10 Best Hidden Gem Video Games Of The Decade
Control deserves your attention.
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00:00 Looking back on the last 10 years of gaming, there have been a lot of bangers.
00:04 After all, in that time we have seen games released on 3 whole console generations, and
00:08 AAA titles have only gotten bigger and bigger.
00:11 Because of that, there have been plenty of gems that have slipped through the cracks,
00:14 and whether they're 6 months old or turning 10 this year, they all deserve a bit more
00:18 time to shine.
00:19 So I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and these are the 10 Best Hidden Gem Video Games of
00:23 the last 10 years.
00:25 But first up, an honourable mention, Resistance 3.
00:29 Listen, right, I know that Resistance 3 misses out on this list by half a year or something,
00:34 but it's my list and I just really want to talk about Resistance, so indulge me for
00:38 a second.
00:39 It took them 3 attempts, but Insomniac finally fulfilled the potential of their post-apocalyptic
00:44 alien shooter series with this final game.
00:46 Though the first two releases weren't quite the Halo killer that Sony probably wanted,
00:51 they were still ambitious FPS games, with interesting stories and a damn good world
00:55 to fight your way through.
00:57 The third game elevated everything though.
00:59 The narrative was more emotional, characters more well-rounded, and the gunplay was tighter
01:03 than ever.
01:04 Throw in some spectacular set-pieces and Resistance 3 was a bloody good shooter, but nobody cared.
01:10 At that point, PS3 players had kinda given up on the franchise ever becoming a smash
01:14 hit that it could have been, and with 2011 being a particularly stacked year, it ended
01:18 up buried.
01:19 But still, bring Resistance back Sony, please go on for me.
01:24 Number 10 - Visage When it comes to the best horror games of
01:27 the last few years, Visage absolutely needs to be in the conversation, and not just because
01:32 it made me so scared that I thought I was going to throw up.
01:35 On the surface, you can see why it didn't make waves.
01:38 It's a small indie title that's very clearly inspired by PT, from the familiar suburban
01:43 house setting to the obtuse first-person puzzles.
01:46 But while the title wears this inspiration on its sleeve, it's so much more than a
01:51 clone and is absolutely brimming with creative horror scenarios.
01:55 Essentially split into a few different vignettes focusing on specific characters and their
01:59 tragedies, the house itself transforms to fit each story.
02:03 There'll be a section where your only light source is the flash of a camera, scientifically
02:07 one of the scariest horror setups whenever it's used by the way, while another will
02:10 see you taken on a trippy descent into hell itself.
02:13 What makes Visage though is its unpredictability.
02:16 Despite spending so much time in the same hallways and rooms, you never feel like you
02:20 know what's going to be waiting for you.
02:22 The apparitions haunting you always catch you off guard, and the brilliant sign design
02:26 immerses you in the game's traumatic story.
02:29 Number 9 - Batman Arkham Origins
02:31 Though it took a while, Arkham Origins did eventually enjoy something of a small reappraisal.
02:36 But it shouldn't be forgotten that for the majority of its life, this spin-off was treated
02:40 as the unwanted child of a glorious superhero trilogy.
02:43 I mean, it wasn't even included on the remastered Arkham collection, and that's just doing
02:49 it dirty.
02:50 Crafted purely as a stopgap between the final two main Arkham games, Origins' corporate
02:55 reason to exist is no secret, but the devs at WB Montreal overcame those limitations
03:00 to deliver a worthy follow-up that deviates from the core installments in worthwhile ways.
03:05 Sure, there's still a lot of familiarity present in the gameplay and setting, but the
03:09 spin-off still boasts a great story.
03:11 In a way, it's kinda like the New Vegas of the Batman series.
03:15 A quote-unquote "unnecessary" spin-off that was initially poorly received, but which
03:19 has since been embraced by the diehards as perhaps the cream of the crop.
03:23 I mean, it's nowhere near as good as New Vegas, mind.
03:26 That thing is GOAT material.
