Most Anticipated Upcoming Games for 2019
It’s award season here at Twinfinite! While 2018 has been a pretty great year for gaming, we’re looking ahead to the next year and picking out our most anticipated games for 2019. Voted on by our editors, these are the games that we absolutely cannot wait to play next year.
Let’s start with some honorable mentions, and then our top vote-getting runner-ups, and finally, of course, our overall winner!
Honorable Mention: Resident Evil 2 Remake
Reviews Editor Zhiqing Wan: Resident Evil is back. Alright, we already knew it was back when Capcom completely knocked it out of the park with the very stellar, and very appropriately horrifying Resident Evil 7, but Resident Evil is back again.
Ask any fan of the series what their favorite Resident Evil game is, and chances are that you’ll hear RE2 come up a lot —possibly even more so than the original. Resident Evil 2 took the success of its predecessor and built upon it, introducing several new characters that would grow to become major fan-favorites and video game icons, and also refined the zap system with two fantastic campaigns.
The tank controls don’t exactly hold up very well in this day and age, but many still look back on Resident Evil 2 with love and wistful nostalgia.
Capcom’s bringing Resident Evil 2 back, and they’re going all-out with it. Instead of recreating the original game and giving it a HD coat of paint with refined mechanics like Resident Evil Remake, they’ve completely rebuilt Raccoon City from the ground up. Resident Evil 2 Remake is set to be a third-person shooter game, taking place in the hallowed halls of the haunting Raccoon Police Department.
Most things will stay the same, but some will change. If you haven’t kept up with some of the revealed changes Capcom’s implementing in the remake, I won’t spoil those for you, but be warned that not everything will play out the way you expect them to.
Resident Evil 2 is still regarded as one of the best horror video games of all time and, if done right, Resident Evil 2 Remake will help usher a new generation into the world of survival horror.
Most Anticipated Upcoming Games for 2019
Honorable Mention: Anthem
Editor-in-Chief Ed McGlone: It hasn’t been the greatest last few years for EA. Sure, stalwarts like Madden and FIFA in the sports sector have done pretty well, but blunders like Battlefront 2, Mass Effect Andromeda, and the cancellation of Star Wars 1313 were all black eyes that aren’t easily forgotten by the gaming public.
In the case of Anthem though, we’re getting the BioWare A-team for the first time in a long time. It’s fair to say that confidence is a bit shaky, but still, I’m cautiously optimistic that Anthem will right the ship.
It’s probably because I’m a sucker for the modern “Destiny-like” quasi-MMO grind game. It’s also because it looks ultra pretty and I really want to see what BioWare can do with a “live” game like this.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall though. Hopefully Anthem comes through in 2019 so I have something other than FFXIV and Destiny to drop hundreds of hours in finally.
Most Anticipated Upcoming Games for 2019
Honorable Mention: Ghost of Tsushima
Features Editor Alex Gibson: Even if Sony’s E3 press conference didn’t get everything right this year, you can’t tell me that Ghost of Tsushima gameplay reveal didn’t get you excited. Everything about this game looks like some sort of artsy video game adaptation of an old-school samurai movie, with its striking aesthetic, cinematography, and moving soundtrack.
The big question is whether Ghost of Tshushima is actually going to play as good as it looks, and I’m pretty confident that it’s going to measure up. If there’s one thing that developer Sucker Punch has proven over the years, it’s that they’re specialists in pure gameplay experiences. Every entry in the popular InFamous series was acclaimed in that department, from brilliant traversal and movement to exciting combat.
If Sucker Punch can translate the same entertaining open-world gameplay experience from InFamous to Ghost of Tsushima, we could be in for something truly special. We’ve already had a glimpse of the action, of course, and it does seem as though it’s destined to be another vintage effort from the developer. The emphasis on weighty, realistic sword combat and stealth action looks like a recipe for success.
What’s more, there just aren’t enough quality games set in feudal Japan, and Ghost promises to deliver a particularly intriguing narrative. I love the premise of Tsushima, an isolated island besieged by invading Mongol forces, especially given that it’s an actual event from human history.
It’s this combination of appealing visuals, Sucker Punch’s trademark gameplay, and an enticing narrative that makes Ghost of Tsushima one to keep your eye on as we move into 2019.
