 |
So continuing on from last years thread I'm going to write about the games I played this year. Last year I played 24 games, this year my recorded count is 36! Much higher, but for a good few reasons.
I'm going to split the games I've played into a few categories:
- Games of 2020
- Other games I played not from this year
- Games from my backlog
Games from 2020 will be ranked from least to most favorite and given the obvious contradiction in lasts years thread, I won't be scoring them. What I write about them should be reflecting how I feel. The below will container spoilers, so continue at your own risk.
My top games of 2020
14. Mario 35
Cashing in on the battle royale craze comes Nintendo with their own Mario-like take of Tetris 99.
It's you vs 34 other players looping levels of the classic Super Mario Bros NES game. It's really fun, that's for sure. The enemies you kill end up on your opponents screen, and collected coins can be spent on items to give you a head start next game. If you learn and know the levels it just becomes a race to stay alive and ahead of other players.
However, this is a limited release game just made to celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary. This game and other limited release ventures from Nintendo this year sort of puts a stigma on it, so after 5 hours I really felt I got all I wanted out of it and now don't care about it.
13. Hidden Through Time
A delightfully casual Where's Wally experience game. Find the objects/people in a big moving picture on screen. Really similar to Hidden Folks I played a couple years ago and I love games like this. It was way more casual and easy compared to Hidden Folks though. Way less levels and not as much creativity. For the price point though its worth it if you want a more laid back game to chill with for a bit.
12. Fall Guys
I saw a lot of this game popping up at various events and places online, and the it always looked like fun. It launched free on PS+ so it was hard to not drop in and enjoy it while it was exploding in popularity. Played it a lot myself and with mates for about a month or so. Really fun game also making its mark on the popular battle royale genre right now. A game of its style makes sense for the genre, with its obstacle course game show feel.
It's goofy and lighthearted, perfect for any age group. The controls feel just the right amount of floaty and the physics just bouncy enough to be really fun. Can't say it sunk it's hooks in real deep though like something like Fortnite as I was done in about a month and felt I had my dash with it.
11. Streets of Rage 4
A really good beat em up game. We are seeing the return of a few classic game franchises this year, and I'm seeing a lot of love for more retro games too.
This game is pretty true to its roots though, not a lot of modern touches here, same sort of combat as the originals with a few changes. This was my biggest disappointment to be honest. I really love a good brawler and for whatever reason (actually I know the reason, its called Dragon's Crown and River City Girls) I was expecting a bit more from the gameplay. But there's not heaps to it here, not a lot of moves, no moves to learn or anything like that. Just pure brawling like the 3 original games. Lucky the game is not too long or that gameplay would have got tiresome quickly for me. I need it to be a bit more engaging if its a modern brawler.
Fantastic art style! The hand-drawn look to the game was great. I'm a sucker for good art direction and aesthetic. Not too long at about 2 hours so I would not recommend it with its $40 price tag. Unless you are that nostalgia driven. Its great to see more modern brawlers though.
10. Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Of all the games to come out this year, it's hard to believe one of them was the long awaited remake to Final Fantasy VII. Even if that remake was just part 1 of and unknown amount of installments.
I'm torn with this game. It's good, I love that it's an action RPG like Crisis Core and FFXV it actually suits it really well. The gameplay, notable the combat, it top notch stuff. It's really fun to issue commands to your team mates and getting really into the fight manually yourself. The game looks gorgeous, the music was killer, and the voice actors were all pretty decent. Clouds new voice actor sounds just the same as his old one but younger. Not a fan of Zacks new voice actor though.
On the other hand, being the first installment of many, I can't help but see the cracks. It felt padded with side quests that were completely skippable, the story pacing of this first game was sort of all over the place and some of the character arcs were pretty lame and under/over acted in that typical anime sort of style. Not sure how I feel about the ending either, although its cool that my main boy Zack is going to be around.
My main concern is them keeping this level of quality up for ??? amount of games. The more I played the more I disliked that its not a complete experience. I think supporting this sort of thing is setting a bad precedent for video games. I would hate for a game I really really love to be remade and split into parts.
9. Astro's Playroom
While technically a controller tech demo, there was still a really good game here made with a lot of love and polish. Astro Bot is becoming quite a good little mascot for PlayStation imo.
