Top 10 of 2023

Honorable Mentions

Frostpunk

I started playing Frostpunk a few days ago and after five hours I already feel like I’ve been through hell. I’ve been banished twice, had a massive population collapse due to literally everyone falling sick, started up my own religion to try to keep things together and made troublemakers kneel before our God Generator and beg for forgiveness as a storm that would soon wipe us out forever roiled ever closer. It’s a bleak game, with terrific visual and sound design that keeps everything from ever feeling too upbeat. Not that it takes much effort, because so far I’ve had very few victories in Frostpunk. Whenever I do accomplish something positive it isn’t long before the game dampens the spirits with a new, heartbreaking problem. I like when games force me to put out fires, and I love how Frostpunk does this in a very condensed and rather unrelenting way. I suspect I’ll put many more sad hours into this game.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun

I’m beginning to think Warhammer is rad. Even as an outside observer it always seemed secretly awesome, but having played 2011’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and this year’s Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, I think I’m on board with this whole thing. Boltgun nearly made it onto my list this year, but in truth it is a bit repetitive. I also don’t really like how the game takes all of your weapons away at the end of a chapter, and it definitely would’ve benefited from a default fast moving speed instead of a sprint button. But issues aside, I really enjoyed blasting my way through this game. It also has a taunt button that lets your character say some very Warhammery things which is great.

Cult of the Lamb

I ended up hitting the same wall with Cult of the Lamb that I hit with a lot of roguelikes, where I get my fill of the combat and progression and the repetition isn’t pulling me along any further. But the 10 hours I played were well worth it, and I might still hop in here and there for some more cult business. The art style is terrific and the base management is really engaging. I love my little cultist creatures and the way they bop about doing chores or just meditating at the big lamb statue. I don’t think the combat is especially good, which is a problem since it’s half the game. But it was worth putting up with so I could keep upgrading my base.

Steam Deck

I bought a Steam Deck this year and I’m just so impressed by this thing. It feels mostly great in my hands (I’m not confident I’ll ever play a fast-paced first person shooter on it) and the SteamOS software is outstanding. I wish the battery life was better, but I also never really intended to use it far away from a charger for extended periods of time. I recently acquired a Docking Station and a 1TB drive replacement which will expand the possibilities of the device considerably. Swapping the drive was pretty easy, save for having to remove the battery cable—that was the part when I most felt like I was breaking the entire device.

Top 10

10. Hitman Freelancer Mode

HITMAN already had near limitless replay value, what with the volume of user-made custom contracts, the hundreds of challenges to shoot for, escalation and elusive targets, and fun bonus levels. But the addition of the Freelancer mode this year truly makes good on the promise of an endless world of assassination by offering a roguelike take on the formula with randomly generated targets and objectives that takes full advantage of the trilogy’s large suite of levels, weapons, and gadgets. If this is the last we see of Agent 47 for quite some time, IO Interactive could not have left this project in a better, more complete state.

9. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

The 2D Mario games are an enormous blind spot in my gaming history. Save for a Nintendo 64 that I mainly used to play Goldeneye 007 and Banjo Kazooie, I did not grow up in a Nintendo household. The Switch was the first time I personally owned a Nintendo console and Nintendo games. A lot of the mind-blowing tricks that Super Mario Bros. Wonder pulls that floored my more Nintendo-experienced friends were, to me… just cool tricks. I didn’t understand the rule-bending that this game was doing and the way it plays with your expectations. I’ve only played Super Mario Odyssey! I didn’t really have expectations.

But Wonder is excellent. The levels feel so tightly crafted and varied, and I love how each one has its own mechanic or gimmick that you engage with to reach the end. Every level feels like a fun surprise. Is this what it’s been like to be a fan of 2D Mario games? I have been missing out, haven’t I?

8. Battlefield 2042

Oh Battlefield 2042. The game could not have gotten off to a worse start. On the one hand, it's outrageous that a Battlefield game ever shipped without several of the core fundamentals of the series, like the class system and a usable scoreboard. On the other hand, the game has those things now, and with the addition of a permanent 64-player mode (my preferred way to play) and some solid post-launch maps I would now recommend Battlefield 2042 to just about anyone who enjoys multiplayer shooters they don't have to take too seriously.

Battlefield 2042 doesn't hit the same heights as the best entries in the series, but it plays well and has a decent selection of weapons, vehicles, and gadgets. The sandbox action is still very much there, even if the "grit" and immersive atmosphere of the last couple games is gone. Also, it's probably the most cheater-free Battlefield game you can play on PC at the moment, an unfortunate point in its favor. The game finally reached a good place this year and I’m really happy to have a current Battlefield game in my regular multiplayer rotation again. I’ve been a huge fan of the series ever since Battlefield 2, so maybe I’m a bit of an apologist. But did you see how I shot that helicopter down with an RPG? Never gets old, let me tell you.

