Best/Worst/Disappointing games of 2020?

[Casual Shinji]

Most disappointing:

- Resident Evil 3 Remake
It's like they took the original, cut out chunks of it, and then fed it through a 3D printer. And it's a real shame because characters like Jill, Carlos, and Nicolai are super likeable and fun. This game did for Jill what Resident Evil 4 did for Leon. And the character models look so goddamn sexy. It even manages to incorperate the original soundtrack into the score, with the end credits having this guitar ballad version of the original cheesy piano rendition, it's fucking awesome.

But the gameworld feels even more constrictive than the original, which was already way too walled off for feeling like you're in a city. And Nemesis is just so, so bad. He just gets relegated to a bunch of bad monster Boss fights a third of the way through, and when he is stalking you, the whole mechanic is so badly intergrated with the over-the-shoulder view. It's like no thought was put into it. Also, that opening sequence is so awful.

And what's worse is that I can't just disregard the game entirely because of the good qualities it still has.

- Final Fantasy 7 Remake
A game I was absolutely in love with until it decided to be "clever" for the sole purpose of hyping up fans, resulting in the story taking a total nosedive. Breaking the 4th wall isn't clever Japan, and it's even more stupid when you make it part of the plot.

Apart from that, there's a major issue in this game with the Materia system. Having to change it around so much is already a chore, but the fact that you can't change in the midst of battle is just fucking aggravating. Especially since early on the game gives you Materia specifically meant to gain enemy data in battle, only for you to then not be allowed to change your Materia to accommodate to this new knowledge. You have to wait until the battle is over to change the Materia, eventhough your next battle might be against different enemies with different weaknesses. The pinnicale of how stupid this whole endeavor is is during Boss fights, where you obviously want to know the best way to defeat this Boss, which requires you to actually start the battle and use the Assess Materia, which then gives you the data, but prevents you from making the appropriate changes within that battle, forcing you to reload your save, make the changes, but still use the Assess skill because you want the benefits from the white-haired kid. It's just so badly implemented.

 

[Hawki]

- Resident Evil 3 Remake
This game did for Jill what Resident Evil 4 did for Leon.

Really?

I'm not saying I dislike Jill in the remake, but she's a very different character from how she was presented in the original (and she isn't the only one - take Carlos for example). I don't think this can be compared to Leon in RE4, because there's a train of character development that can go from RE2 (rookie cop, naieve) to RE4 (secret agent). The RE2 remake caught his old character pretty well. Jill in the remake though is more retroactively changing her character, and I can't say I'm all onboard for it. The Jill in RE 3: Nemesis showed her compassionate side plenty of times, whereas Jill in the remake is snarky, swears, and is presented as a "badass."

Which isn't inherently bad or good, but still, it's a shift that I can't say I was entirely onboard with.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Really?

I'm not saying I dislike Jill in the remake, but she's a very different character from how she was presented in the original (and she isn't the only one - take Carlos for example). I don't think this can be compared to Leon in RE4, because there's a train of character development that can go from RE2 (rookie cop, naieve) to RE4 (secret agent). The RE2 remake caught his old character pretty well. Jill in the remake though is more retroactively changing her character, and I can't say I'm all onboard for it. The Jill in RE 3: Nemesis showed her compassionate side plenty of times, whereas Jill in the remake is snarky, swears, and is presented as a "badass."

Which isn't inherently bad or good, but still, it's a shift that I can't say I was entirely onboard with.

Yeah, but this Jill also came right out of RE1, and is frustrated and tired of things going to shit again. And I'd say she's compassionate plenty of times in the remake, like when Brad gets bit, when she finds what's-his-name in the garage, when she meets up briefly with Kendo, and near the end when she goes out to help Carlos, and then again when she's forced to risk shooting him.

She's (initially) snarky to the people who she thinks deserve it, like Carlos, Michail, and Nicolai, because they're Umbrella, and she warms up to the first two quite quickly. And I might agree with you that the snarky and sweariness was too much if the performance didn't sell it, but to me it did.

