Game of the year is the hardest category to choose and I often think about this throughout the entire year. While there were so many great runner-ups, like there is every year, the one that makes it to the top for me is the most memorable. It’s not a mathematical score of what game received the most awards or had the highest score, but what was the most fun and memorable. A game has to leave something with me and resonate. A game that needs to be discussed and admired and something even revolutionary or groundbreaking.
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil isn’t just a great remake, but pushes a game further in an already genre defining franchise. Resident Evil 2 is sparking a whole new revolution in remakes and setting a brand new standard and you can’t go wrong with that.
A story is one of the most important parts of a game. Sometimes without a story, a game is nothing or boring. Not every game needs a story to be good, but if a developer is going to put one in make it memorable and worth sitting through.
Disco Elysium
Disco Elysium’s story is the best of the bunch this year due to the sheer amount of detail and lore set within the game. The characters are not only well written, but add to the story and make the entire journey worth finishing and it’s something you will remember and contemplate long after the game is finished.
Sound design is all about immersing the player into the world. It’s not about quality but about how the sound is implemented and how much care is put into it. Do the developers use the same footstep sounds throughout the whole game or different steps for each type of terrain? That’s the type of detail we’re looking for.
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2’s sound is both eerie and unbelievabvly engaging. From the sounds of opening doors, the moans of zombies, and footsteps in empty halls. Even the rustling of clothes is present and it’s tall enough to create one big sound design package that helps suck you into the atmosphere of RE2.
Voice acting isn’t just tied to AAA titles, but many indie games have fantastic voice acting as well. It’s also not just about not sounding like you’re reading a high school play in boredom, but the delivery of character, and selling the character to the player and drawing them in.
Jedi: Fallen Order doesn’t just have great voice acting, but the actors sell the characters and it most importantly feels like it could be an actual Star Wars film. There have been bad voice acting in Star Wars games before, but Fallen Order is by far the best yet next to Battlefront II. Every character feels and looks like their voices and it helps sell the entire game as one cohesive top-notch package.
The best graphics in a technical showcase are less about the art and more about pushing shaders and GPUs. Usually the best technical game is a masterclass example of a brand new graphics technology or just a game that can define a generation even.
Metro Exodus is a gorgeous game, but what really pushes it above the others is the use of Nvidia’s new ray tracing technology to bring lighting to life. It’s one of the few games that does it well and is only available on the latest RTX GPUs from Nvidia.
Action games are an all-encompassing genre of games that put their action at the front. Anything with big explosives, scripted events, or anything that acts like a Hollywood movie will be in this genre.
Resident Evil 2
RE2 features both action and suspense and the action itself are some of the tensest and edge-of-the-seat stuff I’ve played in a long time. From zombies lurking around every corner to Mr. X on your ass at every turn just makes the game incredibly suspenseful. Conversing ammo and foraging for healing items has never felt better.
There have been many Star Wars games over the last three decades. While some have been fan favorites, there has probably been a Star Wars game in every single genre imaginable. Even with the successful games, there has been one thing lacking from every game that hasn’t been done correctly until now: Jedi battles and lightsaber gameplay. Some of the other Star Wars games may have done it decently, but never as flashy or well done as Fallen Order, but that’s not the only quality this game has.
Fallen Order takes place during the timeline of the original movies, when Darth Vader was still alive. You play as Cal Kestis, a fallen Jedi who is on a mission to retrieve a holocron containing the location of every single Jedi child left. Like every Star Wars story, there is a Sith Lord after you, and in this case, the Second Sister of the Inquisitor Order is after you. Cal rides around with his Jedi pal Cere and pilot Greez. They use Greez’s ship as a hub area in which you can customize your lightsaber (more on that later) and travel around the four planets that the game offers. Each planet is a large open area that you are free to explore, and while you explore these planets, you acquire Jedi abilities and new tech for your droid, BD-1.
The main focus of Fallen Order is the fantastic combat system put into place. The game is incredibly responsive, has beautiful animations, and you really feel like an actual Jedi for the first time ever. You can use light attacks that are used the most, and heavy attacks use up your force meter. As time goes on, you acquire the double lightsaber, and then eventually the dual lightsaber becomes a powerful force ability. Parrying and dodging are keys to staying alive because you can’t just wail on enemies and spam attacks. Each enemy is unique, with its own attack powers. From regular Stormtrooper riflemen and shock troopers to powerful Purge Troopers that have heavy plasma swords, rocket launchers, and flame throwers, You can knock back energy blasts with your lightsaber and throwback projectiles, which are awesome. There are even a few occasions where you get to take down AT-ATs.
Once you acquire more force abilities, they can be used in combat, such as force push, pull, and slow. These are key to clearing rooms or knocking enemies off of cliffs, but they are also used in puzzle solving. There are only a few large puzzles in the whole game, but they are fun and require a bit of thinking and mastering the Force abilities. As you progress, you can use these new abilities to access new areas, such as pulling down ropes, blowing down weakened walls, slowing down fan blades, and more. You can access new areas to open chests that have customization items such as lightsaber parts, ponchos for Cal, and skins for BD-1 and your ship, the Mantis. You can also find Force Echo spots to add to your XP to level up.
