To say that 2020 is a crazy and strange year at this point may no longer be a cliché. This is true for most of us, but for me, games usually exist in our own domain and have nothing to do with the real-world disasters that happened to us that year. That is to say, usually I know very well what my annual competition is, long before we write these competitions.
I cannot strongly support any games I have played in 2020, which is rare for me. But I can tell you that I like the ghost of Tsushima most this year. Deprived of its core elements, Tsushima Ghost is an ancient open-world game made with modern packaging. Its world design is the previous work of the three Assassin’s Creed, and its repeated goals are as surprising as the goals in any Ubisoft’s open world game. The story is…Despite the talent of the actors, it does not work in any way. Really moved me.
However, I followed each fox to its lair, cut all the bamboo strikes, and bathed in every damn bath on the island. There is no simple answer to why it fascinates me, and there is no strange mechanism or revolutionary function that can easily ignore its flaws.
I just think that despite all these shortcomings, Tsushima has never lost focus in some way.
I believe that the goal of Sucker Punch is to create a samurai fantasy. This fantasy will not criticize the myth or provide any comment on its perception, but just let the player embody that myth, even if the myth it is based on never existed in our imagination. In that regard, the ghost of Tsushima has achieved incredible success. Although I was worried about the many and many outdated mechanics of the game, I was never bored with the game. I will simply open it, encounter a group of enemies, use the Iaijutsu skills I fully mastered to reduce the enemies as much as possible, and enjoy the fighting dance with the few remaining people.
Combat is not Nioh-level deep combat or Souls-level precision combat, but it can do it—and it’s still fun, with enough skill and danger, and exciting every time. Tsushima’s extraordinary soundtrack made me more moved than any cutscenes. I watched the sunset from the top of the mountain, and never aging in the many amazing landscapes.
Tsushima is indeed not just the sum of its parts, and I really like it, even if it has never reached the high point of the best action game in Japan, it has never reached the movie style of other Sony first-party products.
Mortal Kombat 11: Consequences
I have been looking for an excuse to include Mortal Kombat 11 on one of these lists, and The Aftermath provides the best list. It’s hard to imagine a fighting game keeping in touch with casual viewers (me) within a few months after its release, let alone a year later.
But Mortal Kombat has always been an exception because it has always provided enough abilities for casual fighting game fans to fascinate them, and its design way keeps them away from the cruel realm of online fighting games.
This year, NetherRealm did something that other combat games dared not do: release a story expansion with the latest character pack. This new campaign is just to re-chip some old locations, because anyway this is still enough reason for me to come back. But Aftermath is a complete story expansion, you have never seen such a story in this genre.
Again, this is an incredible journey, full of fan service and with the same B animation quality as in the main game. Think about it, the story of a fighting game was so successful that it expanded. Of course, you have to really care about those characters in order to spend more time with them, and Mortal Kombat covers a good range.
The extra character is the cherry on the top, which allows me to log in after completing small activities. I hope the experiment can be successful, because I hope that NetherRealm and other fighting game developers can continue.
Eternal doom
I like “Doom Eternal” very much. I think the decision to build the entire game around strict, resource-based battles that require a lot of skills to execute is bold and should be commended for risking alienating so many people who see Doom 2016 as a journey of power .
My soul fan likes to have to dig out the right tools for each job, dance around the attacker, play with weapons and manage resources when they are dying. Eternal’s Slayer Gates are in any of my favorite games for challenging confrontation. I’m not even opposed to paying more attention to the narrative in the narrative pile and the backstory itself. “Eternity” confides to you every five minutes and chooses the way it enriches its concepts and characters.
But-you may have seen this trend coming: one more thing is to push things too far.
For me, the eternal battle challenge of the doomsday is over when the predators appear. I won’t write an article about why I hate him, but the predators and some story-laden sequences show that id Software needs a little bit of dominance.
I had a great time in Doom Eternal, but I didn’t scream to anyone and everyone that they need to play it. A part of me was happy that it was over, and the restart in 2016 made me jump back immediately with higher difficulty. As long as id modifies Eternal’s content appropriately, most of the content introduced by Eternal will be improved in the final sequel.
Horizon Zero Dawn PC
Horizon Zero Dawn is not a new game, but like most open world games of its kind, I was excited to get it at launch and it quickly fell off. The 30fps limit on PS4 is also not helpful, so I’m fine and drifting away. But I have always been fascinated by its world, and want to look back at some point to see if it can successfully answer many of the questions it poses to the novel.
When the PC version dropped in August, the second chance came. Although the shortcomings of the PC port are unnecessarily frustrating, I have always persistently come up with the narrative conclusions. I ignored most of the side tasks and didn’t even bother to upgrade my equipment.
At that time, I finally reached the end, and was puzzled by how the various mysteries of the game (with one exception) were solved exquisitely. In fact, this makes me less excited about the sequel, because for me, a lot of the trouble lies in solving these mysteries.
However, this is a fascinating story with an incredibly constructive world. In the end, I was very happy to have another shot of “Horizon Zero Dawn”, but I did not change my mind about its repeated open world design or the role of milk wine. However, I am happy to be able to ride the bike all the time-finally.
This is the last of our competition this year.If you missed other games, you can go back and check the GOTY picks of Alex, Tom, Lauren and James.
