I still get panic attacks just thinking of Commandos and the original Desperados and the intense puzzle solving those games involved, so I never tried Desperados 3. I did play WL3 and I find it a decent but not outstanding game, both due to bugs and to a poorly balanced combat system. I liked TLOU2 but it wasn't the same intense high that TLOU was and it was too padded and not strong enough in its core mechanics to really feel like a GOTY to me. Its story is great and well executed apart from the padding dragging down the pacing, but the game part of TLOU2 can't possibly be the best 2020 could deliver.
I'd say it was more than strong enough in its core mechanics, they just weren't utilized well enough for most of the game. There are parts where the gameplay fires on all cylinders, but they're far and few between. The prime example is the suburb section where there's multiple large houses with different floors, occupied by maybe 12 people with 3 or 4 dogs. It might be less engaging on lower difficulties, but on Survivor this map is glorious to guerilla stealth-combat your way through, and it's a good 45 minutes of super tense, uninterupted cat 'n mouse. But like I said, there's not many of those. Which is a shame because this really is my favorite kind of stealth gameplay.
There was also a really great moment in the subway where there's both human enemies and clickers. I try to goat the humans to fire a shot at me by running around within their sight, hoping they draw the dormant clickers to them. But they just take cover and don't do anything, almost suggesting they knew shit was gonna pop off if they fired their weapons at me. And then we just sat there for a good half minute waiting for the other to make the first move. It was pretty neat and really gave a sense of life to the whole ordeal.
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