Half way through the 2020's. What's your favorite games so far?
I have stolen this idea from a Reddit thread and thought it would be a good discussion here. I am placing these in approximate order of favorite to least favorite.
Caves of Qud - Probably a top ten game of all time. Greatest environmental flavor I have ever experienced. Great soundtrack. This was the very first traditional rogue-like I played for more than a few hours
Wildermyth - I think the character creation/progression is my favorite of any game ever. Character age, befriend each other, fall in love, die, have children, and more. Also this is my favorite soundtrack of the decade, a very dreamlike and melancholic track that suits the game perfectly.
Jupiter Hell - The second traditional rogue-like i played for a few hours. Incredible tactical gameplay
Balder's Gate III - While not my favorite RPG (Wildermyth) probably the one I have played the most considering all the different ways you can play with story choices and character builds.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - The game has many flaws, particularly the poorly designed combat scenarios and a story that differs quite a bit in quality throughout. But the combat adds a bit more crunch then BG3 and the variety of choices and builds is multitudes larger than BG3.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020/2024 - Not much to say other than the flying mechanics are good and the entire Earth being mapped and populated is maybe my favorite technological feature in a video game ever.
Dorf Romantik - Cute puzzle game. Released in 2022 but was a game that I am 99% sure I played in early access during the pandemic and was warm and quiet in a terrible year
Spiderman Remastered/Spiderman Miles Morales
Total War: Warhammer III - On one hand a culmination of all the Total Warhammer games. On the other hand by the time I had played it I had played so many Total War games that the formula wore on me and I found myself auto-resolving battles more often then playing them.
Far Cry 6 - A step down from Far Cry 5 as far as I am concerned, but there is no FPS game with an open world that lets you approach things in any way you want. Guns blazing? Sure. Stealth? Four or five ways to approach a location? Yep. The only thing I did not like was the base design, which i felt was much more poor then in previous Far Cry games
Starfield - On the one hand, a game with a lot of flaws that make it a hard game to love. Tons of loading screens that break immersion. A lack of depth in systems. A story with little/no sense of morale choices. On the other hand, no one does open world like Bethesda and their formula is like crack for me. Good gun play. Best stories Bethesda has told in years. The ending and new game + hit really hard for me as well.
Here are other games that I play but are more of a 'annual series', so I am placing them separately
Pokemon - Arceus was my favorite Pokemon game, with Scarlet being my favorite 'traditional' Pokemon game
NBA 2K Series
Madden NFL Series
Out of the Park Baseball series
Just a heads up - halfway through the 2020s was a year ago 🙂
SHUT UP
DEBBY DOWNERdatavoid! QQIn no particular order, my top 5:
Alan Wake 2, I think, has a credible case for being the best game ever made. The gameplay is only "pretty good." But the story, the presentation, the writing, the visuals are all genuinely among the best in the industry; its narrative functions beautifully as a metafictional skewering of auteur theory, yet its characters are grounded, believable and human. It's full of audacious sequences and ideas that never feel out of place or overly cute; its structure is rhythmic and poetic, while retaining a sense of customizability and player agency. The graphics are more real than real, with a vivid and emotionally tone-perfect depiction of grimy city streets and the woods of the PNW, but the game still retains a strong sense of art direction that unified the disparate locales. It's a strange thing, to be playing a game, and constantly aware of the fact that you have maybe never played anything better before (or, for that matter, since).
Returnal might, by an incurious player, be confused for merely a sci fi roguelike with pitch-perfect core gameplay systems and a pretentious but unobtrusive tone-poem story. What shocked me about the game, however, was, on closer examination, how strongly the mechanics and gameplay reinforced the story's themes, to create an experience that only grew more existentially horrifying the longer I played. And the game is so fun that I still start a new save, sometimes, just to get my hands on more of the combat. I expect Housemarque's upcoming follow-up, Saros, to blow me away just as much.
1000xResist is a narrative game made by an experimental theatre troupe. With my own background in the performing arts, I was never not going to love it, but its sharply political sci fi story about intergenerational trauma, disease, politics and history was mature, empathetic, and at times deeply challenging to some of my most core beliefs. Its budget feels miniscule, but at the same time it never feels constrained, managing to completely exhaust the depths of its story, setting and characters and going to some very surprising places. Certain masterfully directed scenes in the game obliterate all pretense at subtext to present the full breadth of the game's ideas on a silver platter, but if the game lacks subtlety, it still never condescends to the player, and is never overly clever or precious.
Reverse: 1999, a live service visual novel game, can be thought of as a postmodernist short story collection about marginalization, community, and art history. Like all collections, there are some stories here that miss the mark. But in Reverse's best chapters, it oozes unsubtle, unselfconscious brilliance in the ways it engages with and challenges twentieth century literature; the way it fights within itself about separatism as a response to inequality; the way it embraces existentialism and yet snarls at absurdism. And yet, even with all these thematic depths, the game's surface level is arguably even more impressive, displaying exquisite art direction and character design, searing emotional honesty, and a smoothly implemented multilingual voice cast. That's when Reverse is at its best. And even when it's at its worst, it never stays there long.