This was the first Resident Evil since 4 where I actually enjoyed the characterisation. And it was the one thing that was sorely lacking in RE2 Remake.

 

[09philj]

Prey (2017) - I'm still in the middle of this one, actually. There's some irritating and unfair feeling level design in parts, but it's really scratching my itch for a nice immersive RPG shooter. The Gloo Gun is an obviously inspired addition, and creative use of it opens up a world of gameplay options, but a lot of your tools have extra uses if you stop and think for a moment.

Unfortunately, in the end I had to give up on Prey. Once you get pretty close to the end the difficulty spikes significantly, to an extent that I didn't feel like it was worth dying over and over to get to the end, given that the game's story is just OK. A real shame, was enjoying it a lot up to that point.

 

[BrawlMan]

​

Here's Max's disappointment list. I disagree with him on Avengers. It is not a 7 or 8/10 game. If you did not even bother and refusing to back to it, you know the game fucked up. Stop being too nice Max.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

My favourites:

Final Fantasy 7 Remake
The first Final Fantasy game I've actually managed to finish. I didn't grow up with the original, I didn't have a PS1 as a kid, but getting to experience this story from a modern perspective, even if I did have to rely on what I've learned through osmosis to understand the more meta aspects of.the game, I think it's stilled filled to the brim with charm and personality. I think Tetsuya Nomura has already shown in the past that, as a director he does spectacle better than almost anyone else in the industry. Getting to apply that sense for spectacle to... well something other than Mickey Mouse games for children for once, he created a swashbuckling adventure full of touching character moments, breathtaking action scenes and pertinent social commentary. The visual language is universalist in a way that reminds me of the original Star Wars. Just like Star Wars managed to present abstracted but still recognizable depictions of fascism, militarism, warfare and so on, FF7R does the same for late capitalism, environmental devastation and imperialism. There is a very cinematic playfulnes to its structure, while the combat was pretty good, especially compared to FF XVs awkward first attempt at introducing a real time combat system to the series, what stuck with me where small character moments like Wedge introducing Cloud to his cat or Aerith taking him to pick flowers. It's just a damn good adventure with some pertinent, yet not overly heavy handed, subtext. The very definition of a good blockbuster.

Cyberpunk 2077:
My most anticipated game of the year for sure, and one I had very high expectations for. While it hardly managed to surpass any of these expectations it certainly met most of them. As far as open world RPGs and open world games in general go, it presents the most atmospheric and most immersive urban emvironment ever portrayed in a video game, Night City is a world that is fun to get lost in. The stories that happen there are quite good too, some pacing issues in the mainquest nonwithstanding. It really puts you in the shoes of a mercenary in a dystopian future metropolis, lets you meet and interact with people from all of its different subcultures, criminals, corporate elites, inhabitants of impoverished suburbs, celebrities and they all feel believable and so does the world they inhabit. In Cyberpunks center is an emotional, if again, sometimes slightly rushed story about an old rebel and a young, impressionable mercenary and that relationship really carries the game. Well, that and the genuinely fun gameplay that lets you not only tackle quests in a variety of ways specific to your character build but also explore a lot of very well designed levels, giving you a very good sightseeing tour of Night City. Definitely the best Open World ARPG since New Vegas.

Hades:
Very witty reinterpretation of greek myth as a dungeon crawler about a demigod, the son of Hades trying to escape from the Underworld. While the gameplay is fun, the highlight are definitely the character interactions and those are marvelous. Most of the greek pantheons mist recognizable figures have gotten a likeable modernized reinvention. Protagonist Zagreus as a rebellious young adult, Hades as a grumpy patriarch, Fury Megaera as a tsundere love interest, Dionysus as easygoing party animal... I could go on. It's all pretty Disney's Hercules, but there is a wit and a sense of heart to it, that makes those reinvented figures compelling, rather than gimmicky. Of course stellar artwork, music and especially voice acting do their part in creating a game that doesn't get old, even if it does make you do the same thing over and over again.

