A decade is a long time. Twinfinite wasn’t even a twinkle in our founder Yami’s eyes back in 2010. Most of our editors wouldn’t be allowed to drink in 2010, and some couldn’t even have a driver’s license yet!
But while most of us except for ol’ man Giuseppe (sorry G) were even old enough to seriously start writing about games at the start of this decade, all of us were gamers and as a collective the Twinfinite editor team has played a lot of video games.
So today, as the decade comes to a close in a matter of days, and as we sort out our formal Game of the Decade selection which will be out sometime next week, the editorial team wanted to put a piece together that allows them to just rant about their personal favorite games over the last ten years.
Whether it’s games that released this year, last year, or nine years ago, our editors had plenty to say. So without further adieu…
Senior Editor Alex Gibson
Favorite Games of the Decade: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Inside, Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Dragon Age Inquisition, Company of Heroes 2, Grand Theft Auto V, Deus Ex: Human Revolution
It turns out that narrowing down my best games of the decade to a handful isn’t that much easier than the dreaded process of attempting to pick just one. There are just so many memorable experiences I could wax lyrical about, and so many games that deserve their share of the spotlight for the ways they’ve impacted the medium in some positive way over the past 10 years.
I’ll start with a game whose spot was never in doubt: I’d actually been traveling for a year without any access to video games before I finally had a chance to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. What a game to return to! Although, I don’t think I actually appreciated just how good it was at the time.
I remember being totally absorbed by its authentic fantasy world, captivated especially by its superb graphics and music, and just in awe of the sheer volume of rich storytelling. Yet, it wasn’t until subsequent playthroughs and the years that passed I realized just how high it set the bar. Very little has come close to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt since 2015.
Perhaps the only game that has is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was my first Zelda game (shocking, I know), and I’ve since discovered it’s about the only one I like. Open-world Hyrule is easily the best sandbox experience I’ve ever had, and I think it demonstrates a “less is more” design philosophy that many developers could learn from.
There’s just nothing else that rewards exploration like Breath of the Wild — that beckons you to see what’s around the corner and then totally surprises you with the answer. A sequel has me beyond excited.
And then there are those games that completely blindside you — the ones you randomly boot up and have you gripped from start to finish, no pre-launch hype necessary. Inside was one such experience: the harrowing tale of one boy desperately trying to escape the clutches of a tyrannical power.
The foreboding ambiance of that grim dystopia had me completely dialed in, and I charged forward to unlock its mystery in a single sitting. By the time the credits rolled, I felt as though I’d had an out of body experience. Inside’s genius, however, is more than just its setting and premise; I consider it to have unrivaled puzzle-platform gameplay and it’s the benchmark that I judge every other game in the genre.
Thinking about the palpable tension I felt playing Inside brings back memories of another deeply atmospheric gaming experience from the 2010s: Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Its bleak cyberpunk aesthetic, that infectious music and the thrill of sneaking around mega-corp buildings hacking computer terminals and knocking out unsuspecting guards invoked a unique feeling I’ve experienced few other times.
It still irks me that other games haven’t copied that awesome third-person/first-person hybrid design. Human Revolution was such a superb reboot and I’m sad to have seen its sequel fail to spark the sort interest that franchise deserves.
I’ll finish this spiel with a game that simply must be included on every list of notable 2010 game. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is playable on pretty much every platform ever for a reason: it’s still beloved by millions nearly a decade after its initial release, and it’s become a cultural phenomenon in that time that has transcended the video gaming medium.
Skyrim’s influence on open-world design is still felt today and while a laundry list of bugs, stiff animations, and fetch quests have become the butt of many a gaming insider joke, there’s still plenty it does better than many modern open-world games.
Perhaps not Bethesda’s best game, and perhaps not even the best Elder Scrolls game for some, but for its impact on the medium Skyrim has to be celebrated as one of the games of the decade. It’s also just a bloody good game that I adore with all my being.
Guides Editor Chris Jecks
Favorite Games of the Decade: The Witcher 3, Fallout: New Vegas, TLOZ: Breath of the Wild, The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, Life Is Strange, Fortnite, TES V: Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption 2, Pokemon GO
I’m not going to spend my time talking about the top few games on my list, but a handful of those that stand out for particular reasons to me.