So while exploring is completely optional if you just want to enjoy the story sections, there are several bombastic scripted events throughout the game that are incredibly enjoyable. Fighting a giant bird on Kashyyyk, or even running from Tie Fighters on another planet. The scripted events are worth playing alone, and I was highly entertained. This also leads to some amazing boss fights that put your skills to the test, in which you need to time parry and dodge perfectly while learning their attack patterns. While you travel through planets, you can unlock shortcuts, but I found it annoying that you couldn’t fast-travel between meditation spots.
As you gain XP and skill points, you can acquire new combat moves and increase your health and force meter. These are also increased by finding parts of three throughout the game. This is where Fallen Order takes a page out of Dark Souls’ book, as when you meditate, it saves your game there, but if you restore your health, all enemies in the world respawn. This can be quite annoying when you’re backtracking through an entire level to get back to your ship or something, since there is no fast travel feature. I also found that you must master the combat system in order to get through this game, especially at higher difficulties, as you can’t fast travel or move around easily throughout the game besides running away.
There is lightsaber customization, in which you can choose the blade color and the design of the switch, hilt, and various other parts. Sadly, you don’t get more colors until towards the end of the game, but all those chests you spend hours finding contain mostly lightsaber parts. Is it worth spending hours on it? Not really, but at least the chests are completely optional and won’t make you feel guilty for skipping them. Likewise, customization is cosmetic only, and there aren’t any ways to add abilities this way or change the actual shape of the lightsaber or anything, but it’s the most detailed customization we’ve ever had in a game.
With that said, Fallen Order scratches every Star Wars itch I have. The story is great and feels like it could fit into a Star Wars film. The characters are memorable and likable, and the satisfying conclusion at the end of the game makes the short playtime worthwhile. The usual plot twists and turns in a Star Wars film are present here, and it’s just good enough to make you surprised when a new event unfolds. I did feel the game was a bit slow in the beginning, especially if you’re fully exploring the planets and may spend an hour or two trying to find all the paths on the map and the chests. Speaking of the map, this is by far one of the best video game maps ever made. If you aren’t sure where to go, a yellow wall will appear on the map, showing you need to go in that direction still. Shortcuts are green; red objects mean you need to acquire that ability to advance past them, and it just feels so useful, and I constantly refer to it.
The game also looks gorgeous with some amazing vistas, especially at the beginning of the game on Brakka, and this just feels like a high-budget Star Wars movie. With amazing lighting effects, fantastically done motion capture, and voice acting, it has it all. I loved exploring the few planets in the Star Wars universe up close and personal, and the game is definitely memorable for that. I don’t have too many complaints about Fallen Order outside of the tedious backtracking, and the combat can be very difficult to master due to perfectly needing to time everything, but it’s challenging and just satisfying enough. I also wish the story were longer and there were more planets to explore, but that’s only because I enjoyed the game so much that I wanted more.
The multi-platform genre is usually one of the easiest categories to pick as it is usually filled with the best AAA games the year had to offer. This year had so many great games that a lot didn’t make it. While we are looking down the tunnel at the end of a console cycle once again, these are the games that this generation will be remembered by.
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 isn’t just a simple remake or reissue, but it sets the standards for how remakes should be. We’ve gone through almost 10 years of yearly remasters and HD collections, but RE2 shows actual love and care for a beloved game that has millions of fans. Everything from the most realistic zombies ever made to the fantastic new perspective, visual fidelity, and turning stilted ancient gameplay into something fresh.
BioWare is a company that revolutionized the action RPG genre for the western era. In a time where Japanese RPGs dominated the market, BioWare was sitting in a little studio, churning out one of the best RPGs of all time. I remember when I was younger how much of a big hoopla this game was. For someone who didn’t own an Xbox or a PC that could run the game, it still slipped under my radar. I eventually got a chance to rent the game years later on 360 and quickly got bored due to its age. I finally picked it up again on the PC, and I am glad I did. The game may feel very dated and old (an entire decade), but there’s no denying the excellent story and well-crafted atmosphere that truly feel genuine in the Star Wars universe.
You play a custom character that has to defeat the evil Sith Lord Darth Malak. He has found some sort of Star Forge to use against the Republic, so you are shadowing his footsteps to find the star maps to this star forge. This takes you across several planets, such as Tatooine, Dantooine, Kashyyyk, Korriban, Kevin, and even Taris. You acquire companions of all types along the way and endure some pretty tough battles and story choices. You have to constantly choose between the light and dark side during choices, and there are plenty of ways to go about the story.
