Annual reviewWe look back at the ups, downs, surprises and special features in and around video games this year.The past year has been an endless, pitch-black night with a single burning, incandescent star: video games. Can you imagine what 2020 would have been like without video games? I can not. Better still, it’s not that the annual release calendar has been a losing streak. The hits came again and again from tip to tail – a real salvation. Without further ado, here are my top 10 games of the year, in order from best to least, but still great.
Hades
Everyone knows the story behind it Hades. A surprise announcement at the Game Awards 2018 with a release of Early Access on the Epic Games Store that same evening. Early access to Steam the following year. A Full version 1.0 on PC and Switch in September 2020, at that point everyone devoured it with a keyboard or a set of Joy-Cons. Set the Game Awards Hades for the highest awards. Polygon, IGN, Destructoid, US gamer, and Rock Paper Shotgun called it the best game of the year. And now a guy at Kotaku lists it as his personal number one. Yes, Hades was without question the best game I played in 2020.
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Hades
Hades is simply irresistible. It’s a roguelike, but not quite like all other roguelikes. In so many games of this type, failure is failure. Oops. Next run. HadesHowever, you always get another bite to start your Sisyphus efforts. Bonds between characters develop at a natural pace. The story – the handsome prince of the underworld wants to escape his father’s oppressive realm – continues whether you win or lose. And yes, with every run you are constantly improving your powers, weapons and skills. I am excited to hear the idea that games are “addicting” and in general I think it is within the Gaming Press Corps to avoid such harsh language that lacks empathy. But I would be wrong to suggest that Hades is not a ridiculously compelling game that calls for “Just One More Run!” Mindset – no matter what time the hour is.
Hades
I’ve long been an acolyte of Supergiant Games, the indie developer behind it Hades. I have a tattoo of transistor, the studio’s second effort. In my living room there is a poster of the main character in the game, Red. pyre is one of my most played multiplayer games and bastion is in its brilliant brevity one of those annual replay games. Needless to say, my hopes are on Hades were sky high. The game passed them by in every way. You can see the DNA of Supergiant’s oeuvre in every pixel of Hades: the airtight fight of bastion;; the incessant, branching narrative of pyre;; the quiet glimmer of hope that penetrates transistor;; the delicious art, the proficient writing, the music, Oh my god the music. For a fan of Supergiant’s games, Hades is a dream come true.
Hades
Appendix A:
Appendix B:
I could go on, but my colleague Ash Parrish already has:
Hades
Raise your hand if you studied Greek mythology from a young age, perhaps because you read that one children’s book that lived on every bookshelf in the 20th century. (You know: This.) Many games in 2020 featured Greek mythology – including the pleasant one Spiritfarer and the questionable but also pleasant Immortal Fenyx Rising– but no one met her with as much depth and humanity as Hades. And it wasn’t just laser-focused on the Olympian gods we’ve all heard of a million times. in the HadesMortal legends are also shaken fairly. In this game you will learn the extent of the unique connection between Achilles and Patroclus. You will receive a faithful epilogue in the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Asterius and that idiot with the notorious boat are treated in an act that was not canon two thousand years ago, but should certainly be taken as a scripture today. With HadesSupergiant established itself as a worthy steward of Greek myth – a cinematic universe that I didn’t even know I wanted to have a number of sequels before September. Even better, Hades single-handedly aroused a childlike feeling of wonder and joy and boundless curiosity.
Hades
Look: you don’t have to be able to play video games to write about them. If anything, I’m an aggressively average player. (See My Tendency to Maintain a Kills to Death Ratio of about 1.0 in Sagittarius after Sagittarius after Sagittarius.) Still, I know I am good at it Hades– not quite on the level of Vorime or Haelian or any of the others Olympic class speed runnerOf course, but skillful enough to hold my own. In one run, I even beat the boss without losing a single hit point. No game in 2020 – not even the ones that cast me as literal superheroes – made me feel as powerful as Hades did. During a year that week after week repeatedly and persistently brought home the opposite, this sensation was a gift.
Hades
So many puns!
Hades
It’s no secret that there are a lot of great games out there these days developed under “Crunch” conditions– Long hours and potential weekend work, either mandatory or implicit, to meet a release goal. Hadeswas however developed under seemingly contrary conditions. At Supergiant, emails sent after 5:00 p.m. on a Friday are frowned upon. Employees must take at least 20 days off each year. But there is also obvious support for bonus projects where an employee who is passionate about a feature is given the space, time, and resources to pursue it. When creating HadesSupergiant prioritized employee wellbeing. Yet the game received a number of awards and sold like hot cakes to boot. It’s a good example in the industry if you ask me. Of course, such a model might not work for a multinational mega-developer, but some of these methods could be adapted to improve working conditions in an industry known for burnout and turnover. The undeniable success of Hades sends a strong message to the industry.
Hades
Hades is not a well-known creativity game, at least not as it is, for example, the PlayStation exclusivity from Media Molecule dreams is. That doesn’t mean that players couldn’t test the limits of their imaginations by developing different builds on the fly to complete entire runs with different parameters. Some players have even figured out how to beat the game without pressing any buttons. (So much for my “No HP Loss” award!) In September, the game’s fastest players wanted to beat the entire game in under eight minutes – a breathtaking feat that players challenged. Now is the time to strike under six minutes. The September barrels were all built around a specific gun and set of boons. Today you can see different combinations at the top of the leaderboard. Hades typed in a fountain of ingenuity that was so, so fun to bear testimony. Play Hades was a total blast, but watching from the sidelines was just as exciting.
Hades
Thank you, Bouldy, for coming to my TED talk.
Mandatory section “Honorable Mentions”
Spider-Man: Miles Morales, The last of us part 2, and Final Fantasy VII Remake Each provided enough spectacle worthy of the most venerable PS4 tent poles. Yakuza: Like a dragon and Paper Mario: The Origami King are solid role-playing games that don’t shy away pull the strands of the heart. Ori and the will of the wisps and Ghost runner satisfied the hunger for high wire platforms Astros playroom serves some delightfully lighter fare. Othercide and Gear tactics offered a fair amount of control – over tactics – in a year that was otherwise a lack of control. Spiritfarer is possibly the best idyllic management simulation with snarky talking animals ever published (certainly in 2020). Destiny 2: Beyond Light got me through a dark weekand also reminded me of how damn tight fate‘s gunplay is. And oh yeah Eternal fate was a pretty solid shot too. A triumvirate of Ubisoft card games (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, and Watch Dogs Legion) have all hit the sweet spot of the open world, just like her Spirit of Tsushima– which drew surprise twice as a duty a cooperative killer game. Despite all his mistakes Cyberpunk 2077 is really a tour de force, despite one that remains unfinished like the Acropolis of Athens.
And then there is something else Animal Crossing: New Horizons. If you’ve even tuned in to our coverage of Nintendo’s life simulation, you probably know that I don’t particularly like the game – and that’s lukewarm to put it. That’s true. In the 40+ hours I’ve poured into it, I’ve experienced more frustration than fun, and has been by and large honest. Still, Deer crossing meant a whole lot to a whole lot of people in an incredibly hellish time, and no snarky writer on the internet can take that away. If 2021 turns out to be the same kind of ceaseless Charley horse that defined every minute of 2020, I’m hoping for one Deer crossingor something like that shows up. We should all be lucky enough to fall in love with a resonant video game ten times.
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