Phil's Top 10 Games of the Year

It's been one helluva year for the gaming industry. Whether it's the people who make games or write about them, it's been a sour time. At last count, 14,600 people making the video games we love were laid off this year. We also saw layoffs at Dot Esports, Destructoid, Twinfinite, IGN, Gamespot, and the shuttering of Game Informer. Hundreds of games media jobs sucked into the vortex of private equity profit seeking (or just shitty management).

All of which puts a rather dour pall on what would otherwise be an incredible year for video games. It's difficult to look back on a year with such highs (Astro Bot! Balatro!) and truly enjoy them when this industry chews up talent and spits it out. So, before we get into this year's list, I want to give a heartfelt shout out to all the people hit by these layoffs. It sucks, I'm sorry, and I hope you land on your feet soon.

Now for the impossible pivot.

10: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

I struggled more deciding what number ten was way more than determining my number one. There’s some pretty big hitters that came out this year parked in spots 11-15, but when I sat down to write this list, putting Banishers here just felt right.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is an ambitious third person action game by Don't Nod, the fine folks who made Jusant (one of my favorites from last year) and most famously the original Life is Strange and Remember Me. They’re known for rich narratives exploring complex characters and those chops are on full display in Banishers. You play as Red and Antea, ghost hunters sent to colonial New England to deal with a particularly nasty demon. In the early hours of the game, you’ll play as Antea, Red’s mentor and wife, who dies saving Red’s life. She returns to “haunt,” Red, manifesting as a spirit in combat or in dialogue sequences.

You’ll platform and button-mash your way through the wilderness and nascent cities of 1690s New England in search of two things: ghosts to banish and the soul-juice necessary to revive Antea. There’s plenty of moralizing throughout the story and it’s clear the writers believe reviving your partner at the expense of everyone you meet is evil. And it is an evil thing, but the relationship between Red and Antea is so well-written, I could be tempted.

There are a few games on this list that feature romance in one way or another, but Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden starts with a couple living with years of history together. They have little quirks and phrases, subtle gestures, and still hidden secrets. For the relationship between these two alone, Banishers deserves to be on this list, but the simple combat, unique setting, and moral quandaries are well done as well. Banishers isn’t the cinematic AAA blockbuster you’re seeing at Insomniac or Naughty Dog, but Don't Nod is stretching an indie studio at the seams to make something convincingly on-par. I think they got pretty damn close.

9: Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

While there are few Souls-likes coming out these days that can hit the highs of an authentic FromSoft game, there has been a huge uptick in the amount of indie studios trying their hands at it.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is certainly not the most popular of the Souls-likes to come out this year, but I’d argue it was one of the most interesting. Instead of the deliberate plodding of a sword and board fantasy slog, Flintlock is propulsive and quick. You’ll find yourself double jumping across the landscape or double-dashing out of a boss’ attack. There’s platforming challenges, intriguing side quests, and oh right, you have a gun.

Perhaps the most compelling part for me—and the reason I fell in love with Flintlock—is its immaculate world design. Flintlock is, as the name would suggest, a flintlock-fantasy story, taking place in a fantasy world with technology in-line with our 19th century. Gunpowder is the weapon of the day, supplanting magic for the most part. When the very literal door to the realm of the dead opens, you must fight to put the old, forgotten gods back in the ground. The places you visit are gorgeous, the history of this world is deep and engrossing, and my god is the game stylish.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a fantastic experience that proves big shiny video games can leave more blank spaces in their world design and still have an amazing setting. I was constantly impressed by Flintlock and highly endorse it, whether it’s your first Souls-like or thirtieth.

8: Helldivers 2

Every few months, our Wednesday night gaming group hunts for the latest multiplayer game we can play while shooting the shit. There’s a complex calculus to hitting all of our particular tastes: some of us want simple cooperative mechanics that aren’t too complex that we need to spend excessive amount of time getting up to speed or learning the meta game. One particular member of the squad will go deep (perhaps too deep) to learn the ins and outs, dive into the math of how a bullet impact is calculated and manage to make it to semi-pro status in a matter of weeks.

Our requirements are difficult to achieve, but Helldivers 2 is, without a doubt, the best Wednesday night game we’ve ever played. Eminently replayable, full of nail biting engagements, and moments of intense teamwork all build to some of the best fist-pumpin’, “fuck yeah!” screamin’, freedom-preserving mayhem we’ve had in a long time.

Helldivers 2 is good enough that meta changes or weapon debuffs don’t ruin the fun and, only playing casually once a week, the skill curve is manageable enough that we’re finishing missions on the highest difficulty. Helldivers is a damn fine game to drink a beer and blast a bunch of bugs with a shotgun that shoots fire. Honestly, the brass soundtrack when you're loading into a mission is good enough to be at least number ten on this list.

