A few favorite games from 2020! (Happy New Year!)

     The year 2020 was a crazy one with everyone locked down in quarantine for the vast majority, and because of those circumstances, all kinds of problems emerged. On the bright side, however, this was a pretty remarkable year for video games. There were certainly some that were less impactful than we originally thought, and then there were some that became huge exactly because of the pandemic, allowing people to communicate and hang out even when not in person. On top of some truly great games, we also saw the launch of two new consoles, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It's always exciting to see new hardware coming out to the market, though the scalpers have bought up so much of the limited stock and marked them up to ridiculous prices for the holiday season it has been much harder to get one of these consoles in the first few months after release. I obviously won't include any "Next Gen" games here, as I haven't played any of them, and even if I had, there are really only a handful of exclusively next generation games so far. The games I write about in this post can be considered my "Top 5 list for 2020" though I won't be numbering them, and honestly, I'll probably have to bring up more or less than 5. The main idea here is just to share some games that I enjoyed this year, hopefully encouraging you all to try some of them. Without further ado, let's get started, shall we?

Some Greatest Hits!

    I've played a lot of good games this year, and to start this list off, I have to pay tribute to an old franchise that I really only got into this year. I finally got around to playing Doom 2016 in January, and then in March, Doom Eternal ripped and tore its way into my house. The game is brutal, to be sure. In terms of difficulty, as well as tone of the game, the game is crazy and a ridiculous adrenaline trip through the post apocalyptic Earth, Mars, and even the depths of Hell at times. It's a bizarre game that pays tribute to the original Doom games from the 80's while also keeping the heavy metal feel of the 2016 reboot. The platforming sections have definitely come under some scrutiny from most critics and people talking about the game, but I personally thought they were okay, especially since you don't die on the first time you fall into lava or a bottomless pit, you just lose some health. The combat was even more complicated and difficult than Doom 2016, due to all of the different mechanics that they added this time around. The Slayer has a chainsaw, a flamethrower (or Flame Belch, as the game calls it), a blade that he can use for melee encounters, and a freeze bomb that he can fire from his shoulder. All of these weapons are absolutely necessary to get through all of the brutal encounters you face in this game, especially in some of the higher difficulties. It was certainly a challenging game as a whole (even on normal difficulty, which I played it on) but by the end of it, I knew that I'd be coming back to beat it again soon enough.

    On the other end of the spectrum from Doom Eternal, we have the other March 20 release, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This cute little game is the real conversation starter from this year as it came out right as the pandemic was starting, and allowed friends to hang out during a time that people weren't able to do so in real life. Animal Crossing in almost every incarnation is what I lovingly refer to as a "Time Vampire." The game takes you through a year in real time, allowing you to live the small town life in a virtual way. Oh, and your neighbors are all animals, by the way. Everyone except your character is a goofy and whimsical animal, from the miserly Tom Nook who's really just in it for the money, the scholarly Blathers at the town museum, to the kind and helpful Isabelle, who arrives on your island later in the game to help Tom with island efforts. Though this game was the one to draw the most attention out of any in the franchise, this is certainly not my favorite Animal Crossing. The introduction is great, I really liked the way that you were responsible for turning this deserted island into a lively little town with all kinds of neighbors to meet. I especially liked the museum, which looks way better in this newest version than in some of the earlier games. After you have everything set up, however, the game grinds to a slow halt. That's nothing new, Animal Crossing always has been that way, but with this entry, Nintendo has decided to slowly roll out the content much more than they have in previous games. You could only upgrade Nook's Cranny once or twice in this game, as opposed to the four times that they used to have in previous entries. On top of this, there is no Nintendo merchandise in this one, which was probably my favorite feature of the previous titles, especially New Leaf. I assume that they'll eventually patch in this content, but it just seems strange that it isn't already in this version. The online is not great, it works pretty slowly and it is kind of restricted, but it is certainly much better than playing with multiple people on the same console. My brother started his account on my Switch first, and he did it on my account that is tied to my Switch Online account, meaning that not only did it not allow me to go online when I was finally able to start, I couldn't even help out with the development of my own island. The first account is considered the "Lead Resident" on the island, meaning that my second account wouldn't get even half of the prompts from Tom Nook, even though I ended up playing this game a lot more than my brother. Long story short, I did really liked this game, but it seemed like Nintendo took a lot of wrong steps that they had previously done better with in other entries. Newcomers to the series I'm sure were really happy with it, but I just feel this was a step back in a lot of ways from New Leaf, which came out in 2012 for the 3DS.