7. Lethal Company

What a surprise from nowhere. Lethal Company was immediately compelling with its horror trappings and proximity chat, complete with excellent voice filters to convincingly replicate the metallic reverb of voices echoing in rooms and down hallways. Somehow this game manages to tread a line between slapstick comedy and genuine horror, causing tremendous laughter when a friend confidently misses a jump and falls to their doom, but then anxious silence when you stop hearing from your pal and suddenly find their corpse in a pool of blood. And are those spider webs in the room you just passed through? Very large spider webs?

6. The Finals

The first game from a new studio headed up by former DICE developers has already hit the ground running. The Finals is a terrifically refreshing competitive shooter that earns its place among the greats of the last several years in two key ways: its objective design and its environmental destruction. The game does an excellent job of keeping players rotating around the map at a constant pace, and the level design is well-suited to allow for lots of improvised ambushes and fast getaways. Even better is the degree to which buildings can be destroyed. It goes far beyond what Battlefield has ever achieved, and tearing apart the environment has never been this strategic in a competitive game. The first time you trigger a detonation and cause the objective to fall through several floors, completing changing how its fought over, you’ll see what I mean.

5. Resident Evil 4 (2023)

CAPCOM’s nearly undefeated streak of outstanding Resident Evil games continues with this remake of one of the best games in the series. This is an essential addition to any survival horror fan’s library. While I don’t think the story or characters are particularly well-written, the encounter design and puzzles are crafted well and the guns are mightily satisfying to use. This is definitely the best playing Resident Evil remake, and maybe even the best playing game in the franchise as a whole. And the whole thing just looks and sounds so darn amazing.

4. Dead Space

If this remake is all we see of Dead Space for the foreseeable future, it'll be hard to feel too let down given the sheer quality of this project. Dead Space, much like Resident Evil 4, is an essential survival horror game, and this remake proves that by retaining so much of the original game while also greatly enhancing the story and level design. Some frustrating encounters, like the asteroid sequence, have been reworked for the better. Weapons and suit upgrade paths no longer require you to unlock empty nodes that grant nothing. You can now return to previous areas of the ships to unlock new rooms for much-needed loot or new story beats. And the story itself is better thanks to new side quests that tie into the main plot and to Isaac becoming fully voiced, with Gunner Wright returning to the helm. Isaac is much more involved in the story now, using his engineering expertise to help diagnose and solve problems aboard the USH Ishimura rather than simply being ordered around by everyone else. It’s the best version of Dead Space there could ever be and I’m so happy for it.

3. Street Fighter 6

Never in my life did I imagine there could be a fighting game in my top 10, but then I never imagined a game like Street Fighter 6 existing. This is a fighting game that, above all of its delightful flashiness, is actually welcoming. And I don’t mean welcoming in the sense that it has a basic tutorial or an easy mode. It’s welcoming because it has an awesome tutorial that’s in-depth and includes guides for every character on the roster so that a terrible fighting game player like myself might actually stand a chance. It’s welcoming because it has a story mode that eases you in and makes you feel like you belong. It’s welcoming because it’s just so unbelievably hyped about itself all the time. It’s not intimidating or impenetrable. It’s exciting, and while I’ve only put around 20 or 25 hours into it so far, I’m so ready to jump back in once I’ve cleared up my list of games a bit more. I mean, I found myself playing ranked multiplayer in this thing. Ranked! Online! Incredible.

And the battle hub, where everyone hangs out with their custom made avatars? What a gobsmacking space that is, with dozens of horrifying create-a-characters standing, running, and emoting. So ridiculous, and so endlessly funny.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I am in awe of Tears of the Kingdom and how small it makes me feel. It’s Breath of the Wild, but more and just a little bit better. The new abilities are outstanding and encourage thoughtful experimentation. The world is jammed full of interesting things to see and do. I often found myself playing Tears of the Kingdom in short sessions, between 30 minutes to an hour, because the game is so quickly gratifying that it’s actually pretty easy to pick up and play and come away fulfilled. Part of that might also be because the game’s story and characters are totally uninteresting to me, just like they were in Breath of the Wild, so without that narrative tug I never feel compelled to stick around too long in one sitting… but that’s probably okay. I’ve only completed 2 of the dungeons in Tears of the Kingdom—they’re so much better than the Divine Beasts in the last game—and I suspect it’ll take me quite a lot longer to finish the rest of the game. But every time I do fire it up I’m left totally impressed by what this team is able to put together.

I just hope the next one runs at an acceptable framerate. New hardware, please?

1. Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is everything. It is a masterpiece. I do not understand how games like this are made. It is so alarmingly dense with narrative deviations and intricate gameplay mechanics and interactions and complications. It stands alongside Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins for me, two of the greatest “party games” to ever exist. I want to talk to these characters endlessly, to engage in combat as much as I can, to hear the wonderful music as my team explores every corner of this world. I want to roll dice and shove everything in sight and go camping with a vampire. I want to do everything in this game, and then I want to start all over again as the Dark Urge and run rampant through its halls. I also want to play a tabletop RPG rather desperately; I never have, and now that I’ve gotten a taste here I am positively champing at the bit. Maybe this’ll be the year that finally happens.