Runner Ups are Last of Us 2, Paradise Killer and Deadly Premonition 2.

I don't like to dwell on dissapointments and haven't played any games this year I passionately disliked.

 

[BrawlMan]

​

 

[SilentPony]

SNIP​

I agree with Jim that Hades was the clear best game of the year, but I disagree its one of the greatest of all time. Despite the rogue-like elements runs got very samey very very quickly, and it ends up just being a button masher game in the top tier. Just spam dodge, basic attack and the occasional magic, when I remembered I had it.
And the shield was the most OP weapon ever.

 

[happyninja42]

I agree with Jim that Hades was the clear best game of the year, but I disagree its one of the greatest of all time. Despite the rogue-like elements runs got very samey very very quickly, and it ends up just being a button masher game in the top tier. Just spam dodge, basic attack and the occasional magic, when I remembered I had it.
And the shield was the most OP weapon ever.

Yeah I'm enjoying the game, but I can't say it's anywhere near a GOAT for me. The dialogue is witty and fun, the way the different beings interact, and change dialogue based on what other god's boons you might have that run allows for an increased amount of replayability without constant repeating of conversations. the characters are all fun and enjoyable to interact with, and I find myself genuinely happy to see some of them when they pop up again.

But yeah, the combat is very repetitive. And given the different floor bosses are always the same, it's just moving through the floors. There is some variation, but if the writing wasn't as fun to listen to as it is, and the voice acting so on point, I'd probably already be losing interest in it.

 

[SilentPony]

But yeah, the combat is very repetitive. And given the different floor bosses are always the same, it's just moving through the floors. There is some variation, but if the writing wasn't as fun to listen to as it is, and the voice acting so on point, I'd probably already be losing interest in it.

See the writing and voice acting didn't save it for me. I beat the game, or at least got things in Hades to change very very much, with people being there and what not, but I wanted to romance the one chick 'cause she was super cool, but no triggers ever happened and I checked the Wikis and its like "Yeah it happens randomly, just keep playing with extra challenges and restrictions and certain weapons and if you manage to get to the end and beat Hades there might be a trigger" and its like okay so grind through the game for hours on end on the chance I might get a single line of dialogue to continue. The game could really use a speed this shit up button.

 

[BrawlMan]

I agree with Jim that Hades was the clear best game of the year, but I disagree its one of the greatest of all time. Despite the rogue-like elements runs got very samey very very quickly, and it ends up just being a button masher game in the top tier. Just spam dodge, basic attack and the occasional magic, when I remembered I had it.
And the shield was the most OP weapon ever.

Yeah I'm enjoying the game, but I can't say it's anywhere near a GOAT for me. The dialogue is witty and fun, the way the different beings interact, and change dialogue based on what other god's boons you might have that run allows for an increased amount of replayability without constant repeating of conversations. the characters are all fun and enjoyable to interact with, and I find myself genuinely happy to see some of them when they pop up again.

But yeah, the combat is very repetitive. And given the different floor bosses are always the same, it's just moving through the floors. There is some variation, but if the writing wasn't as fun to listen to as it is, and the voice acting so on point, I'd probably already be losing interest in it.

I disagree with Jim, but I am not bothered by his claim. So I'm letting him have his fun.

 

[happyninja42]

See the writing and voice acting didn't save it for me. I beat the game, or at least got things in Hades to change very very much, with people being there and what not, but I wanted to romance the one chick 'cause she was super cool, but no triggers ever happened and I checked the Wikis and its like "Yeah it happens randomly, just keep playing with extra challenges and restrictions and certain weapons and if you manage to get to the end and beat Hades there might be a trigger" and its like okay so grind through the game for hours on end on the chance I might get a single line of dialogue to continue. The game could really use a speed this shit up button.

