Yakuza 0
YoY: -3 My Rating: 9.2/10
Proof positive that open world games don't have to be massive to be great or memorable. Yakuza 0 simply filled it concise and intricately designed world with a huge variety of different engaging things to do, from absolutely ridiculous side quests to activities that have no reason to be as deep and varied as they are. But they are, and the game is all the better for it. It also features two protagonists, who have impressively different gameplay styles, both having their own fighting styles and side quests.
Yakuza 0 also balances the ridiculous with the serious amazingly well, as the player might go from a life and death battle with a yakuza boss to a side quest about teaching a dominatrix how to be better at her job. It's quite the balancing act, and the game pulls it off near perfectly. I would take Yakuza 0's well-designed, compact world over most massive and repetitive open worlds filled with hundreds of indistinct markers denoting another pointless collectible. You know, Ubisoft games.
