If I look at the year's news and my chat history with friends, 2020 looks like the worst year ever dealt with in my living history. That's where gaming is a chance to escape my sometimes boring, sometimes complicated, sometimes demanding life, and this year contained some lasting impressions. While browsing this list, keep in mind that these are games I played this year, that may or may not have been released in 2020. The game titles should all be links to posts I wrote earlier this year on them.
The pajama'd plumber strikes again! (2017, Switch)
The year started with me hopping back into the last 20% or so of Mario Odyssey (no link). Trophy hunting usually means more thorough, tedious exploration, fighting harder enemies or otherwise mastering the game more than a casual player. Every game on the Switch (and now the Series S) is a break from that, and Mario Odyssey was so damn fun to play. Japanese games take place in all kinds of imaginary worlds, but man do I love when the games show off their own cultures. Bowser's dungeon is a Japanese castle this time, and before you take on the leading dragon himself, you fight a clever boss that's kind of like a mikoshi, or Japanese parade float. The music ratchets up and the taiko drum and shamisen (stringed instrument) start playing in a really fun battle. It took several tries to beat that boss, but I was having the time of my life and it caused me to reflect back on the entire game. Mario Odyssey is one of the best reasons to own a Switch, hands down.
Reedus and the Fetus (2019, PS4)
Next up was Death Stranding, which was an exploration of feelings, reactions, death, coping, obligation and personal charity. It's very hard to recommend this game, and even then I think it was one of the worst platinum trophy experience I've had. What I mean is that there were 40 hours of things I had to do in the game that didn't pay off in more story or character development, just some improved items and a lot of deliveries. But, Death Stranding is on this list. The worldbuilding is my favorite part of the game, with the characters being incredibly interesting. Some of the storytelling was unclear to me, and then the actual gameplay can be downright frustrating for the simple premise of delivering things. The vehicle physics suck like every game ever programmed. You would never know the soundtrack was 30 songs: I think I heard 10 tracks in 100 hours of playing. There are apparently a bunch of musical cues based on you doing certain things that I guess I skipped. Ohh well, at least Spotify was blocked from playing.
Estuans interius ira vehementi. Se-phi-roth! (2020, PS4)
Later in the year, the world was graced with the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which bubbled up my own teenage memories, and how far gaming has surged ahead in 20 years. FF7R had the opposite problem of Death Stranding: the soundtrack exhausts like 30 tracks in the first 10 hours, then they drip out a little slower for the rest of the game's blissful 2 playthroughs. The living anime characters with a JRPG setting that was more mature than JRPGs usually are and a really active battle system, this game truly kicked ass. The second time through I played on hard, which felt like a different game. You can hack your way through most FF games, but that playthrough required you to really think about what materia combinations gave you the right advantages, such as damage types and skills. The boss fights were the best I'd ever seen in an RPG, having multiple phases and strategies, and even those changed in hard mode. This game got a boost in coolness from nostalgia, but it's also got worldclass voice acting (with language-synched lips--YUSS!), great character design, and is a blast to play.
Insects...have a culture, religion and documented history? (2017, PS4)
Hollow Knight absolutely blew my mind. These last few years have made the sideview exploratory adventure games (metroid-vania if you will but I won't) my favorite genre of game to play, and the indie scene is thriving with them. Hollow Knight tells the story through the environment and very minimal dialogue. The gloomy world of Hallownest comes with a piano-forward OST that fits in every perfect way. As every good game in this genre, you get hints at how to use items to further exploration before the game simply cuts you loose. The main gameplay is all fair and beating the game is a rewarding experience. If you're going for trophies and a higher challenge, the developers have your back...and will hand it back to you seared, scored and steaming. Good lord, there are some rude bosses in Hallownest. However, if you stick to the main path, you'll get chances to stumble into dangerous places and save yourself, discover your own secrets which are all highlights of this game genre. It's the optional content that will really kill you, and the developers are geniuses for figuring it out. I probably won't platinum this game, but when it was the free PS+ game for November, I started a new quest and enjoyed another ~20 hours of getting to the end boss.
