2023 was a banner year for games released amidst an awful year for gaming labor
High polish showcased a strong return from Covid but layoffs create nervousness for the future
I played a lot of games this year.
A LOT of games.
Some of them were not newly released in 2023, but were new for me. Others were as brand new as they could possibly be.
Some of them I experienced for lengthy periods of times. Others I watched via Lets Plays and streams - and feel like I got the gist to the extent that I still have something to say about them.
It must be said, though - while this was a great year for output of titles, it was awful in terms of labor. The industry was unkind this year to those who make the games we love - firings were rampant, and the creative minds behind some of these amazing games were taken for granted.
My hope is that in 2024, some of this power is returned to the workers, while the quality of the games produced stays similar. Because, holy cow, was the quality of games in 2023 good. While COVID is still an existential threat at all times, this was the first year since 2020 where it felt like games were mainly unimpacted by quarantine and lockdowns. We’re back, baby.
However, before we get to the best, let’s start with some of the titles that, for me, didn’t work. Last year, I only discussed 14 games - this year, I have 25 on my mind. As always, these are personal opinions, we all have different tastes. If I miss a game, who knows - maybe I’ll play it in a future year.
I Didn’t Play, But What I Saw Disappointed Me
Hogwarts Legacy
Starfield
The kerfuffle around Hogwarts: Legacy in February feels so unnecessary, especially given how every playthrough of the game I saw looked thoroughly boring and unfun, an arcane spin on a Ubisoft open world with clunky combat and boring characters. I’m an ex-Harry Potter superfan and was open-minded to potentially buying the game, but the more I watched content on streams the less enthused I was to spend my money. Wizards are over, it’s time for something new. No one will remember this game in three years.
That something new, unfortunately, is not space. I used to work on behalf of Bethesda and love everyone there. I was prepared to buy an XBOX to play Starfield. I held back, and based on what I’ve seen, it was good to save my money. Starfield, the more I watched it, felt stuck in a bygone era. My advice to BGS would be to take some of the cues from Arkane games (Dishonored, Prey, Deathloop) in terms of how to kickstart a story and create an immersive world to explore. Sometimes, more is not better: depth should be valued over growth. The new Blade game, along with Metaphor: Re Fantazio, will be my next potential “get an XBOX” titles. We’ll see how they turn out.
I Played And Was Immediately Disappointed
Fire Emblem: Engage
Maybe I got my hopes up too high with Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Triangle Strategy, but my expectation was a similar experience with fleshed out characters who I actually cared about. That was, sadly, not the case. The characters in Three Houses had backstories, interpersonal relationships, and secrets to uncover. Every character in Engage stands the same, talks the same, IS the same. While the combat is fine, it isn’t enough for me to spend $60 on a game when, in the back of my end, I was just missing Three Houses. This feels like a cynically developed game to print money and probably disappointed me more than any other game this year. I want the Fire Emblem team to recoup their Three Houses magic, because that game was special. Engage isn’t a game with a fleshed out story; it’s a puppet show with occasional battles.
Mindless
Flycorp
I spent a lot of time this year playing Flycorp, a game where you link airports to create plane routes, on my phone. It took up time, but was it fun? Eh. I don’t think it was fun, it was something to do while stuck with no wi-fi (ironically, mainly on planes). It IS free, which is nice. I can recommend it if you have nothing else to do.
Mindless…Fun?
The Artful Escape
Bomberman 2
These are two old games I played for the first time this year. Artful Escape is beautiful, evocative, and a singular experience. I definitely had fun traversing through the fantastical worlds and jamming with robots and aliens alike. At a certain point, the facade fell away, actions got repetitive, and I became bored, so I stopped playing, but I have fond feelings for the title: a net positive.
Someone gifted me Bomberman 2, a game I had never played before. It’s pretty fun, although every time I play it I’m reminded how awful the Switch’s controllers are when you try and do two player games. I cannot wait until a new Switch comes out (soon?)…hopefully the controller situation gets resolved then.
I Played And Honestly Need More Time to Explore
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
Wildfrost
Sea of Stars
Honkai Star Rail
I very nearly put Stray Gods as one of the most disappointing titles for me, because…well…it is. I supported this game on Kickstarter as a fan of musical, lyrical experiences, and the plot conceit behind this game is brilliant - a normal woman becomes a Muse and can prompt American Gods-style deities to sing their feelings. However, for a game about music, the songs HAVE to be good, and the songs in this game (thus far) have not met the mark. Slant rhymes are clunky and there isn’t a single banger melodically. I still need to finish the game, if only to see what happens with Eros’ arc (above, in the harness) - he’s the most interesting character I’ve met thus far. I’ll complete it, someday, I hope.
