108 PCWorld AUGUST 2019FEATURE THE BEST PC GAMES OF 2019 (SO FAR)
dramatic player-driven storytelling you want
from a strategy game, old rivals dueling on the
battlefield and trusted advisers stabbing you in
the back at a crucial moment.
And for those who don’t want any of that?
The “Records” mode gives you the old Total War
experience, albeit with a far deeper diplomacy
system than any in recent memory. It’s a best-of-
both-worlds situation, and easily the best
historical Total War since 2011’s Shogun 2.OBSERVATION
TRAILER: GO.PCWORLD.COM/OBSER
“Observation is kind of 2001: A Space
Odyssey—but you’re HAL.” I maintain you
only need that single-sentence description
from No Code’s lead writer Jon McKellan to
know whether Observation (go.pcworld.
com/obse) might be up your alley.
You are Systems Administration & Mainte-
nance, or SAM for short—the artificial intelli-
gence aboard a space station that ends up farfrom home, with no record of how it happened.
Building on the work it did with Stories Untold,
No Code’s made another love letter to analog
and early-digital technology, tasking you with
unraveling the mystery of the space station’s
mysterious journey from the confines of the
ship’s security cameras and computer systems.
And while it’s a novel mechanic, Observation’s
New Weird-story (with hints of Annihilation ) is
really what keeps you hooked. It goes places.VOID BASTARDS
TRAILER: GO.PCWORLD.COM/VOB
Moment-to-moment, Void Bastards is like an
infinitely replayable System Shock, as you trawl
through a series of abandoned spaceships for
food, fuel, and ammo. Each ship incursion
takes maybe five minutes, with randomized
elements like “No Power” adding additional
hurdles—and enemies that get more difficult as
you go deeper into the Nebula.
But your goals are nonsense like “Find a Line
Printer,” with which you’ll create an ID card thatObservationVoid Bastards