for the little things you might have missed
In the end, Black Mesa draws power from that limitation; it clarifies and rewires Half-Life's undercooked tale of invasion and colonization — one that continues with humanity itself colonized by an unimaginable cosmic empire. In that sense, Gordon arriving to Xen with his arsenal of weapons feels fitting; in a year like 2020, it should be clearer than ever that the mistakes, evils, and constraints of the past always ripple forward into the present and future.
For all its complexity, summing up Deus Ex in a single word is simple: conspiracies. The game's plot features a series of nested conspiracies, all run through one central, iconic switchboard: the Illuminati. By way of government organizations and private industry, the Illuminati pulls the world's strings from the shadows, directing the future by influencing the present. And the present — of 2052 and, as it turns out, 2020 — features a deadly respiratory virus sowing fear and death across the globe.
Perhaps that title is a bit paradoxical, since this is, by definition, no longer a list of the best games of 2018. But I'm of the opinion that recency bias has a bit too much leverage in our blink-and-you'll-miss-it world, so let's start 2019 right by rolling that back juuuust a bit.
Sunset Over Ithaca 