The other three games on this list I played for short periods, I liked the core gameplay loops, and then I dropped them for other titles. I’m not a gacha person, but even I have to admit that Honkai’s battle system is compelling and fun. Wildfrost is a charming deckbuilder with teeth (sometimes literally). Sea of Stars is a deceptively simple RPG. All merit more of my time before I make a verdict. Maybe I’ll go back to one (or all) of these in 2024.
Self-Contained OK Stories
Goodbye Volcano High
Killer Frequency
High on Life
These three games DID manage to fully grab me in different ways, and I played them to completion. The discourse around Goodbye Volcano High is exhausting, but I was surprised at how linear the game, seemingly about choice, is at its core. I did like the characters and the way they generally interacted throughout the game - and the game has a lot to say about identity, responsibility, and the pointlessness of achievement within our societal structure as the world around us burns to the ground - but I actually thought the message could have been MORE radical at the end. I left the game enjoying it, but wanting a little more.
Killer Frequency brought me back to my days working early and late shifts at the radio station - it’s a campy murder mystery that is equal parts charming and atmospheric. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it’s only $15 on Steam. High on Life is an old title I finally played. It’s A Lot, and very dated now because of all the Justin Roiland slathered throughout this game, but it was still fun. I can respect the inventiveness and boundless creativity, even if some of the levels felt repetitive. I also laughed more playing this game than any other title outside of one (to be noted later.)
Precursor Games (You See the Foundation)
Spiderman: Miles Morales
Spiderman
Persona 4 Golden
We’ll get a bit deeper into the Spiderman games later, but suffice it to say - Spiderman + Miles both were good games in their own ways, albeit a bit dated. Too many open world missions with limited consequences, too fragmented an upgrade system, too clunky in combat. And, yet, without these games, Spiderman 2 would not exist, and that would be a shame. I can see the throughline and progression, and enjoyed both of these titles.
P4G, on the other hand, surprised me. While quality of life is not on par with P5, I had forgotten how much better the characters are in this game vs. its later counterpart. Teddie and Morgana cancel each other out, but Adachi is so much more interesting than Akechi as an antagonist, and Kanji/Chie/Yukiko are better than the Phantom Thieves, full stop. If P6 has the characterization of P4 with the QOL/battle system of P5, it will be a perfect game. Atlus, make it already. Please. I’m begging you.
Cultured Games
Hi-Fi Rush
Street Fighter 6
So, a little disclaimer here: I worked with Capcom on something this year for my day job (it was very cool and innovative and kicked ass) - and, therefore, I felt like I needed to give SF6 a try. I’m not normally a fighting game person, but SF6, I was told, was an exception to the rule. After playing it for about 20 hours, I’d tend to agree. I’m still not very good, but the flexibility to lab + train let me create some pretty fun combos and educated me on how I could improve in future fighting games as well. Through training, I discovered that I’m a Lily main (I love to poke) and I freaking hate fighting Manon (she’s grotesque.) I don’t think I’ll be headlining EVO anytime soon, but this game helped me gain a new appreciation for the genre.
Hi-Fi Rush, similarly, feels “of the culture” in a fresh way. This is the type of innovative work I expect a studio affiliated with Bethesda to produce. I’m a big fan of rhythm games, and even though Rush labored as I played on my ROG laptop (don’t laugh at me), the beats and story genuinely entertained me. It was a nice, quick, modern game that never failed to entertain. I’m hopeful we see more work like this in the future.
Surprise of the Year
American Arcadia
Now we can get to my favorite gem of the year - American Arcadia was a title I discovered via a streamer (RTGame, to be precise) and I eagerly played it over the course of three days. It follows one man, Trevor Hills (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal - it SHOCKED me when he started speaking), as he looks to escape the Truman Show-esque reality in which he lives. This game is fresh, inventive, and the funniest thing I played in 2023. While other games that come later on this list definitely brought humor, American Arcadia was hilarious in a modern way I haven’t seen in many recent titles. It has the single funniest portrayal of a stream + chat I’ve seen in a video game, ever.
The gameplay, by and large, is diverse and feels fresh. The story has a great premise although it kind of falls on its face toward the end. I still had a blast playing it, and will be supporting this developer in the future.
Amazing Story Limited By Mediocre Gameplay
Baldur’s Gate 3
Memes aside, now we’ll get to the part of the list where I want to dive into what makes these games work AND not work, at least for me. Baldur’s Gate is a perfect example of an incredible aspiration that showcases the limitations of DnD as rendered digitally.