Yeah that sounds annoying, haven't had that issue yet. I'm currently playing wingman to Orpheus, which I'm enjoying, because I like both of their characters, the two involved in that relationship I mean. It's enjoyable, it's not like, mind blowing literature, but it feels real enough that I enjoy listening to the interactions. I enjoy that Zagreus is fairly pleasant and jovial to everyone he meets, that isn't named Hades. How he basically boils down to just "Hey guys, like, I just want to go outside. I've been cooped up in this house too long, I want a night on the town. Can we not kill each other ? Just passing through." So I appreciate that. He's not overly edgy and emo, he just REALLY doesn't want to be in Hades anymore, but he'd be super chill if nobody fought him on the way out. As he really doesn't have any issues with any of the denizens of the underworld, but Hades.

So it's fun so far. But like I said, I don't know if it will keep me for the multitude of playthroughs that other people have. I still haven't escaped Hades once, so that's still priority 1, and I'm unlocking upgrades to make that doable. It's fun, I'm enjoying it, the wife is enjoying it.

 

[CriticalGaming]

- Final Fantasy 7 Remake
A game I was absolutely in love with until it decided to be "clever" for the sole purpose of hyping up fans, resulting in the story taking a total nosedive. Breaking the 4th wall isn't clever Japan, and it's even more stupid when you make it part of the plot.

Apart from that, there's a major issue in this game with the Materia system. Having to change it around so much is already a chore, but the fact that you can't change in the midst of battle is just fucking aggravating. Especially since early on the game gives you Materia specifically meant to gain enemy data in battle, only for you to then not be allowed to change your Materia to accommodate to this new knowledge. You have to wait until the battle is over to change the Materia, eventhough your next battle might be against different enemies with different weaknesses. The pinnicale of how stupid this whole endeavor is is during Boss fights, where you obviously want to know the best way to defeat this Boss, which requires you to actually start the battle and use the Assess Materia, which then gives you the data, but prevents you from making the appropriate changes within that battle, forcing you to reload your save, make the changes, but still use the Assess skill because you want the benefits from the white-haired kid. It's just so badly implemented.

You wound me!

I can see where you are coming from, however I also feel like normal and easy difficulties are not tight enough on requirements that the player would require any special set up to defeat anything in the game. The game expects you to learn from the assess materia in the easier difficulties because Hard mode does require a better set up.

Additionally most of the boss fights are set up way in advance and a lot of the weaknesses are common sense. The Big Bomber fight is one such occasion, and since you've already been fighting robots up til now you should already have a pretty solid idea of how the up coming fight is going to go. Also Chadley only requires you to assess like 15 enemies, which you can easily get done without fighting any bosses, then you'll never need to use it again if you don't want too. The rest of what he asks are things like using x-different attacks, staggering x-enemies etc. Basically tutorial type things, and things to try to keep players expiramenting to see what else all the characters can do.

As for the story part. I don't know what to tell you, Jim Sterling says you either think what they did was brilliant or you are really mad about it. I don't think there are a lot of inbetween people in that regard. I thought it was brilliant, you don't, oh well. I'll let you know how part 2 ends up.

 

[CriticalGaming]

My Disappointed List:

Cyberpunk 2077: Not just because it launched like a Bethesda game. But because it's so bland. It doesn't utilize the world very well, the combat is basic ***** FPS combat in which the toys you get are just distractions and add complications to the game for the sake of it and never because you need to use them. The story was flat, the dialog choices are meaningless, and it just doesn't hold up to the RPG standard that they set with The Witcher 3.

The Last of Us 2: Honestly I think I've made my reasons for this very clear at this point.

 

[Casual Shinji]

As for the story part. I don't know what to tell you, Jim Sterling says you either think what they did was brilliant or you are really mad about it. I don't think there are a lot of inbetween people in that regard. I thought it was brilliant, you don't, oh well. I'll let you know how part 2 ends up.