Hollow Knight Silksong might be here because of recency bias, and because it's relatively recent, I don't have nearly as much to say about it. But as carefully and precisely designed as the game's punishing systems and world and combat are, what's stuck with me the most is its story, which is a Souls-style story done right: subtle, carried mostly by strong environmental design, but cohesive and sharp and thoughtful.
+1 for Returnal, I went in expecting a fun and lightweight (if well-crafted) roguelite and walked away with existential dread. And totally agree on the story informing the mechanics as well - really excellent interplay.
1000xResist - I bought this a while ago but I simply cried too much just watching the intro/trailer to really play it until last month. I do hesitate to say this is a game of the decade for me, but I am already confident about including it as one of my all time favourite interactive media, and one of my favorite sci-fi fiction stories. The direction and tightness of the writing was enjoyable.
May I ask what core beliefs the game challenged, and where your current thoughts have settled?
Sure! So, I am, generally, a believer in radical empathy, in treating everyone around you with compassion, forgiveness, and the understanding that they're their own person with their own unimaginable depths. I think 1000xResist would broadly agree with that, but it has a different perspective on it, as demonstrated by the ending.
Spoilers for 1000xResist
There are a couple facets of the game's ending that jarred me. The first was mostly subtextual: core to the ending choice is the knowledge that everyone will come to a full understanding of the history that preceded them, and the understanding that this knowledge is not enough. Even though everyone knows the history of Iris, her family, and her sisters; even though, being clones, they are all in one sense the same person, their belief-forming experiences under an unjust society are so different that they will still inflict terrible harm on each other.
I think I had the kind of naive unexamined assumption that all the world's problems were due to misinformation, a lack of empathy, people just not understanding each other. But though empathy and understanding are worthwhile virtues, they are not enough, and they can also be twisted -- just as Iris twisted them.
Spoilers continue
More difficult for me to grapple with is the cold, utilitarian logic that 1000xResist applies to society building. To move forward and get a real ending to the game, you basically have to choose to kill the cops. On the one hand, based and anarchist-pilled. On the other hand, I, a bleeding heart, really struggle to make that decision, to press that button.
One of the game's core themes is "some things just don't fit in the backpack:" to live a good life, to build a good society, you have to be able to let go of people, of memories, of narratives.
On a personal level, I understand this completely. I've cut family members out of my life; I've made difficult decisions during moves, I've lost parts of myself in the growth process and come out better for it. But on a societal level?
I suppose 1000xResist's thesis here comes across as a bit grossly punitive to me. The game has gone out of its way to create a situation where some people have to be killed for society to move forward, which on the one hand mirrors the logic of revolution but on the other hand feels a bit like a forced dichotomy built into the game's procedural rhetoric, that primarily exists to justify violence, if the morally right people are doing it. And, like, it's in my opinion completely unjustifiable to kill anyone who doesn't pose an imminent danger to Blue and Watcher -- that includes, like, Principal, the Jiaos, the cult members -- but if you're already killing people, if you must, why not kill all the people who might possibly be a detriment to society in the future?
So this is a fairly dark incentive built into the ending choice that the game doesn't seem to adequately explore, in my opinion. But on the other hand, it's hard to do anything but nod along to the extremely straightforward utilitarian logic at play here, to look at history and see a thousand supportive case studies.
Interestingly, one of the other favorite games I mentioned, Reverse: 1999, takes literally the opposite perspective on society building. The main character, Vertin, has an infinitely large suitcase in which she builds a society of marginalized arcanists. All of these people are mentally ill; some of them are cruel, or even evil; some of them have good cause to hate each other. And this all sounds a bit utopian, doesn't it? Vertin will never say, "sometimes, you just don't fit in the suitcase;" her suitcase is effectively infinite, and anyone who's displaced or vulnerable can come inside, no matter how dangerous they are, no matter how special their needs.
And I think what 1000xResist made me realize is that my relative powerlessness grants me the privilege to be a utopian. I don't have to do the messy work of building a society; my praxis largely consists of letting homeless queer people live in our house while they get their feet under them, cooking for them and cleaning up after them and loving them. In this context, even when people are severely mentally ill, or grossly unsanitary, or just a bit odd, it's easy to say, "well, it is what it is." "Well, I still love you." Because it's one person, because the stakes are low and individualized, because we have more than enough money to absorb the cost. If I had to run a revolution, I'm not sure what I would do; I'm sure now that empathy wouldn't be enough.
