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What new games got the best ratings on Steam in 2020? The answer is clear: Indie has the edge, while big blockbusters get significantly more criticism. We show you the 15 new releases of the year with the best user-review ratio, calculated by Steam250.com.
Above you can find an interesting video about the games that were rated »Extremely positive« on Steam in 2020. There is no ranking list in it, but editor Christian Fritz Schneider explains why big titles often have a hard time while indies garner a lot of praise. We’ll give you a few possible reasons right away, but if you’d rather go straight to the rankings – here you can jump to the ranking list.
Why are the blockbusters missing?
There are several possible reasons for this. Smaller titles speak often a very specific target group who knows and loves the genre. An example would be Senren * Banka – in order to spend almost 24 dollars on a visual novel in a manga look, you actually have to belong to the fan community of such games, so the reviews will be more positive.
Big games against it will be bought by a wider crowdwhose preferences are correspondingly broad. In addition, blockbusters almost inevitably attract haters and trolls who give bad ratings, keyword review bombing.
In addition, the Expectations of an indie game very different from an AAA title: If a Cyberpunk 2077 appears technically half-baked, it is criticized much more than it would be with a small and inexperienced development team.
The 15 new games with the best ratings
1. Hades
Genre: Action-RPG, Roguelike
Release: September 2020
Rating: 99 percent positive at 105,009
Hades became the surprise hit of the year and won prizes for best action and best indie game at the Game Awards. The roguelike role-playing game comes from Supergiant Games, which have already become known with Bastion, Transistor and Pyre.
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2. Factorio
Genre: Building strategy
Release: August 2020
Rating: 99 percent positive at 106,363
Factorio already gathered a loyal fan base during its four years in Early Access. Even before the final release, the building hit appeared again and again in the Steam leaderboard.
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Factorio shows that games can be so much more
3. Phasmophobia
Genre: Buy-Horror
Release: September 2020
Rating: 98 percent positive in 197,644 reviews
Phasmophobia doesn’t have to hide behind other Twitch phenomena like Among Us or Fall Guys. The co-op ghost hunt is still very popular – it was so well received that the developers changed their plans for the future at short notice.
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Phasmophobia removes planned features because of too much success
4. Helltaker
Genre: Dating-Sim / Adventure
Release: May 2020
Rating: 98 percent positive in 84,597 reviews
A mixture of puzzle adventure and dating sim in an anime look – that describes it Helltaker probably the most appropriate. You, quote from the Steam description, »conquered the hearts of demonesses. But there’s nothing more to see than scarce clothing. ”
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5. Half-Life: Alyx
Genre: VR-Shooter
Release: March 2020
Rating: 99 percent positive at 49,203
Valve played poker with Half-Life: Alyx – the latest installment in the popular series was released exclusively for VR. Despite this limitation, the shooter captured the hearts of gamers. In the meantime there are even mods that make Half-Life: Alyx playable on the PC.
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Half-Life: Alyx – The 3 most important pros and cons
6. The Henry Stickmin Collection
Genre: Casual / Interactive Story
Release: August 2020
Rating: 99 percent positive in 18,118 reviews
In The Henry Stickmin Collection There are six stick figure adventures in which you influence the ending with your decisions. The stories are full of wit and making mistakes is the real fun of the game.
7. Risk of Rain 2
Genre: Shooter
Release: August 2020
Rating: 96 percent positive in 134,873 reviews
The indie shooter Risk of Rain 2 2019 stayed in the Steam charts for weeks, although it was still in Early Access. At times he even ousted Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice from the top position. The final version was released in August 2020.
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Risk of Rain 2 – What Makes the Indie Game So Popular?
8. Deep Rock Galactic
Genre: Buy-Shooter
Release: May 2020
Rating: 97 percent positive in 69,143 reviews
Space dwarfs, co-op action and resource hunting – that’s Deep Rock Galactic. Alone or in a group of up to four players, you fight aliens and collect resources. The levels are destructible in all possible ways. Did someone say flamethrower?
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Deep Rock Galactic addresses our biggest criticism
9. Persona 4 Golden
Genre: JRPG
Release: June 2020
Rating: 97 percent positive in 38,573 reviews
Persona 4 Golden is not really brand new, after all, the JRPG was already available for the PlayStation 2. With the revamped PC version, the game also became a Steam hit.
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Persona 4 Golden: JRPG classics finally on PC
10. Satisfactory
Genre: Construction simulation
Release: Juni 2020 (Early Access)
Rating: 97 percent positive in 38,438 reviews
Satisfactory wants to prove that structure also works from the first person perspective and is already extremely popular with its players in Early Access. The final release date is not yet known.
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Satisfactory: How did the building hit sell?
11. Townscaper
Genre: Casual / construction
Release: Juni 2020 (Early Access)
Rating: 99 percent positive in 7,180 reviews for townscapers
Townscaper is less play than creative relaxation. You build small towns out of houses in pastel colors, without a given goal – construction couldn’t be much simpler. And that’s exactly what many players love, Townscaper is perfect for switching off your head.
12. Ultrakill
Genre: First-Person-Shooter
Release: September 2020 (Early Access)
Rating: 99 percent positive in 4,907 reviews for Ultrakill
Look for nice graphics Ultrakill in vain, but there are even more splatter effects: The game is reminiscent of the very old shooter school, but still offers astonishingly modern and fluid gameplay.
13. Senren * Banka
Genre: Visual Novel / Manga
Release: February 2020
Rating: 99 percent positive in 4,913 reviews
Senren * Banka is a romantic visual novel that won several awards for music and art design in Japan and was published on the developer’s tenth anniversary.
14. There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
Genre: Adventure
Release: August 2020
Rating: 99 percent positive from 7,395 reviews for There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension It’s hard to describe – it’s a game that doesn’t want to be a game and pokes fun at all of the video game tropes of the last 30 years.
15. Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Genre: Platformer
Release: March 2020
Rating: 96 percent positive from 49,389 reviews for Ori and the Will of the Wisps
The second adventure of the cute creature Ori managed to outdo its grandiose predecessor. If you have a heart, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is guaranteed to touch it – why everyone should play it, you can read in our review.
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Ori 2 in the test – you have to play this!
How is the ranking calculated?
At steam250.com you can take a look at which newly released titles were rated the highest in which year. It’s about the total number of reviews submitted and what percentage of them are positive – here you can find out more about the Database algorithm.
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