Having wrapped up my time with For Honor not too long ago, I’ve been thinking about what game I’ll work on next. Most likely I’ll be playing either Transistor or the remake of Shadow of the Colossus but part of me has been feeling the desire lately to replay some titles that I finished in the last few years. While I know that I’m currently in no position to go back to these games—my job, adult responsibilities, and the big list of unplayed new games are making sure that I don’t have time to do that—I thought maybe doing a writing piece on those games would in some way partially satisfy the urge I’m feeling. Below are five of the games I’ve been thinking about replaying lately. Four of these games I’ve written about in the past for my Late to the Party series and I’ve included links to their corresponding posts in the games’ titles.

 

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition

For whatever reason, the last two Grand Theft Auto games didn’t hook me but I couldn’t get enough of Sleeping Dogs when it first came out during the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 console generation. Although it was from the well-worn genre of open-world crime drama games, Sleeping Dogs felt strangely fresh, perhaps because of the game’s setting in Hong Kong and that it placed a heavy emphasis on hand-to-hand fighting. Back around the start of the PlayStation 4/Xbox One generation a remastered edition of Sleeping Dogs was released and I’d love to again be running around Hong Kong and kicking thugs in the face.

 

Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst

The original Mirror’s Edge was a somewhat flawed but very novel game that left many gamers including myself clamoring for a sequel. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst wasn’t quite as good as we had all hoped but it was a big step forward from the first game and came close to realizing the full potential of the Mirror’s Edge concept. I know that the Mirror’s Edge games aren’t the biggest sellers so I’m extremely thankful developer DICE put in the time and money to make a game that they probably knew wasn’t going to be a huge hit.

 

Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs may have had a fairly generic protagonist but its game mechanics were very fun. Set in a near-future Chicago in which much of the city is run by a central operating system, in Watch Dogs you are a vigilante who has managed to hack that system and can turn Chicago into your own tool while on a quest for revenge. In 2016 a sequel to Watch Dogs was released and it’s on my list of games to eventually play but I feel the desire to go back to Chicago and replay the original game first.

 

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

I had never played a Tomb Raider game until the remastered version of 2013’s Tomb Raider came out but it was a good place to jump in. Tomb Raider is a reboot of the long-running series and gives a new origin story to protagonist Lara Croft. The first hour or so is kind of disturbing but after that it gets really good and even though Tomb Raider is derivative of the Uncharted games that’s not a bad thing since it’s taking inspiration from some of the best games of the last decade.

 

Batman: Arkham Knight

With Batman: Arkham Knight we got the culmination of arguably the best series of super hero video games ever made. Having played the Arkham games since the beginning I can tell you that Arkham Knight is an extremely satisfying conclusion to the series and it’s still one of my favorite games of the current console generation. The level of polish on this game is nothing short of staggering. While it was sad for the Arkham series to have come to an end, with Arkham Knight it went out on a very high note and I really want to return to Gotham City at some point in the future.