The GOTY review of 2024 (updated)
- Thread starter CriticalGaming
- Start date
Simply because of what it appears to be on the surface, 420BLAZEIT2: GAME OF THE YEAR -=Dank Dreams and Goated Memes=- [#wow/11 Like and Subscribe] Poggerz Edition will not be winning any GOTY awards. Which is a shame, because it definitely wins my award. Underneath the appearance of offensive amounts of 2014 brainrot is a genuinely fun and well-designed shooter with a lot of creative setpieces and weapons, and a plot that manages some interesting developments despite a lack of narrative depth. It's better than Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, anyway.
Animal Well is extremely well-designed and clever, but unfortunately it's a little bit too clever for me. I wasn't able to figure out how to get through the last part of it, and it's the kind of game where I really don't feel right looking at walkthroughs, so it's probably just going to sit in my library unfinished forever. Not that I regret playing it, but go into it with your expectations of your own ability to solve it tempered somewhat.
Balatro is just fun.
Regarding games that didn't come out in 2024, but that I first played this year (I forgot to make the thread and this one kinda took it over a little), Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow manages to balance all the elements of the latter Castlevania games in a way that, out of the ones I've played, only Symphony of the Night really managed. And Aria beats Symphony on level design by not having the Inverted Castle, making a game that while a little bit short is still a great time for its whole runtime.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is not bad. I wouldn't say it's as good as the 7th-gen titles, but it at least doesn't fall flat on its face like Ghosts, Infinite Warfare, or any of the titles developed by Sledgehammer Games. There's one mission that's legitimately peak, and several that are just kinda there (especially the side missions, minus the puzzles you have to solve before starting them). If you have any hope at all for modern Call of Duty, it'll probably help reinforce that idea, but it won't change your mind if you don't.
Animal Well is extremely well-designed and clever, but unfortunately it's a little bit too clever for me. I wasn't able to figure out how to get through the last part of it, and it's the kind of game where I really don't feel right looking at walkthroughs, so it's probably just going to sit in my library unfinished forever. Not that I regret playing it, but go into it with your expectations of your own ability to solve it tempered somewhat.
Balatro is just fun.
Regarding games that didn't come out in 2024, but that I first played this year (I forgot to make the thread and this one kinda took it over a little), Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow manages to balance all the elements of the latter Castlevania games in a way that, out of the ones I've played, only Symphony of the Night really managed. And Aria beats Symphony on level design by not having the Inverted Castle, making a game that while a little bit short is still a great time for its whole runtime.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is not bad. I wouldn't say it's as good as the 7th-gen titles, but it at least doesn't fall flat on its face like Ghosts, Infinite Warfare, or any of the titles developed by Sledgehammer Games. There's one mission that's legitimately peak, and several that are just kinda there (especially the side missions, minus the puzzles you have to solve before starting them). If you have any hope at all for modern Call of Duty, it'll probably help reinforce that idea, but it won't change your mind if you don't.
Last edited:
Tunic is just amazing at every level. Though I got several manual pages outside the expected order because I accidentally stumbled upon the HOLY CROSS super early in the game. I actually didn't realize that what I was using was the HOLY CROSS mentioned in the manual until much, much later.
If you like the language translation stuff as a core mechanic, check out Heaven's Vault. It's a few years old now, but the language is interesting enough to play with. It's not just a modified substitution cipher like Tunic's language, though it does use English-like word order.
I know of it and it's in my wishlist. It never goes on sale so it keeps ranking down, but I'll probably just up and buy it sooner rather than later.
Chants of Sennaar is another fun game about translating and correlating different languages, although it's a little too forgiving with the guesswork, and the arcady bits are a little hit and miss.
Haven't watched their videos in a while but they will find the most obscure thing to hype up and razz to infinity. That Thing but on a Ship game sounds awesome and I am not even a horror guy.
It is 12/31... and I'm not sure I bought anything that came out in 2024. I replayed Fallout 3 and NV. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Spent decent time on Dredge and Dave the Diver (both 2023.) Subnautica again. Got Control and all the Dishonored sequels off my backlog finally, as well as Bioshock 2 and Dead Space 2. More My Time at Sandrock... and Portia. Oh, and ran through Just Cause 3 again... Oh, and got Sabotage on GOG because I wanted to play the final Pandemic Studios game. And that's it. Can't even comment on 2024, must not have been a good year for games. Or at least nothing that interested me.
