Year In Review: 2020

The tradition continues. Just some general notes on the games I played last year, so I can reference them later.

This year, my "Game of the Year" is probably a tie between Helltaker and the Switch port of Blasphemous , although nothing really blew me away - overall, a tepid year for games to contrast with the madness that was 2020 in meat realm.

• Blasphemous – [8]

  • Can really feel the love that went into this game's retro art style. It's a pretty fun little... pseudo-Soulslike Metroidvania (yuck, how's that for a buzzword soup). Bosses had some cool spectacle, and the combat was solid enough for a hack-n-slash, but the platforming is just so finicky – I ran into a few camera issues as well.

• DOOM Eternal – [7]

  • This game is a tightly designed arena shooter; very nostalgic feel. Not really my jam (I like more cinematic shooters), but I recognize this as pretty darn well made. The exploration aspects were fun too.

• Resident Evil 3 – [5]

  • A let down after how brilliant the RE2 remake was. Removed a lot of the replayability of the original RE3, with a much more linear design, removal of the branching path system, and also the outright absence of a couple of side areas (if memory serves?). Lacked the persistent atmosphere of dread from the original as well; Nemesis was kinda lame in this one, although I love his new look. Still fine, but disappointing.

• Outer Worlds – [6]

  • Decent enough attempt at a Bioware and/or Fallout-style game. Kinda ends abruptly, and the game really chugs in some areas. But it's pretty fun, and I like how there are always multiple approaches to most quest objectives.

• Deep Rock Galactic – [8]

  • A fun melding of Minecraft and Left 4 Dead. Fairly well optimized with its lo-fi faceted polygons and simple but effective use of color.

• Helltaker – [9]

  • Obviously I adore the art style. Fun distraction, and I found a few of the puzzles to be pretty challenging!

• Ghosts of Tsushima – [7]

  • A fairly well-paced open world – Witcher 3 meets Sekiro, and I think Ghosts slightly surpasses both. Love how simple and clean the melee combat is, although I enjoyed the satisfying tension of Sekiro's sword clashing and guard breaking a bit more. Story takes a little while to ramp up, and the camera is occasionally frustrating – I would prefer if it gently focused on the nearest enemies (or just had a lock on), so the player wouldn't have to crane the camera around so much in the middle of combat. Toward the end of the game, I found myself swapping “builds” constantly because of how many different, viable approaches I could take to combat encounters.

    Overall, pretty environments, good animations, decent combat, and I never really felt like the game was wasting my time (high praise for me to give to an open world game). However, I do have to dock a point or so – the game's core theme of Jin straying from the bushido code is constantly muddled, and his fall from grace never seems to really hit home. Sure, he loses his uncle and basically becomes Samurai Batman by the end of the game, but there are constant “off” moments where the game can't go ruminate too much on Jin's actions, because it has no idea how you, as a player, are playing the main character. Even if you're devoted to “honorable” combat, Jin still resorts to poisoning an entire army; and when he learns that how his own countrymen are being killed by the poison he developed, it affects him for all of about two lines of dialogue before it's time to move on. It's jarring. The main themes really could have used some polish; it's a doubled-edged sword (no pun intended) to all those different approaches to combat, I suppose.

    Unfortunately, never tried the multiplayer. Looked fun though.

• Carrion – [7]

  • Just moving the blob monster around is a ton of fun, so that goes a long way. I found myself lost a few times, mostly due to the game not having a map. However, game more than makes up for it with great retro art, and a really impressively realized monster protagonist – they definitely nailed this as an homage to sci-fi horror.

• Baldur’s Gate 3 (Early Access) – [4]

  • I feel like the game is just barely too rough to be playable, even for an early access title. Our group spent more time reloading and debugging than we did playing, it felt like. There may be a good game here if the next iteration can improve the stability; it also has some pretty swing-y combat balance that I think should probably be looked at.

• Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4) – [3]

  • Oof. What can I say that isn't already apparent given the platform? Anyway, borderline unplayable, but I actually really enjoyed the characters and individual story missions. Even Keanu's cornball character – actually, especially his character. Ridiculous, over-the-top nonsense. However, one of the biggest disappointments – bugs and performance aside – is the skill tree. Good skill trees are hard to do, granted, but Cyberpunk's just feels so... uninspired. Very minor percentage increases for damage, recoil, etc are not very rewarding.
    

I bought Hades, but sadly didn't get around to playing it – there's always next year!