A real delightful game from start to finish, and it's the first thing you should play if you have a PS5 as it comes pre-installed and ready to go. It's a 3D platformer at heart with each of its 4 levels based around hardware from the PS5 (SSD, GPU, Memory etc.) but it's also a love letter to the entire history of PlayStation which I love. It's chock-full of references to so many PlayStation games from throughout the history of the platform. Every level has you finding really detailed 3D models of peripherals, controllers, and consoles from every era of PlayStation that all end up in a giant room that is a nostalgia overload by the end of the game.
Each level showed off the Dual Sense controller really well without being too gimmicky, and no one gimmick lasted the entire level and let you get back to some good platforming. Controls were great, music was fantastic, level design was great. Really loved this game and it had Nintendo level love and charm all over it.
I hope Astro Bot gets another full length game sometime soon!
8. Paper Mario
Now as of writing this right now, I haven't finished this game just yet. I'm about half way through at a guess (15 hours). It will be the game I see 2020 out on and I'm glad it is. I've played about 10 or so hours of the N64 Paper Mario on my RetroPie and I loved that before I lost the save. I love the concept and aesthetic of Paper Mario, it's such a fun idea. So I grabbed the new one but put it on hold for Ghost of Tsushima since they both came out on the same day.
It's got that Nintendo charm and polish all over it. I love the writing so far and that's been the main highlight. The writing is really funny with lots of taking the piss out of the series and references in general. It looks really gorgeous, the paper world is really well realised on Switch (being their best hardware to date) with the environments all being really creative and convincing that everything is paper in this world. It's a bit of a mash-up of genres being a puzzle, turn based, action/adventure RPG? It all works surprisingly well and I enjoy the ring based combat puzzles. Essentially you need to line up all your enemies for an extra damage bonus if you can, then it turns into turn-based combat with items and moves to pick from.
As said I'm a sucker for some good art direction and a cool aesthetic so the game is really carrying itself of that for me. The music is great, story is fun and I just want to keep playing.
7. DOOM Eternal
I finished up DOOM 2016 which I dropped a couple years ago and loved it so I hopped straight into DOOM Eternal. Fantastic sequel to an already great reboot of the series. I builds so well on the gameplay and makes a truly awesome combat loop. Once you get all the pieces of mechanics down then the combat flows so dam good. Your shoulder cannon, your grenades, your chainsaw, your melee finishers, YOUR SWORD, YOUR BFG, YOUR GRAPPLING HOOK SHOTGUN. IT ALL COMES TOGETHER SO BEAUTIFULLY and makes for an addictive gameplay loop. It looks spectacular, its optimised so well I could enjoy it full graphics at 60fps, the soundtrack is just as pumping as the first and the environments and big open levels and well designed combat encounters were all so great.
I was so satisfying how to figure out and take down an enemy, preform a melee finisher to restock your ammo then jump straight down the throat of the next enemy and repeat. Every enemy has a weakness and something to exploit and the game does a great job and introducing each type and then mixing them all together for awesome combat encounters.
If you liked DOOM 2016 then you gotta play this one.
6. Crash Bandicoot 4
It's really dam good. Not a perfect 10/10 flawless game but a dam good Crash Bandicoot entry. They completely dispensed with all the other games over the years and made a game true to its roots of the originals. The new mechanics in the form of the masks were great. Awesome levels and level design, and with the addition of the new playable characters it really broke up the play-style in places too.
Graphics suited the game so well. Vibrant colours with a soft cartoon palette. It looked more true to form than the recent remakes. Everything was well animated.
The game was pretty long too! About 8 different level worlds, with the level selection screen being the same as Crash 1. The last set of levels was a great throwback for fans like me. Lots of references to the original games and I enjoyed the humor and characters. Didn't think too much of the story, but its a Crash game, not much you can do really.
Difficulty-wise, the game was a good challenge in places. But never anything I really struggled with and I did 90% of my dying in the last few levels on the game where it really stepped up and went Crash 1 hard on me. I heard a lot of people talking about the difficulty and how they thought it was hard, so I thought it was gonna be in for it. However for just the regular run through of the game I don't think its really that difficult. If you were to decide to 100% it and get all the relics and gems etc. then i think it would be harder then. Otherwise if you are a fan of the originals and like your platformers it shouldn't be that difficult at all.
Most of all, I just enjoyed playing a game like this again. If memory serves correctly, 20 years prior I got Crash 3 on my birthday. So it evoked a lot of pleasant memories and it was cool to reminisce and enjoy a game like this. I think its wild we are even seeing a new Crash game like this in 2020, its game design is from an age gone yet its proving there's still a market for it. I'm positive we'll see a new Spyro game next.
