Blog:Grust's Top 10 Favorite Games of the 2010s

Oh boy, the 2010 decade may be the worst decade for gaming ever. With the rise of SJWs invading the hobby, the introduction of Micro-transactions and Loot boxes, and companies getting so greedy, they started making games for.... mobile devices. Because of this a large bulk of games I bought this decade were mostly from the 2000s to 90s (I'm a 90s kid, sue me) and made me vastly prefer retro gaming and the nonstop controversies took a huge toll on my sanity.

But in spite of the garbage, even I admit we still got some great games, many of which I do indeed own. So to look at some positivity in a horrible decade, I'll take a look at my top 10 picks for games from the 2010s. For this list, I will take a look at games I've beaten or have a lot of experience playing, so while they may deserve their positive reputation, The Witcher 3 and Persona 5 will be excluded. Okay onto the countdown.

10. 7 Days to Die: Kesner: Grust: Isn't this now one of your favorite games of all time now? Why is it so high on the list? Grust: Because I talked to death about it and the glitches do warrant a lower score, but I like it a lot so I still need to add it. Anyways the game is basically Minecraft for adult fans of the zombie genre. After World War 3, radiation has transformed the dead into zombies so you need to gather resources for food, shelter, weapons, medicine, and traps. Every 7 days, a blood moon emerges making the zombies much more dangerous, faster, and heightens their senses so they'll always know where you are. I even think if it weren't for the bugs, this might have killed the craze Minecraft enjoys to this day.

9. Neverwinter: Neverwinter is a free-to-play MMORPG based around the Forgotten Realms lore of Dungeons & Dragons. You pick one of several races and classes to help rebuild and secure Neverwinter after Mount Hotenow erupted and Valindra Shadowmantle sends an undead army to attack the city. Now you must work with other adventurers to retake parts of the city, take down Valindra and take down any other threat to Neverwinter or the realm itself. Since I started playing again, I play this almost everyday, building up my astral diamonds, getting stronger and just playing around with the crafting system (you know I gush about crafting systems). So umm why is this 9 when I'm playing everyday? It's because ever since the Avernus expansion (or module), the game has seen a very large number of bugs and glitches. I even Blue Screen in Barovia, people get disconnected and I'm rubberbanding all the time (a type of lag where you run around but teleport back to where you were and you suddenly skip around all over the place), though in the lag's defense, this is likely due to the quarantine we're under causing more people to play and the servers just can't handle it. Still when the game runs, I can expect a good time.

8. Stardew Valley: A spiritual successor to the original Harvest Moon, you play as a farmer working to restore your grandfather's old farm. This game even gives you almost everything from the getgo, giving you your own schedule. As with Harvest Moon, you can also interact with the townpeople and can take requests and even form relationships. You can even marry two people of the same gender and it's not politicized as it's up to the player and even gives off some great character development rather than something to shove in people's faces. And everything that's great about the game, the SNES style graphics, the music, the dialogue, the gameplay, and characters designs were all done by one guy. Also the game has a fabulous crafting system. While I have a physical copy for my PS4, I'd really love a physical copy for my Switch. It does exist but only in Japan and ummm, well look up the price.

7. Super Mario Odyssey: While I still prefer Mario 64, this game is still awesome with super gorgeous graphics, awesome gameplay, and the ability to possess stuff with Mario's new hat. The plot is also quite silly with Bowser stealing sacred wedding objects to force Peach into marrying him. Also in what other game could you say a gorgeous mayor sings a super upbeat and fun song. The game has a ton of quests to do which gives us interesting boss battles, like that giant dragon, and puzzle solving. Plus you know how I'm always saying the original Super Mario Bros. in ingrained into our brains young and old for life. This game proves my point when certain areas flatten Mario into his original 1985 counterpart.

6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Even if I don't like BOTW as a Zelda game, I still love it as a great game. Numerous foods to cook, tons of weapons (though durability is annoying), the PDA relic, limitless bombs, and the dodging mechanic which is AWESOME. Throughout the game are tons of shrines which require a lot of puzzle solving (though I only needed a walkthrough twice for 3 of them) to beat which give out special orbs and create warp points for fast travel. Every four orbs net you an upgrade to either health or stamina. To replace the numerous secondary items from dungeons that encourage exploration, you instead seek out outfits that when complete give off a perk like fast mountain climbing or improved stealth. This is a big reason the Switch is so successful even the PC "Master" Race gushes about it.

