Game of the Year 2020

Game of the Year 2020

2020 was very challenging for everyone in one way or another, but a beacon of light for many people was finding happiness in video games. Gaming has always been an excellent way to pass the time alone, have some laughs with friends or get a micro dose of escapism every day, but in 2020, many new or lapsed gamers found their way back. There were a few delays but mostly everything that was going to come out this year came out and the likely effects of this year will be seen down the road with less releases in a year or two from now

Keeping the focus on the past 365 days, these were the best games that came out as a full release in 2020. Before going any further, it’s important to note two things: first, this list is only considering the games that we played and second, these are solely based on my tastes of games. Everyones best of list in music, movies, books, food, and video games will also be very different. Warning, there will be light spoilers ahead and will mostly be limited to early portions of the game but will be as limited as they can be. If you don’t want anything spoiled, then time stamps will be in the description if you want to skip over a certain game. Having said that let’s begin in no particular order with our nominees.

Game the Year Nominees 2020

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Easily one of the biggest stories of this year in gaming was the gargantuan success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. As of the end of September, it has managed to sell over twenty six million copies, making it the second best selling game on the Switch, which is an incredible feat, considering it was only released in March.

Although it seems like many people only give credit to the game due to the circumstances of the year, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the formula of life simulators refined perfectly. It understands the perfect balance between dangling carrots and giving the player too much all at once. New horizons made some great additions to the genre by shepherding players brilliantly. The inclusion of the Nook Phone kept all of your goals in one convenient place that made it easy to track progress and encouraged the player to complete tasks.

For the first month, I was bitten by the Animal Crossing bug and checked into the island on a daily basis, making sure I bought my turnips at the best possible prices. It was a pleasure to be on the island and it was truly a great form of escapism thanks to the constant jobs that the game asks to you juggle as well as the near perfect musical score. Chopping down wood and picking weeds has never felt so relaxing.

Like most, Animal Crossing New Horizons dug it’s hooks in, but unlike other games on this list, the fire burned too hot and faded out quickly. Nintendo really had a great chance to keep many of their players invested when their first event dropped for Bunny Day or Easter. Instead, it felt like a missed opportunity that led many to believe that the limited in game events would not be enough to warrant daily checks.

While trying to dig up fossils, find new bugs or catch fish, the game would constantly throw roadblocks in the form of Easter eggs. Controls were very good but lacked the precision that would have gone a long way. When I am trying to catch a rare fish that only shows up during one time of day and the game casts in the slightly wrong direction scaring the fish and causing frustration in an otherwise peaceful game.

The other major issue that plagued Animal Crossing was the inability to have more than one island on the Switch, which was likely in place to prevent exploiting the economic systems. Luckily this wasn’t issue for myself as there was only one Animal Crossing user in my household but I can understand the frustration when a family or a couple is trying to play this game together but all are unable to experience the game as it should be unless multiple Switch consoles are purchased.

The Last of Us: Part 2

Obviously, being separated by seven years, The Last of Us Part 2 is vastly superior to the original in almost every facet of the game. The visuals are stunning and playing the sequel with 4K HDR is one of the best looking console games to date. Stealth is now an integral part of each encounter with every combat scenario having areas specifically designed for it.

It also wouldn’t be a Naughty Dog game without all the small details that are very minor but make all the difference for immersion, including the crafting bench with all the animations it has, or when you are looking at a map and it gets updated in real time to eliminate back tracking or the subtle hints the characters will speak to give you an idea of what you need to do, or the simplicity of listening in on conversations in the world that sound legitimate.

The only area that I felt the sequel underperformed compared to the original was the story and while excellent, it just wasn’t able to leave the same impression on me that the first game did. This is not a problem that is unique to The Last of Us as most sequels are never able to meet or exceed the original. The latest game from Neil Druckmann and the rest of the team at Naughty Dog is easily one of the most divisive games of the year. Naughty Dog has always had an audience that is divided on their games with some people praising Uncharted for it coming of age story or its excellent mechanics that are easily taken for granted.

The division was cranked up to fourteen when the PlayStation exclusive approached one of their most beloved characters as they did and force you to play as Abby, who we know nothing about. At first, you feel the same emotions that Ellie should be feeling but the more we learn about Abby’s story, the more it makes sense and the more Naughty Dog should be commended for taking risks with one of the most revered series on PlayStation. Not only was this a departure from what people wanted, but I think the risk actually worked.

The Last of Us Part 2 shines a light on the human condition, even though at certain times it could be a little heavy handed and obvious what Naughty Dog is trying to say. There hasn’t been a game in my memory where you are forced to take control of the antagonist, someone who you despise and hate so much. What The Last of Us Part 2 is trying to tell is that it all depends on perspective and there was a very good reasoning behind titling the game Part 2 and not Last of Us 2.

