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The best and worst games of 2018, as provided by Metacritic

Phediuk

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,324
Yep, here it is folks. The debate is finally over. Using the infallible metric of Metacritic scores, I have at last determined the unarguable Best and Worst Games of 2018 For Forever And Ever. I am being facetious, if you couldn't tell.

I have curated the list with the following criteria:

1. Games with under 20 reviews are excluded.
2. No DLC, expansions, etc., unless they're standalone.
3. Ports and rereleases of games first released before 2018 are excluded. There are a few edge cases here in the form of complete remakes, namely Shadow of the Colossus and Secret of Mana, which I decided to include. I acknowledge that the line between "updated port" / "remaster" and "remake" is blurry.
4. Multiplatform games are listed according to whichever version has the most reviews; all other versions are excluded.
5. I combined the two Yokai Watch versions into one entry.


The result is a list of 192 games, ordered by Metascore, with the counted platform in parentheses:

1. Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4) – 97
2. God of War (PS4) – 94
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) – 93
4. Forza Horizon 4 (XONE) – 92
5. Celeste (Switch) – 92
6. Shadow of the Colossus (PS4) – 91
7. Monster Hunter: World (PS4) – 90
8. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (PS4) – 90
9. Into the Breach (PC) – 90
10. Dead Cells (Switch) – 90
11. Tetris Effect (PS4) – 89
12. Return of the Obra Dinn (PC) – 88
13. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire (PC) – 88
14. Subnautica (PC) – 87
15. Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4) – 87
16. Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) – 87
17. The Messenger (Switch) – 86
18. Unavowed (PC) – 86
19. Football Manager 2019 (PC) – 86
20. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4) – 86
21. Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4) – 85
22. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (PC) – 85
23. Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4) – 85
24. Moss (PS4) – 85
25. F1 2018 (PS4) – 85
26. Radiant Historia: Perfct Chronology (3DS) – 85
27. Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) – 84
28. SoulCalibur 6 (PS4) – 84
29. Frostpunk (PC) – 84
30. Gris (Switch) – 84
31. Two Point Hospital (PC) – 84
32. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (PS4) – 83
33. Guacamelee! 2 (PS4) – 83
34. FIFA 19 (PS4) – 83
35. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PS4) – 83
36. Octopath Traveler (Switch) – 83
37. Iconoclasts (PS4) – 83
38. Yoku's Island Express (XONE) – 83
39. Assassn's Creed Odyssey (PS4) – 82
40. Laser League (PS4) – 82
41. Hitman 2 (PS4) – 82
42. The Banner Saga 3 (PC) – 82
43. Spyro Reignited Trilogy (PS4) – 82
44. MLB The Show 18 (PS4) – 82
45. Mega Man 11 (PS4) – 82
46. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (PC) – 82
47. NBA 2K19 (PS4) – 82
48. Super Mega Baseball 2 (XONE) – 81
49. Overcooked! 2 (Switch) – 81
50. Ashen (XONE) – 81
51. Life is Strange 2: Episode 1: Roads (PS4) – 81
52. CHUCHEL (PC) – 81
53. Moonlighter (PS4) – 81
54. Far Cry 5 (PS4) – 81
55. Minit (PS4) – 81
56. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna: The Golden Country (Switch) – 81
57. Battlefield 5 (PC) – 81
58. The Red Strings Club (PC) – 81
59. Wreckfest (PC) – 80
60. Madden NFL 19 (PS4) – 80
61. NHL 19 (PS4) – 80
62. Firewall Zero Hour (PS4) – 79
63. Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (Switch) – 79
64. Insurgency: Sandstorm (PC) – 79
65. FAR: Lone Sails (PC) – 79
66. Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 (PS4) – 79
67. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (PC) – 78
68. A Way Out (PS4) – 78
69. Battletech (PC) – 78
70. Detroit: Become Human (PS4) – 78
71. The Persistence (PS4) – 78
72. WarioWare Gold (3DS) – 78
73. Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! (Switch) – 78
74. 11-11: Memories Retold (PS4) – 77
75. Nintendo Labo: Toycon 01 Variety Kit (Switch) – 77
76. Unravel Two (PS4) – 77
77. Ancestors Legacy (PC) – 77
78. WWE 2K19 (PS4) – 77
79. BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (PS4) – 76
80. The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series: The Final Season Episode 1: Done Running (PC) – 76
81. Frozen Synapse 2 (PC) – 76