So let’s kick it off with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt .Prior to CDPR’s 2015 masterpiece, Bethesda’s Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series largely dominated the western open-world RPG scene. Sure the gameplay was compelling, the worlds interesting, and the content seemingly never ending, but the same issues always reared their heads. Namely in wonky combat and a plethora of bugs.
The Witcher 3 achieves the same jaw-dropping scale, but with even more visual fidelity, a complete, satisfying combat system, and aside from a few funky moments with Roach, a near-perfect gameplay experience.
CDPR poured such an immense amount of detail into every tiny facet of The Witcher 3 that, for me, it stands untouched as the greatest game I’ve ever had the chance of playing. After pouring hundreds of hours into a single save, including the two exceptional expansions, I still want to go back and do it all again.
Moving on, let’s talk about one of my most-played games of the past couple of years – Fortnite. Despite the core gameplay actually being very simple, it was for this very reason that Fortnite has to be recognized as one of this decade’s most important games.
Fortnite became a cultural phenomenon unlike anything else… except Pokemon GO (which is on my list for more or less the same reason). The tense gameplay loop of trying to be the last of 100 people standing on an island is compelling, and the way you go about trying to get that Victory Royale is completely down to you.
Fortnite would be nothing, however, without the incredibly committed and hard-working development team behind it. Each and every week, players get one or a combination of: new Missions to grind out XP and level up their Battle Pass, balance patches, new cosmetics, and once a season there’s a live event unlike anything seen in a video game before.
Just as mine (and I imagine others) interest began to wane in the BR title, it comes back with Fortnite Chapter 2, adding in a ton of new gameplay features, switching the map up entirely, and making the grind that little less painful. Fortnite is among the best examples of a live game right now, and I imagine it’ll remain relevant into the next console generation and decade.
It’d be very remiss of the massive Zelda dork inside of me not to talk about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at least a little bit. Talking to Twinfinite’s Reviews Editor ZhiQing Wan earlier today, I noted that while I’ve poured so many hours into Breath of the Wild, many of those were spent wandering off the beaten path and just seeing what laid in wait in the world.
Hours later I’d come off the game and have achieved nothing in terms of main story progression. To have a world that immersive, exciting, and overflowing with puzzles and challenges to take on is seriously impressive, and sets a benchmark for open-world games moving forward.
News Editor Giuseppe Nelva
Favorite Games of the Decade: Muv-Luv Alternative, Final Fantasy XIV, Valkyria Chronicles 3, Persona 5, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Schwarzesmarken
While the Muv-Luv series launched in Japan all the way back in 2003, its English release reached us only in 2016.It’s without a doubt the best visual novel series of all time, at least in my book, and its culmination with Muv-Luv Alternative is arguably the best video game story ever written.
The previous games make you care about its cast in a nearly visceral way. First, Muv-Luv eases you in with a sense of warmth and security enabled by the familiar romantic story, then Unlimited shocks you by putting everything you know and love at risk in a ruthless and brutal but absolutely fascinating sci-fi world where humanity is on the brink of the most merciless extinction.
Lastly, Alternative is a monumental climax that slams you with your back against a wall and punches you in the heart with absolutely no mercy, featuring an unstoppable crescendo of exhilaration and nearly physical pain and despair. No other game ever made me cry as much as Muv-Luv Alternative did.
Yet, it’s also one of the most uplifting sci-fi games I ever played, and absolutely nothing can replace it in my gamer’s heart.
Final Fantasy XIV literally represents ten years of my adult life. I’m not just talking about A Realm Reborn in 2013, but actually the original Final Fantasy XIV from 2010 as well.
Yes. I know. 1.0 launched in a terrible state of disrepair, but under the leadership of Naoki Yoshida, it improved relatively quickly especially in its storytelling
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and the expansions that followed culminating with the absolute masterpiece that is Shadowbringers wouldn’t be the same and wouldn’t be nearly as meaningful if it wasn’t for the fall of Dalamud and the events that led to it.
If you started with A Realm Reborn or afterward, your mileage may vary. Yet, for me, who “lived” in Eorzea since the first day of 1.0, the two entities aren’t so clearly divided.
Final Fantasy XIV is Final Fantasy XIV, and it’s one of my games of the decade, arguably the best MMORPG of all time, and the best Final Fantasy story ever written.
