#38 The Last of Us
The Last of Us starts off with a story so tragic and gripping, that it's hard to believe it's really happening to Joel. I still remember watching youtube videos of complete non-gamers playing this game's first hour and just being taken away by how emotionally powerful it is. After this personal tragedy hits Joel we are fast forwarded 20 years. The whole world has been ruined by a zombie apocalypse that happened at the start of the game. Joel is then sent on a mission that forces him to spend all of this time with Ellie, a person that reminds him of his loss all those years ago. Joel and Ellie have to travel to another part of the country together, while trying to avoid bandits, zombies, and other pitfalls. These two characters go through hell together, eventually becoming very close. Towards the end of the game Joel is forced to choose between saving his friend or helping the world at large.
The gameplay is excellent building on the Uncharted series' gameplay significantly. I always feel like Naughty Dog is asking "why can't you do this, or this" in their games, and then changing them so you can. Yes, you can climb things in TLoU, yes you can punch enemies knocking them out, yes you can use stealth in a shooter style game, yes you can scavenge metal and build things. Hopefully one day video games will be so advanced that we will be able to do in game, whatever we would be able to do in real life with our own bodies. Games like TLoU, BotW, and Uncharted 2 have always brought us a little closer to that dream. For that, and for the gripping, fantastic story TLoU makes the list.
#37 God of War
Open world games are often quite empty. They contain as much content as any other game, but that content is either spaced farther apart, or blandly uninspired. God of War on the other hand is almost as densely packed with things to do and discoveries as a Metroidvania game. And when you're not making discoveries you're fighting enemies in an excellently revamped combat system, or being told the most interesting stories via banter from the game's three amigos. The decision to add the Frost Axe as Kratos' main weapon instead of the Blades of Chaos was a huge improvement. I always felt that combos from the Blades of Chaos were too easy to pull off due to the reach that they had. The Axe on the other hand is more of a close up weapon. Eventually you do get to use the Blades in this game, but they've been tweaked from older GoW games to be not as OP as they used to be. The equipment system in GoW is just as complex as any RPG like Mass Effect 2. This allows each player to build Kratos the way they want him to fight. Most of the boss fights were fairly easy, but the Valkyries were just genius. They were designed as post-game challenge bosses and it shows. Each Valkyrie has a unique set of moves, and is challenging as hell. But the final Valkyrie has all of the moves of all the previous Valkyries you've fought. So you're fighting this final boss that has this massive plethora of moves. She has to be the most complicated boss I've ever fought in any videogame ever.