The Last of Us Part 2 is essentially two games with two very different perspectives taking around 30 hours. A game with this high level of polish and care could easily have been divided into two full price games. The way the game is divided into different perspectives also allows the team at Naughty Dog to tell the plot in interesting ways by sometimes showing us something much later in the timeline and then reversely filling it in pays off in many instances.

Although The Last of Us Part 2 didn’t leave the same impression on me that the first one did, it carved out its own niche in my video gaming memory by doing something worthy of a sequel in the first place. This isn’t to say that The Last of Us 2 is perfect, because it isn't. The story drags on for too long in many areas, sometimes the messages Naughty Dog tries to convey is too obvious and the the controls of the game can be frustrating at times. However, these are minor gripes that don’t take away the shine from the final product.

The growth that Naughty Dog has displayed over the past decade is quite impressive. The first last of Us showed a darker side of the studio, Uncharted 4 showed us their ability to mature with their characters giving them a coming of age story and with The Last of Us Part 2, Naughty Dog displayed their ability to take risks and not play it safe as they could’ve with another journey between Joel and Ellie running more errands. This growth that has been accelerated during the PS4 generation and has me very excited for what they are able to do next.

Ori and The Will of the Wisps

One of the studios that was best prepared for a pandemic is Moon Studios, the team behind the beautiful, heartfelt and challenging Ori series. Moon Studios is composed of people who work remotely from around the world and that’s how the studio was formed. One of my personal choices as best game of the past generation was Ori and the Blind Forest. We all know that the Xbox One generation missed the mark a little and without doing a deep dive of why the Xbox One underperformed, the major reason was the lack of exclusives. This made great exclusive games all the more noticeable.

In 2015, Moon Studios released Ori and the Blind Forest. This is impressive because Moon Studios was only formed in 2010. Creating such a fantastic experience on their first video game is an impressive feat. It was such a pleasant surprise for a litany of reasons. The art style and visuals popped, causing Ori to stick out in a very crowded market, filled with Metroidvanias. Ori had tight, precise controls, an easy to play but hard to master gameplay but most importantly, Ori had heart.

We scored Ori and the Will of the Wisps a 90% with technical hiccups holding it back for being a lock for game of the year. Here’s what we said in our review “The Will of the Wisps was one of my most anticipated games of this year and this can sometimes have a negative effect when expectations don’t meet reality. Moon Studios have created a masterpiece by delivering a true sequel by keeping the soul of the game by improving upon almost every aspect in it, even if some ideas feel borrowed from some of the best in the genre. Technical issues keep this game from being perfect”

It’s not a surprise that Ori was one of my top games from last generation because other games on that list include Dead Cells and Hollow Knight. These are two games from the genre that are in the upper echelon of quality. Apparently, Moon Studios also noticed the high bar set by these games as Ori and the Will of the Wisps borrowed one of the more hated aspects of Hollow Knight, which was the cartographer. The feature was divisive but it was a slight surprise to see the team at Moon use an idea that wasn’t something they put their own spin on.

Fans would have been very pleased with just more Ori with new areas and new enemies, but Moon studios went a little further with a completely new story, still touching, new environments, new powers, and new levelling systems. The game was pleasantly longer as well but didn’t overstay its welcome. Trying to meet the heartfelt nature of the first was a far bridge to cross but Moon studios did manage to imbue a sentimental tone to the sequel as well.

I wasn’t able to find an Xbox Series X as of yet but from what I have read, Ori and the Will of the Wisps runs flawlessly and the team at Moon Studios also updated the game to take advantage of the power of the new generation. The new update now allows you to play Ori in 4K with a locked 120FPS and HDR. If you don’t have a TV capable of 120FPS just yet they also added another mode that super samples 6K at 60 FPS output at 4K, which according to the studio feels like playing printed concept art. 

When a game is anticipated like Ori and the Will of the Wisps was for me in 2020, that can make it harder for the game to succeed. The team at Moon Studios managed to meet my expectations, I just wish I could have experienced the game how it truly should have been with these new improvements on the Xbox Series X. When I finally can find an Xbox Series X, the first game I will likely play is Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which says a lot for a game that I have already completed.

Hades

One of the biggest things to hit the Nintendo Switch this year was the console exclusivity for SuperGiant and their indie darling, Hades. The game is a lot of fun for a multitude of reasons and you are able to enjoy Hades for one reason or for all of them. The inky, cell shaded art style, the satisfying combat and the engaging mythological story all work in harmony with one another. It has the true sign of a good game or at least an addicting game where you just want to always do one more run.

How well Hades blends genres of dungeon crawling with rogue likes and weaves an extremely interesting mythological story is a testament to the talent at SuperGiant games. The way in which the storyline becomes your main motivator for pushing deeper for more answers feels fresh in a very crowded genre.