Right, I hear you. Ask Chocobean from 2018 and I would have given a very different answer: surely we can reach them with love, empathy and awareness? Surely we can't give up on someone just because they're different?
Humble theory craft spoiler.
Remember when the Provisional Government captured Watcher and was torturing her for a confession? Why? That's the dark inverse of Blue's final choice: you can kill them or you can let them kill you, but you cannot drug someone out of their core beliefs and choose only to live with a pretend puppet version of them in your dream world. You can choose them with love and knowledge and empathy etc, but they also have to choose to be part of your world.
In the Old Town chapter, it's implied that the Reds maintain anonymity while they are on duty, but when off duty they have their own identities and joke and live together with everyone. The uniform, siding with power, allowing themselves the safety and comfort of being a tool of violence and inequality, is a choice. You can kill them or let them kill you, but you can't take away their free choice any more than Watcher can be broken.
The two endings if Blue spares the Reds and or Mauve, Blue is trying to carry too much weight in her backpack, and that decision breaks her. The ending fades to black and we don't get an epilogue because in real life no mercies would be shown us either; maybe they go on to create a different Utopia, but we won't be in it. We won't get to see it.
Now: glimmer of hope head canon. After the final Communion, all of these Reds now have all the information and backstory they could want, as well as an idea of what kind of world Blue wants to build. Secretary has final access on which ones to lights out and which ones to bring with: if someone whose job is a Red Guard chooses to self identity as a named human person, to put down the gun and take off the uniform, to empathize with and throw their lot in with any of the other factions, there's no reason they can't come with to the new world. For example, Johnson 50 could be saved; Mimi 50 couldn't.
Bringing it back to our world: a solider can always quit; a police can always quit; an agent can always quit. Sometimes that results in lights out for them or indefinite detainment,nand they cannot step into our future together. But sometimes they can. It isn't that we're not choosing them: they also have to choose us.
In your wonderful praxis, these folks are also choosing to be helped by you. Someone dragged into your loving home kicking and screaming cannot be helped by you, it'd be torture
Thank you for sharing that. Yeah it's a very heavy realisation.....
+1 for Caves of Qud!
It still feels relatively unknown, but my god is it an amazing game.
In no particular order for the rest (and off the top of my head):
Baldur's Gate 3: Okay, I think this may actually be a contender for the best game of all time. Not much more to say.
Cyberpunk 2077: I'm definitely in the minority here, but I loved the game from release day. I don't remember any major bugs and I had a great time playing it.
Dwarf Fortress: Obviously DF is much older than this decade, but I didn't start playing until the steam release- and boy did I sink a lot of hours into it.
Icarus: Haven't played this one in a while, but it scratched the survival crafter itch for my for quite a while. I really enjoyed it.
Not particular ranking and not at all comprehensive but here's a few off the top of my head that stood out as particularly fun or special:
Inscryption - It was short and the gameplay itself wasn't particularly challenging, but I really love the atmosphere and storytelling in this one. Does quite a bit in a relatively small space and remarkably few characters.
Helldivers 2 - One of the most fun co-op games I've played hands down. It's just so easy to hop in with friends and end up goofing around even when you're trying to play seriously due to how ridiculous things can get, and the over the top satire theme hasn't gotten old yet.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide - I was only really aware of 40k through some memes before I played this but this got me considerably more into the lore and books (not the tabletop though, that's too much for me). This is like the polar opposite of Helldivers, when you want to knuckle down and test the limits of your mechanical skill while under considerable duress, and maybe there's a tiny bit of teamwork sometimes.
Elden Ring - My first actual FromSoft game and damn was it worth the tough boss fights. Just a real work of art in so many aspects, the lore, the environments, the characters, what a complete package this is.
@hellojavalad Wildermyth looks very fun, and I'm excited by how highly you have ranked it! I'll certainly have to check it out.
As for me, I think Baldur's Gate 3 has been by far the biggest stand out for me in the 2020s. I'm not sure anything else is worth mentioning in the same sentence. It's just such an incredible game, and I've had so much fun with it. Every time I play, I'm blown away that a game like this exists. It's just so impressive in every single area.
The biggest disappointment for me was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It felt like it iterated on the wrong aspect of Breath of the Wild, which is one of my favorite games ever. I wanted the same mechanics and more dungeons rather than even more mechanics.
No particular order, but I've easily spent the most time on:
Baldur's Gate 3 - Just wrapped up my second campaign (Dark Urge this time, intentionally avoiding murder). This inspired me to pick up Divinity: Original Sin 2 this week, since I need a fresh RPG.
Final Fantasy XIV - Been playing and staying current since Stormblood. Easily the best MMORPG on the market, with a story that stand on its own even without the multiplayer aspect.
Genshin Impact - One of my usual go-tos. It's like a Zelda game that's not boring, with a story that's kept my interest years now.
Fortnite - Kind of a TF2 vibe, widely available on different platforms. Good for something that requires less engagement.
