Games of the Year We Played in the Year 2020
A new year is a time to reflect on the old, and what better way is there than to commemorate our most favorite of video games? But this is not a task to be taken alone. I gathered unto myself a team of six lovely men and women to cast forth our nominees and vote - with great authority - on what was truly the most special of all special games to us last year.
Oh, and this list has almost nothing to do with release dates. Instead, it is a recognition of the actual games that spoke to us - and held us together, sometimes quite literally - in 2020.
Crack open that award envelope, and let’s begin!
Our Best Political Game
Trevor
Stellaris is a game where you can have any space empire you want. Pacifist communist? Capitalist Corporate Empire? Single-minded murderbots with a thirst for blood? You got it! I've only made a couple of empires in the game so far, but it has a ton of systems and gets complex very quickly. It also has a ton of random events that can either aid or damage your space-faring civilization. Yet all of this combines into one big soup of fun. A big soup of murderbots.
Our Best and Most Emotional Game
Ian
During a year when I was living across the country from almost everyone I know, this fine game was more than a game. It was a bridge to friends and family; a virtual space with which we could supplement our emotional connections. I got to chill with my friends family at their authored, virtual homes — an experience which at times immersed me such that I would forget about the physical distance between us as I marveled at the way their islands palpably reflected their personalities and creativity. With Animal Crossing, I got to attend birthday parties for my nephews. I got to enjoy New Year’s with my parents and siblings. All despite being over 1,400 miles away.
No gaming experience this year meant nearly as much to me.
Trevor
Probably one of the best games to happen this year, helped in no small part to the timing of its release. In the early stages of the pandemic it was a delightful excuse to hang out with and visit friends without being able to do so in person. I spent quite some time customizing my islands to go with my pirate theme (unfortunately long before they had truly appropriate equipment to go with it). It was a charming game that I sunk a ton of time into.
Our Favorite Short Game
Darin
Games are a modern interactive medium that rely on ancient narrative structures. Our video games and myths are intertwined in wonderful ways and allow us to examine classic structures such as "the hero's journey" (referencing Campbell, 1949) in person. Appropriate, then, that Abzu takes (and I take from Abzu's Wiki) its name from the primeval sea that sits beneath the underworld in ancient Sumerian mythology. Enter a timeless and still ocean as an impassive observer; explore it, be guided by it, face hell, and restore it. Not surprisingly, the initial team behind Abzu formerly worked on a similar title, Journey. Both reveal the hero's journey by forsaking sword swinging and swashbuckling for the sake of thoughtful spelunking of forgotten civilizations, intense mystery, staccato tension, and sublime wonder.
Melinda
Abzu is the most delightful time I’ve had in 2020. It is beautiful, touching, actually fun to play, features a shark best friend, real actual fish, underwater cities. When I finished it, I was cheering.
Our Favorite Game with Three Kingdoms
Ian
My quarantine project was pursuing my awakening as a Romance of the Three Kingdoms otaku, apparently. I waded through the classic novel, learned a lot about the historical goings-ons of 3rd century China, and played no less than four video games involving the Three Kingdoms era. As I quickly came to learn, that era generated a rich tapestry of heroic folktales, morality plays, and political intrigue that I found to be rather interesting — and most relevantly to this discussion, dang good video game material.
So what’s the best game among those I played?
Definitely Total War: Three Kingdoms. What’s my favorite game among those I played? Definitely Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII. It’s a real-time grand strategy game at its core, but first and foremost it’s a roleplaying sandbox. It cares less about being a polished, balanced video game and more about giving you luxurious freedom to play out whatever kind of story you want — whether it’s living the life of a soldier, a merchant, a noble, or even an emperor. The game gives you a broad array of toys and simulations to play with, and I had a blast with it.
The Best Game We Played with Our Best Buds
Ian
“Not in the mood for cheese? That excuse has more holes than a slice of this fine gorgombert!”
Divinity is an absolutely bonkers game. Dungeons are filled with hateful traps waiting to kill you for the crime of putting your character one pixel out of place. Battlefields are always one wayward spellcast away from being reduced to a flaming crater because of some emergent Rube Goldberg-esque chain reaction. It sings (sometimes literally) with campy dialogue brought to life by the most gloriously over-theatrical voice acting I’ve maybe ever heard in a video game.
I love it all. At the core of the insanity is a solid tactical engine of understandable systems, laws, and interactions — and that’s why the magic works. This game simulates the fun-loving, emergent moments of a Dungeons and Dragons session more than any other game I’ve played. Best of all, it ended up being just a plain good time to share with a good friend. Kudos, game.
Gwyn
Hearing Mike and Ian talk about Divinity is quite charming, especially if held their attention for the entire year.
