As 2020 reaches its conclusion, many may look back on it as a year of unprecedented hardship for many people for a variety of reasons — and rightfully so, to say the very least of it. But it’s at times like this that video games show their true worth.
This isn’t simply because gaming is a fun way to kill a few hours, but because many games today are so immersive and encapsulating that they can engross people into their world and let them forget about the world’s difficulties. Every critically acclaimed game on this list will have brought joy to countless people over the course of 2020, so it is worth giving them the acknowledgment and praise that they deserve.
10 Animal Crossing: New Horizons (90)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the perfect game to start this list, as it exemplifies the previous point. The game lets players live in a peaceful world with friendly neighbors and few troubles to truly worry over.
New Horizons put players on a deserted island and gives them the chance to build a tropical paradise. The simplistic tasks and lack of enemies may make the game seem surface-level at face value. However, the game has a deceiving amount of depth that offers hundreds of hours of relaxing gameplay, all of which is wonderfully accompanied by soothing music.
9 Spelunky 2 (91)
Spelunky 2, much like its predecessor Spelunky, differentiates itself from most other platforming games through its use of procedurally generated levels that offer players endless amounts of fresh gameplay.
The game’s developers Mossmouth and BlitWorks didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken and opted to keep much of the gameplay in Spelunky 2 similar to its predecessor. There were a few new additions though, most notably the turkey riding mechanic that is reminiscent of Mario and Yoshi in Super Mario World.
8 F1 2020 (91)
There was once a time where racing games would feature all over a year’s best games list. The late 90s and early 2000s, in particular, were filled with incredible racers like Burnout 3: Takedown, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and Wipeout 2097.
It seemed as though the genre’s day in the sun had passed. However, F1 2020 has given racing fans a reason to be hopeful of a resurgence. The game found an excellent balance between fun and realism as well as offering an incredible amount of management features to supplement the racing. With the recent release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, it’s worth keeping an eye on the genre making a full-throttled return to the AAA market.
7 Crusader Kings III (91)
Crusader Kings III differentiates itself from most other strategy games by letting players role-play as a ruler, rather than simply control an entire empire like in the Total War games.
It was these RPG elements that received most of the praise from critics, as personal relationships allowed for a whole new layer of decision making and storytelling that isn’t usually seen in the strategy genre. The game was also praised for its sound design, user-interface, and historical accuracy.
6 Microsoft Flight Simulator (91)
In a year filled with travel restrictions, Microsoft Flight Simulator lets players take to the skies and explore the world. Microsoft utilized their Bing Maps to implement an incredible 1:1 iteration of the world.
Any fears of the game being a glorified tech-demo are quickly dismissed when playing Microsoft Flight Simulator, as the game has incredible realism to its flight controls, especially with how weather conditions affect the plane’s movement. This is best exemplified by Microsoft’s Jorg Neumann who claims that real pilots played the game during lockdown to prevent their skills from going rusty.
5 Ori and the Will of the Wisps (93)
Exactly five years after the Xbox Game of the Year award-winning Ori and the Blind Forest, Moon Studios released an equally touching and beautiful sequel. Ori and the Will of the Wisps ensures that its incredible art direction isn’t the game’s only standout feature though, as within the impressive environments are some of the most well-designed levels and puzzles available in the Metroidvania genre.
The predecessor won a BAFTA for Artistic Achievement in 2016, and it would be a great shame if Ori and the Will of the Wisps didn’t pick up the same accolade.
4 Half-Life: Alyx (93)
After nearly thirteen years, Valve shocked the gaming industry when they finally announced a new entry into the iconic Half-Life series. Valve’s Robin Walker explained why the company opted against making the highly anticipated Half-Life 3 in an interview with The Game Awards, where he said that the weight of expectations around the game made it a “terrifyingly daunting prospect.”
Half-Life: Alyx takes place between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and looked to continue the series’ tradition of pushing the envelope of the gaming industry’s technology. They succeeded in this with the help of VR, which offered a new dimension to series’ combat and puzzle-solving.
If Half-life 3 does come, it will be interesting to see if Valve sticks with Virtual Reality, and what that would do for the future of the headsets.
3 Hades (93)
Supergiant Games’ 2018 early-access game fully released in September 2020. Critics poured praise onto the game for its intricate story that was intelligently intertwined with the gameplay, as well as its layered combat and postgame content.
Hades impressively appears twice in Metacritic’s top 10 list, as the PC iteration of the same game scored 92. It only seemed fair to include one though, and it’s the Switch edition that narrowly edges out its PC counterpart.
2 The Last of Us Part II (93)
The highly-anticipated follow-up to one of modern gaming’s most beloved titles was a surprising source of outrage upon release. Agitated fans forced Metacritic to change their user review system, as over 17,000 people posted predominantly negative reviews within just 12 hours of the game’s release, despite it taking around 25 hours to complete. Once the dust settled and people played the game, many people recognized why The Last of Us Part II was receiving so much praise from critics.
Thought on the game’s divisive story, which was the primary source of criticism, will come down to personal preference. But players will be hard-pressed not to appreciate the game’s incredible sound design and gameplay mechanics, which deservedly earned The Last of Us Part II a high spot on this list.
1 Persona 5 Royal (95)
Of all the fictional and non-fictional places available in video games for players to visit, a high school may not seem like the most enthralling. However, Persona 5 Royal, much like the other entries in the iconic JRPG series, creates a fascinating story based around social relationships and supernatural realms.
Persona 5 Royal is an enhanced version of Persona 5 that offers many new features including a third semester, a new palace, and new Phantom Thief member Kasumi Yoshizawa. One of the many reasons why the game fully deserves to sit atop of 2020’s gaming totem pole is the game’s incredible amount of depth. Developer P-Studio took all the time that was needed to tell their incredible story, resulting in a campaign that will take most players over 100 hours to complete.
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