7: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

I am Warhammer curious at best, but I can’t say I’m terribly surprised that Space Marine 2 landed on my top 10 list this year.

It’s truly not fair how good this game is. Sure, it’s very Gears of War: there’s no end to the sprinting towards a gross dinosaur to saw it in half with a chain sword, or hitting that quick-time execution. But here’s the thing: the chain sword rips.

Space Marine 2 is a head-empty rip-and-tear romp through the greatest hits of Warhammer 40k locations: the jungle, Adeptus Mechanicus facilities, and yes, a chaos-ridden tomb world. If those words don’t make any sense to you, don’t worry, it’s mostly just immaculately detailed set dressing to shower in gore. But oh is it beautifully rendered.

Over the course of the campaign, your meathead Titus will kill thousands of Tyranids and maybe learn a little something about brotherhood. The mission design is nothing special, more akin to the best Xbox 360 third person shooter you’ve played (and it is the best one of those I’ve ever played), but the real standout here is the moment-to-moment and the spectacle.

There’s a sequence in the first level where, after discovering your entire squad has died, Titus loads a virus bomb into an orbital cannon and has to protect it. You stand there after hitting the button and watch the hills in front of you come alive with hundreds of Tyranids pouring out of the trees. You do what you always do, blast into the skybox because it feels like the right thing to do. But this time, you get hit markers. You unload into that neverending hoard until your gun runs dry and then, once they’re on top of you, you rev that chain sword and get to work. It’s a rip-roaring time every time.

6: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

When I heard that the new Indiana Jones game from Machine Games was more of an immersive sim than an Uncharted game or first person shooter, my ears perked up. It’s hard to overstate how surprising it is that this game is as good as it is (and it’s very good).

You’ll do all of the things you expect Dr. Jones to get up to: fist-fight fascists, platform ancient ruins with a whip, and solv ancient puzzles with equal parts clever know-how and American just-punch-it ‘tude. What surprised me though, is that it’s so much deeper than that: you swap disguises to access new areas, discover secret pathways to sneak around restricted areas, and use a magnifying glass to inspect photos you’ve taken. It’s basically Dishonored 1937.

It shamelessly uses the license and the game is better for it, whether it’s cinematography ripped from the films or pieces of the iconic John Williams score. You really feel like you’re in (one of the good) Indiana Jones movies and none of the stealth, combat, or puzzle solving bogs the game down. Even though the runtime is longer than all the Indy movies combined, the game is paced well, filling in all the bits you assume are left on the cutting room floor.

The heartbreaking irony of Xbox putting out one of the best, most approachable immersive sims I’ve played in a long time the same year they shut down Arkane Austin, makers of Prey (2017), is not lost on me. It’s an ever-present reminder that a niche genre will always struggle in a blockbuster-seeking major studio system. While I can’t fight capitalism, I can find some solace by putting a sledgehammer through a fascist’s head.

If you enjoy Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as much as I do, do my favor and go play Prey (2017), the Dishonored games, or even System Shock. I hope the success of Indy will introduce a lot of new people to immersive sims and the fun you can find in reading letters, piecing together puzzles, and clobbering goons with wrenches.

5: Dragon Age: The Veilguard

My first real RPG love was Mass Effect. Sure, I played a few here and there before, but I still distinctly remember reading an Official Xbox Magazine preview of the original Mass Effect and being in love with what I saw. Imagine my surprise when I found out the same team behind my other favorite RPG, KOTOR 1, was making their own space opera.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard has occupied a similar position of hope and anticipation that the first Mass Effect game did those many years ago. A lot has happened to the landscape of games and BioWare itself, so if I’m being honest the bar for The Veilguard was pretty low. I just wanted it to be good, everything else would be a bonus.

The Veilguard is up there with Mass Effect 2 for me. Sure, it cribs a lot from Mass Effect 2, but in a real chocolate and peanut butter way. Why mess with what works? The characters are great, the companion quests are pretty good, the combat is snappy and simple, and the story is fantastic (whether you're a lore head or not). It even sticks the landing, something BioWare has a bit of a reputation for not being good at.

I loved coming back to the world of Dragon Age and meeting new people, discovering new factions, and basking in an optimistic story of plucky people banding together to fight a big evil. Some will complain about the writing, but it worked for me for over 100 hours. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a roller coaster ride at my favorite medieval theme park and, by god, it’s good.

