My Top Games 2020

Hey spacers,

what a horrible year, eh? Anyway, here's a ranking of the games I've played this year.

First, let's talk about which game gets my esteemed GOTY 2020 award. There were only three games that I played this year that I'd rate 10/10, but it was hard to choose the "best" among these three. Let me share my thoughts on each and why I did or did not decide to choose it as my GOTY.

This game has caused quite an outrage and left many of those who were hyped for it disillusioned. To be honest, I never cared about any of the advertisements for the game. I only got interested in the game about one week before it was released, when the first reviews were coming out. Looking back on the trailers and all the promotional material, I'd say that the marketing was downright manipulative and predatory. But that's entirely a criticism of the marketing, not the game itself (although it also seems that the game developers weren't quite sure what game they were making for a pretty long time).

Also, it's clear that Cyberpunk 2077 isn't a perfect game. There is quite a lot to criticize, especially from a gameplay design standpoint. I don't want to get too much into this, but I'd just like to say that Cyberpunk is far from revolutionary in any of its gameplay features. So how did I arrive at a 10/10 rating for this game then? For my own personal "game rating rules", I don't only look at whether a game has flaws (because any game has flaws or shortcomings), but also at its strengths. Where Cyberpunk 2077 excels is the quality of the writing and the worldbuilding - you could say that the entire game gets carried by these two strengths. It's what drew me into the game and kept me playing for 90+ hours.

Still, I couldn't give Cyberpunk 2077 my GOTY just for those two strengths.

I really had a blast playing both Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal this year. Especially with Doom Eternal, there is quite a lot to admire from a gameplay design standpoint: It's refreshingly old school and arcade-y, while at the same time innovating and refining the core gameplay into a pristine combat gameplay loop.

Doom Eternal very well could have been my GOTY, but alas, I'm just personally not that attached to the FPS genre (the first FPS I played was Fallout 3, when I was 18 or 19 years old). That's also probably why I don't really have all that much to say about this game.

My GOTY 2020 goes to Endless Space 2. I've gotten hooked on the addictive "one-more-turn" gameplay of other turn-based strategy games before, but I've rarely cared this much about one of these games as much as I care for Endless Space 2 (the only other one being Heroes of Might & Magic 3). Especially as a game developer and student of game design, Endless Space 2 is quite a fascinating game. It's formally a 4X strategy game like Sid Meier's Civilization, but it's almost as if it uses the 4X gameplay structure only as a basic skeleton for its rich and feature-heavy gameplay. It's mind-blowing how detailed and intricate the many different gameplay systems are that make up Endless Space 2's gameplay; many of them offer more complexity on their own than many other games out there. The ship building, the combat, the politics, the economy - there's so much design work in this game to analyze and admire.

It's common for 4X games to offer different paths to victory (like warfare and science and so on), but in Endless Space 2 this actually translates to performing vastly different gameplay actions. A war-faring faction will force players to spend a lot of time designing different space ships and analyzing their enemies' strengths and weaknesses, while an economy-based faction will spend much more time on the trading screens. Also, each faction gets very unique powers and traits that make each of them feel quite different to play.

All in all, these different gameplay systems seamlessly add up to a game that almost seems like more than just a game - I'd describe it as an epic space opera simulation. Each playthrough feels like a unique, epic, and grand story set in a rich science fiction universe.

With that out of the way, here's a ranking of all the games I played this year. I didn't include any games that I didn't play for a sufficient amount of time or games that I would have rated worse than 6/10.

What's there to look forward to in 2021? To be honest, I don't really care that much about new releases in general. The only thing I'm excited for is Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which is a remaster of the first three Mass Effect games. I'm really looking forward to replay those games for probably the 6th or 7th time, especially with hints of a new Mass Effect game set after the events of Mass Effect 3.

Oh, I'm also really hyped for Ark 2.

That was a joke. I don't care about Ark or Vin Diesel. The Ark 2 trailer was one of the most hilarious game trailers released in the last couple years though.

So, what was your top games 2020? What are you looking forward to in 2021? Let me know in the comments !