5. Ghost of Tsushima
I had initially lost all my hype for this game after playing Sekiro last year. Both being Japanese sword combat based games, I just felt like I had my fix after Sekiro. It was really weird I went from being hype to feeling nothing for Ghost of Tsushima. What also didn't help was seeing the gameplay videos not long before release. It didn't look to great to me and just looked to be the same sort of things seen in Ass Creed/Ubisoft open world games. Nothing bad, but nothing really good either. However this game was being made by Suckerpunch Studios who are responsible for many games I loved so I decided to wait for it to come out and see what the general consensus was.
This game reviewed really well so I decided to pick it up in the end, and I'm glad I did it's a fantastic game. I've heard many say it already, but its basically like what if an Assassins Creed game was really really good. And for the most part I agree with this. I was going to complete this game 100% and go for platinum but i felt it starting to get tedious and feeling like a slog so I wrapped it up and ended the game. The cookie-cutter open world style we see in so many games these days (Ubisofts stuff mainly) was the weakest part of the game. Tick off a checklist worth of mundane things from the open world map, rinse and repeat for each new section of map you travel too. Despite playing a lot of "AAA" games, I don't play many of these annualized (mostly) franchises that do this sorta stuff with open worlds. It started to grate of me in Ghost of Tsushima and reminded me of how a lot of it is needless busy work with no real substance. However, the world was truly beautiful and so well captured that it was hard not to just enjoying exploring the map and seeing all it's amazing sites. It really was all so beautiful in motion. The game had an amazing photo mode, and I've taken so many photos using it which I don't do too often in most games.
Ghost of Tsushima was best when it was doing its own thing that meant something to the game. Exploring the island of Tsushima was captured perfectly through the time period it was set in. It had a minimal UI and used the wind, environment, and animals to guide you to different places. Was really refreshing to see rather than objective markers, mini maps and all the other modern garbage on your screen. I really enjoyed coming across the haiku locations and 1v1 dueling locations. These stood out for me and really elevated the game as it's own. I couldn't help but compare the combat to Sekiro's, even though they are quite different games when it comes down to it. The combat in Ghost was good, but what you expect from an open world action game like this. It got better the further I played into the game and unlocked more styles, but it was never as tight, accurate, and satisfying as Sekiro. Not a directly fair comparison but I can't help it. It really stood out the most in the 1v1 dueling sequences. You could really focus on the combat then and it was really satisfying then.
The story was also dam good, and more than I was expecting, music was great, voice acting top notch, and I really enjoyed the different clan quests lines all over the map. A must play game.
4. Demon's Souls Remake
I started the year playing the original Demon's Souls on my PS3 and ended the year playing the remake on my PS5. Bluepoint Games have done it again with making another incredible faithful remake of an already stellar game to begin with. I am a big fan of the SoulsBorne series of games by From Software so I told myself if Demon's Souls was a launch game then I was all in for PS5. And what a treat it was! It's really crazy that it took another studio to a Souls game better than From does a Souls game. They made a (basically) bug free and performance driven Souls game better than From themselves can do. It was a delight to play a Souls game with a completely rock solid high framerate with gorgeous visuals to go along with it. Not knocking Froms games, they always have a real beauty to them. But performance and bugs is not something they've been able to nail down. And after the Dark Souls "remaster" it was clear how much they care about those sort of things.
Demon's Souls is really gorgeous. It's definitely the first game for me to visually define a next gen game. It's for sure a game not possible on past gen hardware and leaves anything you can find on PC behind too (for now). The PS5 is all about its custom SSD and there has been a lot of hype and marketing around it. Now while not directly fair to compare a PS3 game loading to a PS5 game, Froms Souls games have always had a bit of loading in them anyway. Bloodborne had really bad loading on launch and patching made it better but still not great. Demon's Souls on PS3 has long loading screens, so it was such a treat to play the remake looking how it looks and performing how it performs while loading main levels in 3 seconds. Hardly even a loading screen, and more of a misty transition between the Nexus hub world and main levels. This was a game changer for me. It bogged down the first game as you hated having to leave a level to drop you inventory back at the Nexus then to load back into the level you were on. Took about 5mins vs 30 seconds now.
