10 best videogames of 2024
2024, a fine year for gaming. Any self respecting console connoisseur will certainly disagree. Though competition was stiff, the cream rose to the top. Ew. I apologize for that turn of phrase. Moving on.
Allow me to present to you, for your gaming pleasure, a smorgasbord of the finest titles. Though their flavors range from hard sci-fi to flights of fantasy, their are all united by their platform pedigree. Here they are, the 10 best video games of 2024.
Astrobot
The 2024 Game of the Year Award winner went to this title, and it isn’t hard to see why. Videogames are many things, challenging, heart-pounding, frustrating, satisfying, heartbreaking, but in their pursuit to push the boundaries of the medium, sometimes one can forget that simply being fun is enough. At its adorable mechanical core, fun is exactly what Astrobot is. You take control of a huggable little robot whose friends have been stolen by an evil alien, and must embark on a Super Mario Galaxy-esque quest across a strange and whimsical star system in order to find them. It’s a precious platformer that feels as warm and tingly as an MDMA come up – you just can’t stop smiling while you play.
Animal Well
Made by a sole developer named Billy Basso, Animal Well has a homeschooled feel that is the quintessence of indie game genre greatness. Following in the footsteps of singular single-players like Undertale, Animal Well throws you into a darkly whacky world inhabited by animal critters, and tasks you to navigate through its enigmatic labyrinths Metroidvania style. Light on plot, heavy on vibes, you’re dropped into the animal maze as a blob creature and left to explore for yourself. Armed with an unorthodox arsenal that consists of a slinkies and yo-yo’s, you’re tasked to solve puzzle after bizarre puzzle in a nocturnal, neon soaked world.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
While Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is technically only a DLC and not a full game, the original simply doesn’t feel complete without this expansion. Arguably the pinnacle of the now ubiqitious Souls games, Shadow of the Erdtree delivers the genre’s best entry: one-upping itself with the brutal difficultly, endless customization, and esoteric lore that series stalwarts know and love. Taking place in a never before seen part of The Lands Between, Erdtree features some of Elden Ring‘s most jaw droppingly beautiful (and totally spooky) environments yet. And the new weapons? Equally stunning. A personal choice is Rakshasa’s Great Katana but I’m also a sucker for fan favorite Rellana’s Twinblade. Aside from filling in a few gaps in the original’s story, Erdtree offers some of the most controller-chuckingly hard boss battles in series history. Malenia who? Rahdan, Consort of Miquella gives the Goddess of Rot a run for her runes.
Helldivers 2
While Helldivers 2 is technically the sequel to the OG Helldivers, it’s really the spiritual successor to a little known B-movie horror/satire called Starship Troopers – where a totalitarian world government radicalizes young soldiers to join a brutal interstellar war against insectoid alien hordes. You play as a nameless soldier of Super Earth, sent to do battle against buglike horrors and android enemies for the good of mankind. The game one of the best co-op shooters to come out in the last decade, and, like its source material, has convinced an entire generation of gamers to join as gears in the digital war machine. The adrenaline injecting combat turns regular gamers into A-list voice actors, as Oscar winning screams of victory and terror are common occurrences when playing online with a headset. With breathtakingly cinematic gameplay sits atop clever social satire, Helldivers 2 is a cause worth fighting for – even if the in-game wars are less than morally justified.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
After the release of the sweeping Breath of the Wild and its equally epic sequel, Nintendo decided to take a hard left turn and release and intimate Zelda game focused on the titular princess herself. In a total departure from the series’ hack and slash combat, players are forced to their smarts over their swords to solve the game’s combat. Zelda fights by summoning “echoes” of defeated monsters with the help of a magic staff, which she also employs to navigate the dungeon puzzles for which the series is famous. Featuring the whimsical graphics that made the Link’s Awakening remake a joy to behold, Echoes of Wisdom is a charming entry into a series that continues to reinvent itself decades after its initial launch.
Metaphor ReFantazio
Made by the studio responsible for the all time JRPG greatness that was Persona 5, Metaphor ReFantazio builds upon the award winning foundations of its predecessors to bring players to the apex of the role playing experience. Set in a medieval fantasy world, the story follows a young hero named Will who is taking part in a tournament to decide the realm’s next ruler. The game is a turned-based return to form, but hones Persona 5‘s already knife sharp combat mechanics to make the gameplay simultaneously easier to understand and somehow more satisfying. But like with its predecessors, the heart of Metaphor ReFantazio lies with its lovable cast of characters – particularly the game’s protagonist. While Persona protagonists often suffer from weak characterization, it’s hard not to be charmed by Will’s burning desire to make a positive difference in the world.
Silent Hill 2 (Remake)
While the newest addition to the ongoing Final Fantasy 7 remake is an honorable mention on this list, the hands down best remake of 2024 is Silent Hill 2. One of the greatest psychological horror titles ever conceived, Silent Hill 2 has been reimagined in all its bloody, screwed up, psychosexual glory. The graphics alone are a triumph, and the improved camera system makes the game infinitely less frustrating than the it’s fixed perspective source material. While the game’s emotionally traumatizing story is faithful to the original, the game expounds upon the original by adding narrative clarity that many gamers missed when the plot was first delivered on PS2. While it’s psychologically deep and thematically complex, this game as scary as all hell. I’ll never look at pyramid shaped objects the same way again. Or nurse uniforms. Or mannequins. Or pretty much any and all human body parts. Or.. you get the picture.
Pacific Drive
Pacific Drive is an oddity, which often makes the best sort of game. It’s a post apocalyptic driving simulator, where you’ve gotta first-person perspective cruise through the lonely roads of the Pacific Northwest with your only companion: your station wagon. As you pilot your whip through the procedurally generated world, you have to forage for supplies in an increasingly eerie environment: The Olympic Exclusion Zone. It’s a walled off stretch of Washington state corrupted by a government experiment gone wrong, now haunted by “anomalies” – which include exploding scrap metal tumbleweeds, haunted crash test dummies, and UFO’s made out of car parts. All of them will seriously ruin your day if you’re not careful.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a Neo-noir puzzle game where you take control of the titular bespectacled protagonist, who begins the game on the grounds of a black and white manor house armed with nothing but a strange invitation to an art exhibit said to be housed within. Lorelei is then tasked to navigate the labyrinthine mansion and uncover its many secrets, it’s MANY, many secrets. The game feels like a nod to point and click detective stories of the past, but takes a page out of Little Nightmares’ book with its eerie atmosphere and mysterious tone. While you begin the game with far more questions than answers, the truth slowly reveals itself – like a piece of great art, the meaning becomes clearer the longer you look.
Mouthwashing
You may have heard of Mouthwashing on TikTok, where its sad-eyed cast of doomed characters were a hit with the cosplay community. The game is a sci-fi horror story centered around a group of space postal workers, marooned in the Big Cosmic Alone after their Pony Express ship crashes on an asteroid. Their cargo? Mouthwash. While it’ll keep your breath fresh, it’s not the sort of thing you can consume for nutrients in a survival situation. Presenting in non-linear fashion, the game lets the player slowly piece together the details behind the crash – all the while their cremates slowly begin to lose their minds as the days turn to months. What begins as a “fix the ship” walking sim slowly devolves into a psychological horror/tragedy – the death of hope and sanity, which in this case happens as slowly as death by mouthwash ingestion.
(Featured Image: Nintendo)
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