In the past I've rigorously stuck to games that year, but I've softened on that. And this year in particular I'm just going to shove all the games I've played newly this year into this list. hell, even ones that I played a lot before but meant a lot this year deserve to be here. 2020 has been weird for a lot of reasons, so why shouldn't this list be as well. BLM
In 2017 I purchased Hollow Knight for the PC. I wasn't too impressed. I like the platforming but the whole map thing struck me as annoying and I disliked the backtracking. In 2019 I figure, what the hell lets give it another shot and bough it on the switch for travel. Same issue. Some time this year I once again looked at my switch icon and though "sure I'll try this one more time". Third times a charm. I'm not sure if I'd describe the way the mapping is done in Hollow Knight as subtle because the lack of a map until bought is very much up front. But it is very effective. You really have to get used to looking around yourself in these environments and understanding how things are connected. And for good reason. Hollow Knight is for all intensive purposes a metroidvania. You start with basic abilities, go around a map with various types of areas, collect new abilities and revisit old locales to get even more gear, cash etc.
An issue with this genre for me has always been the sense that some secrets are sort of bullshit. How am I supposed to know that I can break this wall out of the thousands of walls in this game? But Hollow Knight seemingly avoids this. You are forced to get used to looking at the environment in order to determine where you are and where you may able to go and therefore you can easily start to spot inconsistencies in the map that are most likely secrets. This can be as innocuous as a bigger than normal black patch or placement of a piece of decor that is atypical of your current area.
Hollow Knight also demonstrates a great understanding of what makes progression in these types of games so good. As you get new abilities charms, better weapons/magic you routinely go through old areas. Old platforming challenges that were once nearly impossible are passed through in seconds. Enemies that were incredibly annoying are cut down with a single sword swipe instead of four. Platforming type of abilities are more grandiose in their ability to completely change the way you move through a space which leads to an incredible satisfaction to back tracking by making things feel new. Meanwhile combat changes are a bit gradual with some enemies becoming buttery while others still pose some threat.
[some spoilers ahead]
Whats probably more interesting to me is how much I have come to enjoy the narrative of Hollow Knight. While I believe Hollow Knight to be a metroidvania style game it is super clear that this game is inspired by Dark Souls. You have spawn points which checkpoint progress through levels and are where a lot of your upkeep is down. You have NPCs who progress through this land as you are; conversing with you at scenic positions, coming to you in times of need or are in need of saving themselves. Hell, There is a large city that is built on type of crumbling ruinous areas where it seems people still live. There is a sort of your dead but not really type thing going on here similair to the Hollow/undead premise in Dark souls.
That all said the thing they get right with stealing here is the semi-obscured narrative. There are very few cutscenes in hollow knight and there is little to no straight up description of what is happening and who are important. Scraps are scattered through the game and more importantly, and potentially better than most of the souls games, there is a heavy degree of environmental story telling that is used. I can think off the top of my head several story bits where there is little to no dialogue but a piece of the story is answered simply through the hand drawn art in the world.
Which brings me to the next point. Hollow knight has an incredible art style. While the game initially is a bit cluttered looking it quickly starts to work. Areas are all extremely distinct. Lighting is used incredibly well and effects, such as dark rings at the borders of the screen upon getting hit, work great at conveying useful information to the player. That said, lighting is sometimes deceiving as it is used to highlight secret areas, but only sometimes creating annoying challenges that may or may not lead to a reward or benefit, dissuading the player from looking at such areas again. The character and enemy designs are also incredible, with every enemy being clearly definable, projectiles easy to see etc. Everything has a great amount of personality here ranging from jubilant, morose, grieving, ominous and sad.
Hollow Knight may pull ahead of my 2020 list with only 1 month to go, but it really deserves it. Its interesting to think that just 3 years ago I found the game incredibly frustrating and not well thought out, but now it may rank as one of my favorite games of all time.
Go out and save some grubs.
*Spoilers*
There was a moment in Baba is You where you start thinking of words differently. Sure "Baba is you" but what if "Baba was you" and "Baba is Baba and is Keke"? Do you know what I mean? At that point I started to think about the game differently, at points where I accidentally "solved" a level by making it into this sentient sheep. Or when your forced to re conceptualize what "winning" is not just in terms of your mindset but by actually forcing that change by arranging the rules to reflect that. The moments where a particular mechanic shows up for 1 puzzle in this collage of 200 something puzzles which makes you evaluate every particular word pairing differently. And then there is the ??? rabbit hole which couples all of these things. Every puzzle feels bespoke in this game, but they all intertwine via the noun adjective language on which they are all based. The simplistic style and language of the art also helps. Each object and character is distinct enough to make things easily readable. The art itself, while simple, is also very cute and pleasing to the eye. Nothing is ugly. The music itself is also great: very laid back but still present enough to fill in the silence and urge you on with a nice rhythm and melody. And something about the completion sound effect is so pleasing. Baba is you is one of the best puzzle games ever made.
........Subnauticas here again. Last year I played quite a bit of Subnautica and the clever scan->collect->build progression to the game coupled with an incredible mysterious atmospher and beutiful underwater environments kept me going. At some point I ran out of time and couldn't finish the game. This year I picked it up again, some 6 months later and its still one of the most unique and intersting games I've ever played. The overarching narrative, told in scraps of texts and audiologs, was actually incredibly interesting to me. It was nice seeing little questions or threads being tied up in unsuspecting ways and things that seem like coincidence are actually very well explained. The exploration is still god damn incredible. Environments are all super interesting to explore and look at. There are issues such as pop in which can have gameplay implications and some environments and AI can get buggy, but for me it was easy to overlook as I kept diving deeper and hiding from giant fish. While I initially though Subnautica was a simple survival game it has grown for me to be some type of hybrid horror/mystery/survival game. While the building/survival mechanics are very much there, the game is much more about exploration and the drive to dive deeper both figuratively and literally.