Last day of 2024. Time for my last minute GOTY. Kinda didn't have one yet until last sunday, and it's even one that released this year. Played more current year games than usual actually. But only one gave me that specific vibe all my other GOTYs had. That feeling of playing the game that I both wanted and needed to play, but didn't know it until I played it. And that was:
1000xRESIST
It's really not much of a game. More of a walking simulator with a little visual novel strewn in. All you do is run around a handful of areas, some of which are honestly kind of hard to navigate, and talk to people, occasionally selecting dialogue options which don't really matter except at the very end of the game. It's not much of a looker either, tho it does have strong art direction. The soundtrack is nice, tho nothing exceptional. It's one of those games that's all about the story and setting. Much is made of games with mature writing, but few games handle their themes as consistently maturely. Themes of deep-seated trauma. Of intergenerational guilt and conflict. Of legacy and the influence of parents. Of control and hierarchy. Of immigration and persecution. Of idealism and realpolitik. Of identity, both personal and cultural. If that sounds like a lot, that's because it does spin a lot of plates, but the game manages to weave all these topics into a compelling narrative. Would I recommend this game to everyone? By Jupiter's electric balls, noooooo. I can think of one or two people here who'd probably hate it. But me tho? This is my jam.
Anyway, guess I should say something about the other 2024 games I played too, roughly ranked from top to bottom
Great
Animal Well
A metroidvania that refreshingly eschews combat to instead focus almost entirely on platforming, puzzle solving and open-ended exploration. It's full of secrets and vibes. Mysterious, dense and esoteric, but never frustrating or inaccessible. Great stuff.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
I severely dislike Ubisoft. I don't buy their games. I refuse to play them. But ... a friend knows I liked metroidvanias and gifted me this. Spurning his generosity would be uncouth, so I relented. I hate to give Ubisoft any credit, but it's a very solid, polished metroidvania.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
2D Zelda, my favorite kind, but which supplements the standard formula with a summoning gimmick that allows for a more open-ended approach to problem-solving. The toolset it gives you isn't as versatile or creative as BotW/TotK, but trying silly shit to see if it works is never not fun.
Good
Sorry We're Closed
Classic survival horror that cribs liberally from Silent Hill with a bit of Shin Megami Tensei. And everyone is gay. That said, it's a well written, witty nostalgia trip that uses genre tropes to tell an engaging story about the nature of love. Would've gone into great if not for the annoying 1st person combat.
Pentiment
It's a unique setting with an engaging cast of characters and a host of themes, and I had a good time figuring out the murder mysteries, even when I ended up getting it wrong, then watching how that effected the world, because the story continues regardless. It's very Obsidian, but basically only its strengths.
Decent
Penny's Big Breakaway
Momentum-based gameplay from a team that had already shown they can nail that. In 2D. But like Sonic, moving to 3D seems to have introduced jank. It's a hoot when it works, but then it glitches in the middle of a smooth run, or it crashes, and that happened just a few times too often, knocking it down a few pegs.
Pepper Grinder
One of those platformers built around a single idea. Your main method of traversal is drilling through soft ground. Frantic and full of pizazz, it was enjoyable while it lasted, but therein lay the rub: just when it started really exploring the potential of its mechanics, it was over, leaving me ultimately sort of unsatisfied.
Princess Peach Showtime
It boasts a lot of variety, like a dozen gameplay styles into a single game, imbuing them with that trademark Nintendo whimsy and charm. But it also feels like playing a collection of prototypes for more fleshed-out games. It's a little too easy, rudimentary and lacking in content to be fulfilling.
Bad
Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes
Story is boring, combat is basic, and the characters, while there are a lot of them, are cliched, underdeveloped, or both. There's a lot of stuff here, but it's all rather bland and undercooked. I heard a lot of good about Suikoden, but based on this, I'm thinking it's probably not for me.
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder
A metroidvania with soulslike elements. Except it doesn't really do anything to differentiate itself from other, much better, games of its type. Outside of nice pixel art, it just lacks polish, with humdrum mechanics, unimaginative abilities and an underdeveloped map.
1000xRESIST
It's really not much of a game. More of a walking simulator with a little visual novel strewn in. All you do is run around a handful of areas, some of which are honestly kind of hard to navigate, and talk to people, occasionally selecting dialogue options which don't really matter except at the very end of the game. It's not much of a looker either, tho it does have strong art direction. The soundtrack is nice, tho nothing exceptional. It's one of those games that's all about the story and setting. Much is made of games with mature writing, but few games handle their themes as consistently maturely. Themes of deep-seated trauma. Of intergenerational guilt and conflict. Of legacy and the influence of parents. Of control and hierarchy. Of immigration and persecution. Of idealism and realpolitik. Of identity, both personal and cultural. If that sounds like a lot, that's because it does spin a lot of plates, but the game manages to weave all these topics into a compelling narrative. Would I recommend this game to everyone? By Jupiter's electric balls, noooooo. I can think of one or two people here who'd probably hate it. But me tho? This is my jam.