4: Botany Manor

When I reviewed Botany Manor earlier this year, I said it was one of the best games I’ve played this year. I’m happy to say, nearly nine months later, it still is.

I love puzzles games (more on that later), but what struck me about Botany Manor was the very real, grounded message of the game. Compared to other standouts of the environmental puzzle genre (The Witness, Talos Principle, etc.), Botany Manor isn't an exploration of philosophy or seeking transcendence. Instead, it’s a heartwarming and empowering tale of defiance against the Victorian norms of womanly work and a male-led scientific community that thinks they know it all.

Botany Manor manages to pack a story about a strong woman trying to break into the male-only scientific community, a commentary on industrialization, and some rock solid puzzles all in about four hours of playtime. The puzzles are wonderful, the story is well-crafted, and the message is clear. Botany Manor is one of the best games I’ve played all year.

3: 1000xResist

Every time a From Software game comes out, there’s this refrain to jump in immediately and flock to Discord chats or Reddit threads to join the internet hive-mind plundering dark corners of castles and theory-crafting. 1000xResist is that game for me.

Games that invite artistic, historic, and cultural analysis like it’s a grad-level discussion session are exceedingly rare these days. For those games to hit it as big as 1000xResist has and for a community to rise up and spend months analyzing the text has been one of the most exciting things I’ve seen all year.

1000xResist is a lot of things. It’s a tale about the Hong Kong protests (and subsequent diaspora), it’s about COVID-19, isolation, and it’s about trauma born from all of it. More than anything though, 1000xResist is a story about ending the cycle. It’s about resistance and violence, and, oddly, about pigeons.

I won’t attempt to explain the story to you, much like the language used in the game it’s gibberish until you experience it. Instead, I’ll simply say this: you should go out and play 1000xResist. You will cry, you will rage, and you will be amazed at the twists and turns. Then, like the rest of the internet, you will fly to your favorite Discord group, pull up a chat with a friend, or talk in person with someone, trying to unravel what you saw, find meaning in the in-between, and seek connection. Red to blue. Six to one. Hair to hair.

2: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

For a person who has been playing games nearly my entire life, I have very few developers I keep track of, let alone will pick up, sight-unseen, anything they put out. Simogo is one of those developers. I’ve loved almost all of their games (and they have quite a few), most recently Sayonara Wild Hearts, a poppy narrative rhythm game that is on-par with Tetris Effect: Connected’s psychedelia.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is nothing like Sayonara Wild Hearts, nor like Device 9 or Year Walk. Instead, Lorelei is a puzzle game more in-line with a point and click adventure game. You’ll navigate a mostly black and white hotel, find esoteric clues, then solve Resident Evil-style non sequitur puzzles that only make sense within the confines of a video game.

Spending a few weeks, an hour or two at a time, solving little logic puzzles with my wife is time I will always cherish, but working together to unravel what is happening in this hotel together brings Lorelei to the next level. The puzzles are fun and well-paced, the environments are wild and constantly shift, and the pacing is immaculate. We so rarely were stumped in a 15-hour game where all you do is puzzles, not because we’re genius, but because the people who made the game are.

What truly stands out to me about Lorelei is the story. Dreamy and fleeting, hidden within this puzzle box is a deep and affecting story about art, performance, failure, and existence. Like 1000xResist, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is packed with symbolism and leading questions, begging you to question your media and your role experiencing it. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes gives me that giddy feeling I had in Sophomore English class, discovering symbolism in a text that's been read to death. Top to bottom, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a masterful experience I can’t wait to forget all about and jump back into again.

1: INDIKA

Over the past month, each of my top three games were in the coveted number one spot. However, when I finally sat down to write this list, I realized that, of all of them, INDIKA has consumed my thoughts more than any game I played this year.

Perhaps it’s a sign of the times or my own proclivity toward dark narratives, but INDIKA’s story of a nun discovering the truth of her faith and grappling with a world that seems surreal to her hit me hard this fall. INDIKA is not a fun game to play and, at times, it's downright devastating. But it sure is one of the most unique things I’ve ever played.

It’s hard to explain what INDIKA really is: part third person puzzle game, part walking simulator, part pixel art platformer, and so many other things. There’s even a Pacman level. Somehow, it all manages to work together to tell a cohesive story about a nun grappling with the quite literal(?) Devil on her shoulder.

INDIKA is consistently unnerving, depressing, and surprising from beginning to end. The team nails the ending too, doing one of my favorite tropes: letting you keep playing the game until you really get it. INDIKA is rich with beautifully haunting visuals and deep, ponderous explorations of faith. I will be thinking about moments in this game for years to come, so it was only right to say INDIKA is my favorite game of the year.