picks went toThe Walking Dead, and for good reason. Itsstory was absolutely incredible, filled with so much emotion that it outclassed everything that was released at the time. Plus, it had a great ending, which another GOTY contender, Mass Effect 3, dropped the ball with.
It was also nice to see an adventure game of such high quality because the genre was dead in the mainstream for over a decade. The Walking Dead brought adventure games back into the spotlight, and that matters a lot, too.
Once again, the two best games of the year aren’t released on PC with The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto 5, meaningBioShock Infinitegets the nod here. The third entry in the legendary BioShock series, Infinite, takes place in the sky of Columbia. The first game’s story is the most iconic of its generation, but Infinite matches up to it and arguably exceeds it.
It’s not as iconic and era-defining, but the characters are better here, with Elizabeth being one of thebest female characters in video games. The combat’s still really good with plasmids returning, or vigors as they’re called in Infinite, and the game itself is a must-play title of this era.
When you look at the importance and significance to the industry, the best PC game of 2014 has to be Hearthstone. Video games focused on cards or TCGs have been around for a long time, with games like Culdcept or Phantom Dust, but Hearthstone was the first to explode the actual card game side of it to the levels of the top-tier TCGs like Magic, Pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh.
The way it played, the balance, and the introduction of new cards felt like how a serious real-life TCG would handle things, and that was fairly new to online DCCGs at the time. Without Hearthstone and its influence, online DCCGs may not have become as big as they did, and games like Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel may have never been released.
2015 is another close year because Undertale was such anincredible, powerful, and inspirational indie gamethat meant a lot to people. Ultimately, it’s a close second because you just can’t beat The Witcher 3. It’s a kind of sequel where a majority of the playerbase hasn’t even played the first two Witcher games because the quality is so much higher.
The graphics and animation quality for an open-world triple-A RPG outclassed the rest of the industry, which often looked sub-par compared to more traditional linear games like The Last of Us. The Witcher 3 showed you could do both, with great animation and visuals, as well as a great story, open-world design, RPG mechanics, quests, and so on.
While Hearthstone exploded online DCCGs into the mainstream, the same can be said for Overwatch regarding hero shooters. Sure, the first popular hero shooter was Team Fortress 2, but that was never on the level of Call of Duty or Halo. Overwatch, on the other hand, became the next big thing that so many developers and publishers wanted to replicate.
It had a great character roster, with each hero being memorable in their own right, and, most importantly,incredible team-focused FPS gameplaythat felt like nothing you’d played before at the time. All these years later, essentially, Overwatch clones are still being released, with some doing well, like Marvel Rivals, while others have crashed and burned, like Concord.
At release,Resident Evil 7: Biohazardwas a phenomenal horror game, but, in truth, it’s a title you gain more appreciation over time for just how well it revived the series and still holds up compared to newer entries. It took the series back to its roots with an actual residential setting, a more stripped-down plot, and, most importantly, true survival horror gameplay.
The puzzles here, routing and managing your resources, felt like classic Resident Evil, more so than any other recent RE entries. To boot, RE7 has to be the scariest recent RE title, with its first-person view and terrifying enemies. There’s a bunch of quality DLC content for RE7 as well, making the complete package the most content-rich out of the newer RE games.
Celeste may look like just another 2D-pixel platformer on the surface, but it’s much more than that. First off, the gameplay’s incredible, with the trademark dash mechanic that’s extremely difficult to master. However, since you instantly respawn when you die, it doesn’t get too frustrating. Plus, it feels great when you finally clear a room that’s been giving you a really tough time.
Soundtracks are usually great in indie games, but Celeste goes above and beyond with its score, which gives off a Disney magic vibe. The story isn’t the main focus, but it can be powerful for some people, especially those in the LGBTQ+ sphere. Indie games in the early 2010s were often platformers, but Celeste has to be the best one created in the decade.
Coming off of Quantum Break, Control proved to be familiar but yet alien at the same time. With a world similar to the SCP Foundation, Control was the oddest Remedy game yet, and that’s saying something. Some of the locations and bosses in this game are out of this world. However, the gameplay is very much of an expansion of what you saw in Quantum Break.
You have similar superpowers, using the debris and environment to your advantage, creating a nicely fast-paced third-person shooter. Plus, the level design is more akin to a metroidvania, which makes the game feel fresh. There’s tons of secrets and Easter eggs to find. The core game remains phenomenal from top to bottom, with the only big negative being the lacking DLC content.