Most Anticipated Upcoming Games for 2019
Second Runner-Up: The Last of Us Part II
Reviews Editor Zhiqing Wan: For a while, it wasn’t really clear whether Naughty Dog would choose to work on a sequel to The Last of Us, the studio’s latest original IP. The game’s ending proved to be so compelling and powerful, but also so very final that most fans probably would’ve been happy enough to leave Joel and Ellie as they were.
But, of course, money talks and Naughty Dog sure wasn’t going to let this golden opportunity slip away. Thankfully, though, from what we’ve seen of the game so far, The Last of Us Part II certainly doesn’t look like it’s going to disappoint. Just based on two or three trailers, fans are already bustling with excitement and coming up with theories about what this sequel is going to be about.
Is Joel dead? Is Ellie hunting the Fireflies to avenge Joel, or to learn more about Anna? Is Ellie’s new squeeze going to die? Oh, the humanity!
Jokes aside, though, The Last of Us Part II looks every bit as dark and gritty and unpleasant as the first game was. The Last of Us was a compelling experience not because it was necessarily a fun game to play —in fact, one could argue that it wasn’t actually very enjoyable to play at all— but because of the way the game makes you feel when you’re doing all these violent things, slaughtering humans and undead alike.
The Last of Us was considered groundbreaking because, despite how fucked up of a character Joel could be, he still managed to win our hearts with how beautifully and humanly flawed he was. And let’s not even get started on what a fantastic leading girl Ellie turned out to be as well.
With The Last of Us Part II, Ellie is going down a similar dark spiral. These violent delights have violent ends, and as much as we want to look away from it, we can’t, because Ellie’s our baby girl.
Most Anticipated Upcoming Games for 2019
First Runner-Up: Pokemon 2019 (Switch)
Staff Writer Irwyn Diaz: Pokemon Let’s Go was no doubt an excellent entry on the Nintendo Switch, showing off just how the series would look on the hybrid console. With our expectations set, we can’t wait for what Game Freak has in store next year for the series.
Generation 8 marks a new era for the franchise, in that it will finally transition towards a fully-fledged console. While details have been pretty scarce, we can all expect tons of new Pokemon to collect and another region to explore. Plus, for competitive trainers, Let’s Go definitely left a lot to be desired. So whatever is coming in 2019 is going to among the most hotly anticipated games for competitive battlers thirsty for a more hardcore entry.
With the series on the Nintendo Switch, this opens up the possibilities for new features. Not only will this mean better graphics, but possibly even more ways to play and connect with others online. Nintendo has always been one step ahead in innovation, so we can’t wait to see just what they have planned for Pokemon in 2019.
Most Anticipated Upcoming Games for 2019
Winner: Kingdom Hearts III
Senior Editor Hayes Madsen: Think of how much has happened since 2005. The entirety of the Assassin’s Creed series, all of the Mass Effect games, and nearly all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kingdom Hearts II originally released in 2005, and since then fans have been eagerly anticipating the next numbered release in the franchise.
Now that’s finally here with Kingdom Hearts III releasing at the end of January, a bold new entry in the JRPG series that looks to wrap up the emotional story fans have been invested in for years, while attracting newcomers at the same time.
This time around Kingdom Hearts III visits some entirely new worlds, from some of the biggest Disney properties around. Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Toy Story, and Monsters Inc. all make their debut. Meanwhile, Hercules, Hundred Acre Wood, and Pirates of the Caribbean all return.
The game’s Kingdom Shader for Unreal 4 provides stunning detail to each world, and at times you’d swear you’re actually watching the Disney movie itself.
Gameplay-wise Kingdom Hearts III also feels bigger and better than ever before. Sora has access to Keyblade transformations which function a bit like the forms in previous games, allowing you to transform the Keyblade into new weapons with different combos and attacks.
You’ll be fighting more enemies at once than ever before, and the game has upped the party size to five characters on account of it, letting you bring iconic characters like Buzz and Woody into the fray.
While Kingdom Hearts III certainly hasn’t been in development for 13 years, fans have been waiting a long time through multiple spin-offs and prequels. The emphasis on adding new popular Disney worlds should help ease newcomers into the experience and, no doubt, an emotional experience is in store for those that have followed the series since the beginning.
That does it for our personal most anticipated games for 2019! What are yours? Let us know in the comments below.
