Game of the Year 2020
The Top 10 Games that "hang" in 2020.
List items
-
Supergiant was one of the first truly indie devs to reach mainstream success, and probably the one indie developer that has switched across to reach the consciousness of the general public and maybe more "casual" gamers (fuck that term, but you know what I mean right?). Every single one of their games is different, but build upon what made the former so great. Between them is a narrow gulf, and they are all punctuated by just inch-perfect mechanics. Hades thrives as *the* roguelike in a world of roguelikes. It has consigned greater games to the trash-heap of history and separated the wheat from the chaff. I'm using these aphorisms on purpose, as to demonstrate exactly the polar opposite of what makes Hades truly great: the writing. Its interactive storytelling is a joy to behold in a game where you are designed to die a lot, a hell of a lot. When you just get Hades, man it gets you back. I've "finished" it twice, with countless runs made - it counts for you, phew, 104 - yet still have not seen repeat dialogue from a God or a companion. Truly incredible work from a studio at the peak of its game. I mean, Spelunky 2 and the Rogue Legacy 2 Early Access dropped this year, and I haven't touched either (or Dead Cells) since Hades dropped into 1.0. I picked it up in early access on the epic store when it first dropped but intentionally didn't play it until release. I'm glad I waited, and it's perfect on switch too. I'm just glad I modded my own switch joy-cons to have a proper d-pad and analogue sticks that aren't super fucking trash.
-
P4G was the first Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) game that I ever played, I loved it. Thus, I was super hyped for P5 in 2017. But then, life, and work, and family got in the way. I didn't stick any time into it beyond an hour or so. With the release of P5R & all the additional content to feast on and suddenly a whole load of spare time on my hands, I jumped in. Atlus have done it again. There are some real on the nose stuff in this game, and some stuff I straight up have issues with. But there are very few games that you put 120 hours into and still want to go back for more. As always the combat is just driven by excellently polished mechanics, the story is just riveting from beat-to-beat, the mystery tense as ever, and that aesthetic just oozes style. I'll not spoil anything as it is so story-based, but I implore all, just go out and play this game.
-
I have a confession: at the start of 2020, I had never played a single Yakuza game. I've since remedied that, and I am still in the process of working through the rest. Here, they have refreshed the series, with a new protagonist, setting and combat system but have still kept the entire game Yakuza at heart. Has any studio and major game franchise ever made such a dramatic switch of mechanics eight (mainline) games in? Assassin's Creed's switch in Origins is dwarfed in comparison. Stupendous, wacky and enthralling as ever. Western games need to take note from recent Japanese releases: game mechanics are king, always have been, and always will be. I haven't even finished the story yet, and it is still third.
-
Man, what a game. I wasn't hyped for this at all. In fact, I didn't want it to exist. I enjoyed the ending of the last game and wanted Naughty Dog to work on a new IP. Of course, it was inevitable after the financial success last time, but I just worried they didn't know where to take the game. In reaction, they took an incredibly brave step in terms of storytelling. Not only is their game one of the bravest and finely crafted stories I have experienced, but it's also kinda meta. Long has there been an argument of Naughty Dog's characters gleefully spanning worlds gun in hand with no consequences. Well, this game is all about consequences. I've maybe only once experienced such a total 180 on a character I vividly hated as much as Abby (Jamie Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire), yet by the end, I loved her. Props to the creative team and Laura Bailey. The Third Act went on a bit too long and man, I actively wanted to stop playing and put the controller down at the end. I felt awful but in a good way. The game got me so fucking invested man. Sure, there are a few issues in pacing and it is long. But I learned to love or hate these characters as much as I loved and hated the world. As much as I love and hate our world. I didn't expect to play this, never mind in the middle of a pandemic. It made me feel grim, but it was also cathartic & from a gameplay perspective is the studio's zenith.
