At the end of any year comes the inevitable sea of lists. Best of 2018, Worst of 2018, Weirdest of 2018 – you name it, and there’s probably an end of year list dedicated to it.
I’m not knocking it, of course. We’ve done our own Best and Worst lists to celebrate the last 365 days in gaming, but if there’s one thing I know you lot want, it’s a list packed with arbitrary numbers based on reviews which themselves awarded arbitrary numbers.
Phediuk over at Resetera has gone and ranked 192 2018 video games based on their Metacritic ratings, meaning anyone who genuinely believes enjoyment of a video game isn’t subjective can now use this list to run around and shout at other people who didn’t enjoy the top ranked games.
That’s basically how the internet works, right? Anyway, regardless of whatever your intentions may be with such a list, it still makes for interesting reading to see what came out on top and what didn’t do so hot.
The number one game of 2018 – according to Metacritic – is Red Dead Redemption 2 with an average score of 97. I imagine this won’t actually surprise anyone, given the wave of critical and commercial acclaim Rockstar’s digital Western was met with.
Second place was God of War (94), while Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Forza Horizon 4, and Celeste rounded out the top five.
The top 20 rated games of 2018 are:
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
Further proof, if any were needed, that I clearly need to pick up The Messenger on Switch. You can find the entire list of 192 games over on Resetera, but what of the bottom 10 games? What could possibly be the worst rated game of 2018?
Unfortunately, but perhaps not that surprisingly, the lowest rated game of 2018 is The Quiet Man, a doomed release that critics all agreed was a massive stinker.
It’s joined down at the bottom by the likes of Agony and Fallout 76, so it’s in good company. By good I mean bad, obviously.
Here are the top 10 worst rated games of 2018:
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
The big take away from this? There isn’t one. Just go and enjoy the games you want to enjoy and don’t get hung up on review scores.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.