Best Adventure Games 2019

Some years in gaming arrive with a loud explosion. Others sneak in, steal your free time, and quietly turn your backlog into a full-time landlord. 2019 was the second kind. It did not belong to one single giant adventure game that swallowed the whole conversation. Instead, it gave players a buffet of wildly different experiences: cosmic mysteries, surreal office nightmares, elegant horror, ridiculous goose-based terrorism, and enough sword fights to keep your thumbs in therapy.

If you are searching for the best adventure games 2019 had to offer, this is the sweet spot where story, exploration, mood, and memorable world design all meet. Some of these games lean heavily into action-adventure. Others are narrative-driven, puzzle-rich, or exploration-first. But they all share one thing: they take players somewhere worth getting lost in.

This list is not just a nostalgia trip with prettier lighting. It is a practical guide to the games from 2019 that still deserve your attention today. Whether you play on PC, PS4, Xbox One, or Nintendo Switch, these titles prove that a great adventure game does not age like milk left on a dashboard. It ages like a favorite leather jacket: a little worn, a little cooler, and somehow better every time you put it on.

Why 2019 Was Such a Strong Year for Adventure Games

Adventure games in 2019 refused to stay in one lane. That was the magic. Big-budget releases borrowed smart ideas from indies. Smaller games delivered stronger emotional payoffs than many blockbusters. Exploration was no longer just about bigger maps. It was about better curiosity.

Instead of asking players to simply walk farther, the best 2019 adventure games asked them to think deeper, notice more, and care harder. One game turned a time loop into a masterclass in discovery. Another made office hallways feel more unsettling than a haunted mansion. A different one let you play as a goose whose life mission was apparently “minor inconvenience, major chaos.” Truly, art comes in many forms.

The result was a year packed with story-driven games, action-adventure games, puzzle exploration games, sci-fi adventures, and emotional narrative journeys. If your taste runs from spooky to silly, from cinematic to experimental, 2019 had receipts.

10 Best Adventure Games of 2019 Worth Playing

1. Outer Wilds

If 2019 had a patron saint of curiosity, it was Outer Wilds. This space adventure drops you into a tiny solar system full of secrets and says, in effect, “Good luck, astronaut. Try not to panic beautifully.” The game is built around exploration, environmental storytelling, and knowledge-based progress. You are not grinding for gear or chasing map icons. You are learning, connecting clues, and slowly understanding a universe that feels alive, fragile, and profoundly strange.

What makes it special is how it trusts the player. The story unfolds through ruins, recordings, and discoveries that click together like cosmic dominoes. Every revelation feels earned. Every planet has its own personality, from eerie to hilarious to absolutely not OSHA-compliant. Among the best 2019 adventure games, Outer Wilds stands out because it makes wonder feel mechanical. Discovery is the gameplay. That is a rare trick, and it lands beautifully.

2. Control

Control is what happens when someone mixes paranormal horror, brutalist architecture, and a filing cabinet full of weirdness, then decides, “Yes, this should absolutely be a game.” You play as Jesse Faden, a woman searching for answers inside the shifting headquarters of a secret federal agency. That building, known as the Oldest House, is one of the best settings of the decade: creepy, stylish, and full of the kind of bureaucratic madness that makes fluorescent lights feel threatening.

As an adventure game, Control succeeds because exploration is never just filler. The world is layered with lore, side missions, hidden spaces, and visual storytelling that reward curiosity. Combat is flashy and satisfying, but the real hook is atmosphere. The whole game hums with mystery. It feels like wandering through a supernatural case file after three cups of coffee and one terrible decision. If you like your action-adventure games smart, eerie, and deeply stylish, this is a must-play.

3. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Yes, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is punishing. It is also brilliant. While many players remember it for its demanding combat, Sekiro earns its place on a best adventure games list because its world design, pacing, and sense of discovery are exceptional. Every new area feels dangerous in a way that heightens exploration. Every shortcut feels like survival poetry.

The game trades the role-playing sprawl of some FromSoftware titles for something sharper and more focused. The result is a tightly crafted action-adventure where movement, vertical exploration, and swordplay all feed into one another. You are not merely wandering through feudal Japan-inspired landscapes. You are mastering them inch by inch. Few 2019 games delivered a stronger sense of progression, and even fewer made victory taste this satisfying. It is the gaming equivalent of getting punched in the face by excellence.

4. Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 2 proved that remakes do not have to be museum pieces. This reimagining of the 1998 classic feels modern, confident, and terrifying in all the right ways. It combines survival horror with exploration, puzzle-solving, and route planning, creating an adventure that is as tense as it is addictive.

The Raccoon City Police Department remains one of gaming’s great labyrinths, and the remake turns it into a pressure cooker of dread. You are constantly balancing ammo, keys, herbs, locked doors, and your own fragile courage. The brilliance of the game is how it makes every hallway matter. You learn the map the way people learn neighborhoods: through fear, repetition, and a growing awareness of where the bad decisions live. For players who love horror adventure games, Resident Evil 2 is one of 2019’s sharpest achievements.

5. Death Stranding

Some people played Death Stranding and thought, “This is genius.” Others thought, “I am delivering packages in the apocalypse and somehow still stressed about work.” Both reactions are fair. But there is no denying that it was one of 2019’s most distinctive adventure games.

At its core, Death Stranding is about traversal. Crossing hostile terrain becomes the drama. Mountains are not background decoration; they are problems. Rivers are not pretty; they are negotiations. That design choice gives the game a rhythm unlike almost anything else in the genre. It is slower, stranger, and more reflective than most blockbusters, but that is exactly why it works. The world feels lonely and connected at the same time. If your idea of a great adventure game includes atmosphere, bold ideas, and the occasional ladder crisis, Death Stranding delivers.

6. A Plague Tale: Innocence

A Plague Tale: Innocence is one of the most emotionally grounded games on this list. Set in a brutal medieval world, it follows siblings Amicia and Hugo as they struggle to survive war, disease, and more rats than any sane human should ever have to process. It blends stealth, light puzzle-solving, and narrative momentum into a tightly focused adventure that never overstays its welcome.

What makes it memorable is the relationship at its center. The game is not trying to impress you with map size or endless activities. It is trying to make you care. And it does. The environments are grim but striking, the tension is constant, and the pacing keeps the story moving without sacrificing emotion. In a year full of flashy releases, A Plague Tale stood out by being intimate, elegant, and genuinely affecting.

7. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

For fans of cinematic exploration, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a welcome surprise. It combines lightsaber combat, platforming, backtracking, and world design inspired by Metroid-style progression into one polished package. More importantly, it actually feels like an adventure instead of a checklist wearing a Jedi robe.

The planets are fun to revisit because new abilities unlock new routes, secrets, and shortcuts. The story moves at a satisfying clip, and the game captures the fantasy of being a resourceful underdog in the Star Wars universe. It does not reinvent the genre, but it executes its ideas with confidence and care. Sometimes that is exactly what players want: a well-made, story-rich adventure where you can wall-run, parry, and dramatically ignite a lightsaber like your rent depends on it.

8. The Outer Worlds

The Outer Worlds brought sharp writing, flexible role-playing, and satirical sci-fi flavor to 2019 in a way that felt refreshing rather than bloated. While it is technically an RPG, it absolutely belongs in the conversation about the best adventure games of 2019 because exploration and narrative choice drive so much of the experience.

The game’s worlds are not gigantic, but they are dense with character, dialogue, and quests that respect player agency. The writing is funny without becoming exhausting, and its corporate-space satire gives the whole adventure a distinctive voice. You are not just moving through levels; you are shaping how this oddball future responds to you. In an era when many games confused size with depth, The Outer Worlds reminded players that compact design and strong storytelling can still hit hard.

9. Untitled Goose Game

Every serious list needs one game that looks you straight in the eye and says, “Would you like to ruin a gardener’s morning?” Untitled Goose Game is that masterpiece. On paper, it sounds like a joke. In practice, it is one of the smartest and funniest adventure games of the year.

You move through a small village solving stealth-puzzle objectives by being a complete feathered menace. The controls are simple, the comedy is physical, and the structure is elegant. It is playful without being shallow. Every area is a little puzzle box of reactions, timing, and manipulation. Better still, it understands restraint. It never turns chaos into noise. It keeps things focused, charming, and gloriously ridiculous. The result is a game that became an instant cultural moment for good reason.

10. Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium sits at the edge of several genres, but its investigation, dialogue, and world-building give it a powerful adventure-game soul. You play as a detective trying to solve a murder while also trying to understand yourself, your past, and the ideological mess around you. Casual stuff.

This is not an action-heavy game. It is a thinking, reading, role-playing adventure built on choice, consequence, and some of the best writing in modern games. The city feels dense with history, politics, humor, sadness, and absurdity. Every conversation can surprise you. Every decision reveals something uncomfortable or brilliant. For players who want a story-first experience with real depth, Disco Elysium remains one of 2019’s essential titles.

How to Choose the Right 2019 Adventure Game for You

If you want mystery and discovery, start with Outer Wilds. If you love stylish action and creepy world-building, pick Control. If you crave a challenge, Sekiro is ready to humble you. For emotional storytelling, go with A Plague Tale: Innocence. For cinematic sci-fi weirdness, Death Stranding or The Outer Worlds are excellent bets. And if your ideal evening includes low-stakes chaos and high-level honking, the goose is waiting.

The best part about revisiting the best adventure games of 2019 is that there is almost no wrong answer. This was a year where adventure gaming stretched in multiple directions at once and somehow got stronger because of it.

What Playing the Best Adventure Games of 2019 Actually Felt Like

One reason 2019 still matters is that these games were not memorable only because they reviewed well. They were memorable because they created specific, lasting experiences. The feeling of playing them was different from game to game, yet they all shared that rare quality of making time disappear. You sit down intending to play for thirty minutes, and suddenly it is much later, your snack is gone, and you are emotionally invested in a goose, a detective, or a person carrying cargo across a broken America. That is adventure-game sorcery.

Outer Wilds felt like curiosity turned into motion. You would notice a small clue, chase it to a different planet, uncover a new piece of history, and then realize the entire solar system was one giant idea waiting to be understood. The experience was not about overpowering enemies or collecting better gear. It was about that delicious brain-spark moment when scattered details suddenly formed a pattern. Few games make players feel as clever and as tiny at the same time.

Control, by contrast, felt like walking into a dream that had hired an architect. Every room had the energy of a place where the copier might be cursed and HR had simply accepted it. The joy came from pushing forward just to see what impossible thing the game would show next. A hallway might twist. A threshold might dump you somewhere uncanny. A side mission might casually become one of the coolest set pieces in the entire game. It was weird in a confident way, and that confidence made exploring thrilling.

Sekiro delivered a very different sensation: tension sharpened into focus. The experience of playing it was less “relaxing adventure” and more “respectfully screaming at your television.” But that pressure created one of the strongest feedback loops of 2019. Every area learned you before you learned it. Then, gradually, the balance shifted. You got faster, smarter, calmer. The world did not become less dangerous. You simply became more worthy of moving through it.

Then there were the games that hit emotionally through smaller gestures. A Plague Tale: Innocence made simple movement through hostile spaces feel protective and personal. Disco Elysium turned dialogue into excavation, as if every conversation were a shovel hitting buried truth. Untitled Goose Game made people laugh because its experience was instantly readable: sneak, steal, honk, flee, repeat. Elegant design often looks simple from the outside, but these games showed how difficult it is to make a feeling land so cleanly.

That is the real legacy of the best adventure games of 2019. They were not only fun to complete; they were rich to inhabit. They gave players stories, moods, systems, and worlds that felt distinct from one another. In a medium that sometimes confuses bigger with better, 2019 reminded everyone that the strongest adventures are the ones that leave a fingerprint on your memory. Years later, that fingerprint is still there.

Final Thoughts

The best adventure games 2019 gave players variety without sacrificing quality. They proved that adventure can mean many things: exploration, survival, comedy, horror, mystery, or introspection. It can happen in deep space, inside a haunted office tower, in a plague-ridden countryside, or in a quiet village that has absolutely done nothing to deserve a goose.

If you are building a must-play list of modern adventure games, 2019 deserves a dedicated shelf. Not because every title was perfect, but because so many of them were memorable in totally different ways. That kind of range is rare. And when a gaming year gives you cosmic awe, emotional storytelling, excellent world design, and top-tier honking, you respect the year.