Atom RPG was already released in December 2018 so I gues it wouldn't qualify as a game of the year anymore
I didn't play it yet as I was waiting for the German Fan Translation but it looks amazing.
Here is the games I played so far:
Aeon of Sands (2018): Very interesting looking crawler with a very distinct art style and a dynamic story. I really didn't like the level design and the core gameplay / the fighting though.
Jagged Alliance: Rage! (2018): Another one of the horrible attempts to make money out of the JA license. Don't know if they succeeded with that, but the game is pretty bad.
Elex (2016): Did a great job in mixing Fantasy, Science Fiction and Post Apocalyptic Settings in interestingly designed open world. The combat wasn't amazing, but as long as you didn't use meelee it was fine.
I'd recommend this game.
Grimshade (2019): Very linear RPG with good tactical battles and a rather unique setting. Only first part of a series and ending is very open.
The game is fine but the ending is so open and feels cut off, that I wouldn't really recommend it until it's clear that the story is continued with a sequel.
Pathway (2019): Another attempt to get some of the FTL glory in the rogue-lite genre. Was really looking forward to that one. Unfortunately it failed to deliver. While it has amazing capabilities with it's graphics, they are only used to be shown in small scene pictures. The combat gets repetitive extremely fast and the resource management of the main map didn't work at all. Not sure what they changed with patches. But at least from my experience in may it's not a game I can recommend.
Dead Age (2019): Very basic and somewhat cheap looking rogue-lite. It's the exact opposite of pathway. It's presentation sucks, but it's mechanics and balancing work for the most part. Not the most awesome game, but
if you like the genre, I recommend it.
Druidstone (2019): It's not more of an RPG than XCom, so it doesn't really fit that well into this list. Combat is great if you do all optional objectives right away, as the balance will otherwise break. Not very convincing story.
If you like tactical gameplay with some puzzle elements, a bit like "Into the Breach" or "Massive Chalice", this could be for you and
it's recommended.
The Bard's Tale Trilogy (2019): The remaster of the original trilogy. I'd say the remaster itself is fine. The feature improvements are good with various options, the graphics are ok, the music/sound is pretty bad though. But what is worst about this game is actually what was taken over from the original game: Horrible combat and equally horrible dungeon design and character development. It opened my eyes about how far RPGs evolved from the 80s to the 90s. If you want to have a look into the original game for historical reason, you might want to take a look. Otherwise I cannot recommend it.
Depth of Extinction (2018): Mixes roguelike elements with tactical gameplay of Xcom (and character development along the newer xcom titles). It's quite unpolished and rough around the edges. However it's core gameplay, the combat is a lot of fun.
Only if you are fine with constantly being reminded that this game is still somewhat in development even though it was released over a year ago, it can be somewhat recommended.
Legends of Amberland (2019): A very simple but nice open world blobber. A bit repetitive at times. If you are ok with a game which is a bit more simple
I can recommend it.
Queen's Wish: The Conqueror (2019): Another one of Spiderwebs games. The new feature, the "base building" doesn't work well, and the story seems very constructed. While I prefer the fully open Avernum games and even most Avadon games as this series has a more interesting story, Queen's Wish still offers good writing (not overall story), and solid gameplay (though much easier than previous games). Not Vogel's best work, but
I still recommend it.
Made a review (in German) of all these games (except of Queen's wish, which I am still playing). And you can find links on my homepage at
http://ndnw.net/GameDB/GameDB.php
But to give a summary of my ratings:
Rating Equals a rating in 100% system of:
Just Bad 0%-54%
Rather Bad 55%-64%
Neutral 65%-69%
Rather Good 70%-74%
Thumbs Up 75%-89%
Gold 90%-100%
Gold
Thumbs Up
Rather Good
Neutral
Rather Bad
Just Bad
- Elex Grimshade Pathway Aeon of Sands: The Trail Jagged Alliance: Rage!
Dead Age Depth of Extinction The Bard's Tale Trilogy
Druidstone
Legends of Amberland
Queen's Wish
Considering that there is no "Gold" rated game, and the only "Thumbs Up" rated game which is from 2016, I cannot say that 2019 was an awesome RPG gaming year so far.
At least there is some choice in the Rather Good category…