Video games - 2024 review

Last year I tried to break games down into what I loved and what was okay. This year I’m going to try organizing things a little differently. I liked a lot of games this year. Made a dent in my backlog, played some of the top regarded games of the year, and a lot of them were hits with me. So this will probably read like a long list of game recommendations.

Unlike your typical 'Best Of' list, I’m starting with my top games of the year instead of saving them for the end. Why make the people wait. Or read.

Cobalt Core was a very early game in the year for me. It came out in November 2023 so I wasn’t too far from release when I picked it up. It’s a deck builder disguised as a ship builder roguelike. I was almost turned off of it once I realized how many playthroughs were needed to unlock the full ending but the gameplay kept bringing me back. And eventually I found a rather consistent ship build that got me wins 70% of the time. The art is rather cutesy but I thought it had great humour and writing.

Probably don’t need to say much about the Elden Ring DLC since I had put Elden Ring in my top games last year. But for me I think I got a more true Elden Ring experience in the DLC than I did in the main game. I had watched my wife play through Elden Ring before I really got hooked so there wasn’t much mystery for me and I kind of just focused on the main line and one build. In the DLC I explored (nearly) every nook and cranny, going for a near completionist run without really trying. Just felt fully In It. People still complain about the DLC’s use of Shadowseeds as necessary for progressing in the game power-wise but I find their complaints unjustified and thought it was actually a clever way to reward exploration and not rushing through. While also not taking away your powers since many people were coming into the DLC after beating the main game.

Return of the Obra Dinn was one that has been on my to-play list since it came out. But I didn’t love the visual style so I hesitated. Wanting to play more games on my Switch this year because I could then play games in the bath, I finally got it. And then played it for nearly 6 hours straight. Excellent mystery design, such a unique progression, so much UI design making it playable. Instantly became a game I encourage everyone to play.

Puzzlers

So I said I was going to try to break things down a little differently. Mostly because there have been so many good games this year but they’ve all been very different styles. Obra Dinn wasn’t my first puzzle game of the year, I started with Cocoon, one of the top games from 2023. I loved how straightforward Cocoon was, how it made you feel just clever enough. While also giving you very minimal storytelling, you mostly went on vibes. I also like to describe it as a game for people who want to ponder over some orbs.

Animal Well was a more search-action platform puzzler. Another really unique style, interesting game play, but the extensive puzzles going levels deep was too much for me. I still think the game is great and I recommend it for people and tell them it feels good even just reaching the first credits. But I would have loved to have the experience of playing it at the same time as friends and sharing discoveries and maybe trying to figure out some of the more obtuse secrets.

Another one from the backlog was Chants of Sennaar. I don’t feel like this game ever got much hype but it was talked about on a gaming podcast I listen to and I was rather taken with the art style when I looked it up. The central game mechanic is deciphering languages used by different castes in a society so that you can try to figure out what’s going on. It has a similar game feel as Obra Dinn, where you are dragging and dropping your answers to the puzzles into menu slots. Which honestly, is probably where they got the design idea from and where the next game, The Case of the Golden Idol, likely got inspiration from too.

Golden Idol is a series of scenes, each containing mysteries you piece together through a bit of point and click investigating. It was really fun, and deployed a hint system that was enough to help me with a puzzle whenever I got stuck. I really like that as a mechanic because even though every game has been walkthrough to death online, it’s really nice to not pick up your phone and look for help and just be able to stay in the game.

I would honestly recommend all these games, I felt like they were all unique and all offered something a little different.

Gatchas

While Genshin Impact is still my main gatcha game (I still play nearly every day), I tested the waters of a few others this year.

Zenless Zone Zero is the newest Mihoyo game, one I was pretty excited for after years of small teases. I ended up only playing for 2 days before deciding it wasn’t really for me. I liked the character design, I liked the combat, but the general execution of being more locked into quests after the open world freedom of Genshin felt very restrictive. But I also knew it would want as much time as Genshin does and it’s hard to balance multiple huge games like that at the same time.

For a little over a month my wife and I played AFK Journey. This was also a time sink but it was when I wanted to get off Twitter so I was trying to get into the habit of opening games on my phone instead of opening brain numbing apps. It was fun while it lasted but didn’t have the staying power of Genshin to keep us coming back.

There are two gatchas that are staying a little better. Pokemon TCG Pocket, a game that’s mostly focused on giving you that “pulls” feeling. As it does give you 2 pulls every day without you having to do anything besides login. If this wasn’t such a strong IP I don’t think this game would last but it takes minimal time commitment and I love looking at Pokemon.

The other is Infinity Nikki which I thought I’d play for a week and then bounce but I’m now on week 3 or so and have basically embraced it as my killing time while tired game while waiting for the next big Genshin content drop. Infinity Nikki is very unique in its focus on fashion and story over combat, and I do love playing dress-up. But I will be surprised if I stick with this game longer than winter break.

Not good enough at

I consider myself pretty good at video games. I have what I consider decent reflexes and hand eye coordination for my age, enjoy puzzle solving and also believe in having to put the time in to get good at something. So I find it rare that I bounce off a game because I’m just not getting it. But it happened twice this year.

One was for Pacific Drive, a game I was very excited about because I loved some of its early trailers. But after multiple failed journeys in my car, and having to re-do missions over and over again, I just lost motivation. I felt like I was missing a key understanding for being able to get through even early missions. I saw some other people online with a similar complaint, and they were mostly told to “get good”. Others suggested that there were a few difficulty settings that can be changed. So if I do ever return to this I’d probably turn those on and try to enjoy the mystery of the world more.

Rollderdrome was the other game I put down. I’d heard lots of good things about it and was super intrigued by the game player and weird setting, but I didn’t love the game feel. And the fact that you just went match to match without much going on between challenges meant I didn’t have much to latch onto besides the game play.

The rest

Okay I tried being organized but there are only a few left and they don’t really fit in a nice category.

Dave the Diver, one of last year's huge breakouts. I had a lot of fun with this and was blown away by the pixel art. I put a lot of time into it even though it got rather repetitive and honestly killing fish over and over again didn’t feel great. But it had such addictive pacing.

Night in the Woods was my only VN-esque game this year. A famously beloved indie darling that is very well executed and had a twist I didn’t see coming. It was also a nice length with good writing overall. Which is why it often came up in my game circles since I spend a lot of time talking about storytelling and writing in games. So I knew I had to get to this one eventually and I’m happy I finally did.

And I replayed Hades. I had a strong urge to start playing early access Hades 2 but when trying to balance how much time you play video games versus other things I didn’t want to put 30 hours into Hades 2 knowing I would likely put in those same 30 hours on the full release. So I will keep trying to avoid any spoilers for Hades 2 and just hope that it gets a full release soon.

This feels a bit like a ridiculous amount of games to play in a year, but most of them were nice, reasonably sized experiences. The puzzlers were in the 5-12 hours of gameplayer area. Dave the Diver and Elden Ring were probably the only games I put in over 30 hours. I’ve just really come to enjoy a video game that I can start playing on a Friday evening and wrap it up by Sunday evening. Just a nice weekend experience.

I do have a list of games I’d like to play in 2025 and I think most should also be in the smaller game category. Which does make me curious for what huge game will be able to grab me next, as there’s nothing on my radar for releases in 2025 that seems like a contender. Unless Hades 2 does a surprise drop...