The difference is though that I'm not mad because I'm a fan of the original and want the remake to stay true. I never even played the original passed the first hour. I just hate how instead of changing things it makes it about how grand and impressive it is that it's changing things. It feels like Square going 'Yes, behold, we Square Enix shall dare to change Final Fantasy 7! It is indeed true, now treble at the mystery! HaHa!' That was the ending to this game. And then they don't even kill Biggs, Barret, and possibly even Jesse like a bunch of cowards, making those emotional death scenes utterly pointless.

 

[CriticalGaming]

The difference is though that I'm not mad because I'm a fan of the original and want the remake to stay true. I never even played the original passed the first hour. I just hate how instead of changing things it makes it about how grand and impressive it is that it's changing things. It feels like Square going 'Yes, behold, we Square Enix shall dare to change Final Fantasy 7! It is indeed true, now treble at the mystery! HaHa!' That was the ending to this game. And then they don't even kill Biggs, Barret, and possibly even Jesse like a bunch of cowards, making those emotional death scenes utterly pointless.

I mean...if you haven't played the original i assume you haven't played Crisis Core or seen Advent Children, so what the FF7 Remake is actually doing is lost to you. Which is fine, you miss out on a lot of context so I can see how the ending might be grating to you.

However there are things there that fans of the original pick up on and know the truth of what's happening at the end.

Spoiler

Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse aren't alive[\spoiler]

 

[sXeth]

Best:

The Pathless : While a shorter experience then some of its obvious comparisons (Zelda) a solid chunk of fun, and one of few, if not the onyl open world doohickey games I find that actually nails the idea of letting you be properly mobile within that world. Rather then relying on teleporting and such.


Honorabale Mention : Doom Eternal and Spelunky 2. Both primarily more of the same in the sequel. But stand reliably as such.


Worst :

WWE Battlegrounds : Nonsensical throw your opponent to a crocodile brawling in WWE games has been lacking in the their simulator era since the PS2 days (when you could fight in subways and other such nonsense). There is just too little of everything in this game, and it feels like a slightly polished up mobile concept. And inane grinds to even unlock the basic roster.


Honorable Mentions : Whatever the **** Destiny is trying to do nowadays. I don't even play it anymore and its just laughable at this point. Short story, they went free to play, but all new activities require power levels that require their quarterly DLC packs. Then they capped everyones loot in the name of getting people ot use new guns.... then rereleased the same guns with the new caps. Then because they're too technically incompetent to have built an engine that can handle regular updates, they had to tear out 90% of the free section of the game to put the fall update in.



Disappointment :


FF7-R : While I don't particularly care for the orignal, I always thought it had one of the tighter openings in the entire franchise with its Chapter 1 (then it nosedived off a cliff). FF7-R manages to heartily screw up that experience, which is the chunk that Remake covers. PAced horribly as a result of bloating out to be a full game, and full of the meta time travel fate thread nonsense that has me largely departed from SQuares more recent offering in general (which is down to the director, apparently I'm told).


Honorable Mention : Watch Dogs Legion. There's a lot of solid ideas with the operative system, the whoel simulation aspect of the entire city of NPCs with actual routines (procedural though they may be). The game doesn't really bear it out though, and the lack of an actual hot swap (something GTA5 (and this is a rare credit from me indeed) had years ago. ) makes the differing abilities useless in single player. Maybe theyll shine whenever they finally get the MP out, but who knows.

 

[happyninja42]

The difference is though that I'm not mad because I'm a fan of the original and want the remake to stay true. I never even played the original passed the first hour. I just hate how instead of changing things it makes it about how grand and impressive it is that it's changing things. It feels like Square going 'Yes, behold, we Square Enix shall dare to change Final Fantasy 7! It is indeed true, now treble at the mystery! HaHa!' That was the ending to this game. And then they don't even kill Biggs, Barret, and possibly even Jesse like a bunch of cowards, making those emotional death scenes utterly pointless.