I played about 40 hours worth of BG3 and, for most of my experience, I genuinely enjoyed it. I purchased it with a discount because I knew I was playing with fire given that I’m not a huge DnD head nor had I played any previous games in the series. However, from the get go, I inherently understood why this game was hyped. The storytelling is great, with a journey that feels organic. Every character has interesting nuances and reactions to the player’s decisions. Personal favorites were Wyll, the one-eyed demon-bonded warlock, Halsin, the beefy bear druid, and Karlach, who is a tour-de-force as a Tiefling fighter. (Aside: Astarion and Gale? Kinda meh.) I enjoyed journeying through the Underdark and meeting the Myceneans and gallivanting around Faerûn. The exploration is the best part of BG3. It is a shame that the combat does not carry its weight.
I understand the intention behind the combat system of BG3 - however, I couldn’t help but contrast it with not only the games I played this year, but also with the likes of Fire Emblem Three Houses. Pairing such an unforgiving randomized system with dodgy isometric controls and a lack of being able to test actions prior to committing really limited my ability to have fun and experiment with the game. Many times, I would need to save scum and undercut the spirit of the experience. It was clunky, repetitive, and NOT fun.
I made it fairly far into BG3 (Act 2) before I decided to drop it in favor of other titles. There’s a chance I complete the game at a later point, but comparing this to other titles on the list, I don’t think the fun to story ratio was good enough to warrant a higher rating. I’m hopeful that elements of how this story was written are combined with more entertaining, better gameplay in the future.
Most Played Game
Midnight Suns
Last year, after completing my “Best of 2022” rankings, I found myself with two weeks off of work between Christmas and New Year’s. For that span, my daily agenda was pretty simple: wake up, play Midnight Suns while having old episodes of Survivor on in the background, and then go to sleep. It was a simple schedule, but it also speaks to how much damn fun I had playing Midnight Suns.
In Midnight Suns, you awaken from a gravesite as Hunter, an occult figure pulled into a conflict with various Marvel heroes in which you have to battle against your mother, Lilith. The game, made by Firaxis, is a turn-based card battler with each hero having their own unique slate of abilities and powers. Spiderman, for instance, is especially gifted at using environmental attacks, Doctor Strange is great at stacking turns, and
Captain Marvel taunts her opponents and forces them to attack her incredibly high defense (made especially hilarious given her current place in the mainstream discourse). Every hero has a unique skillset that makes playing as them feel fresh and unique. When it’s Spiderman’s turn, you don’t feel like he’s overpowered or a different hero - he FEELS like Spiderman. This is an incredible achievement and made this game feel fresh and ever-engaging to play.
At the same time, the characterizations of the heroes outside of battle are endearing. Blade, Captain Marvel, Captain America, and Wolverine have a book club which is essentially a poorly hidden ploy for our favorite vampire to mack on his crush. Magik, Robbie Reyes, and Nico are incredibly fun fresh blood. Doctor Strange and Iron Man CLEARLY have a history together. Even Agatha Harkness gets some shine. The only character who doesn’t get the best characterization, from my perspective, is the aforementioned Spiderman, but that’s fine given how many iterations of him already exist.
The biggest weakness of Midnight Suns is a totally incoherent plot that, at its best, gives a flimsy pretense for all of the actions throughout the game to happen. However, something I found frustrating is that even if you win battles in the game, deus ex machinas would PERPETUALLY take place to give villains a leg up in the story. I’m fine with a limited suspension of disbelief, but it happened so often that it made some of the key story-driven battles feel anti-climactic in hindisght, as I’d complete them and then wait for the other shoe to drop to figure out how, outside of combat, the heroes had manage to fudge things up once more.
Midnight Suns, to me, was Baldur’s Gate 3’s perfect opposite - fantastic gameplay hindered by a limiting story. My top four games of the year were all significantly more well-rounded.
The Game I Returned To
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an almost perfect version of a Soulslike. Argue with the Bandai fanboy/girl/nb in your life.
Last year, in writing about Elden Ring, I said the following.
Accessibility in gaming is a net good thing, and given how unforgiving Elden Ring is, it doesn’t allow for a great deal of experimentation in terms of play style. The customizability is nice in theory but in practice my patience ended before I could try every possible iteration of a given build. This game forces the player to be conservative with their approach or else they have to go back to the start of a given level…A better designed game wouldn’t allow for that to happen.
Well, TOTK is that better designed game. It encourages exploration without feeling overwhelming. It has difficult boss battles, but the savepoints and checkpoints are just common enough where trial and error feel viable instead of cumbersome. I had three seemingly impossible natural “checkpoints” in this game (end of Wind Temple, Phantom Ganon, and then the final Ganon fight) where I realized I needed to level up my weaponry, armor, and cooking combinations or else I’d be doomed - in each case, after a bit more preparation and experimentation, I was able to overcome those challenges. It felt AMAZING to complete this game…
…although, it took me a bit longer than expected.