Jedi Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor - Lightsaber enemies. I was having so much fun I bought a neopixel lightsaber for Halloween.
Ghost of Tsushima - Katana enemies. Also, this is one of the most polished and "PS5 first" games. Everything about it has an incredible level of polish, and it takes advantage of PS5 features most games would ignore (using gestures on the touchpad as an extra d-pad, extensive use of haptics, motion control, etc), and everything just sees smooth and put together. Have not bought a katana so far.
Final Fantasy XVI - Good story, impressive visuals, same leadership as XIV.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance - I don't know if this one counts, considering it hit in 2018, but I didn't actually play it until 2020-2021 during mid pandemic. There's nothing else quite like it out there and the depth of historical research, as well as just feeling like a nobody in the game just...really gets my goat. Going from a peasant in the middle of the country to a fairly established nobleman just felt...good. It's a nice change from being the savior of the world or universe or whatever. It's a highly specific story in a highly specific place.
Skald: Against the Black Priory - It's not necessarily anything new and I've never played Ultima before, which it's basically based on, but the crunchy turn-based combat and the cosmic horror story, where no one really gets a good ending just really sticks with me. It's a game I think about frequently, not only because it has an excellent story and combat, but because it's a game that basically runs on a potato. A game I discovered during traveling in 2024 that reminded me that I don't need a powerful gaming computer in order to have extremely interesting and transcendent experiences with games.
Pentiment - Sort of similar to above, it's a game that's so well written that forces the player to make decisions based on incomplete information. You can kind of get close to the truth during the course of the game, but the true ramifications and breadth of the story will never be revealed to you until the very end of the game. You always feel shitty about having to make a decision of the game, because you know it's wrong and you know you're working with incomplete information and yet, just like in real life, you're obligated to choose. Just, absolutely excellent.
System Shock - Enhanced Edition - Again, kind of a cheat, but another game I played very early in the Pandemic (March 2020). I've been a PC gamer since about 1995 and I very vividly remember PC Gamer magazine championing System Shock as a Masterpiece. I never did end-up playing it or even System Shock 2 until 2020, when something compelled me to fire it up on my Not-A-Gaming Laptop early in the Pandemic. It was absolutely astonishing to play something so huge, released in 1994, with such a compelling antagonist (Shodan), who constantly teased you throughout the narrative. The hugeness of the space station, listening to various audio logs and having to follow a non-linear narrative and gameplay was just...amazing. Again, I played it 25-years after the fact, but realizing this released when I was only 10-years old, when I was deep in Doom was just, amazing. It's a game I think about going back to again in 2025, which I ended-up not doing, but probably will in 2026. What was especially amazing to me is that prior to this, I had played many Immersive Sims and quite a few Looking Glass/Ion Storm games between 2000 and 2025 and yet, System Shock really still hit home and stuck with me as an excellent game, even so many years later.
Balatro - Always great for burning an hour every now and then. All my friends who have touched it ended up with hundreds of hours in it. The first time you play the game is a surreal experience that hits like crack. I feel like this game has defined it's own genre by now, though most of its imitations have too much randomness to feel good to play. The only balatro-like game I've found to have the chance to surpass it was the Insider Trading demo.
Deadlock - While the game is still in alpha, there is so much potential. Valve's commitment to actively designing the game around it's community is really refreshing in an industry who's sole goal is to make your wallet as flat as possible. This honeymoon period will end eventually, but the game has already done a great job of combining the hero shooter fantasy of Overwatch with the more challenging macro of mobas. I doubt I'll ever actually be good at the game, but the journey playing it has been great so far.
Dispatch - Could just be recency bias, but I feel it's one of the best visual novels I've played since Stein's Gate. The actual gameplay is surprisingly good, satisfying my optimization itch without being tedious.
Hades / Hades II - Both great are great games. I have a slight preference to the second one for the gameplay, but both do an amazing job combining a deep story with rougelike mechanics.
Alrighty, so... I binge play a whole lot and then I dabble around for a long while until I find a new binge to play. Currently playing Tom Clancy's Breakpoint, which I would not really put up for a favorite, though it scratches that open world itch. I really got into Wildlands when that came out (in '17, so before the timeframe stated), but I basically only play Steam games these days and that's where I have BP. I could buy Wildlands again but the DLC (that I already own on Ubisoft, as well as its really crappy DLC, etc - nah, plus all the achievements ding instantly which is saddening because that's why I bought FC3 on Steam but... back to main topic!)
Back to 2020 (ignoring @datavoid haha), I played a lot of odd games and last touched a few others... but these seem to be the "hits", as in, ones I binged and enjoyed, but still haven't gone back to:
So, okay those are all "favorites" I enjoyed in the last few years, but the tops I still am going to state (though I haven't really been playing them much) are going to be: