2023
Games I finished in 2023, vaguely best to worst.
87 Games
I finally found my 10/10 for this year. I was not expecting this to be this good. The first two games were good but not that good, and for some reason Insomniac listened to like every single criticism and acted on it. It didn't have any deep message like most of my 10/10s but it was just so fun and engaging that I cant not.
1
Invested. Still have some of the same complaints from the first game like repeated enemies and not caring too much for the side content, but other than that it was an improvement over the 2018 game in a lot of ways. I was so invested in what was gonna happen next.
2
Can't believe they shadow dropped this gem. I'm spending all my life savings on future 808 merch.
3
I love this, I love it so much, I'm also scared of it.
4
Oh boy oh boy was this a captivating journey, the only thing stopping you being your limitations on what you have learnt. I went into this hoping it may be one of my few 10/10s but it just didn't hit the notes I wanted it to in the final 5 hours. The moon made me feel like a genius and was probably the highlight for me along with the initial discovery phase of each planet. But there were a few puzzles that I just couldn't get (sand) and the ending didn't feel as impactful as I felt it could have been for me. Even with my criticisms, I still feel like this is a must play.
UPDATE:
A bit of time has passed and I think I've changed my mind. I don't think the ending initially hit me when I first played it as I may have been setting my expectations too high and wanting to finish what I knew was something meaningful. And the reason I may have been getting frustrated with a few of the puzzles was because I was inpatient. But i just cant stop thinking about this game and its message.
That some things are out of my control and some problems seem to big to overcome, but its okay to take things day by day, its okay to appreciate whats here right now instead of basing your worth or happiness from some impossible goal. Some things are out of my control, and that's okay.
UPDATE:
A bit of time has passed and I think I've changed my mind. I don't think the ending initially hit me when I first played it as I may have been setting my expectations too high and wanting to finish what I knew was something meaningful. And the reason I may have been getting frustrated with a few of the puzzles was because I was inpatient. But i just cant stop thinking about this game and its message.
That some things are out of my control and some problems seem to big to overcome, but its okay to take things day by day, its okay to appreciate whats here right now instead of basing your worth or happiness from some impossible goal. Some things are out of my control, and that's okay.
5
Wow this game play is good, there are so many strategic options its insane. Story was meh but i don't care, id sit down to play a couple battles, look up and the entire afternoon has disappeared.
6
Everyone is right... this game is great
7
Deserves a 9/10 purely for the characters alone.
9
Now this is a great cozy game. Movement is really fun and it has easy and satisfying collecting.
10
i was hooked on this. I love it. If I had one criticism I just wish the antagonist wasn't so comically evil, just stands out when everything felt so grounded (for how crazy it was)
11
After not feeling too into this game a year ago, I picked it up again and thought it was an absolute joy. One of the best platformers I've ever played probably.
12
Didn’t lean as far into the whole “Ghost of Tsushima” thing as I would have hoped. It just sort of… happened and ended. Wish there was more impact but maybe it was just me. Great game otherwise. Side content did get pretty repetitive to the point where I didn't care about it.
14
This has style and I'm still listening to the soundtrack
15
Fantastic story and combat, Kratos speaking softly immediately makes me tear up. Wasn't vibing too much with the 'open' world with its puzzle and metroidvania elements.
16
They went all out... except for world tour, that could have used quite a bit more time to polish it up
17
An amazing level based arcade skating game, such a good art style and the gameplay loop is pretty addictive. A lot more trick options than I expected which makes getting extended combos fun. Only con for me would be the difficulty of the final 2 areas, as I'm just personally not a fan of difficult games.
18
Why is this so short! I need more!
19
Good DLC. Bit shorter than I was hoping for.
20
Despite its easy to predict first 4 chapters and its jankyness. I had a lot of fun and the last 2 chapter made up for it. Or maybe im just a Danganronpa simp
21
This goes so hard for a free fan game. Way easier to get into this than Vampire Survivors
22
Won the first couple runs which the game told me was not supposed to happen lol. When the game is finished I really want to come back to it.
23
Thought this would be a good entry point for getting into lore but oh boy
24
This is great, especially some of the workshop content. Easily let me create some amazing fights. wish there was AI so that I could play it competitively single player.
25
The Stanley Parable is such a unique experience, great to be back
26
Wow… I am not smart enough for this.
27
Great combat… need I say more
28
I feel like this game gets overlooked a lot, and is seen as just another slay the spire clone. But there's some magic here. It's so simple to pick up and play and the amount of content on offer here is crazy. Sword Master and Bear Tamer being my favorite.
30
A great mystery game who ending didn't live up to the amazing quality of the rest of the experience
31
I suck at explaining stuff so this was a very fun and intense experience
32
Addicting AF, put 34 hours into this in the first 2 weeks. Great team building opportunities and when I found a build around fortifying defense and building up lightning damage I was almost unstoppable. Cant say I cared much about the world or characters though and for as close to a trpg as this tries to be at times, I would want more connection to my party.
33
Really rough around the edges, but it's just so much fun and there's so much in here. I'm not even a wrestling fan, but I will spend a whole day making wrestlers, movesets and entrances.
34
Archer goes ZOOOOOOOOOOM!
Gorgeous with a good message.
Gorgeous with a good message.
35
Very relaxing and addictive "city builder"? I don't know what to call it but whenever I played a couple games I would lose track of time. Only con for me would be runs feeling too similar (whether due to lack of variety or lack of extrinsic progression)
36
Alternate universe Dorfromantik. Needless to say if you like Dorfromantik you'll like this one. Currently this the easier of the two and while that gave me more zen, it did mean that I 'finished' a run on my first attempt (2.5 hours) and saw basically everything the game has to offer, giving it less replayability. But there is more content coming, more buildings and a challenge mode. When those come out I might even prefer this over Dorf. The fact you can zoom in to see the cats driving tractors is bonus style points.
37
Was really impressed with the graphics, concept and mechanics. I just wish there was much more progression as after 10 hours of play I cant say I really got anything new, so it ended up being a bit repetitive, fun repetitive but still repetitive.
38
Played this for nostalgia's sake and don't regret it. While the story was short and the characters could use a lot more development the game-play makes up for it. I would say I prefer this as an "open world superhero game" over the recent spider-man games purely because the powers and traversal are so fun and engaging
39
Really fun but gonna put down cause I don't want my year to revolve around trying to roll 5 star characters.
40
This is the sort of puzzle game I love
41
Its Picross but anime
42
Solid
43
After waiting 2 years to play this after launch because of the performance issues, I decided id give in and tough through it. I would love to rate this higher, the art style is phenomenal, and the game itself is really good. But the technical issues prevent me from doing so. Stuttering when driving and some locations not loading when approaching them had the potential to ruin the magic of discovery. Twice I saw something on the map just to get there and crash into invisible walls. Running away and coming back fixed this but that would ruin the magic of seeing it in the distance and going over to it. I still enjoyed my time and I did get used to the stuttering but my immersion in the world could evaporate quickly with the state this game is still in after 2 years.
44
Magical but not gripping I guess
46
I enjoyed this game but not as much as the game of the year nominations made me think I would. Atmosphere and visuals were amazing but everything else from game play, story, characters were just... fine I guess. There wasn't anything here that pushed it into an 8 out of 10. That might sound harsh but I guess I just had my expectations a bit too high.
47
Didn't care about the story and was very grindy but fun enough.
48
Got really into this for 2 months until I realized that I was just doing the same thing over and over so gave up on it. Bye bye villagers, I did care about you but not enough to keep going through the gameplay loop.
49
The journey felt a bit... vague? I enjoyed this game, the music and visuals were great, and game play felt good as well, but nothing about what I was doing really stood out
50
Great platformer. a lot of variety, not personally attached to it
51
Banger soundtrack and amazing use of the crafting materials to make absolutely gorgeous levels, but got a bit repetitive around the middle. It really felt like it was designed for co-op and was subtly telling me I'm lonely.
52
Really cool arena shooter. Style is on point. Wish the controls felt more natural
53
Combat was really fun. But everything outside of the runs was pretty boring and had no relevance to Blazblue whatsoever. Potentials were cool but the level up rewards felt like they didn't really have that much impact on the run
54
Solid
55
I suck at this
56
Solid
57
Got more out of this than I was expecting. FPS felt satisfying and I love the toybox aesthetic.
