I’m pleased the Monstervine crew lets me hang around reviewing crap nobody else wants and weird stuff no one else has heard of. Also I’m old and crabby and I think I scare them. If you’re new to Monstervine, I tend to write about things that are weird, indie, obscure, or nobody else wants to write about.
Let’s talk about those games.
Best Installment In A Long-Running Series You Probably Don’t Care About: Football Manager 2019.
I LOVE manager sims. In fact, I played in an Out of the Park Baseball league with a bunch of industry nerds until it collapsed under its own weight and the stresses of running a league full of 20 lunatics. Football Manager was my first love and I’ve been trying to understand it since at least 2006. It’s hard because, being an American, I’m naturally resistant to soccer as a sport, but FM 2019 is really, really, really good. The game can handle a lot of the minutiae reasonably well until you pick it up. It actually has tutorials now that teach you how to play the game! The match engine is really nice. I understand tactics and training now. I’ve watched this series for a long time and this is probably the best installment I’ve played as well as the best time to jump in.
Best Crowdfunded Game That Actually Came Out And Was Really Good: RimWorld.
Everyone knows crowdfunded games are for selling JPGs of spaceships and never actually delivering anything. RimWorld bucked that trend by finally hitting 1.0 and actual release and, actually, being really, really good. It’s Dwarf Fortress with a good interface. I have played 640 hours of RimWorld since buying it sometime in Early Access. It’s that good.
Game I Hated: This is the Police 2.
To borrow from Roger Ebert: I hated, hated, hated this game.
Best Game We All Forgot About Because It Came Out Early In The Year And 2018 Was A Decade Long: Battletech.
Yeah, Battletech came out in 2018! It is really good and I enjoyed it tremendously. It’s just suffering in these awards roundups because it came out in April and 2018 lasted at least 30 years after that. But it really does capture the Battletech experience and tell a pretty decent story. Get it if you like giant stompy robots with guns.
Best Game For Weirdos Like Me: Cultist Simulator.
Oh, sure, everyone wants to talk about COWBOYS and FALLOUTS, but who wants to talk about STARTING A CULT and SUMMONING UNHOLY TERRORS FROM BEYOND? Right, me, that’s who. Cultist Simulator is a game for slow contemplation and tugging a narrative thread to slowly unravel a lurking horror. It’s excellent.
Best Another Game We All Forgot About Because It Came Out Early In The Year And 2018 Was A Decade Long: Where The Water Tastes Like Wine.
Yep, another game that came out early in Hellyear. This one came out in February. This is not a game if you like “having fun” or “things happening.” However, it’s an amazing game if you like early Americana, hoboes, wandering an American dreamscape, storytelling, tarot, and a fantastic soundtrack.
Best Game About Whaling: Nantucket.
We actually didn’t get a mailer for this, I just wrote up a review because I enjoyed it and it fit my beat (that being weird games no one cares about). If you enjoy things like classical literature, hunting for whales, getting killed by sharks, crew management, goddammit the sharks killed me again, exploring, and FROM HELL’S HEART I STAB AT THEE, Nantucket merits a look. It’s probably the best crew management/card battling game about whaling out there.
