GOTY 2024
If you’re going by the nominees for this year’s Game Awards alone, you might come away with the sense that this was a dire one for video games. About halfway through the year, I kinda felt like that was the case. Fortunately, The rest of the year proved me wrong. While the AAA gaming space remains turbulent, there are plenty of gems worth your time and money further off the beaten track.
I have never been so bitter about some of the games I’ve had to cut from my annual list (shout-out to Mahjong). As for what did make the cut, let’s start at the top.
10 — Solium Infernum
Narrowly beating out the (excellent) mobile port of the Dune: Imperium board game, Solium Infernum is easily the best turn-based strategy game I’ve played in years. The diplomacy system in particular is a work of infernal genius and the artifact and combat setup allows for a staggering amount of strategic depth and replayability.
I would sell my soul for a good mobile port of this game. Given the current status of its developer, I’m not expecting the devil to come knocking anytime soon though. Even so, Solium Infernum is damn good stuff.
9 — Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
I couldn’t have picked a better year to get back into Warhammer with Fat Shark’s revamped co-op shooter Darktide providing a fantastic avenue to engage with and immerse myself in Games Workshop’s gothic science fiction world. Right up there with Helldivers 2, Darktide has ended up being one of the go-to multiplayer games among me and my friends across the year.
However, there’s a very good reason that it’s on this list and Helldivers isn’t. Where the latter is a fun time with friends, the former is a fucking blast from top to bottom. The levels are lavish, the gunplay is gratuitous and cinematic, there’s a solid amount of diversity across the game’s four playable classes and just enough room to customise and grow your character the more time you sink into them.
As someone who bounced right off Vermintide, I was pleasantly surprised by how much staying power this game has. I’ve played a lot of Left 4 Dead-likes over the years but Darktide is the closest any game has ever gotten to matching the highs of Valve’s iconic co-op shooter for me.
8 — Fallout 76
Like Darktide, Fallout 76 was a game that I struggled to find much in back when it launched. I’ve tried to give it a second chance over the years but never found much traction. This time around, buoyed by fresh enthusiasm from watching Amazon’s Fallout TV series, the series’ Appalachian adventure finally managed to get its hooks into me.
Where the post-apocalyptic MMORPG once felt like a glorified mod, those anachronistic qualities are surprisingly endearing in 2024. In the absence of a new Fallout, one that feels familiar in the specific ways this one does — let alone one that has this much content in it — is a more than a worthy substitute. Honestly, after devouring everything it has to offer, I wouldn’t be shocked if Fallout 76 ended with a reputation as one the better post-Interplay Fallout games in the long run.
7 — Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred
Continuing the trend of games getting better over time through seasonal content updates and significant reworks, let’s talk about Diablo 4. I liked the game at launch, but I had of reservations about some of the big design choices that the development team behind it made. It’s been fascinating to see Blizzard revisit a lot of those tensions over the past year and put a capstone on those under (and over) the hood tweaks with the surprisingly-accomplished Vessel of Hatred.
I’m ready (and eager) to see where the game will go next, but Diablo 4 finally feels like a game that rises to meet its legacy while still remaining true to its own spin on things.
6 — Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Look. I promise this is the last one. It’s just that I did not love Elden Ring at launch. As far as From Software Souls games go, I’d have put it in second-last place. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to like in it. But it felt like such a big empty world with nothing interesting in it. It had too many repeat boss fights and not enough of the charmingly devious design choices that make Bloodborne, Sekiro and the first Dark Souls so memorable.
Shadow of the Erdtree goes in one smaller spaces and is all the better for it. The final boss aside, I enjoyed this expansion so much that I ended up going through it (and the entirety of the base game) a second time over. I wouldn’t say that Shadow of the Erdtree gets Elden Ring close to stealing the number one spot, but it’s a lot closer than it was before.
5 — Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Sayonara Wildhearts was one of the favorite games of 2019 but I never could have imagined a follow-up like this. Lorelei and Laser Eyes is fascinating blend of puzzle-driven adventure game and eerie survival horror. It’s oozing with style and destined for instant cult classic status.
I don’t want to give too much away but safe to say that Simogo has two incredible games under its belt and I’m willing to follow them wherever they go and whatever they do next.
4 — Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
As someone who has eagerly picked up an then tapped out of both of Owlcat’s Pathfinder games, the idea that they would be adapting the Warhammer 40,000 TTRPG-spin off Rogue Trader felt like a poisoned chalice. Fortunately, it turns out that I just don’t like Pathfinder?
Rogue Trader is one of the best CRPGs I’ve ever played. It’s got some pacing issues (plus plenty of the usual jank) but it makes maximum use of its source material and the turn-based combat is as delicious as these things come. The moment you encounter your first Space Marine in combat and realise how utterly fucked your squad of guns for hire is up there as one of my favorite gaming moments of the year.
3 — Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Where my excitement for Rogue Trader was tempered by my past experiences with the developer involved, no such reservations existed when it came to my hype for Space Marine 2. As an avid enjoyer of the original Space Marine, this felt like the rare sequel that both doesn’t miss a beat and proves itself worth the wait. It genuinely feels like a miracle that this game happened, let alone that it is as much of a blast to play as it is.
I haven’t yet managed to pull my friends away from Darktide as our go-to Warhammer multiplayer game, it’s nice to know that Space Marine 2 is there if we need it.
2 — Lethal Company
Even after months and months of play, the clever use of proximity chat, goofy physics and insidious enemies in Lethal Company continues to deliver extremely memorable gaming misadventures. At times, it feels almost akin to the slapstick nihilism of roleplaying games like Paranoia. Every time I boot up the game, end up experiencing something entirely organic and unexpected. I have died in more dumb ways than I can count and it has never been not hilarious.
I have no interest in mastering everything that Lethal Company has to offer but even in a world where I did the generous mod support would keep things interesting. Mods like More Company mean that we can always scale the game to however many people want to play and that’s to say nothing of the other many add-on that add fresh monsters and items to the game.
Lethal Company might not be to everyone’s flavor but this silly and social take on survival horror might just be one of my favorite multiplayer games of all time.
1 — Balatro
How could the number one game on this list not be the one that is all about numbers going up? LocalThunk’s roguelike take on Poker is as obsessive as it is digestable. Effortless to learn and impossible to master, it’s a winning hand played to perfection.
Balatro runs on pretty much anything, will take over your life and offers up one of the cleanest and most low-friction ‘number go up’ experiences I’ve come across. The music and animations are every bit as delicious as the gameplay and the charmingly low stakes story behind the development of the game also earns it a lot of points in my book.
Balatro is the best game I played in 2024.
Honorable Mentions: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Remnant 2, Mahjong, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, World of Warcraft: The War Within, Dune Imperium, 1000x Resist, Warhammer 40,000
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