-
Another game backed up by an engrossing story - one which is eminently a search for identity. It is something that has been relevant in the UK for some time now with traditions and Britishness being lauded by some aspects of society while they continue to denigrate the entire liberal-left as snowballs. In this case, it is almost the opposite. But nevertheless an interesting story in a fantastically beautiful world. Technically, it is the pinnacle of the PS4. What they have gleaned from that ageing console in terms of loading times, graphics and aesthetic is just stellar. I don't think I've seen a single bug or glitch either, just a team of really talented devs given freedom and time by those higher up to do their job. And boy, did they deliver. Combat takes a while to ramp up, but once you unlock all the stances is becomes a great puzzle where you're constantly switching and on the edge of your seat amidst a sea of totally different enemies. It can become a little too rochambeau on the lower difficulties - but on the highest setting where a single strike, either way, is lethal, it truly does feel like you are stepping into the Tokugawa era. It is another one, however, that got stale in the final third with just too much to do. Too many side missions. Too much world. All the while the final few acts are the best parts of the story.
-
Another technical marvel. Miles is a better, more interesting and likeable character than Peter Parker will ever be. The story is serviceable if a little predictable. But they took the combat from the first and improved it ten-fold. Gone is the overpowered web-blossom, and it is replaced by various venom powers that add even more layers to an already layered system. It is so satisfying taking out entire hordes of enemies without getting hit a single time, building up huge combos. It looks incredible on PS5, but I wish it utilised the new haptic functions more like they did ray tracing. The new enemy designs and aesthetic all around venom is clearly done so to make the reflections and lighting shine in ray tracing, and man, it does shine. Above all else, the compactness and length are perfect. Quality over quantity is a mantra the entire industry needs to focus on. If one can deliver both like those at the top end of this list, then perfect. It'd probably be higher up if I didn't play through the entirety of the 2018 game just before it came out while improving on the formula in every way, I was a little sick of it all. Which is entirely my own fault, and not the games. Insomniac does not shy away from their beliefs in support of the BLM movement and I'm glad they didn't. It's even emblazoned on the side of a Harlem apartment block. Some see this as lip service, well, at least they did it. F1, the Premier League, ITV, FIFA and some other games have watered down their messages in support of BLM to some made-up aphorism that neither stands for nothing and lets the real issue bow down to those perpetuating it.
-
That quality over quantity mantra, Ubisoft need to adhere to it. Desperately. Odyssey was the first AC game I've played since Revelations, where I dropped off hard because there was just too fucking much shit to do. I was enthused by the refreshed format, until about 20 hours of doing the same shit over & over again. Ubisoft games are huge, beautiful worlds and 9th Century England is no different. But man, you just do the same thing in every Ubisoft game and I'm sick of their shit. I really enjoyed the combat here, the aesthetic, the world. The story started fine and really ramped up during parts with Alfred and in the big cities. Viking age England has always been fascinating to me, maybe it's because I live literally right next to an Old Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall I invested more time into this. I am a history postgraduate after all. But it was FAR too long. Eivor was great. Female Eivor was acted brilliantly. But the whole Sigurd/Raanvi story was punctuated by bizarre writing and a total lack of chemistry. The rest of the characterisation was great, particularly Fulke, Alfred and the Ragnarsson's. Take this combat system and the world out of Ubisoft's shit-stained hands. They are a reprehensible company at the very top and the reason as to why their games continually suffer. Take the AC name off this thing, take the boring-ass modern day shit out of it, and take some of your disgusting business practices out too - from insisting on refusing to have a female protagonist alone, to hiding all these boosts to be added to the game 3 weeks after release. Aside from all this, I still enjoyed large parts of my time with the game, especially the combat & abilities - which was a huge upgrade on Odyssey's constant blocking/defensive one.