Deep Rock Galactic, though, is just such simple fun. Pick a dwarf, slap a beard on said dwarf, get drunk, then go smack rocks until they bleed loot.
Melinda
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is my personal win here. So much of my social life in 2020 revolved around Animal Crossing. From the Frequency Turnip Cabal goofiness to socializing with my cousins after my uncle’s expected death from COVID, Animal Crossing has fulfilled an array of fundamental human needs for me. So much so that now I actually struggle with it, given how I associate it with the early days of quarantine.
Mike
“Potent heat!”
Divinity: Original Sin’s greatest achievement was holding Ian’s and my attention for its full 100-hour runtime. Match that with a well-structured, albeit chaotic as all get out, combat system where the battlefield is marred by rolling fires, expansive clouds of poison gas, and cloaking steam clouds - all of which can be shaped by spells, items and clever use of the environment. It’s completely mad, and it almost never works, and somehow that is exactly its genius.
Our Favorite Story We Were Told in a Video Game
Darin
"It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
...
He holds him with his skinny hand,
'There was a ship,' quoth he."
The good ship Obra Dinn has returned to port with nary sigh or soul. And it's up to you to piece together its final days: the last groans of the crew with naught but the creak of swollen timber and lap of the infinite waves of Neptune to guide ye. Hark.
Obra Dinn rewards deduction, and you'll never feel smarter playing a video game. Fill in the game's sudoku board using the tales of dead men and solve the mystery of what occurred on the accursed ship. Will ye shrieve the captain? Or did he earn the bullet what pierced him, bursting him and his pride?
The art is ridiculously well done and speaks volumes considering how stripped down it is. Sound cues that play on successfully making a deduction are fantastic. Ambience is excellent, as above: soothing ocean waves and groans of the ship aid in meditative wandering through the ship and calm the mind through whatever the current speculation is. The music sounds delightfully maritime.
Tragically, I don't know if the replayability is very high. For myself, I'd love the chance to experience it all over again from scratch. The feeling of bewilderment and triumph from puzzles presented and completed was wonderful. Finding all the smallest details might be frustrating (my Sock Game is high, but not that high) but even the hardest details to match up can be brute forced should that be your style.
Mike
Disco Elysium is a beautiful story about an absolutely garbage human being with a cast of unreliable narrators who are all manifestations of a cop’s inner psyche - his empathy, his physical prowess, his connection to the City. The gameplay is 90% reading and 10% dice rolls, and only writing as sharp as this could hold up such a game. The writers achieve that elusive trick of giving each member of their cast voice, and with such an expansive cast - 16 different psyches, plus the array of supporting characters, and of course the player themselves - that is no mean feat. Thread this through a poignant, political tale (in 2020 as much as its release year, 2019) about one person’s struggle in and against an array of sociopolitical and economical systems working against him, and you have yourself an instant classic.
Melinda
Return of the Obra Dinn has an incredibly interesting story presentation. It’s a complex, intertwined tale told through a series of freeze-frame vignettes. Also it’s a classic adventure tale with krakens, curses, mermaids, and a whole boatload of murders.
Game of the Year Actually Released in the Year 2020
Farhan
Being scared by a game when you’re alone in the dark with it is one thing. But scaring you along with your friends, as Phasmophobia does, is quite a feat. This game is tense and packed with thrills.
Melinda
RB: Axolotl is a unique visual novel with a meta-mystery overarching several games within a game. It’s both adorable and a little horrifying, while being extremely indie. It deserves all its love.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons really nails the 2020 vibe of being stuck at home but virtually seeing everyone you know.
Darin
I think among fans and non-fans of the Final Fantasy series, VII would have to be the most beloved or recognizable of the entire franchise. It was released at one of the most auspicious times in video game history. Square was riding on a high from releasing hit after hit on the SNES and moving to higher production value they could squeeze out of better hardware. Unfortunately for me it meant a hiatus from the series. Up to this point I had played and loved every western entry in the series. But where most RPG gamers had a PS1 with an extensive library, I had an N64 with Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage.
Regardless, FF7 cemented itself in pop culture history with arguably the second most well known plot twist of the century. A remake was demanded by fans for decades. The problem of course is that a remake of one of the most beloved intellectual properties in video games would have to be beyond compare. Fortunately for those fans, despite the wait, it is beyond compare.
FF7 Remake is a misnomer. It is far more than a remake; it is a reimagining. It's present tense with a bit of past perfect thrown in. It has FF7's excellent setting and characters mixed with a modern action RPG combat system, updated visuals, and a soundtrack consisting of old tracks with a fresh coat of paint. FF7 Remake Part 1 is a complete RPG experience on its own, giving new life to a game that thrilled many by expanding underused locales, introducing new but not unwelcome systems, and expanding the role and increasing the appearances of a villain every fan loves to love.
