Some enemies are even invulnerable to damage unless you perform a specific counter at a specific time, which is something you don’t expect in a Doom game.įights are still, for the most part, unbearably tense and hectic. Enemies have weak points to target and weapons that you can disable, so sometimes it’s worth finding a spare half-second in the heat of battle to pause, aim, and hit your shot, because it will save you a lot of pain later. But, at times, it’s also about restraint. It’s an over-the-top celebration of guts and gore in which you chainsaw enemies in half, rip eyeballs from sockets and stomp on demon’s faces with a giant boot. With new weapons, a more agile Doomguy, and a fresh emphasis on resource management (yes, you read that correct), Doom Eternal (opens in new tab) somehow 1UPs Doom 2016, which was already deserving of a spot on this list. While Monster Hunter Rise doesn’t beat Monster Hunter World, it’s also a great game, made greater by the addition of the Sunbreak DLC, which adds reams of new content to the game similar to what Iceborn did to World. If you’ve already been playing Monster Hunter World for a while, chances are you’ve moved on to its sequel Monster Hunter Rise. Plus, finding clues about monsters will automatically lead you to their location, meaning you can travel between its excellent fights faster than ever. A generous loot system means that, even when you’re grinding for a particular armor set, you’re constantly picking up useful items you didn’t know you wanted. With 14 weapon types and hundreds of items to craft, climbing the gear tree can feel overwhelming, but it’s still the most accessible Monster Hunter to date. The monsters are huge yet elegant, and both learning and countering their moveset makes it feel more like a fighting game than a button-mashing hack-and-slash. Its gorgeous maps – from the bright, enchanted Coral Highlands to the toxic clouds of shrouded unbelly of the Rotted Vale – are fitting backdrops for some properly brilliant fights. Monster Hunter: World (opens in new tab) is an elaborate, extravagant game about slaying huge beasts and turning their tails into axes. Hard West offers a world you want to spend time in, even though you might spend a lot of that time restarting missions. It's a difficult game, but also a delightfully weird one, with trains moving along on giant insect legs and cowboys slinging curses. Plenty of mechanics you use to achieve victory are modeled after the theme, such as trick shots and bravado, which refills your action points upon a successful kill, leading to massive kill streaks if you play your cards right. Hard West 2, not to be confused with Weird West, is a tactical strategy game with environments so big and enemies so numerous that only a, well, really tactical approach will get you through. Weird Western is a genre that appears in games much less than you’d think, but when it does and we get games as good as Hard West 2, that’s okay. Thankfully there’s space for more than one Wild West tactics game in this town, or we would have to do without Hard West 2, the spiritual sequel to the first game from 2015. (Image credit: Good Shepherd Entertainment)