Firstly, you can choose any world in any order. Each one is roughly laid out the same, with a larger hub area than an area beyond where your main quest and some side quests lie. I got rather annoyed with the constant similar layouts and wished for variety. Each world has the Star Map area blocked off until you fix some global catastrophe on the planet. Some are so serious that your decision will determine if you are allowed back on later. Besides running around and talking to people to get quests and buy stuff, the combat and customization are fathoms deep; fans will be pleased.
You can customize your character with a plethora of items, such as implants, shields, different weapons from lightsabers, blasters, vibroblades, belts, armor, robes, and headgear, and I haven’t even started on leveling up. You should pick your character based on how you’re going to fight. I chose to use melee weapons because you eventually go through Jedi training and get your first lightsaber. I have to say that this brought a smile to my face when I inserted my crystals and watched my character whip around those sabers with the classic lightsaber sounds. Nothing can top that.
The game allows you to customize all your items by inserting upgrades that you find or buy. This is mandatory because there really isn’t a “most powerful weapon in the game.” You just get a powerful weapon, and you have to upgrade it, or it won’t do you much good. Other than this, there is the deep leveling system. You can choose an attribute, feat, power, and skill. Feats affect what you use physically in combat and what combat attacks you can use. Powers are forceful powers, and there are plenty of them. All the light and dark powers you can possibly think of are here. I had a lot of fun using them in combat and getting an edge over certain enemies. The level cap is at 20, but most people probably won’t even hit that by the end. I finished at level 18 and didn’t have too much trouble finishing it. You can even choose how your companions level up because you can control them too! This is great for people who like variety and can’t have every skill available for their character.
Combat is turn-based, with dice rolling behind the scenes. I really would have liked real-time combat, but what’s here is exciting and fun on its own. There are tons of different enemies to fight on each planet, and some are harder than others. I found the game really hard at first, but after a while, you will level up and find the game very balanced. There are some issues in combat that just really annoyed me. There seems to be a targeting problem in small areas. When you click the action you want, the characters will get stuck in an endlessly looping animation if there is someone in their way. This can cause you a battle because you have to disengage and restart the attack or move around the obstruction. This happened quite a lot, but you will learn to just live with it.
While the story is interesting and choosing how dialog will change it is fun, there are some issues here. Instead of your choice being final, some dialog trees will allow you to go back and change your answer, or no matter how you persuade or force persuade, neither will work and you can’t continue the dialog. This is usually on side missions, but I have never seen the persuade option fail so much in a BioWare game. No matter how much I leveled up my persuasion attribute, I failed an awful lot. Other than this, though, my other issue is that some dialog just drags on way too long. I found myself skipping a lot of it or just reading ahead of the voices. These, again, are just minor issues that can be overlooked.
The graphics in the game look old and terrible these days, but back in the day, they looked amazing. I can see why it looked so good then, but you can still feel the Star Wars atmosphere, and that’s what counts the most. The character models and animations are stiff, blocky, and repeat a lot, but overall they work. Even some of the voice acting is spotty at best, but overall it is pretty good.
KotOR is an amazing Star Wars experience, but the age may turn a lot of people off. My biggest issue of all is that the game doesn’t give any clues on where to go. You get no hints and are left on your own to just figure out what to do. I had to use a walkthrough through most of the game because I had no idea where to go, or some quests were very cryptic. This is a huge no-no for me and really hurts the score the most. Overall, this is an amazing Star Wars game, and any Star Wars fan will love this game.
On the low-slung area of the galaxy is a frozen planet called Odin-Fauster, where a Sith Academy lies. Here also lies Darth Scabrous, who is trying to make himself immortal but, in the process, raises the dead. Joe Schrieber takes a second swing at a Star Wars novel but falls flat on this one. The book is full of characters you never really care about and a weird force that involves growing plants. This also takes place thousands of years after A New Hope, so don’t expect any well-known Star Wars characters here.
You follow the tale of Hestizo Trace (a really stupid name), who winds up on this planet and is trying to stop Scabrous and also escape. The book bounces around the children of the Sith Academy, but you never really care for them because they play bit roles and only appear in a few chapters. In fact, I never really cared for any of the characters because Joe doesn’t take much time to build their personalities and make you care for them. The book is a short 250 pages (with 50 pages of excerpts from other books), so the ending gets rushed with a small amount of filler.
I like Joe’s different take on zombies, where they can’t get killed at all. Even when they are torn to pieces, they still squirm and move about. The fact that Trace is a Jedi and a weakling is really bothersome because she seems to always forget she can use the Force. Her brother is the only other Jedi in the story, but even he has some weaknesses. The best part about the book is that you realize just how sick and twisted the dark side of the Force and the Sith can be. The kids at the academy turn on each other and only help out if it benefits them. Other than this, the story is pretty mediocre at best.
I just didn’t really get a good Star Wars feeling out of Red Harvest like I did in Death Troopers. The zombies didn’t seem like zombies, but something that has evolved because they are unstoppable. This is a nice twist, but if you add characters you never care about, weak Jedis, and jarring pacing, then you have a Star Wars novel that leaves you wanting more.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.