82. Q.U.B.E. 2 (PS4) – 76
83. ONRUSH (PS4) – 76
84. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS4) – 76
85. Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido (Switch) – 76
86. Super Mario Party (Switch) – 76
87. Kingdom Come: Deliverance (PC) – 76
88. Surviving Mars (PC) – 76
89. Forgotten Anne (PC) – 76
90. A Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia (PC) – 75
91. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (PS4) – 75
92. EA Sports UFC 3 (PS4)– 75
93. Ghost of a Tale (PC) – 75
94. Mario Tennis Aces (Switch) – 75
95. Donut County (PS4) – 75
96. The Council: Episode 1: The Mad Ones (PS4) – 75
97. Aegis Defenders (Switch) – 75
98. Attack on Titan 2 (PS4) – 75
99. Lego DC Super-Villains (PS4) – 74
100. Semblance (Switch) – 74
101. The Alliance Alive (3DS) – 74
102. Masters of Anima (PS4) – 74
103. Railway Empire (PC) – 74
104. Omensight (PS4) – 74
105. Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Switch) – 74
106. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (PC) – 74
107. Atelier Lydie and Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings (PS4) – 74
108. Phantom Doctrine (PC) – 74
109. Dead in Vinland (PC) – 74
110. The Swords of Ditto (PS4) – 74
111. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (PS4) – 73
112. NBA Live 19 (PS4) -73
113. Mothergunship (PC) – 73
114. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 (PS4) – 73
115. Kirby Star Allies (Switch) – 73
116. Runner3 (Switch) – 73
117. Strange Brigade (PS4) – 73
118. RIDE 3 (PS4) – 73
119. Mulaka (Switch) – 73
120. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (PS4) – 73
121. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory (PS4) – 73
122. Earth Defense Force 5 (PS4) – 72
123. Chasm (PC) -72
124. Space Hulk: Tactics (PC) – 72
125. Pathfinder: Kingmaker (PC) – 72
126. Warriors Orochi 4 (PS4) – 72
127. Smoke and Sacrifice (Switch) – 72
128. Apex Construct (PS4) – 72
129. Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (PS4) – 72
130. Transference (PS4) – 71
131. Warhammer 40,000: Gladius: Relics of War (PC) – 71
132. Just Cause 4 (PC) – 71
133. Little Dragons Café (Switch) – 71
134. The Bard's Tale 4: Barrows Deep (PC) – 71
135. Detective Pikachu (3DS) – 70
136. Crossing Souls (PC) – 70
137. Fe (PS4) – 70
138. Death's Gambit (PS4) – 70
139. Vampyr (PS4) – 70
140. Jurassic World Evolution (PC) -69
141. LEGO The Incredibles (PS4) – 69
142. Sea of Thieves (XONE) – 69
143. Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers – 69
144. Lost Sphear (PS4) – 68
145. Deracine (PS4) – 68
146. State of Mind (PC) – 68
147. Frantics (PS4) – 68
148. Below (XONE) – 68
149. Conan Exiles (PS4) – 68
150. This is the Police 2 (PC) – 68
151. My Hero One's Justice (PS4) – 68
152. Yo-kai Watch Blasters (3DS) – 67
153. Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor: Martyr (PC) – 67
154. Gravel (PS4) – 67
155. The Longest Five Minutes (Switch) – 67
156. Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame (PS4) – 67
157. TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge (PS4) – 67
158. State of Decay 2 (XONE) – 67
159. MotoGP 18 (PS4) – 66
160. City of Brass (PS4) – 66
161. Ash of Gods: Redemption (PC) – 65
162. Antigraviator (PC) – 65
163. Dynasty Warriors 9 (PS4) – 65
164. Darksiders 3 (PS4) – 64
165. The Crew 2 (PS4) – 64
166. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet (PS4) – 64
167. Rainbow Skies (PS4) – 64
168. Penny-Punching Princess (Switch) – 63
169. Secret of Mana (PS4) – 63
170. Call of Cthulhu (PS4) – 63
171. We Happy Few (PC) – 62
172. Go Vacation (Switch) – 62
173. Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker (PS4) – 61
174. The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 (PS4) – 61
175. SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy (Switch) – 60
176. Metal Gear Survive (PS4) – 60
177. The Inpatient (PS4) – 59
178. Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time – 58
179. V-Rally 4 (PS4) – 58
180. Kirby: Battle Royale (3DS) – 57
181. The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia (PS4) – 55
182. Castle of Heart (Switch) – 53
183. Fallout 76 (PC) – 52
184. OVERKILL's The Walking Dead (PC) – 52
185. Extinction (PS4) – 47
186. Agony (PC) – 47
187. Scribblenauts Showdown (Switch) – 47
188. Tennis World Tour (PS4) – 46
189. Bravo Team (PS4) – 45
190. New Gundam Breaker (PS4) – 43
191. Past Cure (PS4) – 37
192. The Quiet Man (PS4) - 29