Anyway, guess I should say something about the other 2024 games I played too, roughly ranked from top to bottom
Great
Animal Well
A metroidvania that refreshingly eschews combat to instead focus almost entirely on platforming, puzzle solving and open-ended exploration. It's full of secrets and vibes. Mysterious, dense and esoteric, but never frustrating or inaccessible. Great stuff.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
I severely dislike Ubisoft. I don't buy their games. I refuse to play them. But ... a friend knows I liked metroidvanias and gifted me this. Spurning his generosity would be uncouth, so I relented. I hate to give Ubisoft any credit, but it's a very solid, polished metroidvania.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
2D Zelda, my favorite kind, but which supplements the standard formula with a summoning gimmick that allows for a more open-ended approach to problem-solving. The toolset it gives you isn't as versatile or creative as BotW/TotK, but trying silly shit to see if it works is never not fun.
Good
Sorry We're Closed
Classic survival horror that cribs liberally from Silent Hill with a bit of Shin Megami Tensei. And everyone is gay. That said, it's a well written, witty nostalgia trip that uses genre tropes to tell an engaging story about the nature of love. Would've gone into great if not for the annoying 1st person combat.
Pentiment
It's a unique setting with an engaging cast of characters and a host of themes, and I had a good time figuring out the murder mysteries, even when I ended up getting it wrong, then watching how that effected the world, because the story continues regardless. It's very Obsidian, but basically only its strengths.
Decent
Penny's Big Breakaway
Momentum-based gameplay from a team that had already shown they can nail that. In 2D. But like Sonic, moving to 3D seems to have introduced jank. It's a hoot when it works, but then it glitches in the middle of a smooth run, or it crashes, and that happened just a few times too often, knocking it down a few pegs.
Pepper Grinder
One of those platformers built around a single idea. Your main method of traversal is drilling through soft ground. Frantic and full of pizazz, it was enjoyable while it lasted, but therein lay the rub: just when it started really exploring the potential of its mechanics, it was over, leaving me ultimately sort of unsatisfied.
Princess Peach Showtime
It boasts a lot of variety, like a dozen gameplay styles into a single game, imbuing them with that trademark Nintendo whimsy and charm. But it also feels like playing a collection of prototypes for more fleshed-out games. It's a little too easy, rudimentary and lacking in content to be fulfilling.
Bad
Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes
Story is boring, combat is basic, and the characters, while there are a lot of them, are cliched, underdeveloped, or both. There's a lot of stuff here, but it's all rather bland and undercooked. I heard a lot of good about Suikoden, but based on this, I'm thinking it's probably not for me.
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder
A metroidvania with soulslike elements. Except it doesn't really do anything to differentiate itself from other, much better, games of its type. Outside of nice pixel art, it just lacks polish, with humdrum mechanics, unimaginative abilities and an underdeveloped map.
The Steam Awards
Vote for the 2024 Steam Award nominees during the Steam Winter Sale
Given that Suikoden 2 is one of my fave games... ever, I feel mildly biased when I say that Eiyuden had some BIG shoes to fill being a Suikoden successor and it's not surprising that it didn't stick the landing in some ways. I have yet to play the game though so I'm not sure if it's as bad as I hear, but general opinion online is that it's absolutely not as good as what came before it.
I'd keep an eye on the Suikoden 1 and 2 remasters. I hope they'll touch up the dialogue a bit, especially in 1's case, but even if they don't they're fine games. Suikoden 2 is a step up in every aspect over 1 in my opinion however. 1 was hard to trudge through. 2 had me invested from start to finish and I'll never forget it.
Maybe an EC 2 will stick the landing after a rocky start the same way Suikoden did
Pretty decent list. Actually makes me want to try Prince of Persia: Lost Crown.
Disappointment feels like it's pretty common for kickstarter games from creators who were once great but have been on hiatus since, sometimes for decades. Maybe making games is not like riding a bike, and you have to keep at it, or your lose your touch.
Really haven't played many 2024 releases yet. Only Animal Well, Nine Sols, Helldivers 2, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and GW2: Janthir Wilds. All good. Nine Sols perhaps top of the pile.
Do have SH2 remake and Warhammer 40k 2, so gotta get round to them soon.
Do have SH2 remake and Warhammer 40k 2, so gotta get round to them soon.
