Summary
- 2010 was a great year for gaming, with standout titles like Heavy Rain, Fallout: New Vegas, and Red Dead Redemption.
- Heavy Rain revolutionized narrative-driven gaming, paving the way for games like Life Is Strange and The Walking Dead.
- Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption are iconic games that contributed to creating some of the best trilogies and series in gaming history.
In 2025, every video game released in 2010 will turn 15 years old. So, they won’t be quite adult age, but those people who played them on launch will start to feel old—if they don’t already. However, you should appreciate that you were gaming in 2010 since it was an excellent year for the industry in terms of game quality.
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A bunch of exceptional titles were released that year. There were a few big sequels that overshadowed their predecessors, some original titles that live long in the memory, and one game that helped usher in a wave of narrative adventure titles. Here are some of the most notable games of 2010.
8
Heavy Rain
- Released
-
February 23, 2010
- Engine
-
havok, physx
- ESRB
-
M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
Before Heavy Rain, the idea of a game filled with quick-time events and dialog choices without any traditional gameplay didn’t excite most gamers. Yet, Heavy Rain proved that a game like that could be great as long as the narrative was a compelling one.
Heavy Rain’s murder mystery surrounding a figure called The Origami Killer was certainly captivating. And since this title, the gaming world has seen plenty of titles of a similar ilk, including Life Is Strange and The Walking Dead. Those games may have still existed even without Heavy Rain, but they may not have gotten the same amount of attention if it hadn’t been for the popularity of the Quantic Dream title.
7
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Ezio Audtiore’s second adventure in the Assassin’s Creed series might not have been as important as his first, but it is just as good. To this day, Brotherhood remains one of the greatest entries in the AC universe.
As already mentioned, it stars the iconic and charismatic Ezio in the lead role. Fighting against him is Cesare Borgia, who proves to be one of the series’ best villains. Ubisoft’s beautiful re-creation of Rome is another great aspect of the title. Overall, it’s a well-rounded Assassin’s Creed game that lives long in the memories of fans of the series. In fact, some likely wish that they’d get more instalments like this one.
6
Fallout: New Vegas
It’s hard to say which is the best Fallout game since there are several wonderful entries in the series. That said, if you ask every Fallout fan to give their favorite, plenty would likely opt for New Vegas. After all, fans of the series constantly talk positively about it. The praise is deserved, as despite not being a numbered entry in the series, it includes one of the most interesting stories and an equally fascinating Wasteland to explore.
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The narrative starts as a straightforward revenge mission but soon gets more complicated and begins to involve the entire Wasteland. Your relationship with various factions and the choices you make have such a huge impact on how the story plays out. As such, it can go so many different ways.
5
Super Meat Boy
Xbox Live Arcade was a service on Xbox and Xbox 360 that focused on smaller downloadable games. While there were plenty of solid titles on the service, few made as big of a splash as Super Meat Boy.
The charming platformer about a hunk of meat attempting to save his girlfriend quickly became a classic indie title due to its clever level design and unique visual style. Avoiding hazards while controlling the piece of meat is very satisfying, as is completing some of the really hard levels that the game contains.
4
Mafia 2
A lot of open-world crime games are unfairly branded as GTA clones. This same stamp was put on the Mafia series. However, these games managed to rub that stamp off and become a strong series in its own right. Mafia 2 certainly helped with this by being a spectacular open-world action-adventure game.
Naturally for a game called ‘Mafia,’ it revolves around crime families in the 1940s. The time period is well represented through both the characters and the world. It all feels very authentic, and it’s a lot of fun to play.
3
Limbo
Because there are many, many video games in the world, there aren’t a lot that you can say are truly original and different from everything else out there. Yet, there are very few games like Limbo. Its use of a black-and-white color scheme and general creepiness is not seen in many other puzzle platformers.
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The color scheme, in particular, gives the game a unique visual style. It also contributes a bit to the gameplay, as the heavy use of black means you don’t always know what is in front of you. This adds to the previously mentioned creepiness, but perhaps not as much as the giant spider that stalks you during the game.
2
Mass Effect 2
The first three Mass Effect games form one of the greatest trilogies in gaming history. While each of the titles is wonderful in its own right, the second game is arguably the best. In it, you play as Commander Shepard as they build a team of specialists to take on an alien force.
Getting to know and bond with your companions is one of the best aspects of the game. Each one starts as a stranger, but you can get to know them very well by the end of the experience. Creating a deep bond with teammates in games wasn’t an entirely new concept in 2010, but Mass Effect 2 did it better than almost anything else at the time. It’s truly an iconic action RPG.
1
Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar used to release games a lot more often back in the 2000s. So, a non-GTA title from the company in 2010 wasn’t that strange. Red Dead Redemption wasn’t an ordinary Rockstar release, though. It was one of the only ones to at least come close to matching the popularity of the Grand Theft Auto games.
Therefore, while there might never be another L.A. Noire title, there has already been a Red Dead Redemption 2, and there are likely to be more entries in the future. This all started because of the greatness of the first Red Dead Redemption. It’s one of the best Western games of all time due to its strong storytelling and detailed world.
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