You may find the equivalent lists for 2017 and 2016 on the first page of this thread: https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-best-and-worst-games-of-2017-as-provided-by-metacritic.13408/ (scroll down to post #20 for 2016)


The uncurated list for 2018 is here: https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/year/all/filtered?sort=desc&page=0


discuss.
 
Aaron D.

Aaron D.

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,311
Filtering out everything under 20 reviews seems kinda extreme.

How are people supposed to discover hidden gems like Dusk?

5 or even 10 seems more reasonable.
 
NicknameMy

NicknameMy

Banned
Mar 14, 2018
740
1. Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4) – 97

Most overrated game of the generation. So many things that make the gami anti-fun plus that online, uh.

Like good old Reggie once said:



14. Subnautica (PC) – 87

Very interesting indeed.

183. Fallout 76 (PC) – 52

Why is that not at the last place?
 
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OP
OP

Phediuk

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,324
Aaron D. said:
Filtering out everything under 20 reviews seems kinda extreme.

How are people supposed to discover hidden gems like Dusk?

5 or even 10 seems more reasonable.
Click to expand...
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Even limiting it to 10 would be like 600 games. 20 is a nice, solid, manageable sample size; consider this list the equivalent of ranking the wide-release films in a given year (which would also number between 150 and 200.)
 
Frivolous

Frivolous

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Aug 27, 2018
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I'm still really interested in playing The Quiet Man just to see what exactly went wrong with it
 
Dominic Decoco

Dominic Decoco

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Oct 31, 2017
3,760
Had more fun with Fallout than Forza. That game puts me to sleep.

Don't know how Madden continues to sneak by every year.
 
OwOtacon

OwOtacon

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Dec 18, 2018
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Not surprised that The Quiet Man is so low - that's the kind of bad game you only get twice a decade. The last time there was a game that was this much of an awful spectacle to me was Ride To Hell: Retribution.
 
hydruxo

hydruxo

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Oct 25, 2017
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NicknameMy said:
1. Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4) – 97

Most overrated game of the generation. So many things that make the gami anti-fun plus that online, uh.
Click to expand...
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DAohfx1XgAAgjAA.jpg
 
PspLikeANut

PspLikeANut

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May 20, 2018
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I tried to watch a full walk through of The Quiet Man. Couldn't last more than 1 and half hour. I couldn't believe my eyes what I was watching. It was clear that they put very little resources in the gameplay department (it was severely compromised). Highly likely that the Film scenes received the most resources. Doesn't help that the story was also silly.
 
benny

benny

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Oct 26, 2017
381
Those are not the best and worst games of 2018.

For example above God of War it's missing Meteorfall: Journey & Tiny Bubbles.
 
NicknameMy

NicknameMy

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Mar 14, 2018
740
gcwy said:
Best game of the generation stays winning. There won't be a single game this generation that tops it. Unless Bully 2 releases this gen, still unsure.


That's awesome.
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Ehm, in fact 2 games this generation have the same Metacritic score, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, as Red Dead Redemption 2.
 
