My Top 5 Honorable Mentions of 2020

10) Carrion

This was a very pleasant surprise for me, as I’m not at all a horror fan in other mediums. But in games, I’ve been known to dabble in some franchises like Resident Evil and F.E.A.R. . Carrion is yet another horror game that I never thought I’d play, but it completely shifts the power dynamic to make it more of a power fantasy. Here, you are the monster everyone runs from and shoots at rather than the one running or shooting. It makes for a game more about destructive chaos rather than cowering in fear. I absolutely loved just slivering into a room and wrecking shop as fast as possible. Then once I gained new powers, the level design forced me to see the solution in every environment and made me think a little more before destroying everything in a room. Plus, I really dig how shockingly bleak it’s ending is. In any other game, that ending would bum me out, but since I got to embody the monster the entire time, I found it pretty satisfying. Thank God for Game Pass, and if you’re also subscribed to the service, or own a Switch, you should give it a shot.

9) Going Under

This was a last-minute addition to the list, as this one I snuck in back in mid-December after a Steam sale. I had my eyes on this game thanks to its Saved by the Bell-ass art style and comical critique of late-stage capitalism. Well, it delivered on both of those but gave me so much more. That art style never really stops being novel, and everything from character designs to weapon designs pops, even with the most mundane animations and items. And the dialogue not only remained charming but hilarious in a very Gen Z way. We don’t often get writing this sharp about workplace harassment and healthcare longing in games, and it’s super refreshing to see these topics tackled, even if briefly. But surprisingly, the game isn’t all style and quips, as the roguelike combat is very satisfying as well.

Much like working in an unqualified position in real life, combat in this game is all about improvisation. Every “dungeon” you enter is just a series of office spaces themed around a different fake startup. There’s one for not-Tinder, one for not-Bitcoin, and one for not-Uber. But all of them have office spaces full of items based around those jobs, like Cars in the Uber levels and physical eggplant emojis in the Tinder levels. All of the items in these rooms are your weapons, with every item able to be picked up and either thrown or swung at enemies. Learning the properties of each item can help you maximize your combat effectiveness, as some items might slow you down in exchange for higher damage, and other items might have opposite properties.

Then things get crazy with the addition of Apps (one-use power-ups you can collect while exploring) and Skills (perks that permanently alter your stats and abilities for a whole run). The combination of all of these systems, as well as quests given by your colleagues for improved Skills, makes the game feel more rewarding as you play. It ends up making the game feel like a more directed, melee-based Risk of Rain 2, and you know I don’t bring up that game without it being earned. I may have only gotten to the mid-point twist of the game, but I’ve seen more than enough of it to come away impressed by it. I can’t wait to hop back in and tackle the newly modified dungeons and chase more upgrades not only for the rewards of gameplay themselves but to see the surprisingly compelling story to its end.

8) Rouge Company

I’ve put dozens of hours into every Call of Duty game since Modern Warfare 2 back in 2009. But despite easily having over 500 hours logged in the series, I bet I’ve spent under 10 hours in its one-life-to-live mode: Search and Destroy. As someone with a desire for constant, instantly gratifying action, I never liked how I had to wait several minutes in rounds to get back into the fight. But, even though it took over a decade for me to come around to it, Rouge Company finally got me to appreciate this kind of multiplayer gameplay.

This free to play title snuck up on me, as I wasn’t really anticipating it much. But every time I saw gameplay, it just looked fun in a very specific way. Like, it didn’t impress me with some crazy setpiece or innovative gameplay concept, it just looked like it’d be really fun just to fire its weaponry and trigger its abilities. And sure enough, it was fun to do both. Gunplay feels precise in a way that feels tailor-made for an e-Sport, and the cast of characters all have abilities that tend to counter and play off of each other in clever ways. But combat is improved so much by it’s round-based, one-life-to-live structure.

Each match is a best of five rounds, with each round being only 90 seconds long. In the premier mode, Demolition, one team is defending a bomb point and the other is trying to arm it to win, with a win also being triggered once the opposing team is wiped out. You only get one life per round, but each round opens up more strategies since, in between rounds, you can purchase additional weapons, perks, and ability upgrades with money earned in earlier matches, much like Counter-Strike.

This, paired with the incredibly short round timers, makes sure death is never so punishing to deter me from getting back into the fight. Because once I do, I can finally arm that bomb, get that kill, or even perform a full team wipe and get that clutch win for my whole team. Matches of this game have been some of the most fun I’ve had online on 2020, and since it’s available on all consoles with cross-play and cross-save across all of them, it’s as accessible as it is fun. And waiting to respawn in this game actually taught me to be more patient in other limited respawn games like the aforementioned Respawn shooter. Can’t recommend this game enough on any platform, even on Switch where it somehow runs at 60FPS in handheld mode.