Features Editor Greysun Morales
Favorite Games of the Decade: TLOZ: Breath of the Wild, The Last of Us, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Journey, Life is Strange, Super Mario Odyssey, Uncharted 3, Monster Hunter: World, Tomb Raider, The Walking Dead Season 1
The past decade has been full of impressive and high-quality, genre-defining video games that made me cry, made me appreciate the medium a lot more, and all in all, helped shape me as a person.
As a big Nintendo fan, it’s hard to not talk about my favorite games of the decade and not immediately start to vomit words about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
This action-adventure title reinvented and reshaped everything fans knew about the series while still keeping the staples that franchise is known for. Yes, there are dungeons and you have to use items to solve puzzles but everything else you do in that game is a fresh take and it’s incredible how well it was all pulled off.
Letting the player explore this new version of Hyrule without much guidance or hand-holding was a brilliant decision and the space is just gorgeous to travel through and it just really brings out that childlike sense of wonder in all of us.
The Last of Us reminded people that video games can have that emotional impact while also having sound combat mechanics. The game isn’t “fun” to play due to the mature and heartbreaking story moments with Ellie and Joel. But each enemy encounter, whether it be humans or the creepy clickers, had so much weight to it.
It didn’t feel good to kill a scavenger, it didn’t feel good to kill a Clicker and it definitely didn’t feel good to watch the intro or the ending of The Last of Us but that’s what makes the entire experience so compelling and memorable.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the gritty take on the zombie genre, another game this decade made me feel like a kid again in all of the best ways and that was Super Mario Galaxy 2.
This was the peak of Nintendo’s library that was available on the Nintendo Wii and for me is by far the best 3D platformer of the decade.
Senior Editor Hayes Madsen
Favorite Games of the Decade: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Persona 4 Golden, Mass Effect 2, Fire Emblem Awakening, Dragon Quest XI
The Witcher 3 is one of those monumental games that you only get once in a blue moon; one that completely redefines a genre and influences others for years to come.
Wild Hunt, somehow, found a way to make side quests and menial tasks important, and looped so many choices and factors into the main story that it’s almost staggering. There are few games out there with the same level of ambition, and even fewer that manage to deliver on it.
Persona 5 got a lot of attention in recent years, but Persona 5 wouldn’t exist without what Persona 4 Golden did to pave the way. Golden basically remade the core Persona 4 experience, adding in loads of new content and quality-of-life changes.
Persona 4’s cast is one of the most endearing of any JRPG out there, and Golden only helped a near-perfect game edge even closer.
Fire Emblem Awakening saved the franchise, and if it hadn’t happened we wouldn’t have gotten Fates, Echoes, or this year’s smash-hit Three Houses. One of the most engrossing strategy titles I’ve ever played, Awakening had literally everything that made the series great.
The development team went all-out throwing in romance and child characters, hugely expanded support conversations, a world map, and so much more. They used all the myriad ideas the series had experimented with and made the most ambitious Fire Emblem yet, and boy did that gamble pays off.
Mass Effect 2 is one of those sequels that completely improves everything from the first game.
Phenomenally written characters are at the heart of everything, and I remember spending countless hours aboard the Normandy just talking to my party members, learning everything I could about each one and it still sticks in my mind as one of the very finest RPGs in history.
JRPGs are what got me into video games, and to this day they remain my favorite genre. It should come as no surprise then that the quintessential JRPG, Dragon Quest XI, makes my list here.
A diverse cast of party members who each get their own story, turn-based combat that gets more complex as you progress, towns rife with exploration; Dragon Quest XI has everything that makes JRPGs so special.
Deputy Guides Editor Tom Hopkins
Favorite Games of the Decade : The Last of Us, Gone Home, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3, Journey, The Walking Dead Season 1, Driveclub, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, God of War
In a decade that’s been dominated by huge open-world masterpieces, with the likes of Breath of the Wild and The Witcher 3 filling out a lot of the best of lists, it’s actually the contained and character driven stories that have resonated with me the most.
Bioshock Infinite often gets tossed aside for being inferior to the series’ surprising and pretty much perfect debut, but it doesn’t deserve to be. Yes, the action gets bogged down at little in the middle, but Infinite matches the original in terms of storytelling and is a showcase for the importance of an opening.
