The Prompt
Anecdotally, I’ve seen a lot of people jaded with modern gaming. I understand why. If you only see the games that have the most marketing, which are the ones you’re most likely to see for obvious reasons, then you’re primarily seeing the likes of AAA games with second-job-esque battle pass FOMO tactics, loot box gambling, pay to win, and constant reminders that you’re missing out on the full experience of the game like coming across fan favorite characters in the DLC of an already-expensive Star Wars game. The plural of “anecdote” is not “data”, but it could be this fatigue with the games that the average person is aware of that has led to a drop in spending and the crash that the industry is currently facing (but let’s not sugar coat it; there are surely other factors, too). I sympathize with these people, but respectfully, there’s a whole wide world out there of great games that never ask for a dime after it’s in your possession, so let’s call out those games and spread the word.
The Rules
- One game per top level comment, with the game name behind a “#” symbol so that it forms a heading, and platforms it’s available on in parentheses. Leave a brief synopsis with no spoilers and a brief critique. I’ll be starting us off with a number of examples. Upvote the ones you agree with, and leave a comment on the top level one for discussion.
- The game should have no paid DLC, no announced paid DLC, and feel like a complete product as it stands right now. I actually don’t mind the most common types of DLC, like what you would find in the Paradox model, but I know there’s a large enough contingent of folks who really do mind, so any DLC whatsoever is a deal-breaker for this thread. I’m making an exception for soundtrack and artbook DLC since, as far as I know, the existence of this stuff doesn’t bother anyone and just allows for avenues for certain artists to get a better cut for their work from super fans. I’m not making an exception for cosmetic DLC like you’d find in V Rising, as innocuous as I personally find it to be.
- The game’s first release must have been in 2024. By this, I mean that if it came out on PS5 two years ago but launched on PC this year, it doesn’t count, so no God of War: Ragnarok. No collections of old games like Marvel vs. Capcom.
- No early access games, except for games that were in early access and hit v1.0 this year. So no Palworld, but Satisfactory is on the table if you’d like to recommend it. I personally didn’t care for it, but if you did, feel free to list it!
- Only games you’ve played thoroughly enough to be sure you’d recommend it. If you only started playing the early chapters or levels, maybe let someone else recommend it, just in case the quality nosedives later on. I’m personally only recommending games I’ve finished or beaten, though that definition admittedly becomes challenging with the likes of UFO 50.
Animal Well (Steam, PS5, Switch)
This is a puzzle-driven metroidvania with a simple retro-inspired aesthetic that aims to teach you how to interact with it wordlessly, and it usually succeeds at it. I’m honestly not sure how to fill out the rest of this blurb without ruining the intended experience, but while I wasn’t this game’s biggest fan and wasn’t interested in digging into its secrets post-credits, I did enjoy my time with it.
This game got me good. The atmosphere and way it drips out puzzle after puzzle is so rewarding. I drew maps. I wrote down a litany of notes on my iPad to keep track of. I tried to solve everything I could on my own until I just couldn’t any more. It felt like playing games as a kid where you had to have paper handy and wrote down passcodes.
Pouring over every inch of the map was so fun, and while I do think there will be copy cats to this game pop up in the next year, I don’t think anyone will be able to capture the magic of this again. It’s like its own singular entity that no one else has ever done. Not in this way.
For that, it’s my game of the year. Astro Bot is my second, since it’s a technically near perfect game. But it’s also simply peak platformer. Animal Well is novel. It’s just built different.
I’m really happy with my few hours in it. I was afraid it’d be another Rain World situation where I can tell I like it and admire the craft but don’t actually feel the need to play it much, but I do find it enticing still.
I never beat rain world either, got maybe halfway through but I still count it as one of my favorite games of all time.
#Balatro (Steam, iOS, Android, Switch, PS4/5, Xbox One/X/S)
A deck-builder card game where you make poker hands, but Jokers and other cards give you crazy power-ups. I probably didn’t explain that very well, but it’s absurdly addictive. It’s like the perfect Steam Deck game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/
Overwhelmingly Positive (97% of 43,242) All Time
Overwhelmingly Positive (98% of 1,908) Recent
95.63% STEAMDB RATING
This game is probably too addictive.
It definitely is lol
At the beginning, it definitly is. But after you played several runs, you get less and less new ways of winning. The game offers you new jokers whenever you make some significant progress and for a while, thats a lot of fun.
I haven’t had so much fun for a while now. I played it for like 40 or 50 hours
Put a space between the # and “Balatro”.
Should be fixed now!
It isn’t.
I dunno what to tell you, friend.
UFO 50 (Steam)
It’s a collection of 50 games, not mini games, from a fictional game developer called UFO Soft in the 1980s. Not every game is a winner, but a ton of them are. You see the advancement in technology and design techniques over the course of the 1980s, and there’s a bit of back story for each game that you can start to put together a throughline for the company and its fictional developers. About half of the games also have local multiplayer. I’d prefer that they also had manuals for each game, especially the more complicated ones, but that means that my favorites in this collection are the simpler games that speak for themselves more quickly.
Mortol is the game of the year.
Astro Bot (PS5)
Since my personal GOTY is already taken (Animal Well), let’s just add a lot of peoples’ here — it’s also my second favorite game of the year.