That's still a good amount. There are some years where I played even less than that when it came to new games released I
in their respective year.
I forgot to mention Zenless Zone Zero. I don't like it and wish it was just a regular action game without the gacha mechanics.
I still gotta buy and play Vengance Hunters.
Hmm, I really didn't actually play that many games this year, unless I'm forgetting something. A lot of them were massive time sinks so that's the reason the number is so low. I'll just do a rough ranking of them all:
17. TowerClimb - Incredibly punishing with a bad control scheme. It's a reverse Spelunky, but lacking a lot of the polish. I gave up after reaching the top of the first tower after god knows how many hours.
16. Darkest Dungeon 2 - Darkest Dungeon combat awkwardly cramped into a roguelite that relies entirely too much on repeated grinding to unlock necessary combat options. Gave up after the first chapter.
15. God of War (2018) - It's God of War except now it has a semi-open world with crafting and RPG elements, just what the series always needed! I got bored pretty quickly and started playing UFO 50. Might go back to it later.
14. Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations - Easily the worst of the original GBA trilogy. Has some phenomenally stupid moments in a series renowned for stupid moments. The first case almost made me quit after the character assassination they performed on their own main character. Still was decent light-hearted fun when it wasn't absurdly dumb.
13. ABZU - Journey knockoff made by some of the creators of Journey. Utterly lacking in the design direction that made Journey great. Kind of boring, but also short. Had some decent visual and audio design, but overall left me underwhelmed.
12. Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup - A decent roguelike, but a tad over-designed. There's a lot of mechanics that are pretty micromanagey like assigning skill experience that are critical, obscure, and optionally automated. It makes the game feel kind of weird to play. Like if you are doing well you'll just be auto-exploring the massive levels and auto-fighting the thousands of monsters in the dungeon until suddenly you realize that the tide turned and in a turn or two you've gone from full health to almost dead. I don't know, I just didn't seem to click with the game entirely, but I did have fun with it.
11. Cult of the Lamb - Pretty decent roguelite. Good theming, art direction, and combat. The base management is undercooked, though, even after several content patches.
10. The Hex - Another good story from the maker of Pony Island and Inscryption. Probably the least well known of his games. The same kind of meta storytelling you might expect from the creator featuring a bunch of washed up video game characters. It was good and didn't overstay it's welcome like many other games.
9. Death Stranding - Was the story good? No. Was the gameplay amazingly fun? No. Was it concise and didn't overstay it's welcome? God no. Was it utterly unique and bizarre with moments that will likely live in my memory longer than other, better games? Yes. Also it was pretty satisfying to deliver huge truckloads of packages after putting in the work to fix up the road.
8. Subnautica: Below Zero - More interesting deep sea exploration but this time with some boring land bits tacked on. Also it's kind of buggy.
7. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - A really good story with one twist too many. As seamless merging of gameplay and story that you can get when they are located in different buildings on opposite ends of town. I liked it, but I think I would have liked it more as an anime.
6. Balatro - A fun little deck building game. Fun for a dozen hours.
5. UFO 50 - I've only played through about half the games in this collection so far. The results are decidedly mixed. Some are great and enjoyable on their own for hours and hours. Others are kind of terrible. Overall the game is good, but strangely padded, especially with a lot of the cherry conditions.
4. Astro's Playroom - A wonderful little platformer, oozing with charm and making excellent use of the really cool DualSense hardware. I can't believe I overlooked this when I first got my PS5, but at that time Bloodborne was calling.
3. Persona 5: Royale - It was really good. Definitely the best in the Persona series to date, and I really liked 4. Overflowing with style, though the combat mechanics are pretty much the same as previous games and not really revolutionary in any way. Just a good story told well.
2. Dark Souls 3 - Was really good. Another iteration of the From Software formula. Not as interconnected as the original Dark Souls or as eldritch as Bloodborne, but a really solid entry to the series. I enjoyed it a lot... until the DLC, which added unecessary bloat to the game, I felt.
1. Factorio: Space Age - An expansion to Factorio that improves pretty much every aspect of the game. There have been so many quality of life improvements to the game, building and upgrading your factory is incredibly smooth now. Sprites are higher resolution, more music has been added, and the new planets and facilities add new and unique design challenges that are fun to overcome. I've been playing this game obsessively for about 3 weeks now, and sometimes I'll forget to eat. It's not often I get that into a game, so I can't really help but give it my top spot this year.
17. TowerClimb - Incredibly punishing with a bad control scheme. It's a reverse Spelunky, but lacking a lot of the polish. I gave up after reaching the top of the first tower after god knows how many hours.