58
Very cute and funny, but you are mainly running around in circles the whole time
59
It wasn't until my friend got a build that can melt any enemies at island 100+ that I realized that this game is pretty fun
60
A very simple and slightly janky plat-former that is saved by its presentation and movement mechanics
61
I'm too dumb to be a princess farmer
62
Fun, but cant say anything distinctly impresses me
63
Little detective visual novel released on April fools for free. Not a sonic fan, but this was fun
64
pretty fun
65
Rough around the edges but solid gameplay
66
Adorable but a bit slow and repetitive
67
While insanely charming, I feel like there wasn't enough depth to really grip me. It also felt really slow and repetitive at times, especially navigating between areas. I feel like I would have fewer complaints if I had more inventory slots, only being able to bring back 4 items after traveling across the whole map was frustrating. Still an alright game and I'm looking forward to trying the sequel after it gets a few more content updates.
68
Eh, the monsters and stages really lack variety. After a short I beat the first boss and couldn't really be bothered to go for anything else.
69
This wasn't anywhere as relaxing as I would have hoped. Ultimately comes down to putting stuff where you would expect and then sometimes being left with a couple items which you cant identify and getting angry trying to find out in which room and where the game expects you to put it in. I cant remain entertained when the game asks me to put the characters clothes away for the 7th time. The smaller details were nice though.
70
I think the racing mechanics are fun, I would love more of that, but its lacking in every other aspect. I have two main problems:
1. Despite promotional material and other reviews saying there are 5 regions, THERE ARE ONLY 3 (in spirit). The first is a tiny area that you barely spend any time in, and the last is only a race track that isn't available in free roam.The three proper areas they give you arent even really that interesting compared to the potential of what Lego can do.
2. The amount of vehicles you get (especially in the first half of the game) is abysmal. If you complete the campaign you'll get enough currency to buy a number of the vehicles that you want from the store, but not enough of them. I wouldn't even say there are a lot of things in the store that I would actually want either, the mini figure variety is very bland for example.
71
Simple and cute, but the later game (finding the last couple insects) was tedious
72
Unpopular opinion here: This game is overhyped. I've got to admit that the visuals and music are insanely good, but I only had fun for about 1/3rd of the game. The first third didn't have enough abilities, it felt restrictive. The middle was great. The end was a test in frustration. A bit of confusion with whats in the foreground, bad combat, strange controls and not seeing enough of the environment really made me paranoid about losing progress at any point. So when I did lose progress I felt more frustration than "Oh, ill have to try this next time"
73
Fun at the start but just wasn't enough variety to keep me entertained
75
I played this in co-op with a friend, I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much solo. As I play more I further realize the limitations of this game, even with the dlc you're constantly getting the same items with different stats making the post game quite boring. I thought the DLC would bring more, or something different, but it is really just more of the same repetitive game.
76
Great presentation and was really fun for the first hour, but didn't really offer much after that. It got a bit stale.
77
Had some catchy songs and some funnies, but I sortof just felt like I wanted it to be over. Some levels got way too difficult too fast and 1 specifically gave me motion sickness because of how it twisted.
78
its golf innit
79
Funny little tech demo, nothing more
80
I had a bit of fun with this game (mostly at the start), but at points... OMG this was one of the most frustrating games I've played. Why did so many of the hit boxes feel janky, is that the point of the game? Unfair difficulty? And why did they think that their idea of getting 100% sounded fun? its insane.
81
had fun characters, art, and an intersteing anti ai element. But it was just really boring. There are many options that dont really result in anything happening and when you dont find it funny or entertaining you end up just sitting there trying to get through the dialouge. There are a couple segments in the game where I was just repeating dialouge, specifically where one character joins you and for some reason you have to interact with something twice to progress. The amount of time I spent looking around for what I needed to do grrr. And that ending, SPOILER AHEAD...
it was all just a dream... or was it dun dun dun. felt so lazy. Im just disappointed, at the time I played this there were no negative reviews. I thought I found a fun hidden gem but I feel like this just had a lot of missed potential.
it was all just a dream... or was it dun dun dun. felt so lazy. Im just disappointed, at the time I played this there were no negative reviews. I thought I found a fun hidden gem but I feel like this just had a lot of missed potential.
82
Looks nice, plays nice, just boring
83
Gets really tedious after the fist half
84
Relaxing and looks great but not too much to it
85
Needs more items or workshop support. There a few little nuisances like the rotation of the some items in saved rooms resetting, or the menus only being scroll-able if you mouse is over an item. but with all that being said it is a satisfying little room builder
86
Wow that was boring, looked good but was 80% jogging around small areas doing level geometry platforming to try to collect random orbs in order to progress. And at the very end (spoilers ahead) when your character finally found what they were looking for, they go "... nah, im gonna stay with my pet green thing that never got any development what so ever"
87