All of this plus the quality of life improvements to the game made puts it high on my list here. You can send items directly to storage from a level without having to go back to the Nexus, all the game breaking bugs of the first have been patched up here, the online works and is full of new players, and the game has been faithfully remade from the ground up with minimal changes to the game. It still feels like Demon's Souls and the combat is as satisfying as it has always been and what made me fall in love with these games to begin with. The challenge is still there and now being an online game again, it's one of the hardest in the series. Forcing you to fight a real player for one of the boss fights. None of the original enemy AI has been touched which makes bosses exactly the same as you remembered them (for better or for worse).
This makes me very hype for Elden Ring.
3. Hades
Hades is the complete package. Its got the art direction, story, characters, voice acting, gameplay, progression, and genre I love all wrapped into one. While it technically came out a year or so ago, it only went v1.0 recently and is officially complete. So I am counting it as an official 2020 release so I have an excuse to talk about it.
I knew this game was going to be good from the get go, I've played all of Supergaint's games except Pyre. Really loved Bastion and Transistor, so knew I'd love this one just from what I had seen. I really love roguelikes and this is their take on the genre, and fuck me did they nail it. This roguelike has all the usual trimmings but they've added some progression elements so you actually get the feeling of getting more powerful between runs. On top of that, you can upgrade and customize the House of Hades which you spend time in after each run through the underworld. I love this element as I found after coming back from a run or two its nice to spend some time here chatting to all the NPCs and fixing the place up so its something I enjoyed coming back to. On top of that you can buy and unlock rooms and other elements to add to the pool to turn up during your runs.
The core gameplay is FANTASTIC so much better than Bastion and Transistor. It's a hack n slash but a really tight one and the combat loop of getting boons (powers) from various Olympian Gods and upgrading them during your run is so much fun. Add in a nice variety of weapons to unlock and choose from with unique move sets and you are golden.
There is a really good story and characters here which is told over your multiple-death play-through which I've not seen in a roguelike game yet. On paper it doesn't sound like that would work well, given the reset and try again nature of roguelikes where you lose everything, but it actually works so well here due to being a well designed game. You die, get sent back to the House of Hades, have a chat to your favorite NPCs, progress the story with your father a little bit, then try again. But none of it is forced on your or in your face all the time. You can just play the game and put all that on hold if you wish. However all the NPCs are so charismatic you just enjoy talking to them.
I've only played 10-15 hours at this point which isn't a lot, but I know I'm just scratching the surface. I'll be playing this game for awhile to come.
2. Spelunky 2
Tough choice between this and my top game of the year. I've been playing Spelunky since Spelunky Classic which released in 2008. I was trying to think recently how I even stumbled into Spelunky Classic. I used to be into PSP hacking in High School, and I got into homebrew and smaller indie games for it then. So I think that somehow lead onto discovering Spelunky Classic. Made by one guy, Derek Yu, it was my first exposure to a roguelike game which has since become one of my favorite genres of games. Fast forward a few years and Spelunky HD, which was a ground up remake, got released on PS3/4/Vita. This is where I sunk in an estimate 200+ hours into the game. It's easily one of my favorite games of all time.
Now when Derek Yu and his small team announced a sequel 3 years ago now, I became incredibly hype. Then this year Spelunky 2 came out, and it's everything I wanted and more, it's a fucking fantastic sequel.
It's somehow the same, yet entirely different. I marvel at how close Derek Yu paid attention to all the things fans loved and did in the first game, then expanded and changed those things to give you a fresh experience all over again. I'll admit, having played so much of the original I went in a bit cocky thinking it won't take me too long to get a win. But holy fuck just the first new area kicks my ass even now. All my muscle memory from the first game became immediately useless in the second game. The whip feels different, you run by default, all the little nuances in gameplay feel different requiring me to completely relearn and adapt.
It gave me everything I was hoping for in this sequel. New areas, enemies, items, secrets, and endings. I just wanted more of the same but expanded and worked upon. Its delivered this is in spades. Brutal, relentless, and unforgiving, Spelunky 2 has to be the current pinnacle of roguelike games for me. The sense of progression, getting better, and overcoming odds to achieve that ultra feeling of gratification is second to none and only rivaled by something like Dark Souls. Yet this can all happen IN THE SPACE OF 30 MINUTES. Then you cry and do it all over again. I'm over 1000 games in as we speak, nearly 100 hours on the clock, and am currently playing almost exclusively with friends due to its new online coop mode.
I will be playing for a long time to come, and can't wait to purchase it a third time on Switch next year so I can have my spirits crushed on the go, wherever I am.