-
I hated how this game felt during the Aplha. I don't know if it was broken or not, but everything felt slow and stuck in the mud. Life bars were an odd addition. They still are tbh. But after playing about 15-20 hours online, I actually really enjoy the pace and simplicity on offer. MW multiplayer felt better, but the map design on offer here is stupendous. There is only really one map I dislike, unlike a myriad on the last. It's a good release just to go back to now and again to shoot some shit, and they finally fixed the snipers which were totally trash on MW - or at least they made that glare less prominent. The campaign, I expected nothing. It seemed pretty generic at first, but man, there are some parts of this that I genuinely loved - and they came out of nowhere. The side quests that forced you to collect evidence in other missions first and figure out who the spies are, and crack some codes, was genuinely really refreshing. I love that it didn't hold your hand at all and was different for everyone. The totally open-ended mission in the Lubyanka building in Moscow was a series high-point. Then, the twist at the end (should you even choose to do it, you're barely even told about it) was absolutely glorious. Go the dark route. When Adler tells you what to do in *that* mission, don't do it. It's probably my favourite ever COD campaign (granted, I haven't played a single one between Blops 2 and MW reboot). I'm also a huge Cold War nerd. My MA was on Soviet History after all, and my favourite show is the Americans. This is right up my street. There are some low points too, Woods & Mason are fucking idiots, the Vietnam missions are a chore, multiplayer has had far too much removed, and zombies is just totally meh.
-
As soon as you skate down that ramp, into the half-pipe and string together a nice combo of tricks, reverts, air tricks and grind's, you just know this game is gonna be good. All it took was about 30 seconds on your very first combo. Jeff & Alex summed up my thoughts on this more than probably anyone else. Or at least elucidated it in just the perfect way. It doesn't feel exactly the same, thankfully, games have evolved. But it takes that formula that worked 20 years ago, updates it a bit, and makes it feel like you remember it. It taps into those endorphins and that rose-tinted nostalgia just unlike anything else of recent memory. It is the new standard-bearer for remakes: honour the original, and update it to make it relevant. THPS has long been broken and Skate rightly took their crown, but it's an achievement that they got it just so damn beautifully right after 15 years of getting it so annoyingly wrong.
-
Man, this is one I deliberated over for a long, long time. It's moved both within this list and off this list entirely more than any other. I didn't want to include it because CDPR's business practices have been rough for about a year now - from crunch to the lack of true detail regarding last-gen versions, not revealing that new-gen wouldn't be out until days before the game and such. It's only got worse for those in charge since, facing backlash from all angles. They totally deserve it. However, I cannot deny that I really enjoyed my time in the game. I immersed myself in it and put about 70 hours into it from 10-14 days after launch. I played the digital PS4 version on my PS5 and luckily experienced very few bugs. Regular crashes were my only issue, and boy were they regular. I've since looked back at my crash reports and it happened 32 times, sometimes 3/4 times a session. It ain't good enough. It should have been delayed further. The irony of Johnny SIlverhand ranting about Corpo greed and the pitfalls of capitalism would ordinarily be music to my ears, but here it all just felt sickeningly ironic. CDPR do realise this? They cannot have a total lack of self-awareness to see that they are Arasaka here? Anyway, I went down the hacker/stealth route and highly recommend that. I really felt like I was a netrunner and lived out my childhood dreams of becoming Deckard from Blade Runner. The world is dense with detail and I loved the aesthetic. But it is fucking problematic too man. Their treatment of trans people was just rank and still sours. Everything is just all a bit uncomfortable. The game should not require a certain playstyle to be enjoyable. There were far too many broken promises, and it is a massive shame for such a talented and hard-working dev team. I got lucky, basically. And I want to include this because you just have to talk about this game - it is the nadir and culmination of a cacophony of issues that have plagued the industry for far too long. It needs to be fixed and fully realised in-game, and the story itself become a warning shot that malpractice, and other issues such as over-hype, lack of focus from the top-down, crunch, stereotyping, and over-promising need to be pushed back. Yet they still sold over 13 million copies including refunds. "Are we the baddies?"
Load Comments