10 different escapes from a disastrous year : A Giantbomb user’s top game list of 2020

2020 is a year that makes me long for different ways to escape. There are two different journeys through the world after death, whether it’s a godly prince’s war path or a mortal girl’s peaceful and helpful way. There are two different rebuild narrative, one about more than a dozen young souls figuring out as they go along and another about half a dozen young souls restoring glory of the old days. And there is also a quite uplifting cosmic horror tale among some purer forms of escapism.

Forced to stay home more often, I turned on my 5 years old PS4 more frequently. Thus for the first time, my list covered all major platforms of the big three, Microsoft’s Windows PC, Sony’s PS4 and Nintendo’s Switch.The 2 listed PS4 games are from Sony’s old rival, SEGA of all places. And despite my best effort, there is a cluster composed of late April releases. Without further delay, here are my top games of 2020.

List items

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  1. Hades

  (My Game of the Year 2020. Played on Switch in English)

  Isometric action game is among my favorite genres and Supergiant Games seems to be the only developer around focusing on those. Their newest Hades the rouge-lite is easily my favorite of this year. It has a lot in common with my top picks in the last few years.

  Like NieR Automata, Hitman 2 and Fire Emblem Three Houses, Hades put player through similar or even same encounters multiple times yet has enough variable in builds or narrative to keep things fresh. And like Three Houses, one ultimately play to forge bonds with characters in the game.

  As a game in early-access for almost 2 years, Hades is more fine-tuned than id’s scripted DOOM sequel, with better pacing and more satisfying loops. This Greek pantheon is the most lively in the game business and one should not let the rouge-like elements scare them off this action masterpiece.

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  2. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

  (Played on PS4 in Japanese)

  Vanillaware, like Supergiant Games, is a developer specializing in water color art presentation. Their newest, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim also has more in common with Supergiant Games’ output, as the game’s battle plays like a less engaging version of Transistor to me.

  But 13 Sentinels is not a game to be remembered for its combat, for it’s an interactive graphic novel or stage play. The story plays out through 13 different points of view. The science fiction elements appear all over the place at first, with giant robots, alien invasion, time travel and space opera all blended together, yet it all come to a cohesive whole at the end.

  It’s sad to see once Hideo Kojima blind believers like Giantbomb’s Brad Shoemaker and IGN’s Lucy O’Brein rejected this game for the naked teens. The game has an explanation for it that is better than some of Kojima’s more convoluted bullshit. 13 Sentinels certainly deserves better than the cold shoulders way too many gave to it.

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  3. Gears Tactics

  (Played on PC through Steam with mouse and keyboard in English)

  2020 is the year I played Uncha'rted games, and yet that experience only cemented my fondness for Gears series. Days after my Uncharted binge ended on a high note with Lost Legacy, Gears 5 Hivebusters reminded me that as so-called prestige game developer, Naughty Dog is still lousy at making action games compared to many other hard working devs. Months before that, Gears Tactics somehow scratched the itch 2016’s DOOM left me better than DOOM Eternal did.

  Released on April, 28, Gears Tactics could not come out during a better time for me. It was made playable merely hours after I completed a run in XCOM Chimera Squad, left longing for turn-based tactic games with more polish and flourish. It was about a month after DOOM Eternal left a bleeding wound where 2016’s DOOM itch was and that wound had turned into a itchy scar. It was also more than a week after Strike Back, a military action drama concluded for a second time on Cinemax.

  Gears Tactics takes the turn and cover based firefight of XCOM into a Diablo-like context. The hard hitting sound effect, aggregation encouraging systems and color codes loots all take this tactic game closer to the series’ action root. It feels like I am finally directing action scenes after action scenes without too much consideration for resources in a game. All makes this the best tactic experience I had that is not a Japanese SRPG.

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  4. Call of the Sea

  (Played on PC through Steam with mouse and keyboard in English)

  There is something to say about how fucked up 2020 is when a cosmic horror tale about a woman struggling out of her illness (or not) can feel very uplifting in Call of the Sea. This debut game from a small developer can be compared favorable to bigger titles from earlier years of this decade.

  It’s Bioshock Infinite without combat, one can just explore this Unreal Engine powered colorful painterly world. While the puzzles aren’t as well designed and distributed, this is the shorter version of Jonathan Blow’s Witness that I can see through from beginning to end. It also manage something even Sony’s so-called prestige studio does not dare to do (I’m looking at you in particular, Santa Monica!), telling a story about working out issues in marriage.

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  5. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

  (Played on PC through Steam with controller in English)

  I enjoyed 2015’s Ori and the Blind Forest as a pure platformer, so I’m not too hot on the idea of adding combat to its sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisp. But when I actually played the 2020 game, it all feels better than I expected. Boss fights are not my favorite parts but at least those are far better than the forced dances with Marauders in DOOM Eternal. While the platforming set pieces are just as good if not better than those in the 2015 original.

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  6. Spiritfarer

  (Played on Switch in English)

  Mechanically speaking, Spiritfarer is a closer sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest than Will of the Wisp as it’s a platformer without combat. Narrative wise, Spiritfarer feels like a sequel to Supergiant’s Hades. The player character Stella is picked by the soon to move on Charon to, well, fare spirits.

  Spiritfarer is also a game of building, offering kindness and closure for people before their passing. It’s a game encouraging hugging and other gestures of kindness. The animation flourish on display here is all for drama instead of action. Like Gamespot’s review of it says, it offer lots of reward and ask for no risk.

  Ironically, it’s shown during Microsoft’s E3 2019 conference, at a time when many might have chosen as their bath break after the big Cyberpunk 2077 announcement. Now the smaller title ends up on this list while the humble maker of this list received refund for the offensively mediocre and “Bethesda” RPG from Steam.

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  7. A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986

  (Played on PC through Steam with mouse in English)

  This visual novel about romance between 2 young queer woman came at me through a Polygon article. I got to admit, given my gender and sexual orientation, it’s impossible for me not to look at lesbian romance in the so-called male-gazing way. But A Summer’s End eventually won its place here because it’s a quite unique visual novel.

  “Visual” wise, it actually nailed the look of Hong Kong comic. The city has a overlooked comic book industry and it offers an art style for people like me who occasionally found Manga’s big eye too fluffy or Comic’s square jaws too jarring. “Novel” wise, it tells a detailed story about young people struggling in a world of so-called free market. Reference to old days of Chinese cinema does not hurt either.

  A Summer’s End is not a game of mass appeal, but if you want something interesting to read, it would beat many thing in print.

  P.S. The Polygon article link:

  https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/30/21304214/summers-end-hong-kong-1986-love-visual-novel-romance-hope

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  8. The Solitaire Conspiracy

  (Played on PC through Steam with mouse in English)

  Mixing the very first PC game I’ve played with a serviceable spy thriller plot, and you got the Solitaire Conspiracy, Bithell’s latest and kind of an ad for his second game, Volume. It’s solid solitaire with cards J, Q and K as special wild cards that would affect how one plays.

  A special shout out to the game cast member Greg Miller. Back in his days as IGN staff member, I often found his delivery in video review with too much passion and not enough clearance. Here as a character in Solitaire Conspiracy, Miller is better at delivering a game story than he ever was as a reviewer from outside. Guess I would not mind him showing up in more games.

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  9. The Flower Collectors

  (Played on PC through Steam with mouse and keyboard in English)

  In short, the Flower Collectors is an interactive Rear Window with more to say about the society it’s set in. Recommended by Dr. Austin Walker on an episode of Waypoint Radio late April, this wheel chairing sim with fun animal is a more serious caution tale about police state than many narrative driven games. A must-play for socially aware people.

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  10. Sakura Wars

  (Played on PS4 in Japanese)

  This soft reboot of SEGA’s long running power ranger dating sim series came out in English the same day as Gears Tactics, while I played the Japanese version December, 2019. It was after I put up my list last year, so I am including it here.

  Sakura Wars is a cinematic visual novel with simplified even by Musou standard hack-and-slash action segments. Relatively high production value is highest point of the game’s presentation with its story being a predictable affair not out of place in a Saturday morning cartoon. Yet reflecting on it, I found it increasingly more enjoyable in this year of uncertainty. To see Ms. Amamiya and her friends trying to rebuild their once great theatre is something to behold.

  And if SEGA dares to make the sequel to this a PS5 exclusive, a exclusivity that left PS4 out as well I mean, then I may finally give consideration to purchasing Sony’s newest console.