The story is original and engaging as you play as Zagreus, the unknown son of Hades (God of death), and you are tired of living in Hell. On your many attempts to escape and forge your own path, you encounter a deeper story line and many other gods and deities who are all written well, as they help flesh out the story. There is a layer of humour to the game about escaping hell, which goes a long way. Even after playing the game for 40 hours, there is still new dialogue and storylines that are slowly being unraveled.

Of course, this fantastic and original take on mythology wouldn’t mean anything if it wasn’t for amazing controls and combat. Playing on the Nintendo Switch feels excellent on the pro controller and more than serviceable in handheld. The controls are mapped in a very similar way to how Diablo 3 was ported to controller in a near perfect way. The superb controls are accentuated by the in game combat and how well it is balanced, which is likely a testament to the refinement it has seen since it entered early access in late 2018.

You could use any of the weapons in the game from the shield of chaos or the eternal spear or the adamant rail and still have a deep, engaging run. In a similar way to how Dead Cells started fresh by giving you different weapons and upgrades every run, Hades goes down a similar path. The one difference is that you have somewhat of a choice in the matter, similar to how Zagreus has decided to make his own choices. Depending on who you are listening to about this game, everyone has a different weapon of choice and this is part of how the game excels in its field. There is no overpowered weapon or build, they are all left up to the choices that the player makes with them during each run.

The best part about Hades is how you keep getting a new narrative beats after each run instead of just making it farther every time. The world around you is reactive as dialogue is context sensitive based on your previous runs. The usual fare of rogue likes is the enticement of making it slightly farther every time, which sometimes can get a little stale. Hades instead keeps entices the player not with getting farther or new weapons but with learning more about the world they have created unlike traditional rogue likes

Without a doubt Hades is one of the best rogue likes in a while that is cut from the same cloth that Dead Cells was when it came out of early access. Even if you don’t like rogues, the dungeon crawling is good enough to warrant playing and most importantly if you have any interest in Mythology then Hades gives it a fresh spin.

Astro’s Playroom

Astro’s Playroom was easily one of the most pleasant surprises of the year for a multitude of reasons. Obviously, the year needed bright and cheery characters, but it was also a free game that was included with the PlayStation 5. On top of all of that, the PlayStation nostalgia that Team Asobi packed into this short experience provided a large dose of comfort food in the digital form. Sometimes a game doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel with mechanics or push the limits with story telling like some of the other nominees.

This is exactly where Astro’s Playroom excels. It hits all the right notes that it needs to. When Astro’s Playroom was announced, it wasn't given much credit for anything other than likely being a fun tech demo, displaying the innovation of the Dual Sense. Astro's Playroom is much more than just a tech demo in my opinion. At around five or six hours to complete, Astro outgrew what can be expected of a demo in all areas of the game.

As a platformer, Astro handles great and there is enough assistance to make hard jumps or movements challenging but possible. On the audio level, every effect in the game sounds excellent depending on if you are walking on sand or ice but its the original score that shines. The songs are catchy throughout the game and creatively get in sync with the level such as one of the standout tracks from SSD speedway.

In our review of Astro's Playroom, we scored the game high and here is what we said about the game “If you have a PS5 then you already own the game and you should absolutely play this game if you were around for any of the previous generations of PlayStation. If you have been around since the first PlayStation then this game is a requirement. It will leave you with a smile on your face and a warm fuzzy feeling the entire time as you remember some of the best moments of gaming from the past 26 years. If this game cost money, I would still recommend it just as much”

Launch titles for both the next gen consoles were somewhat slim but having a title like Astro’s Playroom packed in the with PlayStation alleviated some of the pressure for exclusive launch titles and it was free. Astro’s Playroom had delighting moments around every corner and for every gamer, no matter what your tastes are. The hope is that the next release from Team Asobi will be a continuation of the studios trajectory from the Playroom to Astro Bot Rescue Mission to Astro’s Playroom. Realistically Astro’s Playroom is not strong enough to win game of the year, but it did enough to warrant a mention when’s discussing the best games of 2020 and if there was award for most pleasant surprise, it would win.

Winner

Hades

When this list started to come together, it was unclear which game would emerge from the fantastic list of nominees. While The Last of Us Part 2 needs to be commended for the bold risks that the story took and obviously the excellence in design, when comparing it to Hades, Supergiant felt like it crafted together a tighter product from beginning to end. The emphasis on a more tightly crafted game is amazing considering that Hades is a rogue like and not a scripted narrative experience.

From the excellence in combat, to the controls to the audio design, the reactive dialogue in the original mythological story or the art style, Supergiant games have created an excellent product from edge to edge at a fantastic value proposition. The small independent team from San Francisco are clearly establishing themselves as titans of the indie game scene.