Van Bur3n

Van Bur3n

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Oct 27, 2017
26,089
Oh wow, The Quiet Man is that? I remember seeing it at whatever event it was revealed at and thought it was strange.
 
Unknownlight

Unknownlight

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Nov 2, 2017
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While I would put it in anywhere close to the same order, that top 20 is really strong. I think I've seen nearly every one of those games as someone's top game in the Era GotY voting thread.
 
NicknameMy

NicknameMy

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Mar 14, 2018
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gcwy said:
I said "tops" it. Not match it. Having played them, I personally think both of them are deserving of the same score as well in their own right.
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Topping 97 these days is downright impossible tho as reviewers are likely to let different taste influence their vote. Plus the amount of reviewers have increased a lot as well.
 
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Cassius Bright

Cassius Bright

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,901
Pretty great top 10. Love, love, love that a VR game is in the top 10. Too bad Smash Bros is in there like a rancid dog turd, but you can't have everything I guess.

I need to play Dead Cells.
 
Unknownlight

Unknownlight

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DozyHoneyBadger said:
Pretty great top 10. Love, love, love that a VR game is in the top 10. Too bad Smash Bros is in there like a rancid dog turd, but you can't have everything I guess.
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???

There are plenty of people who don't find the gameplay of Smash Bros. fun, which is totally normal and fine, but I pretty much never see people actively hate it as a game.
 
signal

signal

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Oct 28, 2017
40,186
Is celeste really that much of a leap over than smb, iwbtg, etc. to be rated this highly.
 
CrocoDuck

CrocoDuck

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Oct 28, 2017
1,287
Red Dead the most overrated game. I'm playing through it now, the story and acting are top tier, but the controls simply make the game un-fun to play and totally unintuitive.
 
Ryugarr

Ryugarr

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Dec 6, 2018
217
gcwy said:
Best game of the generation stays winning. There won't be a single game this generation that tops it. Unless Bully 2 releases this gen, still unsure.


That's awesome.
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That's because this generation is at an end. Also BOTW says hello. If you look at a site like Gamerankings it has BOTW and Odyseey both above RDR2 because the critics are all weighed fair. Metacritic for some dumb reason likes to weigh specific critics they choose more than others.
 
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Ryugarr

Ryugarr

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Dec 6, 2018
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I would like to see a list like this for the generation. I know it would take some time and work but would be interesting.
 

Deleted member 419

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Metacritic is terrible and aggregate quantification of perceived quality is a blight on the entire entertainment industry, but I think this is actually a decent top 10. Much better than expected given the source.
 
signal

signal

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FiveSide said:
Metacritic is terrible and aggregate quantification of perceived quality is a blight on the entire entertainment industry, but I think this is actually a decent top 10. Much better than expected given the source.
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Hatred for mc is overblown. Maybe people can criticize how it weighs different sites but there's nothing wrong with showing consumers what the consensus on games is.
 
Ryo

Ryo

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Oct 28, 2017
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Ryugarr said:
That's because this generation is at an end. Also BOTW says hello. If you look at a site like Gamerankings it has BOTW and Odyseey both above RDR2 because the critics are all weighed fair. Metacritic for some dumb reason likes to weigh specific critics they choose more than others.
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I don't think Opencritic has a weighted system either, on their site it's Odyssey first, RDR2 second, BOTW third.
 

Deleted member 419

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signal said:
Hatred for mc is overblown. Maybe people can criticize how it weighs different sites but there's nothing wrong with showing consumers what the consensus on games is.
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The problem lies in reducing all of the universe of opinions/impressions about a given entertainment product, from a variety of sources, into a single number that is representative of nothing other than how vaguely palatable it was to all of them in aggregate. It's like the problem with "skipped the writeup, looked at the review score" except writ large and applied to the entire industry. And it also penalizes more idiosyncratic hidden gems at the expense of more safe and conventional experiences that have wider, but not necessarily deeper, appeal.

This thread isn't about the concept of MC though so I don't want to potentially derail it.
 
Popetita

Popetita

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Top 10 s legit.

I prefer GoW but everything else seems sensible.
 
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