Dandara will not be forgotten! (2018, PS4 DLC in 2020)
This is one of my favorite games ever made. Dandara is based on a real person, a Brazillian ex-slave who fought slavers and liberated people. It's another sideview exploratory adventure game where gravity is all messed up. The game doesn't actually talk about why, though. You're Dandara, travelling through various psychological states and emotions as you free people from their physical and metaphysical captivity. I'm sure someone who was really into psychology would have a field day in the references and hidden meanings, but even on the surface it's a great game to play. Dandara herself shifts between surfaces, so what you think is the ground might suddenly shift 90 degrees mid-jump and become a wall. The perspective shifts neatly, but not so often as to make you sick. The reason I played this in 2020 again was that some new DLC was released for free, which almost doubled the size of the game. In addition to a collection of alternate zones, there's a new harrrrd ass boss, and even more music tracks from my boy Thomazz Kauffmann. The game is thoroughly well done, and would never have a chance as a mainstream game, which is why it thrives as an independent title.
Play Has...very very many Limits! (2020, PS5) Like, how the hell do you get a PS5, seriously?
We're pullin into Port PS5, starting with a hugely anticipated Spider-man: Miles Morales. The game itself looks a bit better than the already-gorgeous PS4 title did, and plays incredibly smoothly. The main story might be 4 hours, and the trophy path is two playthroughs. Since it's one of those sandbox collectathon games, I started doing all the side stuff halfway through the story. It was after midnight when I came to an epiphany that made this game one of my top experiences of 2020. It's kind of a big deal that one of Sony's massive console-exclusive launch games is a big-budget title with predominantly Black and Hispanic characters. Very much like Black Panther is that layer of complex feelings that make the setting around the product almost more important than the product itself.
Miles Morales himself has a Black father and a Puerto Rican mother who is also running for local government. His best friend is a young genius engineer (I think Phin is mixed-race also) and they both love science. Miles other best friend Ganke is Chinese and pretty much Ned (who was Filipino in the movies). Ned is also the best part of the MCU Spider-man movies. Anyway, while it's not the first time a major studio has put a lot of money and thought into a premium product with minority cast, it adds extra satisfaction to the experience. Representation absolutely matters and this game was extra satisfying to me, a Black gamer.
So the above thought process happened in the epiphany over a few seconds and I was right there with Miles, all the stakes raised about who you end up fighting at the very end. The boss design is slick, the battle is dynamic, and it's really up to Miles to catch all the shit that hits the fan. One error shut off my PS5 at the beginning, and another looked like controller drift near the end, causing me to exchange my Dualsense controller (even more scary). I never learned whether it was the game or the controller, but I didn't run into either of these issues on the New Game + playthrough, so had a perfect experience.
865GB salute to SONY (2020, PS5)
Team Asobi created what should be the Playstation mascot: Astrobot. The PS4 has a free downloadable (launch?) title, then the PSVR had a medium-length game that was a great contender for everything Mario, and was one of my favorite platformers ever. Well, here they are at it again with Astro's Playroom, the already-installed PS5 launch title. What makes this one different is that it shows off all the functionality of the Dualsense controller (haptic feedback, specific vibration, mic and speaker--eat that, Xbox controller), it's nonlinear, and it pays homage to all five generations of Playstation. The Astro games are super cute, but Astro Playroom's levels are themed like the PS5's hardware. I mean, there's a level set with a robot voice singing lyrics about being a GPU! As you're getting your platforming on, you're also coming across collectibles. Those 3d props all show up in your collectible room and are 5 generations of Playstation hardware--that are interactive! The music is great, everything reacts to you, often in a cute way, and it all comes down to the fact that Team ASOBI should create a full-price retail game.
Against all the evil that Hell can conjure, all the wickedness that mankind can produce, we will send unto them... only you. (2020, PS4)
If I had to choose a game released this year to be my game of 2020, I would choose Doom: Eternal. This game scratches every possible itch I want in an FPS, which is important because I'm fed up with multiplayer FPS games where teams don't work together and players ignore the objective and characters get patched every 10 seconds like Overwatch. D:E is a masterpiece musically, with Mick Gordon's heavy metal and throaty devil-worshipping vocals in some of the tracks. The graphics are top-notch, cranking out high framerates even as the monsters' flesh comes off in chunks as you damage them. This time, the demons are visually distinct to better tell apart, and that's REALLY important compared to other Doom games. D:E requires you to pretty much always be moving and swapping weapons, as ammo limits force you to get creative in the most effective ways to remove threats from the battlefields. But...the demons have to go.