1. The Last of Us Part II
Probably the most talked about and controversial game of this year, and for almost all the wrong reasons in my opinion. The day this games story got leaked I was guttered that I had to spend he next month avoiding all the popular sites online to avoid spoilers. Such a shame as its not fair to the studio, devs, and all the people who've poured so much hard work into what is easily one of the best games this generation.
I don't understand still where all the discourse for this game came from, and once the leaks hit, all the blind hate it consistently got. I'm a fan of Naughty Dogs games and have been since a kid, so I recognize my own bias. But I'll be damned if it was going to let this be spoiled for me and other peoples hot takes based on what they have not played be the defining consensus on the game. The one thing I could do right by the game and studio is play it as intended from start to finish and make up my own mind.
I loved this game, but I didn't feel happy when I finished it. It's a dark, harrowing game.
The story in this game was fantastic, but I'll be first to admit its not perfect. It's not as well paced as the first, and it's a much longer game. It essentially has you playing the game twice from two different points of view. You play as Ellie for the first half to avenge the brutal death of Joel. But then you play as Abby for the second half, Joel's killer, and see things through her eyes.
This was a really ambitious and different thing to do. I've not played a game ever that I got to the end of just to have the story flipped and I'm now playing the other side forced to see things from a different perspective. It took me a second to adjust to and I wasn't sure if it was really happening. As I've been getting older I have been enjoying this kind of story telling in shows, movies, games etc. They seem more realistic to me. It's not about the clear right and wrong, its not about being on the good side vs a bad side, more its about people. About characters. About human decisions and the thought processes behind them. How people react to things, and their emotions that drive their sometimes ill-fated decisions. It's what people think is morale or the correct thing to do, and to me this kind of story telling is enjoyable because it makes peoples actions human and believable.
So yes, Abby kills Joel. You start the game off like fuck this bitch I hope I get to slaughter her as Ellie. But then the tables turn and you see how Abby is no different than Ellie, and shes being wronged just the same by Joel and had things taken from her. Both sides are no better than the other, and are both just people trying to survive and be human the best they can. Revenge takes everything from both these characters, but in the end the game is about redemption and love. It's a powerful ending for me.
The story is long and not as air-tight as the original. But conceptually, as a sequel, it was a far more ambitious game.
Now beside the story is an incredibly technically impressive game. Its fucking gorgeous and its absolutely carried by the incredible motion capture, facial animation, and acting of all the characters. The gameplay is satisfying as fuck and builds on the original well with giant open levels with multiple encounters. Killing people is brutal. The Last of Us and Metal Gear have been the only two video game series to make me think about pulling the trigger, it really feels like you are killing people in this game. People cry out, scream, struggle, plead, and call out for their comrades in battle. Guns are weighty and things like the shotgun feel absolutely brutal when the trigger is pulled. Bodies bend over and collapse while they bleed out and cry. Its like FUCK I didn't need all this weight on me. But at the end of the day its also a game, and its so well designed that the moment to moment gameplay is engaging and really fun.
I thought about this game nearly daily for a couple months after i played it, very few games have had that affect on me. For that reason its my game of the year.
Other games played this year
A Short Hike
Casual little indie game about climbing a mountain. Really relaxing and fun. Very short though, just something quick and nice to play.
Bad North
A rougelite RTS. Pretty good game. You play a randomly generated campaign and get sent back to checkpoints should you loose all your commanders. Nice simple art style, fun gameplay. Not heaps too it, but its challenging enough. Mostly all about unit placement. Basically you move up to 4 squads around and island while waves and waves of enemies boat in to burn your houses. Protect the houses to get paid and then buy upgrades for your dudes.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
I wanted to play this in 2020 as the game was turning 10 in April. Originally a PSP exclusive, I played the HD collection version on PS3. After playing it again its still one of my favorite games ever. Holds up really well and has a fantastic game loop. Full on AAA game that doesn't skip out on any of the quality of the full console Metal Gear releases. Really fun playing it again. Felt the story was easy, but I'm also still dam good at the game. It has the typical Hideo Kojima trademarks of a Metal Gear game for example the long cut-scenes that probably are not a good idea for a portable game. But I still loved the story and fell in love with those elements of it again.
