by willin
Let the bad times continue, I guess? 2024 could have been better for games for a multitude of reasons. Between large-scale layoffs inside and around the industry, massive commercial failures, studio closures, brutal crunches, and the continuing trend of games being released in unacceptable states, it doesn’t seem like video games are doing all great these days. Don’t get me wrong, the quality remains stellar, as have the last few years, but it feels like a few hundred people lose their jobs for every excellent game that reaches our screens. Still, we have some bright points on the horizon with the release of GTA VI and the successor to the Nintendo Switch (assumingly) next year. Despite it feeling a bit weird talking about games when the industry at large is in such a poor state, I still think it’s important to celebrate some of the great works released this year. This year, from individual passion projects to large studio masterpieces, has shown that excellent games are still being made. Apologies for Astro Bot, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Animal Well, Silent Hill 2, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Thank Goodness You’re Here, Tetris Forever, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster and Cryptmaster for not getting to you this year.
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
Satisfactory broke me. Every time I play Satisfactory, it consumes me wholly. I don’t think about anything other than what I’m doing and what I need to do. It builds upon and exploits the bad part of my brain that likes organising and planning things, but it never stops. You are always building towards something else in Satisfactory, and it is always something you want. Whether it's better power generation, advanced transport, or efficient resource gathering with every step you take, the worse that part of your brain gets. You unlock fuel generators for power? It's time to spend 2 hours building out a refinery. Need more screws? Spend an hour running halfway across the map to build a dedicated screw factory. Made enough Smart Plating for Tier 2? Spend 2 hours redoing the constructor network to convert it into making Versatile Frameworks. After a few hours, it culminates into you getting up to get some lunch and seeing it’s 8:30 at night. That is what Satisfactory does to me. It just consumes all the hours of my day and turns it into a plastic container production line. It does this not through any obvious nefarious means but through pure craftsmanship. The developers at Coffee Stain Studios made a factory game for factory sickos but made it accessible and engaging enough for regular people to turn them into factory sickos. Despite how complex it can get, the game is almost entirely bug-free, the game performs excellently, and the dialogue is witty and enjoyable but not frequent enough to be annoying. The one thing that made it crystal clear that Satisfactory was made with love, care, and attention is that the massive world was hand-crafted. It wasn’t until I started playing with a friend that I realised it was not procedurally generated but crafted by talented designers who knew what they were doing. Any other factory game at this scale would have done procedural generation, but Satisfactory cares enough to ensure the world you are playing in is interesting and beautiful. I’ll probably die of malnourishment if I start another playthrough, but despite that, I still would call it my Game of the Year for 2024.
Balatro is not one of those games that comes out every few years. It is one of those games that comes out once in a generation. Games like Tetris or Peggle understand that you can be one of the best games ever made if you develop and polish one concept to perfection. It is a game that is so simple to understand, hard to master, but infinitely replayable. I can very much see myself playing this game for decades and still not get tired of it. Balatro is one of those rare ‘forever games’ that will last well after I’m dead.
Selaco is the pure video game. Just an exceptional first-person shooter that understands what makes boomer shooters work. Its fluid movement and feedback systems are some of the best in the world. Every time you first see a bullet that flies through a glass window and into some dude’s head, it taps into that primordial monkey part of your brain that just adores fucking shit up. I don’t normally put early-access games on my top ten list, but even with half the game missing, it is still polished to mirror shine with hours of content to back it up. It is the best modern boomer shooter released in the last 5 years and one of the greatest early access releases of all time.
Games like Metaphor: Refantazio is the reason why RPGs are my favourite genre. There is nothing like being brought into a unique world, experiencing its story and engaging with its characters. What makes Metaphor so excellent is that it is not afraid to tell you what it's about. In a time when publishers try so hard to stay as apolitical as possible, Metaphor embraces its themes with a style and gusto that only Katsura Hashino and his team can provide. Excellent soundtrack, engaging combat, exquisite progression systems and the best UI design you will ever see. Metaphor: Refantazio is defining original JRPGs for this generation.
Persona 3 Reload has everything I want from a faithful remake: keeping intact the core fundamentals that made the original great, like the story, characters and combat system, but tweaking enough things to make it feel fresh. Big things like Theurgy attacks are great to see, but the more minor things are what make the difference. For example, having all levels of social links completely voiced is such a great touch. It gives me hope that Persona 6 will be as good, if not better, than Persona 3 Reload.
I don’t know why it took so long for an excellent Indiana Jones game, but the Great Circle certainly delivers on that front. It is a very rare game that actually feels like it's from the franchise it is using. It has the hallmarks of classic Indiana Jones movies translated into games: great action combat, inventful puzzles, gorgeous environments, excellent performances and writing that you could have sworn came from Spielberg and Lucas themselves. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle already feels like a modern-day classic.
Marvel Rivals is the game I wished Overwatch 2 was. It is a beautiful and well-crafted hero-based shooter that is not afraid to try different things, whether it’s the destructible cover, team-up abilities or using obscure Marvel characters like Jeff the Land Shark and Squirrel Girl. Yes, it is an Overwatch clone unashamedly, but it does the fundamentals well enough to stand on its own easily. Marvel Rivals is going to be my hero shooter of choice until Blizzard unfucks Overwatch 2
Helldivers II has an intensity only a few games have. The feeling of your team barely hanging on while not being overly punishing is hard to balance and maintain, but Helldivers II does it with ease. It has such weight to the shooting and movement that makes it wholly unique to the genre. It just feels excellent mowing down a horde of fucked up looking bugs or seeing a bunch of Terminator-looking robots crumble to piles of metal. Helldivers II proves that you can have a successful multiplayer-only game that does not resort to excessive microtransactions and high time commitments. We need more games like Helldivers II.
As someone 100% sick of FromSoftware-styled action games, Another Crab’s Treasure is such a wonderful breath of fresh air. It is a wonderfully creative game that uses its premise and setting to full effect. It was a delight to go through its fantastically designed worlds just to see how they incorporated the plastic waste dumped in the sea. The Shell system was a great take of equipment, and the characters were all fun little weirdos that I loved interacting with. If Rare made a Dark Souls clone, it would be a game like Another Crab’s Treasure.
Shadow of Doubt is the detective game I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. Finally, a game that allows me to collect evidence, chase down witnesses and make my own deductions to find the killer. Its procedurally generated world, while a bit janky, sets a perfect mood for a neon-lit city block filled with misfits, criminals, and degenerates. Even though it is still unpolished and unfinished in its current state, I still believe it is worth wading through the bugged ventilation shafts and wonky AI behaviours to experience a video game that is truly unique.
