a compilation of all the games i've beaten this year. been keeping a list since 2022, but thought'd be
fun to do a bit more this year, and create this page for all of them.
here at the top, i've put my favorites, and under that is the whole list.
it's parsed from my thread on bluesky, so if some of the
texts read a bit funky, that's why. also, pardon any spelling mistakes, i am not proof-reading
these lol
like, they didn't necessarily release this year
game key art from igdb
uhm, don't take these ratings as gospel. i disagree with a lot of them now lol. most of the games were rated just a few minutes after completion, so i was still riding that high, y'know?
finished in January
finished in January
Really loved the paint monsters in this one. Also thought the rivalry between the two doctors
was pretty fun to explore. Didn't like the boss fight at the end a lot, tho. Felt
unnecessary
finished in January
AC is like Marvel to me - silly pointless fun action. Problem is, AC tends to drag on too long
in my opinion. Definitely liked this one the beat out of the ones I've played, tho
finished in January
omg, cute murder
<3333
finished in January
finished in January
if(game.contains("silly cute creatures")) then I like
finished in January
A fun, but short and shallow roguelite
finished in February
finished in February
finished in February
finished in February
finished in March
finished in March
finished in March
finished in March
finished in March
wow
finished in April
finished in April
finished in April
finished in April
finished in April
finished in April
finished in April
I actually got what was going on this time
finished in April
finished in May
finished in May
Remedy! Remedy! Remedy!
finished in May
A broken heart means a half now, i guess.
This game is great! Mostly. The combat feels a bit undercooked, and the performance is, uhm,
lacking (on PS4). Some areas looks a bit unfinished, especially the lighting. But yea, as I
said, it's great, go play it.
finished in May
finished in May
finished in June
finished in June
finished in June
finished in June
finished in June
finished in July
finished in July
finished in July
Metal Gear was already getting a bit repitetive, and this games i just basic
Metal Gear times 10. There's no more open areas, or creative boss-fights, or really anything to
keep your attention.
finished in July
finished in July
finished in July
finished in July
finished in July
finished in July
finished in July
finished in August
finished in August
finished in August
I really like this game! It fixes the problem I had with dark souls lol. The
platforming's a bit iffy, mostly because it dosen't feel as if it's your fault if you
fail.
I actually died more to that than the bosses, which mostly took 3-5 tries. I also didn't really
like that you had to get some random item and do a bunch of random stuff to get the true
ending.
I get it's supposed to be a social thing, where you have to figure it out together and such, but
I'd much rather have that singleplayer games where completely self-contained.
And it technically is, but, come on, who's gonna figure that stuff out on their own? The
difficulity scaling for the bosses also felt a bit off at the end?
Idk, they just seemed to get easier after the first two (not including the tutorial one, ofc). I
didn't even get most bonus items and upgrades, so it might just be that i'm really good at the
game (though i really doubt it)
Excited for Ninja Gaiden Ragebound now :))
finished in August
finished in August
finished in September
finished in September
finished in September
Exploration is this game is the BEST it has ever felt in any game for me, personally.
It strikes the perfect balance between hiding stuff enough for it not to be obvious, while also
making it possible to just take a look at your map, and see roughly where you haven't been
yet.
You'll continuously stumble across endless treasure troves of new enemies and items to be
gathered, and it feels incredible. The movement of this game blends really well with the combat,
using most of the same moves and flourishes that you would use in combat here as well.
I especially like the grappling hook thingey you get in act 2, that let's you zip to an enemy or
surface in front of you, and is just a joy to use. Only when mixed with some enemy types does
the platforming teeter on becoming frustrating, but it never quite gets there.
The combat is really nice as well, with a great amount of costumizability in how you want to
play, with all the different items you can mix and match. The best fights in this game is the
bosses.
Every single one of the is so tightly designed and plays amazingly. I love the visual designs of
the as well, especially in act 2, with the Cogwork Dancers and Trobio.
Although very difficult at times, I never spent more than an hour and a half or so on beating
them, which I think is a pretty perfect amount of time for a boas fight to take. However, the
one thing I would deem *too* difficult, are the gauntlets.
These are multi-wave fights with mostly regular enemies, plus maybe a mini-boss (or three T-T).
These can be extremely frustating, to the point of me wanting to stop playing.
The thing is, though, most of the time, the game provides plenty of opportunity to leave what
you're doing for now, and explore the world to find additional powers and items to help you in
your struggle.
This, I feel, turns these encounters around to actually be some of the most rewarding parts of
the entire game. It feels great!
I'm not done with this game yet, as I'll try and do the optional Act 3, but everything up until
the credits has been everything I expected from this game and more.
finished in September
I didn't like the dark/light aether thing very much. It added needless
complication to the map, and just overall made the game worse. Plus when you have to go back and
forth in quick succession, the loading times quickly add up :/
finished in September
finished in September
finished in September
This game combines the best parts of the classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill
games, and it's fucking incredible
i really liked how id you're patient enough, you can avoid most enemy encounter. In a lot of
other games there's a bunch of stuff about "if you run to fast you'll get spotted :00" but then
they just put you in a really narrow hallway or something, making it impossible to avoid
them.
*if, instead of id
I loved the way in it kept the fact that it had a Silent Hill-esque flesh dimension in until the
very end. It's introduction timed up pretty well with me getting desensitized to the previous
area. Pretty cool
Other things I liked:
Good puzzles that weren't cryptic as fuck. I could actually figure them out without banging my
head against a wall
PS1 style, with a lot of nice compositing and framing, especially in cutscenes and the first
person sequences.
