Games of 2019: Action Games

The List God wants ACTION. Who doesn’t? From action movies on TV, to rushing around trying to get ready before some big event, there’s something inherently exciting about exploring, looking around, fighting, and running.

2019 is a brand new year, and with it comes a whole bunch of brand new video games. Today we’re celebrating the coming year in action games, a baggy genre that includes everything from hack-and-slash top-down adventures to third-person boss encounter games. Here’s all the upcoming action games we’re excited to get our adventurous little hands on.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes

Switch

Grasshopper Manufacture, January 18th 2019

A gameplay departure from previous No More Heroes games, Travis Strikes Again exchanges the third person action combat of the original games for a series of new game types all themed around classic games. From top-down hack-and-slash combat, to racing games, the story sees Travis travel between different game worlds trying to avoid being forever trapped inside a console.

Here’s the Kotaku review.


God Eater 3

PS4, PC

Marvellous, February 8th 2019

God Eater 3 is an over-the-top action game, about hunting down JRPG-style monsters with action game mechanics. Think of the series as basically being anime Monster Hunter: you track down and defeat huge anime beasts in order to create new armour and weapons, to continue killing bigger and better creatures.

In terms of gameplay changes from past entries, God Eater 3 introduces dual-wielding, a new weapon type not seen in the series before. And doesn’t it look spiffing with it?


Devil May Cry 5

PC, PS4, Xbox One

Capcom, March 8th 2019

Devil May Cry 5 is an action game where you can basically fire a laser out of your robot arm so big that it explodes, then just stick on another arm and keep on fighting. It’s exaggerated, over-the-top, and all the better for it.

The game sees the return of series protagonists Nero and Dante, as well as a new playable character named V. You basically use stylish attacks to fight off armies of demons and honestly I just can’t wait.


Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

PC, PS4, Xbox One

FromSoftware, March 22nd 2019

A new game developed by FromSoft and published by Activision, Sekiro feels like it’s going to be a very different kind of game for the studio. Don’t go in expecting this to be the new Dark Souls; there’s no RPG elements, no multiplayer, you can stealth kill enemies, and the combat is focused on knocking enemies off-balance to get in a single fatal blow.

While it’s quite a change of pace for the studio, we’re excited to see what it can do with a new genre of action game, under the supervision of a publisher with different development priorities. We’ve seen plenty of Souls, so let’s see what else this team can do.


Shenmue 3

PC, PS4

Ys Net, August 27th 2019

Released 18 years after the last entry in the series, Shenmue 3 is a crowdfunded action adventure about a teenage martial artist trying to avenge his father’s killer. Set in Japan in the 1980s, the game is a combination of adventure-slash-RPG with martial arts combat, and likely a number of mini games designed to flesh out the world and environs.

Director Yu Suzuki has a fraction of the budget that the first two games could command, but series stalwarts will just hope that the 18 year (!) wait is somehow worth it.


Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One

WayForward, TBA 2019

Kickstarted a few years ago, Bloodstained is a new Metroidvania from Koji Igarashi, the man behind the Castlevania series. His first new game series after leaving Konami, the story follows a young girl trying to collect crystals from defeated demons, in order to avoid becoming a doorway for those demons to destroy the world.


Code Vein

PS4, PC, Xbox One

Bandai Namco, TBA 2019

If God Eater is Anime Monster Hunter, then Code Vein is Anime Dark Souls. You fight your way through semi linear, semi branching areas defeating enemies, collecting resources which are lost upon death and help you level up, before defeating big bosses to continue.

The entire game is played with an NPC companion by your side, and does have some interesting new ideas, like a dash attack which recharges some of your meters as well as dealing damage. Playing it for a considerable length of time, it does feel a lot like a Dark Souls game, just with emo protagonist teens everywhere. So we’re certainly excited to play more.


Luigi’s Mansion 3

Switch

Nintendo, TBA 2019

How much bad luck can Luigi get? In Luigi’s Mansion 3 our intrepid ghost hunter ends up in yet another haunted mansion, with yet more ghosts to capture. He’s clearly terrified, why not get someone else in to do the job?

While we know little about the game, it looks rather beautiful in the only short trailer shown so far, and if the past two entries are anything to go by it should be a lot of wacky fun.


Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Switch

Team Ninja, TBA 2019

Revealed at The Game Awards last year, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is being published by Nintendo, and as such is coming exclusively to the Switch. The game is an action adventure game where players get to play as a number of recognisable heroes from Marvel’s recognisable roster.

In the initial reveal trailer we got a look at a lot of characters present in the newest entry, including characters from The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, and Inhumans.


Psychonauts 2

PC, PS4, Xbox One

Double Fine, TBA 2019

The original Psychonauts is a cult classic adventure game about a summer camp for psychic kids who learn to travel inside minds to fix problems. Psychonauts 2 is a direct sequel, following the adventure of protagonist Raz as he graduates and becomes a full-blown Psychonaut, going on missions inside the minds of others.

While we’re a little way from release still, Double Fine’s work is usually of high quality and amusingly written, and hopefully this will be no exception.


Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

PC, PS4, Xbox One

Respawn, 2019

Developed by Titanfall developer Respawn, Fallen Order is a single player, story-based Star Wars game – of which we have not had a good one in quite some time. You’ll play a padawan who survived the culling at the end of Star Wars: Episode 3, and that’s more or less all we know now.

Still, Respawn knows how to make games that feel great to play, and a new single-player Star Wars game is just what I’ve been hoping for.


The Surge 2

PC

Deck13, TBA 2019

The original The Surge was a Dark Souls-style action-adventure game about carefully fighting tough enemies, with a twist. If you fought enemies correctly you could chop off their limbs, and use them yourself as part of your robotic exosuit.

While the original game had some issues, we’re excited to see if a sequel can deliver on the promise of the concept, and take the series from interesting idea to legitimately fun to play.


And there you have it, action lovers; all the best games of 2019 where you’ll get to run around and hit things in some form or another. Let us know in the comments if we missed any and what you are most looking forward to in 2019.

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