Before you’ve even had the chance to get acquainted with your own character, Booker DeWitt, you’re launched into the beautiful Columbia. Within the first hour, Infinite amazes with its beauty, shocks with how it explores some of its themes, and throws you straight into the action.
Right up until you meet Elizabeth, who’s one of the best characters from the decade, Infinite is a masterpiece in world-building and a perfect example of how to introduce characters and a central relationship that you’ll care about intensely by the end.
Far Cry 3 is a pretty different beast. The first-person action is a little more grounded and you’re exploring the tropical world at your own pace. Once again though, it’s the game’s personality that stands out. It’s vibrant, violent, and a lot of fun.
One mission, about half way through the game, which sees you burn weed crops with a flamethrower with Skrillex’s Make It Bun Dem, will live long in the memory. As will Vaas, Far Cry 3’s villain and one of the best antagonists of the decade. His intense creepiness elevates the game’s story and he has made Far Cry the series it is today.
Gone Home, my second favorite game of the decade, is a more contained and personal game. Initially presenting itself as a horror game, Gone Home is a beautiful and touching story that I don’t want to ruin for anyone looking to play it.
Exploring the Greenbriar home, learning about the two sisters who live there, is emotional and fascinating. It’s a simple game with a surprising story that is pushed above the sum of its parts by excellent writing and an incredible performance from Sarah Grayson, who plays Sam.
The two other games that make up my top five are from Naughty Dog. Uncharted’s three PS3 releases are incredible in their own right, but Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is the perfect end to Nathan Drake’s story. There have been better gameplay experience this decade, but the conclusion to this tale is special.
It is the debut of Naughty Dog’s other franchise that is my Game of the Decade though. Not only is The Last of Us one of the best games on PS3, but it’s one of the best on PS4 too.
Joel and Ellie were quickly cemented as PlayStation icons thanks to the game’s phenomenal story that has you questioning your morals and truly caring for your intrepid adventurers.
The opening moments are heartbreaking, as is the conclusion, albeit in different ways. Naughty Dog have created a world and story that’s grabbed fans almost instantly and hopefully it’ll continue as the sequel releases just as the next decade begins. Living up to the quality of the first adventure will be a difficult one though.
Editor-at-Large Tony Cole-Cocking
Favorite Games of the Decade: Fire Emblem Awakening, Pokemon Black & White 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Armello
For most of my life, my favorite video games were pretty standard choices. Industry frontrunners like Super Mario 64, Final Fantasy VII or Donkey Kong Country 2 claimed the top spots untouched until 2013 rolled around, and I got my hands on the title that I’ve anointed as my game of the decade.
It’s hard to quantify just how and why Fire Emblem Awakening captivated me more than anything ever had before. It took everything that the largely overlooked franchise had done well, chucked it in a great big vat and shook it up. With such a bold gambit, they were either going to fail spectacularly or hit the jackpot.
The story is rich, the gameplay is engaging, and the mechanics so sharp, most of them have become standard in the series moving forward.
I spent hours defending the Halidom of Ylisse from mad kings and tyrannical warlords, and even after the final credits rolled, I got right back to work. There were support conversations to unlock, StreetPass units to buff up, DLC to spend my hard earned money on!
More than any other game I had played, I felt compelled to wring Fire Emblem Awakening out for every last drop of content it offered. For a game where strategy are narrative are such key elements, repeated playthroughs could grow stale, but I approached it from a different angle every time, keeping things fresh and interesting.
If ever there was a game that felt like it was ‘for me’, this is it. My gaming treasure. My shining pinnacle. My digital equivalent to the Toronto Raptors winning the NBA championship (hell yeah, somehow managed to shoehorn that in there).
Everything else this decade was just playing for second, really, though there were some damned fine candidates.
Pokemon’s fifth generation doesn’t get as much love as it should; probably a byproduct of releasing on the original DS instead of transitioning to the new technology, but its introduction of hidden abilities transformed the metagame into something completely new and exciting. Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 stand as my personal picks for the series’ high mark.
Our boy Mario got up to some fantastic adventures in the 2010s, and indeed, it’s kind of hard to believe that Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario Odyssey came out in the same decade.