Ian
This could have easily been a gussied up, HD-ified version of the original and no one would have batted an eye — it’d have slotted in quite inconspicuously amidst all the other “remasters” and “HD Editions” filling out release calendars. And frankly, I woulda bought right into it, ‘cause “FF7 but pretty” is enough for me.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is that, but they also went a lot further. It’s not an old game trying to look like a new game; it’s a completely new game that reminds you of an old game. It rhymes with the original more than it outright copies it. It creates this interesting sensation that I was playing completely alien and new — yet comfortable and familiar. Something I particularly appreciated was how it pays homage to the original’s 20 year legacy while balancing it well with a knowing irreverence for its ridiculousness. It feels self-aware in a great way.
But where I really want give it props are the times where it plays off expectations and subverts itself in ways that only a remake of a game as established and exposed as FFVII could be. They remade not just the game, but the discussion and mystery of the game. This game feels like it’s as much a sequel to itself as it is a remake of itself.
They took advantage of a unique opportunity to twist a remake into something a bit different, and I’m glad they did.
Also, uh, best video game soundtrack of 2020? Ian sure thinks so. (That’s me. I’m Ian.)
Our Game of the Year (That We Played in the Year) 2020
Darin
Outer Wilds scratched every itch I have ever had for gaming.
It was an extremely special experience with no equal. Its soundtrack leaned on hope, striving, and homeliness, tinged with microwave background radiation. The visuals tend towards believably awe-inspiring. The story, the discovery of the greater mechanisms of fate, remains not just interesting but quite rewarding. The game has a very cohesive quality: the music inspires intrepid exploration; the mysterious visual oddities encourage investigation; your curiosity leads to one ineffable, terrible, beautiful truth.
Melinda
The Outer Wilds makes it feel like you’re actually out exploring when you’re actually stuck inside in quarantine. It’s like playing the blues. It’s melancholy and sad, but it makes you feel better.
Also it’s very good.
Trevor
I've not played it myself, but the music, tone, and art style really left an impression from what I watched Melinda playing. Hearing how everyone spoke of it during our discussion it is clear it left an impression on them as well. Well earned game of the year!
Mike
An astronomy nerd could not have asked for a better game than Outer Wilds. Neither could a fan of stories, or a fan of adventure, or mystery, or drama. Outer Wilds accomplishes an incredible feat of simulation, told in 22-minute chunks (or less, when one forgets their spacesuit before exiting their spaceship). Most astounding of all, though the game resets every 22 minutes no matter what you do, you carry forward no equipment, no abilities, no levels. Instead, the only thing that progresses is your knowledge this little solar system, and the new heights that knowledge can take you.
As Darin says, the knowledge of where things are going - the only logical conclusion it could come to, slowly dawning on you with a creeping dread - fills you with such melancholy but also hope. The pull to keep going, keep discovering, keep learning - no other game has achieved this for me personally, in my lifetime.
Our Other Games of the Year
Ian
Plain and simple, Animal Crossing was the game the year for me. The one I returned to most often for my own leisure and luxury, and for staying connected with friends and fam. It marked a meaningful slice of my life last year. Even if I stop playing regularly, it remains a zen garden lined with the warm memories I placed in it — and that’s always gonna be worth coming back to reflect on.
Melinda
It’s hard to even call Animal Crossing a game at this point. It’s more like a place to go. In fact, it’s so indelibly but beautifully tied to 2020 that I am not sure I will even enjoy it in years to come. It will be too easy to just remind me of the trauma and stress. That a game can pull this off, though, is a feat in and of itself.
Farhan
The Last of Us: Part II is an absolutely gorgeous game with a brutal story. The first was a standalone classic, but Naughty Dog totally outdid themselves with the follow-up. I’ll never forget it.
Gwyn
Neon Abyss is just fun. Pretty colors, good action. What else can you say?
Trevor
I'd played Risk of Rain 2 in early access in 2019, but RoR2 had it's official release in March of 2020 so I put it squarely into the 2020 category. In general the game, like many roguelikes, is fairly light on story, but as you read the various item and enemy descriptions you get a combination of delightful vignettes, short horror stories, and occasional disturbing connections between the items and places that hint of things that have happened before. Through these you also learn of the connection between the final bosses of parts 1 and 2, which I found to be quite fantastic. It certainly isn't required to play the Risk of Rain to understand what is happening, but it does give a deeper connection to the events.
Probably the biggest selling point to this game (and the first, for me) is the soundtrack. Chris Christodoulou did the music for entries, and in the second his genius has continued, bringing in new layers along with motifs from the first game. Sometimes chill, sometimes absolutely frenetic, the music helps keep the aura of mystery and terror going throughout each run.