Top Games of 2020

2020 has been a hell of a year. You would think being locked in, unable to go to bars, hockey games,

and on trips, would give me infinite time to play video games, but ultimately apathy took hold. I played some long games, but not a lot of games. 

I tended to favor games with a lot of repetition this year. Instead of wanting snap judgements and strategy, I would  slide into a meditative trance, let the world fade into the background, while I grinded like it was 1998. 

As always, these aren't necessarily games that came out in 2020, but games I played in 2020. 

10. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019) - Switch

All I knew about Fire Emblem going into this game was there were too many Fire Emblem characters in Smash Brothers and there was a vaguely Medieval storyline. 

What I found was an amazingly in depth, multi-branching, tactics game. 

If I had to change anything, it would be to shrink the game about 30%. It definitely pads out and overstays it's welcome by about 8 hours. 

I would also have a more dynamic combat scaling system. I was overpowered about 25% of the way into the game and the combat never really caught back up with me. 

If you look at my list, you'll find another anime game involving personal relationships in high-school. Apparently I'm at least a little bit of a creep. 

9. Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) - PS4

There were a lot of things that FFVII Remake didn't quite land, but one of the things they really did was the feel of your memory of Final Fantasy VII.

The music. I knew it was an important part of capturing that nostalgia from my childhood, but hearing the Main Theme swell or Barret sing the Battle End queue pulled the smile to my face. 

Then the way they played with color in various areas to remind you of how you felt seeing the desert or Midgar the first time.

Square did an incredible job of expanding out some of the side Avalanche members. Before Wedge and Biggs were just pixelated characters with a few lines. The Remake actually teases out personalities. You believe this rag tag group could pull off the things they do. 

The downside of FFVII remake is a lot of design decisions that tend to fall back into classic JRPG tropes. Grinding and frustrating boss battles with one hit kills stamped the momentum completely out. 

8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) - PS4

I like battle royale games, I just don't typically have time to get good at them. But COD has mostly remained unchanged over the past 15 years, which means I've practiced a ton. It's a battle Royale game where I feel like I have a chance. 

They tried to do what Apex Legends did and put a little bit of every sort of battlezone on one map. There's a sprawling city with tall towers, a snow capped mountain, a forest, a castle-like prison, and even a damn. I honestly wish the mapped was honed in a little and didn't feel like a gimmick. At least Apex Legends is sold as a sort of gameshow. Call of Duty still tries to be a super serious military shooter.

The single player campaign was actually really solid. It only lasted about 6 hours, but put you through a really diverse set of missions and objectives. Hell, they did a stealth level that would be up there with any Metal Gear Solid. 

7. Paper Mario: The Origami King  (2020) - Switch

Yeah, I know, the Mushroom Kingdom is once again under attack. (I'm not normally for investing in the

military, but Princess Peach should definitely invest in some sort of security or at least give a bunch of tax payer money to Raytheon for knife missiles or something)

Even though there's an insurrection every other week, Paper Mario keeps the "world ending" event really light. And really, if I wanted nothing else this year, it's been light. 

The Origami King isn't as funny as some of the Paper Mario predecessors, but it has the charm that you come to expect from Paper Mario. I think there was maybe a little bit too much of a correction from the Wii-U card based system, so Nintendo played the battle system a little more safe. (I actually liked the card based system). Instead of cards, you had these wheel spinning puzzles where you have to try and line up enemies in a way to get combos.

I'm still playing this game, so likely you'll see if end up on the 2021 list as well, but that's OK. It's a bright, colorful, light, game with just enough challenge to keep it interesting. 

6. Control (2019) - PS4

My only regret with Control is that I didn't play it on the PC. I could see things trying to happen under

the hood and my poor PS4 was pushed to it's absolute limit. 

Control is one of the most original game stories in years. 

You never quite know if this is a world ending event or just a world changing event. The paranormal seems both nefarious and purposeful at the same time. Control takes the X-Files monster of the week episodes and strings them together in an intriguing and sometimes funny take on a Men in Black sort of government entity. 

