Game Of The Year Editor’s Pick, 2024

This article is part of a directory: TheGamer Game Of The Year Hub - 2024

Game Of The Year Editor's Pick, 2024 - Eric Switzer

TheGamer's Game Of The Year - 2024

There are a lot of games I have loved in 2024. That’s ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚprobably the best way to reme🦩mber it. I don’t think it was a year for the record books (especially not coming down off the high of 2023), and there’s a large drop off between the few I loved and the dozens of others I played, but I will remember 2024 fondly all the same, and that’s enough. That’s always enough.

This is one of the last individual GOTY lists to go live on TheGamer, and you can check out all the ones our other editors havꦰe published so far here. Come back tomorrow for the overall 🦂list, and join us in January for the second edition of our annual awards, TheGamer Aces.

10 🔴 Infinity Nikki 🎃

Infinity Nikki Ena and Nikki sitting in beautiful dressees.

Life in gacha, it’s, uh, fantasta. I wasn’t really sure what I’d make of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Infinity Nikki. I have been waiting for a ‘next gen’ dress up game for a long ไtime, but wasn't sure 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:if the aggressively cosy vibes and slot machine mechanics would👍 put me off. Thankfully, it has a far more adventurous spirit than many games of its ilk, while still keeping the dress-up at its heart. ඣAs the newest game here, I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with it the way I’m probably supposed to, but after a dozen hours in the main story, I’m hooked enough to put it amongst 2024’s best.

9 ♏ Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth ♒

Aerith and Tifa in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth On PS5 Pro

Basic unmentionable that I am, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 is the only 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy I’ve ever truly loved. The experimental style of remaking it n🐼ot as a like for like, or even updating its combat and moving on, b✨ut reimagini🍌ng it metatextually across three experiences is fascinating to me.

Rebirth shows the best and worst of that approach. The expansive interpretation of FF7’s middle chapter offers a lot of depth and exploration in the opening hours, but🤪 as it grows exponentially it can feel less like enrichiꦡng and more like stretching. A great game, but an overly ambitious one that the final chapter will hopefully learn from.

8 ♌ Dragon Age: The Veilguard 💃

Rook at the vault for Pinnacle of its Kind in Dragon Age The Veilguard

I’ve known what number one on this list would be for months, but that knowledge always came with a caveat. “If 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Age is really good, then maybe…”

Languishing in the lower reaches here, that wasn’t the case. Imperfect though it is, I still loved 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Veilguard and its 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect-style combat, its smaller character moments, plus its approach to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:allowing for a transgender Rook. There is 168澳💜洲幸运5开奖网:a bette꧃r version of this game buried inside of it, but the one that we got is good enough to make❀ me smile.

Honourable Mentions

UFO 50
Ete
Tekken 8
Neva

7 🍷 Mouthwashing

Hallucinated corpses of dead crew members in party hats while Curly is laid on the table in Mouthwashing.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mouthwashing is a masterpiece in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:nonlinear storytelling. After the crash, it also becomes their food source. This, plus its surreal imagery and eerie plot twists reminds me of the dread generated by last year’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Slay the Princess. It’s frightening in traditional ways, with j🌳ump scares and loud or unsettling music, sure. The name derives from the cargo the ship is transporting, rꦚisking their lives for a cheap, mass-produced product.

Set in both the lead up to and aftermath of a spaceship crash, you play as two captains either side of the disaster. But the true power of Mouthwashi♎ng is in the psychological. One of the creepiest and cleverest games of the year, it deserves to be celebrated as a cult hit for years to come. It also functions as a satire of corporate life, in a similar vein to the Alien series, or if you inexplicably prefer, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Journey to a Savage Planet.

6 ജ Thank Goodness You’re Here🐟

Lemonhead standing next to oily baps in Thank Goodness You're Here

Ey up duckie, and so forth. Comedy is hard to get right consistently in video games, so for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Thank Goodness You’re Here to provide raucous laughter throughout is a statement of its genius.🧔 Its ♚regional silly humour may stop it from being entirely universal, but Britain has been bringing daft laffs to the world for decades. Who doesn’t love big pies, anyway? It might not be for everyone, but if it’s for you, it’s a gaming experience like no other.

5 Astro Bot

Astro Bot entering a casino with neon lights and slot machines.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Astro Bot is a magnificent platformer. People call it the best of its genre since 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Odyssey, and I 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:only disag🗹ree because I’d argue it’🍃s even better. The platonic ideal of what platform gaming can be, it’s so inventive in its level design and bold in its 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:willingness to throw out concepts before they grow stale.

It has a clean cut simplicity that made 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:awardin⛎g🌜 it 5/5 at review a relatively easy task, but that simplicity also 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:⭕holds♎ it back slightly in a ranking like this. A fantastic, joyful,♒ energising game - but perhaps not 🅷too much of an important one.

4 𓆏 Me🐼taphor: ReFantazio

On a gameplay level alone, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metaphor: ReFantazio is very good. It builds on the near-perfect Atlus turn-based formula and injects variety by incorporating action combat, while allowing for much greater customisation than the personas of Atlus’ previous high point, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona 5.

But it’s the narrative that elevates Metaphor. Not just that the story has greater substance, and the characters more personality with fewer tropes than is typical for the studio (both true), but in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:what it represents for 2024. In a year of p﷽olitical upheaval and endless election cycles, Metaphor is the most relevant game of the year.

3 Balatro

a selection of balatro's joker cards. — via LocalThunk

I made my case for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Why Balatro Should Win GOTY a few weeks ago (my top two weren’t nominated at The Game Awards), so here’s the gist. Balatro is a game of pure mechanical excellence that shows the variety of creativity within our industry, represents a side of gaming’s future we should embrace, and it’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a card game that’s🦩 somehow not a caไrd game.

2 🐬 1ꦿ000xResist

Iris standing over the five sisters and Watcher in 1000xResist

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:1000xResist is a near indescribable game, which makes this task of describing it in a short paragraph pretty difficulꦺt. A narrative adventure game, on the surface it tells the tale of a dystopian society in the future who live in a small, pristine commune underground and are identified only by simple descriptions (Watcher, Fꦓixer) and colours.

However, as a rebellion begins, we see how this dystopia echoes through our own - literally and thematically. The god of this world is a young girl from our era, whose life is ripped apart by a pandemic. It’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a heart shattering story of friendship, religion, i𒉰dentity, purpose, humanity, and betrayal, and must be seen to be believed.