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The combat depth and customization was detailed without ever feeling overwhelming. Its story, like so many others in this collection of indie titles, was nothing short of sublime. It's hard to find a major flaw in Pillars of Eternity II. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire continued that tradition in 2018, providing a worthy sequel to its award-winning predecessor. The consistent quality that Obsidian delivers is on-par with the most famous AAA developers, and what the studio is able to do given its relative size and funding is nothing short of incredible. Sometimes it feels a little disingenuous to refer to developer Obsidian Entertainment as an indie studio.
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The kind of attention to detail present in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an indie marvel, and its the type of game that could be the progenitor of even more historically-accurate period pieces in the future. Even then, the history was part of the selling point, as it was told in a way that was easy to get invested in.
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Somehow, in a game that makes you bathe your character so they're more presentable to the nobility that will then ridicule them anyway, the balance between those two design philosophies was struck in a pitch perfect manner.Ī combination of great characters, strong storytelling, and one of the best first-person melee combat systems ever designed helped buoy Kingdom Come: Deliverance through the dry periods of its historical accuracy. Developer Warhorse Studios had promised a game that focused on historically accurate content while still providing a compelling play experience. Speaking of immersive, realistic gameplay, Kingdom Come: Deliverance delivered that in a big way when it released in early 2018. Insurgency: Sandstorm was criminally underplayed this year despite excellent review showings, and its still evolving, making it well worth a look for those who might have missed it earlier. Better still, the pacing of the game was frenetic and enjoyable, making the FPS combat exciting in a way that many military sims can only dream of. It might not be the most attractive shooter from a graphical standpoint, but it featured arguably the best gunplay available in games that debuted in 2018, and it had a deep roster of weapons to choose from as well. Neither of those problems plagued Insurgency: Sandstorm, however. In the past, this has been a dicey proposition, often creating games with a pace that is too slow or combat that falls short of the mark. Developer New World Interactive put a priority on team-based, tactical gameplay that was meant to mimic the way that soldiers in real life might attempt to achieve the objectives given to them by the chain of command. Insurgency: Sandstorm emerged to change the way we view the military simulation genre. Read Screen Rant's Insurgency: Sandstorm Review If you haven't given these games a shot, perhaps the lull in the holiday season will be the perfect time to dive in. Some of the best experiences in gaming regardless of studio size came out of the indie scene, and we've compiled our list for the 10 best indie games of 2018 ( in no particular order) to recognize just some of the titles that helped make it such a great year for fans. Related: Fallout 76 Is The Most Disappointing Game Of 2018 2018 saw some of the best indie games ever created arrive to push the narrative of indie studios rising to meet the challenges laid out for them by bigger developers even further. Indie games are no longer characterized by being shorter adventures or graphically inferior to triple-A titles and, in truth, haven't been for some time.
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What used to be a small section of the industry reserved for talented developers attempting to break through into the mainstream consciousness has quickly become a burgeoning and lucrative element of video gaming. Indie games have routinely changed the landscape for studios and the gaming industry in general, and that remained true in 2018.
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