One thing Doom establishes is that the United Aerospace Corporation (UAC) basically sold out earth to Hell because the demons provide amazing sources of energy. However, none of the games really show a compelling reason to sell out humanity, as we don't really see an upper class that lives a peaceful and advanced life away from the threat of Hell on Earth. Maybe that's the moral, but in a way, this violent killer you're playing as an environmentalist and priests' greatest hope! Anyway, Doom: Eternal would win my Game of the Year award because it knows exactly what it is, and is both clever and distinct from your average run and gunner. No crashes, no graphical errors, it's just a wonderful experience. I've played the game for at least double the amount of time required for the platinum trophy because I enjoy it that much. I'm eagerly awaiting the free PS5 upgrade coming in 2021.
Which leaves my best-played game in 2020, in the same year that the same developer had a devastating release. (2015, PS4)
The Witcher 3 is the best game I've ever played. I think about the 2 months I spent with Geralt and I miss him as a friend; he was that well written and acted. Modern worldbuilding has a sky-high standard right now, and I'm only guessing this game helped push it 5 years ago. Think about the complex plots in your favorite TV shows and all the weaving and character development, and the fact that single-plot 22 minute shows and 6-hour games aren't the default norm anymore. Entertainment is so damn sophisticated!
The Witcher 3's Celtic/Nordic soundtrack perfectly complements the bogs, marshes, wooded areas and lush hills you run into. The peasants, nobles and royalty's clothing and voices match anything you'd see in a modern movie, and nobility clings to some religion resembling Christianity while the lower class and rural folk stick to their (mutliple!) pagan beliefs. This top-to bottom inclusive design with multiple cultures, languages and folklore is as well done as any Final Fantasy, which is a strength of the series, but the Witcher takes it a step further. Even a majority of side quests have some kind of character or world development that would just be some wasted-opportunity fetch quest in another game. I think that playing this after another gaming milestone, Skyrim, helped me appreciate the evolution of the Western RPG in a way I never have before.
While nobility and royalty have wealth and military might, there is a sisterhood of sorceresses that are the most powerful humans there. The Netflix show made them super weak and I feel they limited their powers. In The Witcher, they're all borderline goddesses who are gorgeous, wise and deadly. The "inhumanly beautiful" (her words) Yennifer, who can take out entire armies with spells, has a romantic past with Geralt that you're free to pursue during the game. One of the many alternative love interests in this is the neutered Triss, another sorceress whom you barely get to see work her own supposedly powerful magic. This network of badasses all know your main character quite well, Geralt, but it's not unearned. This makes me think how there are a dozen Star Wars movies that supposedly take place in something as large as a galaxy, yet the same 20 characters know everyone in a 'galaxy' of, what, 500 people? How? Why?
Geralt is a detective, a bodyguard, a priest, an actor, and a whole host of other things, usually to selflessly help those in need on his way to find his daughter, who needs no help whatsoever. He usually gives people the benefit of the doubt in a land filled with overt assholes and some murky-at-best characters. I wish I were that good of a person; I walk away from people who don't say, "Please!" I feel like a lot of other stories have you rubbing shoulders with gods or goddesses simply because you were the chosen one. Not this game. You get to be Geralt and do his deeds and really spend time with the man. And this reminds me why I'm glad that character naming and designing hasn't replaced pre-written characters. As neat as it is designing an orc mage with the name Griffo in Skyrim, it's hard to write compellingly when the voice acting can't say your name or assume your personality.
So, yeah, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is my favorite gaming experience of 2020, and I still remember parts of it, music from it, and think of it long after playing it. It's a shame that Cyberpunk didn't work well out of the box for PS4/XBO owners because there's probably some amazing storytelling in Night City. I'll let you know in 6 months when I get a well-functioning patched version of the game.
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Thanks for reading! I have now solidified my Xbox Game Pass subscription through 2023, so my posts will likely start skewing towards Microsoft's console. The big caveat is that I have to get used to the rhythm of the horribly-executed filesharing.
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