03:28 Number 8 - SOMA
03:30 There have been plenty of great narrative-driven first-person games, including the likes of
03:35 Gone Home and Firewatch, and it's an absolute travesty that SOMA is never placed on the
03:39 same level as those genre-defining giants.
03:42 And that's perhaps because it was wrongly pigeonholed as a horror game closer to Lairs
03:46 of Fear or the developer's own previous title Amnesia.
03:50 That genre heritage of course is still there, and you do spend plenty of time crouch-walking
03:55 around tables to avoid the petrifying gaze of horrifying mechanical beasties in this
04:00 game.
04:01 But it's the storytelling and world-building that makes the title so damn appealing.
04:05 Uncovering the mysteries of this world, which takes the form of an underwater base housing
04:09 the last remnants of the human race following an extinction event, is tantalising and features
04:14 twists that are far too juicy to spoil here.
04:17 So please, just play it if you can.
04:20 Number 7 - Assassin's Creed Syndicate
04:23 No matter what Ubisoft had up their sleeve to follow the utter embarrassment that was
04:26 Assassin's Creed Unity, it was always going to disappoint.
04:30 After years of growing discontent, Unity broke the AC series in half, with its bevy of glitches
04:35 and launch problems making for a limp jump to the next generation.
04:39 That shadow extended to the next game, the Victorian London set Syndicate, and made for
04:43 one of the lowest selling installments in the franchise's history.
04:47 That was a travesty though, because the follow-up was actually better in every single way.
04:52 Of course, it was the setting that was the real winner in this title though.
04:56 Walking these streets and zip-lining to the top of iconic London buildings never gets
05:00 old, and it was complemented by a story stacked with great characters and period-specific
05:04 cameos.
05:05 It's a shame the location was a one-and-done affair, because it deserved way more time
05:09 to shine.
05:10 Still, this was a fine send-off to the first era of Assassin's Creed.
05:15 Number 6 - Mad Max
05:17 For as long as I've been at this job, I've championed Mad Max as one of the most underrated
05:21 games of the last generation.
05:23 At this point, I actually can't even remember if it's as much a bit as a genuine feeling,
05:28 but I do know how much of an impact this left on both me and Scott Telford.
05:32 That's because the sandbox brawler could've been nothing more than a shoddy tie-in to
05:36 cash in on the release of Mad Max Fury Road, which came out just a few months prior, but
05:40 it was way, way more than that, and could easily rub shoulders with the best in the
05:44 open-world genre at the time.
05:46 Its death sentence came from releasing on the same day as Metal Gear Solid V though,
05:51 which completely overshadowed this risky purchase in comparison.
05:55 That absolutely sucks though, because Mad Max was and is so much fun.
05:59 What made it so special and charming was the way it blended the surprisingly gorgeous sandbox
06:04 with the core gameplay staples of post-apocalyptic living.
06:07 Everything here is purposeful, the action is tight, and crafting your own magnum opus
06:12 Deathbringer car never gets old.
06:15 Number 5 - Max Payne 3
06:17 Speaking of the rare things that me and Scott Telford actually agree on, let's talk about
06:21 Max Payne 3.
06:22 Now there are some people out there who think that Max Payne 3 simply shouldn't exist,
06:27 and that it spits patooey on the quality of the first two titles that Remedy created.
06:31 However, those people are wrong.
06:33 Rockstar took the reins of the franchise following that second game and injected it with their
06:37 own brand of detail-orientated design.
06:40 The effort the studio usually puts into delivering massive, dense open-worlds was filtered into
06:45 a linear third-person shooter, and it resulted in one of the most tactile, visceral action
06:49 games ever.
06:50 Though the deliberateness won't be for everyone, there's something so undeniably satisfying
06:54 about accounting for Max's weight and position that makes pulling off those sick, gravity-defying
06:59 slow-motion kills feel even better.
07:01 Throw in a killer story that rivals any action flick, and Max Payne 3 shouldn't be slept
07:05 on by any shooter fan.
07:07 Number 4 - The Evil Within 2
07:10 At the start of 2019, every video game fan and critic hailed Resident Evil 2 as bringing
07:15 the survival horror genre back from the brink.