    The next game that I would like to speak on is a remake of a game that came out in 1997, one that has been surrounded by a lot of hype, Final Fantasy 7 Remake. This game took the turn based game that was one of the biggest reasons to buy a Playstation 1 and turned it into a completely new experience. This game almost feels like a new Kingdom Hearts game, and you all know how I feel about Kingdom Hearts. The title of this game is weird considering this isn't a remake of the entire FF7, it's only about the first six hours of the game, though they've stretched that out to 30 hours or so. That sounds like a bad thing, but I really like what they did. The whole Midgar section of the game has been stretched to incredible lengths, and each of the characters have been developed a lot more. A lot of people don't like how the story developed, but I really loved this game the whole way through. it is fairly convoluted, but the same could be said of the original game, and people still loved that one. The gameplay is much more appealing to me, since I don't really like turn based RPGs. In my opinion, this game is better than Final Fantasy 15 if for no other reason than the summon system works way better here than in that game. The voice acting is also a great addition, and the voice actors for the whole cast do a great job with giving the beloved characters of FF7 a voice. The addition of Sephiroth in such a major role here is weird considering he really didn't show up in the first six hours of the original game, but it does a good job of foreshadowing upcoming story beats that I assume will come in Final Fantasy 7-2. It's a great game the whole way through, and it ends on a crazy note that makes me really excited to play whatever comes next.

    The last game I will mention is Ghost of Tsushima, a game that I was initially very skeptical about, but it ended up being one of my favorite games of the year by far. This game really shows how good the Assassin's Creed series could be if they actually took their time to develop a story and gameplay that would match up with this. There are many similar activities covering the large world map, but in this case, the side activities really compliment everything that you do, giving the player all kinds of neat cosmetics and skill points for new abilities. My favorite costume was tied to developer Sucker Punch's history, as theres a sword sheath and headband inspired by their previous series, Sly Cooper. None of this sounds new, and it certainly isn't, but the game is gorgeous, often I would feel rewarded just by seeing all of the new sights on the island of Tsushima. The combat is extremely satisfying with it being all about the art of the parry. In a lot of ways, there's a rock-paper-scissors feel, similar to that of the weapon triangle from Fire Emblem. There are four different stances that help you with facing enemies using swords, spears, shields, and the fourth is for boss characters mostly. All have different perks and weaknesses to them. Now, if you know me, you know that I don't have time for stealth, I'd much rather just rush in and take out as many enemies as I can, but this game really does a lot to make the stealth actually fun and satisfying. The people that you interact with in the game have very compelling plots and histories as they help you liberate the island from the Mongols, and some of the people that you assume will be your greatest friends end up being enemies by the end of the game. It takes a lot for Jin Sakei to accept that in order to defeat the enemies of the island, he will have to put aside the code of the Samurai, and the game does a good job of making the player feel those narrative beats as well. I really was cautious of this game at first, assuming that this was going to be another Assassin's Creed clone that I wouldn't care about, but the truth is that this game really feels closer to Zelda: Breath of the Wild than any of those games. That is certainly a good thing in my book.

    This year has been a hard one for sure, but writing this list has really helped me remember some of the many good times that I've had even in this situation. I have to give some shout outs to other games that I also enjoyed and that I've heard deserve praise before I go here. Hades from Supergiant is a really great game that I just got for my birthday a few weeks ago. I've not gotten super far, but I really like the balance that the game strikes between story and gameplay, and look forward to spending more time with it over the weeks to come. I still haven't played the Last of Us Part 2 yet, but I definitely plan to at some point if for no other reason than to make a legitimate view of the game. I wasn't a huge fan of the first one, so I don't have super high hopes for the second one, though I do have tons of respect for all of the voice actors and the team at Naughty Dog. Horizon Zero Dawn is a great game that I really enjoyed when I finally had a chance to play through it this year, but because it didn't come out in 2020, I'll save my thoughts for another post.

    Thanks so much for reading this, friends. I'm reminded every Christmas/ New Year's season just how grateful I am for the people in my life, and the people who have cheered me on along the way, even if I haven't talked to them in quite some time. I really hope you're doing well and that you all have a happy new year, filled with fewer days of isolation from friends and family. It's hard to say all that I want to say here, but I hope that this next year will be filled with new opportunities and great new games to enjoy in the times when we're all kept apart. I hope you're all doing well, and I'll talk to you next Friday.