Welcome one and all to TheGamer’s Game of the Year. In some ways this has been a very diverse year, with a lot of indie games rising to fill the gaps left by the ever increasing development times of triple-A hits (and the notable void of Grand Theft Auto 6). In other ways, it hasn’t been, in that you all probably know what our number one pick is.
Or do you??? You do. But read on anyway, for our other entries do throw up some surprises. This is due to the fairly unique way we do GOTY here at TG. As you may have seen, many of our editors published their individual lists over the past few weeks. Yours truly has put those lists through a special mathematical formula called ‘adding up’, and so here are our final ten.
10
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
No robberies here, KCD2 makes it onto the list. In a world where video games feel desperate to hold your hand and take away the feeling of accomplishment that comes with learning things the hard way, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 trusts you to mess up. A lot. Though its hyper realistic alchemy and travel systems aren’t for everyone, it’s hard to imagine a more immersive video game than this.
9
Ball x Pit
It’s the year of Da Pitt, and ball is life.
8
Split Fiction
Sci-fi… and fantasy?! What will these kwazy kooks think of next? Building on the co-operative spirit of Hazelight’s previous game It Takes Two, Split Fiction goes bigger in every way. Longer levels, greater time with each mechanic, more impressive set-pieces, and a far more high octane story that takes us to an array of settings. Strangely for a game all about writing, the storytelling is a weak spot, but there’s more than enough magic here to make up for it.
7
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Arrrrr mateys, and things of that nature. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is not only the longest title of the year (possibly to ever exist), but one of the best games of it too. As is fitting for the Yakuza series, it featured highly on the lists that included it, and was entirely absent from most others.
A series loved deeply but not fully embraced by the masses, Pirate Yakuza’s amnesia-induced narrative means it’s not the best jumping on point for the series’ storyline, but if talking to tiger cubs, getting scammed by J-pop idols, and helping a ukulele player become a potato powered rockstar all while being a pirate doesn’t sell you on Like a Dragon, I’m afraid all hope is lost.
6
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Hideo Kojima, you’ve done it again. What have you done? Literally no one could possibly even begin to explain it. But we’re back in the lonely, melancholic world of Sam Porter Bridges with even more famous faces by our side, ready to let Kojima’s storytelling wash over us like so much tar stranded on the beach.
Death Stranding 2 is a beautiful tale that demands your attention where you get out as much as you put in, and for those ensnared by its idiosyncratic narrative, there is nothing else like it, this year or any other.
5
Donkey Kong Bananza
Call us the Super Smash Bros. because far and away our favourite thing to play on Nintendo’s shiny new machine was Donkey Kong’s glorious return. Destroying everything in sight is an extremely cathartic way to navigate the various levels of Bananza’s… was it a planet? And we were tunnelling deeper? But all the levels had bright shining skies? Whatever. Anyway, we got to be a big gorilla that broke things, and that makes it top banana. Fifth banana.
4
Hollow Knight: Silksong
GTA 6 might have skipped this year, but Silksong finally arrived on our shores. Team Cherry is the little engine that could, and this year, boy could it. Despite expectations having been built up to near insurmountable levels, Silksong somehow surmounted them.
Players then got a taste of what it feels like to face such odds every time they went toe to toe with the game’s many infuriating bosses. But while it could be controller-smashingly frustrating at times, you just can’t keep a good Skong down.
3
Silent Hill f
Silent Hill f might have quietly been the boldest major release this year, shifting from being a series often haunted by the ghosts of women to one that lets us see the horrors from their perspective. The switch to a historical setting of 1960s Japan heightened this focus, all while delivering some of the most claustrophobic and mechanically compelling gameplay the series has ever seen.
2
Hades 2
Hades 2 didn’t just have the impossible task of following Hades, possibly the greatest roguelike ever made and responsible for a foundational shift in the genre. It had the even impossibler task of following all the roguelikes since Hades that have borrowed copiously from its formula. And somehow, it does that. It feels like Hades, but also feels unique, offering much greater synergy between boons for a deeper variety of gameplay styles, all wrapped around a layered story about time itself – even if it needed two goes at getting it right.
If you disagree, I am gonna claw out your eyes and drown you to death.
1
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
There’s not much left for me to say about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, so I won’t.