07:18 And that was always weird to me, because The Evil Within 2, in my opinion, did that exact
07:23 same thing years prior and nobody cared.
07:26 The original game was a rough-around-the-edges charmer, but this sequel raised the bar in
07:30 every way.
07:31 It was spookier, the story was better, the gunplay tighter and enemies nastier, and even
07:35 better it introduced a semi-open-world structure that somehow complemented the horror elements
07:40 and made the experience even scarier.
07:42 The best thing you can say about The Evil Within 2 though, is that it actively makes
07:46 the original a better game in hindsight.
07:49 The plot points it picks up, the motifs it repeats and enemies that return are all deepened
07:54 and granted greater significance and it's generally just a great survival horror experience
07:59 that you can now even play in first person if you want.
08:02 Number 3 - Before Your Eyes
08:04 Right, if you've watched even a few of my videos this year, you'll probably know that
08:08 Before Your Eyes is my latest obsession.
08:11 But while I've boasted about it in its own editorial, please permit me to chat about
08:15 it just one more time because I couldn't leave it off this list.
08:19 Before Your Eyes was always destined to be a cult hit.
08:22 It's only available on PC and the gameplay is based mostly around your webcam.
08:27 See, this game chronicles the entire life of a man called Benny told from a first-person
08:31 perspective.
08:32 However, the gimmick is that every time you blink in real life, you skip forward in Benny's
08:37 life, meaning that you're unlikely to see everything the game has to offer as you're
08:41 always cutting things off too early.
08:42 It's more than just a gimmick though.
08:45 The story of Benny's life is unsurprisingly a tragic one and this framing device gives
08:50 it a sense of urgency and fatalism that makes the final moments so emotionally charged.
08:55 The writing is spot on, characters are well drawn and scenarios are memorable and it makes
08:59 for one of the most moving things you'll ever experience.
09:03 Number 2 - Control
09:05 It absolutely sucks that Control has already well and truly cemented itself as a hidden
09:10 gem and not the genuine smash hit that it could have been.
09:13 Whether it was the marketing or a general disinterest from the audience is unclear,
09:16 but Remedy's latest shooter hasn't broken out of its little niche corner of the industry,
09:21 which is a travesty considering that it has some of the slickest combat mechanics in recent
09:25 memory.
09:26 Once you nab all the powers in Control, fighting enemies almost feels godly.
09:30 Hovering around areas, telekinetically picking up chunks of the environment and then launching
09:35 them into a huddle of goons while picking the remainder off with an alien shape-shifting
09:39 gun makes for one of those gameplay loops that should get old after 8 hours but somehow
09:44 never does.
09:45 It never stops being so satisfying.
09:47 That's only one part of the overall excellent puzzle though, it's the setting that really
09:52 shine as the mysteries of the Older's house pose fascinating questions and that signature
09:57 Remedy charm runs throughout the veins of this creepy building.
10:00 Games in 2019 had a major personality problem and Control stuck two fingers up to that and
10:05 embraced the weirdness.
10:07 Number 1 - Splinter Cell Blacklist
10:09 There hasn't been a new Splinter Cell game in nearly a decade now, which stings doubly
10:14 because the last installment, Blacklist, was such a confident step in a new direction for
10:19 the series.
10:20 Coming towards the tail end of the 360 era, Blacklist followed up the controversial Conviction
10:24 attempting to blend that title's action-orientated approach to stealth with the classical, methodical
10:30 approach of the original trilogy.
10:32 Though franchises suffering an identity crisis have tried and failed to find a harmonious
10:36 balance before, looking at you Resident Evil 6, Ubisoft's efforts surprisingly paid off
10:41 here.
10:42 If you wanted a more active, aggressive approach, the level design accommodated for that while
10:45 also providing the ability to take it slow and ghost your way through areas.
10:49 The focus was always on player choice and it made for an inventive stealth game at a
10:53 time where the genre was sadly no longer in vogue.
10:56 A remake of the first game is on the way but should Ubisoft greenlight a sequel proper,
11:01 it should build on these foundations.
11:27 it.