Do you like 3D platforming? Why not try the best platformer since Mario Odyssey‽ Help save your friend bots with a dozen or so hours of the purest platforming fun in…a long time, honestly. People have really hyped this game, and they really aren’t wrong. It’s pure fun the entire time. Everything is beautiful and interesting. No notes, really. Good job Team Asobi.
Easily the best game I’ve played all year 💙
The Thaumaturge (Steam, GOG, Epic)
I’ve played the Witcher games before, but this RPG is the most Polish game I’ve ever played, in a very good way. The RPG systems are fairly light, and the progression system is very atypical, but probably the best way to describe this is a narrative adventure game like Life is Strange but with a turn based combat system along the lines of what I understand Child of Light to be, where each action takes a certain amount of time, and it displays that order at the top. The combat is fun, and the RPG systems and branching paths offer some replayability, but I think the real star of the show here is that the story is just so different than basically any other game I can think of. It takes place in 1905 Warsaw, where national boundaries are constantly redrawn around an expanding Russian empire, what that means for the citizens and their politics, and how the superstitions of their day play into that.
Dread Delusion (Steam)
This a first person RPG in the style of the PS1 with Elder Scrolls influences worn on its sleeves. This isn’t so much about the RPG parts of the game as it is about the exploration aspect, which isn’t usually my jam, but it worked really well for me here. Despite having tons more draw distance than 5th gen consoles, it is of a similar scope and scale of games of that era, with a lot of the positives from back then that I tend to forget about. A lot of people complain about yellow paint in modern games, and this is the antithesis of that: everything worth exploring is visible from miles away, and there’s a lot of it, with no fluff to make it visually confusing.
Since Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t finish releasing on all platforms until December of last year, I’m going to say that it’s the best game of the year. There wasn’t enough time last year for everyone to experience it. It’s the best game I’ve ever played.
This is definitely a top 5 ever game I’ve played, and I’m mostly an online only player.
Penny’s Big Breakaway (Steam, PS5, Switch, Xbox X/S)
Penny’s Big Breakaway is a 3D platformer somewhere between Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario 3D Land, I suppose, though that’s not a perfectly accurate picture of it either, and it’s also got a lot of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater DNA. You’ve got a yo-yo that you can use to attack, swing, or ride for mobility and speed. It’s very close to being one of my favorite platformers ever, but there’s just a bit too much jank around how the game handles certain edge cases with its physics system, and it can break the flow of an otherwise very good game. If you’re anything like me though, that won’t stop you from having a lot of fun with it.
I’m waiting for this to go on sale. Looks to be fun!
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (Steam, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series)
Pretty original mix of brawler and tower defense, with a presentation reminiscent of Okami. Avaiable on Game Pass and has a demo on Steam.
Echo Point Nova (Steam)
(Made by the same folks behind Severed Steel) A short and sweet, low-fi yet beautiful co-op (and optionally PVP) movement shooter with extremely satisfying projectile mechanics, destructible environments and a gorgeous soundtrack by Floating Door. Zip through at ridiculous speeds across a series of mysterious floating islands with your hoverboard and grapple beam. Inch closer to god-like power as you progress.
Definitely not for everybody but there’s a demo (which can also be played in co-op) available on the store page.
SteamWorld Heist II (Steam, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series, Switch)
Like its predecessor, it’s basically “2D XCOM with skill shots instead of randomness”. Highly recommended, perfect for gaming on the go with a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (Steam, Switch)
Do you like escape rooms or the first Resident Evil? This is that, but unlike Resident Evil, there are no zombies, and to say it has combat would be misleading. It’s a very strange game, but it will test your puzzle solving abilities. I played through it with my wife, and we love escape rooms, but this game would have been much more challenging without the second person offering their perspective on things you might not have noticed, might have forgotten, or thinking about a puzzle a different way than you did. Give or take a few rare instances, the solutions are very rewarding, too. If you’ve got that other puzzle-solving person in your life to play with, I’d highly recommend it (and would probably still recommend it if you don’t).
Indika (Steam, GOG, Epic, PS5, Xbox X/S)
Indika is, at its core, a story-driven game about a woman and her troubled relationship with her religion. There are some light puzzles to be found here, but it is primarily about using interactivity in new ways to tell a story, and I think for those reasons, it’s very worth seeing. In the opening moments, it clearly conveys that it’s got some ideas. On top of that, it’s a looker. It’s using most of the benefit that Unreal Engine 5 offers, and someone on the development team really understands cinematic framing, at times resulting in some of the best real-time images my PC has ever rendered.
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (Steam, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox X/S)
Arzette is a very specific joke for nerds like me who know too much about the history of video games. It’s designed to look and sound just like a Phillips CD-i Legend of Zelda game; a cursory glance at the credits seems to indicate that someone from Digital Foundry may have consulted on it to get it right. A friend of mine has a CD-i that he allowed me to play some time ago, and you have no idea how badly games like those play, especially on that awful controller. Fortunately, this game plays totally acceptably while still having a slight metroidvania angle to its 2D action platforming levels. It’s got a bit of a slow start, but after that, it doesn’t overstay its welcome, so if you’re in on the joke, you’ll likely have a good time.
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami (Steam, GOG, Switch)
If you liked The Case of the Golden Idol and want more of it ahead of the launch of its sequel, Duck Detective is a miniature version of that that’s suitable for children and still fun for adults. I won’t say it’s quite as good as Golden Idol, and it’s definitely not as long, but it’s priced accordingly, and it’s a good way to spend a weekend afternoon.