7) Persona 5 Royal

I’m officially retiring this phrase after I use it here, but as I say too often say, I don’t care much for Japanese games. The dominance of shooters and western action games on this list might show that, but in recent years, I’ve been coming around on them. I’ve fallen in love with old classics like Resident Evil 4 and modern hits like Nier: Automata, but there’s still one massive Japanise franchise that I’ve yet to try. It seemed like the entire internet refused to shut up about the excellence of the Persona series since Persona 4 Golden, and after enough time, I started to get curious. So, this year, thanks to the many glowing reviews of the original Persona 5, the assertion that Persona 5 Royal was the most welcoming iteration of the series, and loads of enthusiastic encouragement from Drew Debessonet, I finally tried out the series.

Now, take my thoughts here with a grain of salt, as I’ve played 7 hours of the game. This would be plenty enough time to have a decent view of an overall game, but in the case of a 150hr epic like this, I cant’ quite make that same claim. But 7 hours is enough to absolutely blow me away. The style of the game alone is remarkable, and you know a game is special if just the menu UI is breathtaking. But beyond that, the narrative and characters were surprisingly strong. Upon first meeting them, some folks seemed like they’d be annoying side attractions to the main narrative. But as I kept playing, I discovered that there was so much more behind the mask they initially show you. In just the short time I’ve played, I’ve had twists like this happen twice, so I can’t wait to see how the narrative soars from this strong start.

The only negative thing I have to say about the game is that the gameplay isn’t quite for me. I haven’t fallen in love with a game with turn-based combat since Costume Quest, so my love for this subgenre of RPG is very low. I’d say my lack of desire to jump back into that gameplay look is due primarily to my preference for more direct action mechanics over this relatively more tactical gameplay. But despite that, I think that turn-based combat has a surprising amount of depth. At any given moment, I have dozens of options to choose from in my turn, from simply doing damage to boosting allies with buffs, or flipping the script entirely with a hold-up. And even outside of combat, the fully 3D dungeons are engaging to explore as well, and they reward curiosity just as much as they reward patent movement.

Overall, I can’t sing the praises of this game enough. Maybe I’m just happy to finally see why so many people love this series, and especially this game despite the fact I have way more hours ahead of me in this game than behind. But the love for those first few hours is so intense that I would never forgive myself if I didn’t place it in my personal GOTY list for 2020.

6) Spider-Man: Miles Morales

I have such a weird relationship with Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I played the game as soon as it came out, even without access to the highly coveted PS5 version. Even without the higher framerate and ray tracing, I absolutely adored the game on PS4 and wrote an appropriately glowing review of the game. But as the weeks have gone on, I’ve realized something, the game hasn’t stuck with me much since I beat it. Sure, I’ve been playing more of the game since acquiring a PS5, and the new bells and whistles and side content I had yet to see are all just as excellent as when I first played the game, but when I’m not actively playing it, I rarely find myself thinking about it. I think I know why this is.

I’ve talked about my love of the original 2018 Spider-Man, and a big reason I love that game is that it gave me everything I wanted and nothing more. I adored it’s fast-paced, yet varied melee combat. I adored its fluid web-swinging traversal system and obsessed over the fluidity of the animations seen when experiencing it. And the story managed to surprise me with some shockingly emotional scenes and some character reveals that have me really excited for the future of Insomniac’s Spiderverse.

Miles Morales does literally all of these things, but better. Both the combat and traversal mechanics are varied even more thanks to the addition of the Venom powers. Unlike the original game, Miles has a way of dealing damage to multiple enemies at once much more easily with this new powerset. And the aerial stunts you could do in the last game are here again, but animations are even more fluid and you now earn Venom energy for doing them. Using that Venom energy keeps you in the air longer and makes you fly faster. And the story here is not only leaner, but somehow also more impactful emotionally. It played off of my expectations set from Into the Spider-Verse to give me a unique Miles Morales story with just as much tragedy as there was delight, and it had me crying by the end of it.

Well, then why the hell does it refuse to stick in my head to the point where I almost forgot to include it here? Well, I think that’s because the game feels too much like the original Spider-Man. That’s no fault to the game because it is more of an expansion than a full sequel. But the lack of any substantially raised stakes or entirely new mechanics does make the game feel samey to the point where my brain just conflates my time with it with my time with the original game. It’s a shame because that runs contrary to Miles Morales‘ themes of individuality. But I have to be honest with myself, the game just doesn’t feel unique enough to stand on its own. And therefore, despite being better than one of my favorite games of all time, I can’t rank it as highly as it might deserve. But it is still a fantastic game worth checking out.