I actually had dropped TOTK earlier in the year because, to be frank, I had hit a wall at around the fourth temple. The structure felt a little stale, even though the inclusion of the Sky Islands and the Depths added some flavor. It was nice to see some of my favorite characters like Sidon once more, but time had changed since the pandemic - every character’s vocal direction in this game felt stilted and awkward to me. It just didn’t hit the same way. Additionally, there were other games on this list that came out and I wanted to play. In June, I was ready to opt out and put this in the same category as BG3 - a great experience, but not one that I would finish.
Then, I chanced on an old episode of Las Culturistas where noted person of culture Bowen Yang said that the TOTK ending was incredible. I had some time, so I dove back in - and I’m thrilled that I did. 2023 would not have been complete without the final battle against the draconic Ganondorf in his final form.
All of that being said, TOTK felt like a half-step above BOTW. I couldn’t put it in my top three just because some other titles eked it out in terms of story and characterization.
The Game that is Finally Finished
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
It’s been four years, but Cyberpunk 2077 is finally completed - and it went out with a bang. Phantom Liberty, and the way it totally remade how to play the game, feel like a perfect cherry on top of the holistic experience.
I don’t need to go too much deeper on this - you can check out my paragraph on CP2077 from last year where I proclaimed this franchise has the chance to be the Fallout of the 2020s, and I stand by that. Three quick notes though:
The new upgrade structure is brilliant - I maxed out my netrunning skills and also got a Sandevistan. I played the entire game while donning David Martinez’s jacket (which I also bought in real life for Halloween). The world CDPR has created, with Night City at its core, is incredible. I cannot wait to explore it more in future games.
The DLC was very good. SPOILERS FOLLOW. Dogtown was fun to explore (especially the masquerade party and the sports complex), Idris gave a strong performance, and the endings felt fulfilling. President Myers was a pleasant surprise as well - she is who wine moms thought Hillary Clinton was in 2016. The airport ending was touching and feels like canon to me; however, the ending you get by betraying Songbird and getting healed at the cost of your Cyberware (and your ability to augment yourself to survive in Night City) is INCREDIBLY fascinating. It circles back to a core question CP2077 asks, which feels relevant in our life today as well: is just living for living’s sake enough, or is it worth it to live fast and die hard? I’d love to explore this path’s ramifications in the future - maybe V becomes a Viktor-esque ripperdoc? Maybe they become a bartender? This thread has unlimited possibilities.
Now, we can put CP2077 to bed. Let’s see what’s next, CDPR. I cannot wait. Despite the glitches, it’s hard to deny that this game, and franchise, are on a successful trajectory. Kudos to the workers who put their blood, sweat, and tears in to make this incredible world for us. They deserve to be treated fairly.
The Game That Excited Me The Most
Spiderman 2
Incredible. Fluid. Free. That’s how it feels to be Spiderman in Spider-Man 2.
I’m so glad that I played this game’s predecessors this year prior to sinking my teeth into this title…because checking those earlier editions out made me appreciate this game SO much more. Everything I liked in those earlier games felt leveled up, and everything I disliked (the reliance on cops for missions, the too-granular token system, the limited story) was improved upon vastly. The Tether Web was a brilliant innovation that made stealth a joy. The Mary Jane missions, while always fine (the haters are wrong), were even better this time around since she got a gun. Every sidequest was incredibly fun. YOU CAN PLAY THE ENTIRE GAME IN THE STYLE OF INTO THE SPIDERVERSE IF YOU WANT! This is a crowning technical AND storytelling achievement for Insomniac and, quite simply, one of the best games I’ve ever played.
The story of SM2 is a continuation of its predecessors, and it feels like generally standard Spidey fare, but the way it’s told is fresh and expansive. Exploring Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens is an absolute delight - and web-slinging all over the place as Miles feels especially freeing. Even though Peter gets a bulk of the core story time (and Yuri Lowenthal, in his second appearance on this list, does a fantastic job portraying the webslinger), playing as Miles is simply more fun. His new powers, awesome costumes, and unique side missions blew my mind more times than once. Nadji Jeter’s performance is also top-tier: he’s my canonical Miles over Shameik Moore at this point. I never would have expected a culmination of Miles’ sidequests to lead to me unlocking a museum about Harlem’s musical history, and yet I did (and it was well done and interesting!)
SM2 is an incredible game and earns a HIGH recommendation from me. Despite all of my adoration for SM2, however, it wasn’t my number one game this year. There was a point where I thought it could make an argument for it. However, at the end of the day…I knew which title deserved the bulk of my love - for the ballsiness of its messaging, the incredible fun of its combat, and the impact I believe it will have on gaming long-term.
And it deserves a piece of its own.