The latter gets special mention for tugging at my heartstrings with everything it had in it. It’s the very definition of whimsical, holding its own against anything other entry in the storied franchise.
My last mention goes to the Australian indie title, Armello. I’ve bought it four times on different platforms just to get as many opportunities to play it as I can. This machiavellian board game seems daunting at first, but once you’ve gotten a few matches under your belt, you’ll be amazed just how much sense it all makes.
Reviews Editor Zhiqing Wan
Favorite Games of the Decade: Final Fantasy XIV, NieR: Automata, The Last of Us, Life is Strange, Dark Souls
Video games have always shown a lot of potential when it comes to being a storytelling medium, but it was only in the past decade that we began to see the industry begin to actually break some new ground.
From single-player and choice-driven games like Mass Effect 2 and Life Is Strange, to meta fourth wall-breaking titles that tried to push a broader message like NieR: Automata and Undertale, the past decade has been an embarrassment of riches for all the players who have been searching for strong story-focused games with characters we could latch on to.
Most importantly, we saw that video games weren’t necessarily limited to traditional storytelling conventions either, thanks to the fluidity of the medium.
We’ve seen games embrace the beauty of environmental storytelling through cryptic lore descriptions and smart level design in Dark Souls, arguably the most influential series that kickstarted a whole new sub-genre of action games back in 2011.
Known primarily for its punishing difficulty and challenge, it’s easy to forget that the original Dark Souls was also home to a tragic post-apocalyptic story about an endless cycle of death and rebirth, fallen heroes, and redemption through sacrifice. The story is only ever there for those who actively seek it out, and the game rewards you tremendously for doing so.
Since Dark Souls’ initial release in 2011, no other game or series has even come close to the level of impact and influence it’s had on the industry. It’s hard to go a day without hearing about at least one Dark Souls comparison when a game launches, regardless of genre or actual similarities.
It’s a testament to how well-made of a video game Dark Souls is, that almost every other developer is attempting to replicate its best elements in some way –whether it’s the stamina-based combat, deliberate recursive level design, or cryptic storytelling methods.
Dark Souls was very much the main driving force for the direction that action games would take in the past decade, and it’s looking like that trend is set to continue into the next decade as well.
Editor-in-Chief Ed McGlone
Favorite Games of the Decade: Mass Effect 2, Destiny, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 4: Golden, Uncharted 4, Titanfall 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Bioshock Infinite, StarCraft 2, Undertale, Sonic Mania, Octopath Traveler
I’m a sucker for a few things: choice-driven games, games where I can loot and create characters, and/or just plain ol’ high quality stories. Most of the games I have listed there above check some, or all of those boxes.
The game that hits them all is Mass Effect 2. The amount of agency I had in the game’s plot that had me working with a former enemy to build a “suicide squad” of bad-ass space soldiers was incredible.
It culminated of course into the epic Suicide Mission which, at the time of this post, is still the best payoff I’ve experienced in a choice-driven title in a sense of seeing where all the decisions you made throughout the story leaves you.
While Persona 4: Golden isn’t as choice-driven as Mass Effect 2, it has perhaps the most lovable ensemble of characters of experienced this generation.
Seeing them grow together as friends, to solve a very perplexing mystery that I was luckily able to stay spoiler free from was so rewarding.
Destiny (1 and 2) and Final Fantasy XIV both scratched different itches for me. I love a good grind, and for me, these were the best this decade had to offer. They have similar gameplay loops but excel in different genres of course.
I’ve yet to find a game that has co-op/raid content as immersive as Destiny and despite highs and lows over the years, the lore and FPS gunplay has always remained on-point.
Final Fantasy XIV on the other hand shattered any expectations for what MMORPGs were capable of in the realm of storytelling.
Sure grinding, raiding, partying, etc. as classic Final Fantasy jobs is always fun (since A Realm Reborn at least), but the way the overarching story has evolved and progressed over the years, culminating into the incredible Shadowbringers expansion is unmatched.
Finally I’ll end with Red Dead Redemption 2 which married classic Rockstar gameplay with a story that rivals the best westerns in any form of entertainment.
Red Dead Redemption 2 has flaws for sure, but the fact that a video game might be my favorite western now is something I didn’t think would ever be possible going into this decade.
Published: Dec 23, 2019 03:34 pm