16. Darkest Dungeon 2 - Darkest Dungeon combat awkwardly cramped into a roguelite that relies entirely too much on repeated grinding to unlock necessary combat options. Gave up after the first chapter.
15. God of War (2018) - It's God of War except now it has a semi-open world with crafting and RPG elements, just what the series always needed! I got bored pretty quickly and started playing UFO 50. Might go back to it later.
14. Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations - Easily the worst of the original GBA trilogy. Has some phenomenally stupid moments in a series renowned for stupid moments. The first case almost made me quit after the character assassination they performed on their own main character. Still was decent light-hearted fun when it wasn't absurdly dumb.
13. ABZU - Journey knockoff made by some of the creators of Journey. Utterly lacking in the design direction that made Journey great. Kind of boring, but also short. Had some decent visual and audio design, but overall left me underwhelmed.
12. Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup - A decent roguelike, but a tad over-designed. There's a lot of mechanics that are pretty micromanagey like assigning skill experience that are critical, obscure, and optionally automated. It makes the game feel kind of weird to play. Like if you are doing well you'll just be auto-exploring the massive levels and auto-fighting the thousands of monsters in the dungeon until suddenly you realize that the tide turned and in a turn or two you've gone from full health to almost dead. I don't know, I just didn't seem to click with the game entirely, but I did have fun with it.
11. Cult of the Lamb - Pretty decent roguelite. Good theming, art direction, and combat. The base management is undercooked, though, even after several content patches.
10. The Hex - Another good story from the maker of Pony Island and Inscryption. Probably the least well known of his games. The same kind of meta storytelling you might expect from the creator featuring a bunch of washed up video game characters. It was good and didn't overstay it's welcome like many other games.
9. Death Stranding - Was the story good? No. Was the gameplay amazingly fun? No. Was it concise and didn't overstay it's welcome? God no. Was it utterly unique and bizarre with moments that will likely live in my memory longer than other, better games? Yes. Also it was pretty satisfying to deliver huge truckloads of packages after putting in the work to fix up the road.
8. Subnautica: Below Zero - More interesting deep sea exploration but this time with some boring land bits tacked on. Also it's kind of buggy.
7. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - A really good story with one twist too many. As seamless merging of gameplay and story that you can get when they are located in different buildings on opposite ends of town. I liked it, but I think I would have liked it more as an anime.
6. Balatro - A fun little deck building game. Fun for a dozen hours.
5. UFO 50 - I've only played through about half the games in this collection so far. The results are decidedly mixed. Some are great and enjoyable on their own for hours and hours. Others are kind of terrible. Overall the game is good, but strangely padded, especially with a lot of the cherry conditions.
4. Astro's Playroom - A wonderful little platformer, oozing with charm and making excellent use of the really cool DualSense hardware. I can't believe I overlooked this when I first got my PS5, but at that time Bloodborne was calling.
3. Persona 5: Royale - It was really good. Definitely the best in the Persona series to date, and I really liked 4. Overflowing with style, though the combat mechanics are pretty much the same as previous games and not really revolutionary in any way. Just a good story told well.
2. Dark Souls 3 - Was really good. Another iteration of the From Software formula. Not as interconnected as the original Dark Souls or as eldritch as Bloodborne, but a really solid entry to the series. I enjoyed it a lot... until the DLC, which added unecessary bloat to the game, I felt.
1. Factorio: Space Age - An expansion to Factorio that improves pretty much every aspect of the game. There have been so many quality of life improvements to the game, building and upgrading your factory is incredibly smooth now. Sprites are higher resolution, more music has been added, and the new planets and facilities add new and unique design challenges that are fun to overcome. I've been playing this game obsessively for about 3 weeks now, and sometimes I'll forget to eat. It's not often I get that into a game, so I can't really help but give it my top spot this year.
What games did you complete in 2024?
What games did you play in 2024? List your games and leave a rating with a short summary.
rpgcodex.net
Trying to copy my post over cut off much of my commentary, so I will only post my scores here. Didn't beat any new games.
Metal Gear (1987) - 3/5:
Streets of Rage 2 - 5/5
Spyro the Dragon (1998) - 4/5
Resident Evil 2 (1998) - 4/5
Sonic Tripe Trouble 16-bit (2022) - 4/5
Sonic Robo Blast 2 - 3/5
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - 4/5
Tomb Raider - 4/5
Beat again:
The Last Guardian - 4/5
Batman: Arkham City - 2/5
Banjo Kazooie - 4/5
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 4/5
Crazy Taxi - 4/5
Everything or Nothing (00 Agent mode) - 3/5