Let’s come straight out with it, 2018 was a pretty good year for games. Not a great year, or a stupendous one, but it had a steady trickle of potential classics that were sure to catch and tantalise the vast gamut of gaming tastes that make the industry in general so fascinating.

With that in mind we decided that rather than having an almighty ruckus about what was best, who was right (me) and who was wrong (everyone else) we’d just let everyone pick their best games and let us know what made them so great.

So in no particular order, let’s jump right in.

Nick Cowen

@ witenoyze

*Hitman 2

IT WAS with no small amount of joy that stealth aficionados greeted the news that Hitman 2 would indeed see the light of day, after developer IO Interactive was dropped by publisher Square Enix. Until Warner Bros. I stepped in there was the genuine fear players may have seen the last of Agent 47.

Hitman 2 doesn’t really take a massive leap forward from its predecessor.

There aren’t many new features, mechanics or toys to play with, but the variety of options players have to pull off assassinations in the game’s six missions – which arrive all at once in Hitman 2 – is absolutely huge. It’s quite simply impossible to enjoy every lethal delight each mission has to offer in a single play-through. This means that not only are players encouraged to explore their surroundings and exercise their creative juices when they tackle a mission, it also means the game’s replay value is off the charts. You could become lost in Hitman 2 for months.

This replay value, incidentally, is amplified and expanded by user generated content, the sniper assassin pre-order bonus (which was bundled into the game on release) and the elusive targets – same deal; they pitch up for about a week, players have one crack at them and then they’re gone. Best of all the game’s plot and gameplay keep the Hitman series’ signature humour (largely missing in Absolution) is present and correct here. Once again, you and Agent 47 are the best comedy double act in the gaming medium.

*Semblance

THE FIRST game from a South African developer to land on the Nintendo Switch, Semblance comes on like the illegitimate child of Mario and Play-Doh. Players control a tiny little blob-like creature –known from now on as Squisjy - whose world has become covered with an unexplained crystalline infestation. In order to remove it, the player needs to guide their companion to several nodes through different levels filled with platforms, puzzles and the odd trap in order to cleanse the infection.

So far, so Super Mario (sans Princess Peach) but what sets Semblance apart from other platform puzzlers is the game’s central conceit, that is a lot of the barriers and ledges in the game are malleable. The player can use Squishy to bang into surfaces, in some instances creating new ledges, in others creating new barriers or trenches in the landscape. As Squishy traverses further through the game’s levels, new mechanics start getting introduced, such as the ability to slingshot the protagonist from a level they’ve been battering against or the power to make Squishy small and flat (to trundle under low-hanging levels) or skinny, to fit up and down shafts that are a tight squeeze.

As one would expect, the puzzles become more and more challenging the further into the game the player gets and there are some towards the end that border on frustrating because their solutions feel like there’s more than a little luck involved. Thankfully, though, the game’s sombre presentation and its calming (yet eerie) ambient soundtrack, never propel the player into controller-smashing territory. Rather, Semblance has more in common with Portal in its difficulty; puzzles that seem insurmountable usually seem simple after they’re solved, but that doesn’t stop one feeling awfully smug and clever once they’ve solved them.