Every gun, paranormal ability, and section of the government building feels different enough to where you feel you could string an endless amount of combos together. 

One of the most visually stunning things I've seen in video games is when you walk into this central courtyard area and a bunch of employees are floating lifeless dozens of feet above the room. 

5. Secret of Mana (2019) - Switch

This damn game came out in 1993. I grabbed it because I had some gift cards to spend and thought, "Yeah, I wouldn't mind checking out a remaster of a game I liked as a kid." 

I didn't expect for the addiction to take hold. I found myself just smiling at the screen. Naming my characters the same names I used as a kid (mostly old grade school crushes and friends I haven't talked to in decades) and just enjoying the adventure. 

I missed most of the SNES RPGs when they originally came out, but there's something so timeless about the art direction and music.

4. Resident Evil 3 (2020) - PS4

Capcom was able to rework just about every aspect of Resident Evil 3. Replaced were the Umbrella

Pharmacy, most of the City Hall, and the newspaper. (And I have to say, I did miss all those locations a bit. I wanted to see them remastered. )

But the new locations Capcom added made Resident Evil 3 feel like a real game, something the original RE3 sometimes lacked. The Umbrella ran orphanage contained some of the most unsettling Resident Evil. The labs were redone and instead of feeling like a smaller satellite lab, this felt like a lab some evil corporation would run. 

Capcom addressed several problematic issues with the original. They address the incredible amount of PTSD Jill would've been working through, having seen the horrors from the mansion incident. They also gave her more tactical gear to run around the city in. (And by more tactical, I mean, not a mini-skirt.)

3. GTFO (2019) - PC

You like dying a lot? After 45 minutes of progression? And for your own terrible and dumb in the

moment mistakes? Welcome to the GTFO, a game designed to make you feel stupid. 

GTFO takes place on some sort of space prison heavily influenced by Aliens and Alien 3. 

I've been slowly making my way through each mission with a rag tag group. We each have a role, basically defined by our ability to type DOS like commands and what side weapon we came in with. We slowly move through each room, get the lay of the land, plan synchronized melee attacks. As you can guess, this is a slow moving game rather than a run and gun. It usually takes you about 30-45 minutes to discover you screwed yourself. We beat a mission about one in every 15 runs. 

Each run is randomized, and sometimes the randomization gods look kindly on you and you find easy enemies and plenty of ammo. Other times, the randomization gods give you a long range flashlight and a half dozen scouts. 

2. Sniper Elite 4 (2017)- PS4

I don't typically love sandbox games. I sort of get bored of them quickly. I need some sort of narrative

element pushing me forward. 

Metal Gear Solid 5 was the first time I realized that maybe the sandboxes I'd played in before just weren't interesting. Sniper Elite 4 shares a lot of things with Metal Gear Solid 5. 

There's story... technically... but that story is pretty bare boned. I tend to skip most the cut scenes.

The sandbox is what is fun to play in. They give you dozens of tools, weapons, and branching paths to complete each objective, but it's basically a game about outsmarting the AI and trying to lure guys away and pick them off. 

Where Sniper Elite really shines is the co-op. Every main mission can be played with a partner. There's a horde mode that's co-op. And there's an overwatch mode where one person plays sniper while the other navigates a base. 

1. Persona 5 Royale (2020) - PS5

I know, I've gushed about this game non-stop, but there is something magical about the Persona world

that makes you want to be in it. And the way the story unfolds, you feel like a part of it. 

You care about most of the characters. You actually fall for some of them and want to date them (in the game of course, I'm not that much of a creep) and protect them. 

You want to take down the avatars of the worst kind of people that live in this world with us. 

I went to Japan a few years ago and was blown away by how accurately the Atlus team recreated sections of Tokyo. I was able to follow the train lines that I knew. I recognized the parodies of some of the buildings. 

The stylllleeee... man the style. I wish I was half as cool as the art and music direction of these games. 

Persona 5 Royale adds another 25% to the original game. Which means at this point, I've put in roughly 230 hours into just the P5 world, only beaten by Skyrim in total time played.