I don't even know how to talk about the story. It's really good, just trust me, ok?
Last thing, the controls felt a bit awkward at times. Aiming was a bit sluggish and imprecise,
and having to go in and out of the inventory as much as I did was a bit much
Last last thing, this game manages (as Silent Hill also does) to make my hands shake out of fear
just from walking in it's corridors and rooms. It's great.
uhm, so turns out, the first credits isn't the end of the game...
finished in September
finished in September
Gameplay variety is only good when all parts of it are enjoyable
finished in September
finished in October
finished in October
finished in October
finished in October
finished in October
finished in October
finished in October
finished in November
finished in November
finished in November
Felt the pacing was a bit slower in this one? The campaign is longer, without
being that much more interesting :/
Also didn't enjoy the combat as much here. The different stances in the first one was a fun
system, and I don't get why they didn't keep it.
finished in November
featuring dante, from the devil may cry series
finished in November
also featuring dante, from the devil may cry series
more horrible platforming, bullshit levels, (somehow) worse story, worse bosses, less visually
ineresting settings, but... slightly better combat.
bad trade, in my opinion
finished in November
pretty great shooter, with some underdeveloped additional play-modes (dragon and
mech).
also, too many cutscenes for a doom game. i usually really like game naratives, but in doom? no.
find it weird that they've been pushing this so much since doom 3
finished in November
finished in November
i wanna preface this by saying, that the exploration, combat and catching is the
best it has been in the mordern titles by quite a lot. Everything feels very fluid, natural, and
"really makes you feel like a pokémon trainer"
However,
the campaign of this game is horrible. absolutely fucking terrible. the ranking system showcased
in trailers works in the first half, but after a main quest where you just skip like 13 ranks or
something, that game just becomes a series of lenghty, boring, unneccesary dialogue
sequences.
i wish this game just let you do everything at your own pace, without ~5 minute pauses between
every single thing you do, with characters who are pretty much all the excact same, except for
some superficial differences. basically, i want breath of the wild pokémon, not assassin's creed
pokémon
finished in November
finished in December
finished in December
some of this game is really good. the visuals and music, the feel of the combat, the (first 4)
dungeons and some of the characters are all fantastic
however, the choice to have the main traversal of the game to be on a great flat sea with almost
nothing interesting to do on it, combined with the amount of searching for items and just
travelling in general you have to do, completely diminishes any other part of the game that
might be fun for me.
if the main part of your game is so non-interactable that the player can put the controller down
~80% of the time, you should probably rethink something
the earth and wind temples were also incredibly frustrating, because of the companion characters
you have to drag around everywhere. Urgh
finished in December
i am so SO dissapointed in this game.
it does almost nothing new, and the new it does, goes completely against the metroid prime
formula in a way that is exclusively detrimental to my experience with it. first, let's start
with the level design.
in the original prime trilogy, you had interconnected ares, with numerous different paths to
explore, with (mostly) the only things to guide you be the clues ever so thoughtfully laid out
by the developers and the map.
it felt so great both finding the way forward, as well as the many creatively hidden secrets in
those games. that, however, is nearly entirely gone in this game.
every area in metroid prime 4 is a hallway with maybe one or two additional paths which mostly
don't matter, aside from missile expansions and such, with a few enemies to shoot and very
simple repetitive puzzles.
it's bad
in addition to the level design, the other thing that made the prime games so great, was their
atmosphere. yea, that's nowhere to be found either.
metroid prime 4 tries so hard in parts to replicate the feeling of those games' vibes, by
referencing music and with what is admittedly sometimes beautiful environments.
but the inclusion of companion characters, which so often will interrupt your "exploration" with
meaningless comments and help with direction and puzzles (which is really not needed in any way)
destroys any sense of isolation or wonder i might have felt without them.
all of these companions are extremely shallow, and very archetypal. you got the all-serious
seargent, the obsessed fangirl, the emotionless robot who sometimes makes unintentional jokes,
the awkward nerd mechanic, and the depressed lonely hunter.
the scenes with these characters are incredibly obnoxious, and i mostly just wanted them to be
over as quickly as possible. they also kinda ruin samus' characterization by challenging her to
interact with other people who speak.
it just does not work. she rarely reacts in any way to what their saying, mostly just stands
around looking kinda dumb.
samus also gets "saved" multiple times in situations where she could've easily won. metroid
dread did samus WAY better.
the gameplay is nearly the same as it always was. they've done a few new things, with the
psychic powers and free aim while locked on, which are both somewhat interesting, especially the
latter. but because of the level design and the low enemy variety, it's still pretty dull to
play.
the only part of this game which i found *ocassionally* enjoyable, was actually the part that
was the furthest from traditional metroid prime gameplay: the motorcycle parts.
it's really basic and gets boring really quickly, but at least the devs knew what they were
doing here in some capacity, in contrast to the other parts of the game.
i don't know to what extent the development hell this game went through has affected it, all i
know that this game is the worst game i have played this year, and it makes me sad to say
so.
i would rather have this be the final game in the metroid franchise, than have it be the future
of it. fix it or leave it.
finished in December
i don't even know how talk about this game right now, i'm too emotional. just go play it,
please
finished in December
finished in December
finished in December