I think my top game of 2020 has to go to Spelunky 2. It really is a super refined and improved version of the first Spelunky game, but the changes and the new content makes it markedly better than an already close-to-perfect game. Spelunky 2 really is mechanics within mechanics upon other mechanics. Each entity in each level reacts with every other entity and the fact that each run is randomly generated is mind-blowing. I can easily see myself booting up Spelunky 2 for at least a couple runs a day for all of 2021.
Number two for me goes to Call of Duty: Warzone. This is the game I sunk the most hours into this year and is a rare example of me willingly going out of my way to partner up with friends or strangers in the multiplayer mode of something. It's the best Battle Royale I've played - not as casual as a Fortnite but not as hardcore as a PUBG. A beautiful combination of the two.
One of the most woefully underappreciated games of the year, in my opinion, is my number three pick for best game of 2020 - Wasteland 3. As someone who absolutely loved Divinity: Original Sin 2 but was really intimidated and inundated with how absolutely dense that game is, Wasteland 3 was perfect for me. It hit every positive that Divinity did but just in a more accessible way that really made me take my time, enjoy the world and appreciate the combat. Also it legitimately has some of the funniest writing I've ever experienced in a videogame. Also fully voice acted!
Cyberpunk 2077 takes my #4. I'm still deep into this game and I am really enjoying myself - some of the actual side-quests in this game really do rival main story quests in other RPG's. The combat, once I got a few levels in and unlocked some abilities - is a lot of fun too. I really hope CDPR can hammer out the bugs and continue improving this game and releasing more content for it for a long time to come.
Number 5 goes to Crusader Kings III for one simple reason, really - it's maybe the first time I haven't had any trouble getting into a grand strategy game without having to do hours of research on forums and beginners YouTube videos. I'm sure a lot of diehared CK fans probably hate how accessible CK3 is, but that ease of playability for a total newbie to the genre is what kept me coming back. Never before has losing a game and being forced to start over been so satisfying.
Fall Guys takes my number 6 spot. It's just a fun game to play. It's easy to get into a game (when the servers are working) and it's one of those games that is easy to learn but hard to master. Someone can take Fall Guys casually or completely hardcore serious and both players can enjoy a similar amount of success. I hope they continue putting out fun new updates for a while.
My number 7 game of the year is Ghost of Tsushima. As someone who got a PS4 pretty late in its lifespan, Tsushima is really the first time I got to experience a rich single-player, Sony first-party game - you know the kind. It's also the first Assassin's Creed-esque kind of action RPG I've played in a while after being burnt out on that kind of game and it was nice to just have a ton of markers on a map to go check out. Also, I'm not sure if everyone felt this way, but I loved the combat system in the game.
I don't know if this counts, but my #8 game of the year was Persona 5: Royal because it took one of my favorite RPG games of all time and made it unbelievably better just by adding some quality of life changes and coating everything in a nice, updated polish. Honestly, the extra semester included with this version of Persona 5 really didn't mean as much to me as the changes they made to the base game. I have recommended people get this game instead of the base version and I'll continue to do so.
Number 9 goes to Risk of Rain 2, a sequel to a game I put easily over 100 hours in to across many years. When this game was still in early access, I was a bit disappointed that I felt the game literally was just Risk of Rain 1 in a 3D environment. Luckily, I think the game has come a long way since then and can now stand on its own. It's just as addicting as the first game and each subsequent update just ups the quality even more.
And finally, #10 on my list goes to Star Wars: Squadrons. I picked this game up on a whim as kind of a timewaster, but really got sucked in to how fun the core gameplay is and how well it played. If this game gets a lot of post-release love for a good long while, it has a chance to be one of the best Star Wars games of all time.
Also it absolutely does not count since no main part of this game was released in 2020, but I'd like to give an honorable mention to Final Fantasy XIV. It's the first MMORPG I ever got into and I've put over 500 hours into it since working from home this year. I did most of the base game on my own but finally found a fantastic guild with an active and friendly community that made that expansions to the game fly by quick. Love it and will play it for a long, long time.
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