5. Portal 2: I never played Portal 1 but this game is so much fun and a pure puzzle solver. Wanting to escape the lab once more the heroine encounters Glados but after she is deactivated a worse threat takes her place, an idiotic robot that can't do anything right threatens to destroy the lab and a large chunk of area with his incompetence. With Glados now forced to aid you, you must use your portal gun to advance through each area. While this game was challenging, I outright REFUSED to look at a walkthrough because the puzzles were very fun to figure out. And hey at least there's no lie about a cake this time.

4. Resident Evil 7: Resident Evil had been going through a rough patch a while since around Resident Evil 5, (though some would argue 4 was the start) due to the series being more focused on action than survival. While Revelations did fix this up a bit, Resident Evil 7 really brought us back to the survival horror roots of the franchise with a first person perspective and a focus on survival over action. This is so well done even after beating the game multiple times, replaying the part where you hide from Jack Backer still scares me. If I had room for PS5, I might consider getting 8. Who know maybe the werewolves will be a supernatural biohazard this time.... naw they'll sci-fi them with a viral outbreak.

3. Octopath Traveler: While I haven't beaten the game yet, I've played enough to give my thoughts and my God, I LOVE THIS GAME. While it takes a SNES approach (a nice bit of appreciation for the Queen of RPG consoles) the graphics still make it clear it could never be a SNES game. The game follows 8 characters, each a different class with different goals. The main character is pretty much the person you pick at the beginning of the game but there's no real leader. Despite having different goals, their goals themselves are intertwined and connected to the true villain of the game who plots unleash an evil god. What I love best is the combat system with every enemy having weaknesses to exploit. Once you hit them with an attack they're weak to enough times, the enemy gets dazed and unable to attack and vulnerable to other attacks. This even works on bosses and can interrupt their own powered up attacks. Which is good because some bosses are tough and you'll need these abilities to survive.

2. Resident Evil 2 Remake: I grew up in the 90s so I got excited for the original and it scared the crap out of me. Today it couldn't with its aged graphics (though still fun), and speedruns on the internet. However when I saw the game was being remade and the screencaps I got instantly excited and superhyped. And I even played the demo and got pumped out even more. I was still a One Angry Gamer regular so I did have doubts when they said stuff that means nothing to me now. I even said back in 2018 I wouldn't get a new game because of crap going on. But I took the plunge and bought the game and holy crap it was worth it. The graphics and details on the zombies have made me feel a new sense of fear I've not felt in a long time. With the new over the shoulder angle, you'd think a shot to the head would end these zombies huh? Nope, to keep it challenging, it takes maybe 3 to 4 shots to down a zombie so you still need to conserve your ammo. I enjoyed the fear I got from this game so much that I now absolutely refuse to speedrun the game because that'd require learning the mechanics and honestly that would ruin the scare factor for me.

Honorable Mentions

 * The Last of Us: I don't really care for the game. It's not horrible but I think it's overrated.  And no, what's going on with TLOU2 has nothing to do with this.
 * The Witcher 3: Good, but it takes a long time to level up. But that Gwent game is real fun. Plus a western game with sexy girls? Pinch me I must be dreaming.
 * Persona 5: I've barely played this game and have no experience, but like what I see. That's a downside to a huge game collection, the backlog.  Plus I'm kind of nervous.  What if it's so good, it ruins what I like about Persona 4 or vice versa.  Still I will play it when I can.  Maybe after I beat...
 * Days Gone: Really good. Haven't beaten it (I only got it this month), don't even know how far I am, but I love it, a good stealth mechanic, Crafting system, numerous missions, and RPG mechanics.  IGN giving it a 5 out 10 really helps cement my distrust over game "urinalists." Also it's a Western game that's barely politicized.  I guess there are Western developers that just want to make a fun game still.

And I think my all time favorite game from the 2010s is....

1. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim: Oh come on, who didn't see this coming? Even with Bethesda's reputation down in the drain, I still love this game. Set 200 years after Oblivion, you control the Dragonborn, a human with a dragon's soul destined to face off against Alduin a god in the form of a dragon destined to end the world. The game's character customization is the series best with no wrong way to customize your character. Want your thief to wield fire? Go for it? Want your knight to summon undead? Fine! Want your archer to heal allies, Cool! It's up to you. Personally my favorite is a simple thief wielding two daggers and a bow. I think every Elder Scrolls game before this one has aged poorly because of how well this one was done. Also crafting system.

I am shocked to admit this, but this was hard but not because of the problems I mentioned above but there are a lot of good games that still came out despite those problems and I can only fit in 10. Any other game you like from this decade? Let me know in the comments.