But if the whole point of the plotline is that they are going to Remake it, then wouldn't doing something like having those characters who died previously, you know, not die? I mean that's one of the most common tropes when you are talking about time travel/altering history stories. In fact, I suspect, that they will likely do one of two things going forward. 1. They will either have someone else die in place of the others, like say, Cloud dying to keep Aerith and the others from dying.
2. Or, Biggs and the others who did die in the original, learning they are on borrowed time, and decide they will die at a later event. They will still have their sacrifice, but it will be a known sacrifice, not just a random event during the bombing. I mean I didn't really give a shit in the original game when they died. They literally didn't survive the opening tutorial, like most throw away characters. At least in Remake, they have time to be developed more into characters you enjoy.
3. They might also do, now that I think about it, the "everyone lives" option, that's entirely possible. But, this early into the overall story, the fact that people who died before, didn't die, in a game specifically about changing events, isn't shocking in any way to me. That's just, standard operating procedure for that kind of story.

 

[Worgen]

Best
Spiritfarer - holy crap this game is an emotional gut punch, I mean you see it coming and it still hits hard. Plus beautiful animation sound and just fantastic.

Hardcore Mecha - this came out last year but I only got it during the sale and holy shit this is a great game, the gameplay is great, the graphics look great for a flash type animated game and its got some really fun dynamic cut scenes, plus a fun plot with fun characters.

Project Wingman - Its Ace Combat Shattered Skies with better graphics, so its fantastic.

Halflife Alyx - this game kinda ruined other VR games for me, at least shooter types.

Moss - Another great VR game where you control/help a mouse on her quest, its how you do 3rd person gameplay from a VR perspective and is just cute as hell.

Oneshot - Its a really good game with a nice meta type story, doesnt hit the highs of something like Undertale but its certainly within throwing distance of it.

Doom Eternal - Fun and just visceral, you know about it. The story is just... I don't know what kinda nerd dungeon they crawled in to pull it out, but at least you can skip it.

Halo Master Chief Collection - it released last year but most of the games came out this year. Its Halo, you should know Halo by now and these PC ports are all fantastic, its great being able to finally play Halo with a mouse/keyboard.

Thems Fighting Herds - Never seen a fighting game with as cool a story campaign as this. Other fighting games have them and they can be visually impressive but TFH has special enemies you fight and RPG type worlds to explore and characters to talk to, just damn impressive, can't wait for the next part to come out.

Control - this is a really cool game with an interesting setting and great effects. I also really like how your character feels a combination of awkward to play but perfectly responsive, like shes not so badass super solder with 100% familiarity to handling a weapon and doing all the tactical moves and doesn't feel like it, but plays like she is. Its hard to describe but its also something that made me really appreciate Alan Wake.

I'm not a fan of the hated/disappointing games thing and that has nothing to do with me tending to forget games I don't like so I'll leave it at this.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I mean...if you haven't played the original i assume you haven't played Crisis Core or seen Advent Children, so what the FF7 Remake is actually doing is lost to you. Which is fine, you miss out on a lot of context so I can see how the ending might be grating to you.

However there are things there that fans of the original pick up on and know the truth of what's happening at the end.

Spoiler

Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse aren't alive[\spoiler]

I might not have picked up on the smaller call backs, but I understood what it was doing. The second time Cloud meets Aerith and you catch a quick glimps of her future death through Cloud's brain, it was a subtle way of showing that the game is aware of itself. And Aerith gives hints to being in the know at certain points too. All this is fine, as a matter of fact, it's great. The plot correcting ghosts though I'm not okay with, since it just smacks of the game rubbing your nose in it instead of letting the changes speak for themselves. Then at the end it gets even worse where our heroes fight the symbolic embodiment of fan nostalgia, which says nothing about the characters or the journey they've been on thus far. And this comes right after the game was already dragging its feet to cross the finish line.

It ultimately doesn't feel like it was done in service of the story or characters, but in service of fan speculation. I think I might've mentioned this back on the old forum, so I don't know if this is me repeating myself ad nauseam.