The 10 best videogames of 2019

As we close out the 2010s, videogames are still leveling up, offering some of the most intriguing storytelling, addicting gameplay, and highest-selling entertainment platforms across all media. This year, developers grappled with questions of humanity, war, self, technology, and one highly destructive goose. Check out EW's picks for the best videogames of 2019.

Sekiro is an astonishingly designed experience that demands a great deal from players but manages to deliver even more to those who are willing to meet it on its terms. The game’s gorgeous Sengoku-era architecture and gentle color palettes belie the fact that nearly everything in the Ashina region wants to, and probably can, kill the player’s shinobi. Compared to previous FromSoftware action titles like Dark Souls, the story of Sekiro is less cryptic, but it still contains plenty of detailed layers of world-building for keen-eyed observers. Likewise, while character build variety is comparatively limited, mastering available techniques to the point that enemies who once felt impossibly difficult become more like routine roadblocks is as gratifying an experience as any game has managed to encapsulate. For its brutal difficulty, beautiful aesthetics and technically brilliant controls, Sekiro is a game that should and will be played for years to come. —Evan Lewis

One goose. Zero f--s. Infinite honks. Untitled Goose Game, the new title from indie developer Panic, Inc., began when someone in the team's Slack group posted a photo of a goose and wrote, "Let's make a game about this." That same energy was poured into this title about a goose that terrorizes the crap out of everyone. It's the same energy that turned this into a 2019 pop culture obsession. Additional thoughts: Honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk-honk, honk-honk-honk, honk, honk, honk, honk. —Nick Romano

The mind can be so easily influenced, whether it's something as intentional as hypnotism or subtle as warped imagery. Control plays with both ends of that spectrum and everything in between. In one of the most unexpected achievements of the year, the developers at Remedy Entertainment took a simple template (a third-person shooter where your main character can wield telekinetic abilities to fight psychic evils) and flipped it on its head, quite literally. When you think of Oscar films, each actor typically has one solid scene that acts as a call for a nomination. Control has something similar: a totally trippy and completely crazy run through a warped maze, powered by rock music and popping visuals. The rest of the game is equally wild in a great way. —NR

Fire Emblem isn't just "those other guys in Super Smash Bros." anymore. Over the years, the strategy role-playing series has grown exponentially in popularity, and this year's Three Houses installment is another leap forward. Aside from the intense drama, sweeping battlefields, and high-fantasy concepts, the game is about war. You begin as an instructor at the Garreg Mach Monastery Officer’s Academy and eventually, through training whichever house you pick, you lead your charges into battle. The journey asks a lot of questions through the choices you make, and each one comes with difficult outcomes and emotional storytelling. In non gamer-speak, it's better than the final season of Game of Thrones. There's even a Daenerys figure. —NR

Like any Hideo Kojima project, Death Stranding needs to be played to be understood, and even then, it’s iffy. There are plenty of things in the bizarre, post-apocalyptic delivery man saga that will make most players stop to cringe and ask “Why?” But the sheer ambition of cramming so many disparate ideas into a package that not only holds together but introduces some compelling concepts about connectivity between gamers, and more generally between people, pushes Death Stranding from self-indulgent oddity to compelling gameplay experience. For every gratuitous bodily function, weird instance of product placement or questionable interpretation of human sexuality, there’s an interesting concept, mechanic or performance tying Death Stranding together, making it a game that’s worthy of consideration and discussion. —EL

Any review of Baba Is You will, by necessity, spend a large fraction of its word count explaining the game’s cleverly puzzling premise. Basically, it’s a 2D, top-down puzzle game in which the rules that govern the physics of each level are physical, manipulatable objects in that level. Following so far? No? Let’s try again. If Baba is in a room with a rock, rules governing Baba and the rock will also be present on the stage. Each word of those rules can be pushed around to form new sentences. If “BABA is YOU” and “ROCK is PUSH,” the player can control Baba and push the rock around. If the rules are rearranged so that “ROCK is WIN,” bringing Baba into contact with the rock will complete the level. It’s not the easiest to explain, but it’s the smartest puzzle concept of 2019, and it encourages players to think differently. —EL

In offering a platform for its users to create their very own Super Mario worlds to play, no matter how crazy that may be, Nintendo created one of the highest-selling games of the year and one of the most creative. The game is a level up from its predecessor with new functions — including options for 3D and multiplayer — with more, it appears, to follow. (We see you, empty slots.) It's a game-maker formula that is not only a celebration of Mario and Nintendo's history, but it is fantasy fullfillment at its finest...assuming you're a Mario fan. Even if you're not, it offers the capability to play as Zelda in a Mario setting, which is hard to pass up. —NR

Despite lacking the official licensing, Obsidian has made the best Fallout game this side of New Vegas with The Outer Worlds. Character creation is detailed enough to be deeply satisfying without introducing so much as to be unmanageable. The characters who inhabit the colony of Halcyon can be a little boilerplate, but the gameplay is strong enough that it more than compensates for a few stilted conversations and overly bureaucratic questlines. For players who love to experiment with builds and replay flexible storylines in brand new ways, the corporate dystopia of The Outer Worlds is a paradise. The biggest drawback to the game is that some people might come away wishing there was more of it, and that’s an excellent problem to have. —EL

I had no use for a Dark type on my team, but I became irrationally attached to my dashingly mustachioed fox, Theivul. He was a rogue, but a charming one, and I raised him from a humble Nickit I caught on Route 1. Even though he absolutely made my team less competitive, I never even considered replacing him until near the end of the game. This type of weird affection is the power of the Pokémon franchise. Sword and Shield struck a fine balance between providing the features franchise veterans would want (limited Pokédex aside) while introducing enough new features and quality of life updates to draw in a fresh fanbase. Additions like the Wild Area and more robust endgame content also give this Pokémon a longer tail than most. —EL

Yes, Resident Evil 2 is a remake, but it's a really good remake. So good, in fact, that Capcom breathed new life into this title about dead things and offered a completely new experience that deserves consideration on its own merits, not what came before. With updated visuals and mechanics, the franchise delivered one of the most freightening stories of the year across all entertainment mediums, complete with jump scares and a never-ending sense of dread to satisfy a more modern horror audience. That includes the upgraded (and terrifying) Lickers and Tyrant (or Thomas the Tank Engine, depending on what mod you're using). No wonder interest is already spiked over the leaks from a Resident Evil 3 remake. —NR