I played it through with a mate in coop who had not played before and it LIT MY SOUL ON FIRE. Loved every minute of it, but was over sooner than I thought it would be. Only took a couple weeks to platinum the game for its 10th anniversary. Happy 10th Peace Walker <3
Demon's Souls
Being a fan of the SoulsBorne games I got a PS3 copy of Demon's Souls and played it early this year. I was level 76 and it took me 17h:39m. Given the average seems to be 30 hours that's pretty dam quick. I wasn't rushing though... First level of each area took the longest, then the second area was way shorter, then the third area of each level was a Demon Soul holding boss immediately, no level to explore. The game went by really quickly once I finished the first level of each area.
Its a really good game! Still holds up great! It's basically just Dark Souls 1, except no body played it. Dark Souls 1 is really just a rehash of this game, locations, bosses, items etc. DS1 is just more realized and fleshed out. Still had all typical issues of their earlier games: slightly clunky controls, bad lighting, bad camera, OK graphics, TERRIBLE framerate, etc. Still had impressive moments though! I only died to a boss once, every other boss I defeated first time. This game is not as difficult as any of the others in the series at all.
Would recommend if you are a big fan of the series. But would not recommend as the first game to play at all. Really it would just be if you are interested after playing all the others.
As of playing the remake later in the year, I can now say play the remake should you ever get the chance.
Zelda Ocarina of Time
Recently finished Zelda Ocarina of Time. Very good game that only mainly suffers from age and design decisions of the past. Still very much a good Zelda game and is the first of the classic Zelda formula in 3D. I get why it's widely regarded a great game, and its still a good time to play, but the older it gets the less it holds up during the modern age of gaming. Hard to knock it too hard though when it was games like this that we pioneering what 3D games were.
BloodBorne
Casually did another play-through of this game while helping my mate benswitch on his play-through. Still near goddam perfection. Best of the SoulsBorne games.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Captain Toad is fucking great. Such a well made game and polished title. Love it! So fun to play and strikes the right balance between puzzles and fun.
What a goddam delight this game is . Took about 6-7 hours. Really tempted to get the DLC which adds a bunch of new levels for the Switch. Super charming all around, great little isometric puzzles, great ideas and level design. Such a joy. Nintendo charm and polish all over it. Would recommend as a game to chill out and relax too.
Impossible not to be happy while playing this game.
River City Girls
I played this with both two mates with about 6 months between sessions. Was a good ass time. Really good modern brawler. Decent amount of content and a great move set for both the characters. Took about 6 hours to complete. We got it completed pretty easy, with just a couple bosses that gave us some real shit.
This is how you do a modern brawler right: leveling up, items, large variety of learnable moves, good bosses and level layout/map. Would recommend to any fan of beat em ups. Really cool too that once you finish the game you unlock 2 more characters with their own move sets to learn. Can basically play the game again to learn and level them up.
My second favorite beat em up next to the pinnacle of modern brawlers, Dragon's Crown. Shout-out to the sound track: it was pumping. Great tunes.
Remnant from the Ashes
Dark Souls with guns. No lie this is what it is. And its dam good at it. Played it through once in coop with a mate. Has loads of end game content and many reasons to keep playing. Gameplay was tight and the guns were all solid from what I tried. I need to get back and play more.
Risk of Rain 2
Still 10/10 best in coop with mates buy this game.
Among Us
I had a great time with this game. Really fun experience with your mates and clear to see why it took the gaming world by storm. It basically replaced Falls Guys for me for awhile. Need to get back and play more.
Part Time UFO
A delightfully casual claw game made by Hal Laboratory, the studio that makes the Kirby games. You play as a UFO with a claw on your ship like a claw game you see at the arcades. Its a puzzle game where you need to stack items or make a building, or help out a farmer all using just your claw. Fantastic music, great pixel art, and the whole game was so cute. Would recommend to get for something to relax too.
Backlog games
Inspired by the rate my mate Ben takes out games, I decided to finish off games in my backlog I had not played or dropped over the last couple of years. Hear are my thoughts:
Guacamelee! 2
I think the first Guacamelee! game is what made me a fan of the Metroidvania genre. This was the first game I played this year and I had been meaning to play it since it came out. I wasn't disappointed, it was a great game. I felt it was easier than the first, but maybe I've got got better at this sort of game after having played more of them. Great sequel that expanded on the idea of dimension shifting from the first game, while giving you a bigger move set, and 4 player coop from the get go. Writing and humor was on point too just like the first game.
Hollow Knight
Have been wanting to play this game for ages, really dug the visual style from the get-go. It helped that I've heard nothing but great things about it. Hollow Knight is currently considered one of if not the best modern Metroidvania out there. Not only is it a Metroidvania, but its also Souls inspired. You can see that in the game bosses, death penalties, and general difficulty of the game. Its a tough one for sure but its rewarding to work out the bosses and get past them. I spent 40 hours with this game as i fell totally In love with its setting and characters. I wanted more so perused all the optional content I could find, and did the harder ending. Loved the music and the lore. Combat was tight as can be and very responsive. The Knights white mask really pops out on screen so its easy to keep track of him when the action kicks off, and it kicks off often with a lot of the bosses you fight. Couldn't recommend this one enough if you are at a fan of Metroidvania's and the Souls games.
Rocketbirds 2
After my copy of Rocketbirds 2 arrived for Vita I thought I better finish it on PS4 after starting it many years ago. Its not as good as the first game, so I dropped it. Turns out I dropped it right at the end and didn't even have an hour left in it. Very OK game, not as good as the original. 10/10 for soundtrack.
Gravity Rush 2
I dropped this right near the end of the game as it turns out. I didn't miss anything. Underwhelming game and finish. I played it out of dedication to the once Vita exclusive first game. Second game started great, the new map was fantastic. But it added so little to combat and gameplay, then the second half of the game was literal on the map from the first game. Not that great. Happy to support the game when it came out though in hopes to give this franchise some staying power to make another hopefully good game (unlikely now).
Undertale
This one was a truly crazy game. I think everyone at this point has at least heard of Undertale. It's made by one guy, and is an turn based RPG where you don't have to kill anyone, and can make friends with everyone. Even if you are not remotely a fan on the genre, its worth checking out. This is one you play to experience for sure. The writing and characters are really what makes the game and its so impressive to come from just one person making it. The music is on point, the pacing, the battle systems. Then that fucking ending. Holy shit. It's a game to experience as said and no amount of talking can really describe this game properly.
Yakuza 0
Fantastic open world brawler game. Combat is so good, and the 3 styles you learn are so varied and fun between both characters. Great story and characters and the first game of 8 more so far! The open world was small, but so densely packed with stuff to do it suited its size perfectly. I call myself a fan now, but I'm yet to play the others. A long game, at about 60 hours to finish for me.
The Legend of Zelda
Completed The Legend of Zelda on NES. Great game, old as balls. But its the game that started a lot of gaming trends that we see today. Did it with aid of a guide for all the missing info you don't have (original game came with a map and a lot of needed info in the manual) trying to play this completely blind would have you pulling your hair out and take months to complete.
Pretty good game overall, and holds up well enough. Not too much to the combat, but still fun.
The Legend of Zelda: A link to the Past
Now this game holds up great. This was the game that really build upon the first game that was on NES but holds up perfectly. Very little QOL fixes would need to be made to this game to make it perfectly passable as a game released these days. It's like a really well polished indie game that you would find nowadays in this genre of top down action/adventure.
This is where the Zelda formula became really polished, and it was such a joy to play even now. Can't speak highly enough about this entry. Beautiful pixel art and music, great setting and combat. Great dungeons and puzzles. For a 20 year old game on SNES, it holds its weight fine today. This game, Breath of the Wild, and Links Awakening are my current favorite Zelda games.
Doom 2016
Dropped it for something else that year, regret that pretty hard after playing it now. Fantastic FPS of the golden era that they brought into the modern era perfectly. A must play if you like shooters.
Mad Max
Was another one I dropped years back. Great game! Main highlight is the dope car upgrading and car combat. Story was ok, and turned out to be a cannon prequel to the new movie which is quite cool. I appreciate the attention to detail when it comes to Mad Max lore, it built off the movies really well. I've never seen a more beautiful desert in a video game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
And that's all folks! If this year in games taught me anything, it's that I played to many games. I am going to take my foot off the gas more next year. Not everything in my backlog deserved being seen through to the end.
|
Forum
![[Image: HQWxuGL.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/HQWxuGL.jpg)
![[Image: ARgL8Cn.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/ARgL8Cn.jpg)
![[Image: 6ZU6QqA.png]](https://i.imgur.com/6ZU6QqA.png)
![[Image: KDWGbVK.png]](https://i.imgur.com/KDWGbVK.png)
![[Image: 7KskIDj.png]](https://i.imgur.com/7KskIDj.png)
lithuanians: