The Years Keep Coming and They Don’t Stop Coming…
2023 was as rough a year as ever for the world with conflicts and catastrophes being stirred up or reignited. Artificial Intelligence decided to start taking the creative jobs instead of the dirty and dangerous ones, with the wealth generated naturally going upwards rather than down. Fortunately, it was a real bumper year for gaming, helping us to salve our wounded souls. Join the Hey Poor Player team to count down our top 25 best games of the year and see which title has clambered over the competition to claim our prestigious Crystal Joystick Award and become our game of the year.
Also, if you want to check out our podcast where the team run down the list and discuss/debate the various entries, check it out here.
25. Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles
I’ve played oh so many deckbuilders at this point, so it takes a lot to catch my attention. But that’s exactly what Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles managed to do. For one thing, it replaces cards with six-sided dice that represent your abilities. For another, it takes place in a far-flung galaxy full of the last remaining Oracles standing between the universe and utter corruption.
Taking things further, Astrea also features a system where every choice you make matters, and often you’ll have to take big risks to have a chance at success. It’s an incredibly challenging game but presented in a balanced and rewarding package.
Throw in some gorgeous, colorful graphics, eerie and compelling music and a plot that will keep players guessing, and you have an absolutely amazing example of the deckbuilder genre.
- Josh Speer
24. Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story
Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story was an unexpected gem for me. As someone who’s spent years immersed in the Dota universe, I was both curious and a bit wary about venturing into League of Legends’ narrative domain. But, surprisingly, Song of Nunu drew me in with a compelling story that shifted my initial scepticism to genuine admiration for its vividly imagined world.
The magic of Song of Nunu llies in how it tells its story. Journeying alongside Nunu and Willump through the enchanting Freljord, I found myself captivated not just by the challenges they faced, but by the richness of their relationship. It was the little moments – playful snowball fights, heartwarming fireside chats, and their collective resilience in the face of adversity – that truly made the fantasy world come alive for me. These experiences, more than any quest, created a bond that felt incredibly real, making the fantastical realm of The Freljord feel surprisingly close to home.
The game’s mechanics of puzzles, platforming, and combat are finely tuned to serve the story, each piece fitting neatly into the larger narrative. While the gameplay elements might not break new ground, their integration is where Song of Nunu shines. From Nunu’s whimsical abilities to Willump’s might, every aspect of gameplay felt intentional, enhancing the storytelling rather than overshadowing it. Even as a newcomer to the League universe, the game’s respectful nods to its MOBA roots and clever use of character abilities in storytelling made every moment in the game feel special and cohesive.
Even now, months after I played Song of Nunu, the game’s charm hasn’t faded for me. Its story resonates deeply, leaving a warm, enduring impression that ignited in me a genuine excitement for the future of this universe. It’s one of those rare games that’s perfect for a deep dive over a weekend or for a few hours at a time. More than just a passing adventure, it’s an immersive journey that welcomed me, a Dota loyalist, into its universe with open arms.
- Connor Starkman
23. Amnesia: The Bunker
The Amnesia series has been terrifying gamers since 2010, taking us through various time periods and locales, but The Bunker takes us to perhaps the grimmest setting yet: the nightmarish world of World War I trench warfare. The protagonist, a Fench soldier named Henri Clement, risks his life to save one of his wounded comrades from No Man’s Land, but is knocked unconscious by an explosion. When he awakes, he finds himself seemingly alone in his unit’s underground bunker, wracked by gaps in his memory. He discovers that he’s far from alone, and that amongst the corpses of his former comrades, there is a creature stalking the halls more terrible than even the worst horrors of the war above.
Amnesia: The Bunker is a departure from its predecessor in that it returns to the fundamentals of old-school survival horror where resource management is critical and death can cause you to lose a punishing amount of progress. The creature feels omnipresent, constantly lurking in the darkness, shifting around the tunnels you make a loud noise when trying to break a lock or stumbling into an explosive tripwire it will emerge. Likewise, when the Bunker’s generator runs out of fuel and the light go out, it will come out to patrol around meaning a terrifying trip back to the saferoom in the darkness.
There were a few terrifying occasions where I would be desperately scrambling back to the saferoom, hearing groans and the increasingly loud padding of inhuman footsteps behind me, making it back just in time to slam the door shut behind me and lock it. It was an indescribable relief to light the lamp and save my game. It’s all the more scary because you can potentially lose half an hour’s worth of progress if you get caught by the beast when venturing deep into the Bunker’s depths.
There’s very little hand-holding in Amnesia: The Bunker, and survival is a hard-won process of learning, experimenting and adapting to the environment. There’s so many different items you can craft and problems can be solved in so many different ways. Fortunately, the puzzles and solutions to various problems strike just the right balance of being intuitive without being overly obvious. At the start, I was stumbling around in the darkness, frightened of every noise, but by the end of the game, I was able to think rationally in stressful situations, memorizing the environment and learning the ways of the creature; a bit like Arnie at the end of Predator. This is a real mark of skilful design, where the real levelling up is in the mind of the player.
Amnesia: The Bunker is purist survival horror at its best with a thoughtful take on the genre and mind-shredding scares. Even the most hardened gamer will feel their pulse racing as they are stalked through the underground hell, feeling a desperation to see daylight. The challenge is not just mastering your environment but mastering your own fear of the evils that lurk in the darkness.
- Jonathan Trussler
22. Diablo IV
I’ll be honest, Diablo IV making it onto my game of the year list is a little surprising even to myself. Between the rocky launch that was lacking severely in endgame pursuits beyond repetitive Nightmare Dungeon farming, the unreasonable grind to hit the level cap of 100, and a first season that came with numerous, and arguably unreasonable nerfs to some of the game’s best builds, Diablo IV’s future looked uncertain.
Looking back now, though, it almost looks as though these issues were a blessing in disguise, as they forced Blizzard to take a hard look inward and really think about what they want Diablo IV to be, and the results of that have been the frankly fantastic second season that has turned Diablo IV into a title worthy of the series name. New endgame bosses that enable players to target farm the game’s most powerful items, fun seasonal activities that shower the player in loot, and much-improved itemization that now sees loot scale in quality as the player increases in level and difficulty have all turned Diablo IV into an extremely satisfying ARPG experience that has swallowed up 500 hours of my time since launch.
Most important to this turnaround, however, is that Blizzard themselves seem rejuvenated and appear to be having fun. Leaving meta builds untouched in the name of experimentation, and even going so far as to add new items and glyphs that intentionally break the game’s difficulty – Blizzard is tapping into that secret sauce that made previous instalments such a blast, that allows players to manipulate systems and become unstoppable gods. If they can keep going this route, then Diablo IV won’t just be one of my favourite games of 2023, it might just become one of my favourite ARPG’s of all time.
- Shane Boyle
21. Tevi
Bullet hell action and Metroidvania platforming were two things that I never would have expected to go together well but the 2016 release of Rabi Ribi opened my eyes to just how fantastic a marriage of two such genres could be. No game has managed to scratch this itch since then so I was overjoyed to learn that a spiritual successor to this title would release in 2023.
Tevi takes the awesome gameplay elements of Rabi Ribi and improves across almost all of them. The bullet hell boss battles are excellent as usual. Combat received a major improvement in the form of unlockable combos and equippable sigils that provide more options for how you perform them. Both the graphics and the audio received a glowing bump to display what seven years between the two titles can accomplish. If anything, the only major hiccup that I’d levy against this game compared to RR is the fact that CreSpirit decided to add a much more involved narrative this time around. Said narrative isn’t necessarily bad but, due to the way that it was integrated to the game’s flow, it sort of kills the exploration vibes that the previous game offered in favor of a more linear progression through an interlinked world.
With that said though, it is the bullet hell action and platforming that I mostly come to this for and Tevi delivered upon this in spades. It comes highly recommended by me and I truly believe that it deserves its place in our best of 2023 listing!
- Pernell Vaughan
20. Venba
Few games introduce their audience to the values and traditions of a different culture the way Venba does. The story of an Indian family’s assimilation to Canadian life is modest and heartfelt. The sadness of raising a child who leans towards the values of a new setting, rather than the harmonious heritage of his family is quite the depressing one. Thankfully, Venba and her family preserve their fondness of their native cuisine, by allowing us to prepare esoteric dishes like dosas, so that we can appreciate the importance of keeping and passing down traditions to new generations. Venba is a sublime indie offering that is every bit as memorable as it is short.
- James Davie
19. Talos Principle 2
It’s not often enough that a 3D puzzle platformer comes along, but when Croteam shifted from their wild and rowdy Serious Sam to the philosophical puzzler The Talos Principle, it made quite a name for itself. Its philosophical ponderings are still as prevalent as ever, mixing very well with the formula of a 3D puzzle platformer. So well that the sequel built off it perfectly, with The Talos Principle 2 set up for success right out of the gate.
I have to admit, normally I’d think of philosophy as a novel concept that, while touched on indirectly more often than not, rarely had a real chance to shine in the gaming atmosphere, but The Talos Principle 2 presents it in just the right light. It rarely feels heavy-handed or unreasonable, but instead coming across as legitimate questions that you can answer in so many ways that any player, regardless of their interest or familiarity with the topic, can feel involved and contribute in kind. If it doesn’t tickle your fancy though, you can easily just move past it and get right to solving the mind-melting puzzles.
The puzzle action here is as good as it gets, with the difficulty curve being just right, slowly trickling in new ways to look at problems and a wide variety of new and familiar tools to solve them with. I feel that this smooth-as-butter curve really is the greatest strength of The Talos Principle 2. The feeling of solving a well-designed puzzle here always left me wanting more, and there’s plenty to be had. Sprinkle in some gorgeous environments with stunning statues and structures, and its hard not to want to sink some time and thought into The Talos Principle 2.
- Cory Clark
18. Pizza Tower
2023 brought us the release of one of the best 2D Mario platformers to have ever been produced in the form of Super Mario Wonder. And yet, despite how much I have enjoyed that game, I can’t bring myself to put it on top of my GotY list in a year where Pizza Tower managed to make its glorious debut.
Pizza Tower is the result of someone becoming fed with Nintendo’s fifteen-year abandonment of the Wario Land series and using their insanely robust sense of humor to take matters into their own hands by creating what could be considered a spiritual successor to the franchise.
Taking on the role of the highly caffeinated and spastic pizza chef, Peppino Spaghetti, on his mission to destroy the aptly named Pizza Tower before its owner, a living floating pizza named “Pizza Face, uses a giant laser to obliterate his pizzeria. And if you think that the game’s premise sounds bonkers then just wait until you experience the actual gameplay!
This game takes a fairly straightforward roster of moves, kneads them into a tightly packed control schema, sprinkles it with a dusting of speed that would give Sonic the Hedgehog a heart attack and unleashes on the player to use for the exploration of a multitude of levels – each more ridiculous than the last. The character and enemy art is refreshingly absurd, the soundtrack is award-worthy in its own right, and I found myself wondering just what goofball powerup the game would provide me with next in order to shake things up.
Pizza Tower kept a smile on my face throughout my entire experience and I feel like it is the indie space that gives us access to these sorts of experiences. I don’t know if Tour de Pizza has any interest in producing games beyond this one but, if they do, then I most certainly look forward to seeing what sorts of bonkers concept they come up with next!
- Pernell Vaughan
17. Starfield
Bethesda’s first new franchise in 25 years perhaps didn’t set the world on fire quite as expected, but for my money it’s the best game they’ve ever made. Considering how many all time classics they’ve made over the years, that’s no small feat.
Much of the discussion around Starfield has focused on what it doesn’t do. While you certainly can fly around in space, there’s not a lot of reason to do so. For as many planets as Starfield has to explore, a lot of them don’t have much worth finding. These aren’t unfair criticisms. I do feel, however, that they miss the point.
Any discussion around Starfield feels a lot different if you instead focus on what it does well. Excellent combat which is easily the best in any Bethesda game. Side quests which allow you to explore a huge variety of fascinating characters and stories. Choices which truly do make a difference and allow you to put your own stamp on these quests. Perhaps the best fast travel system in any modern RPG. Brilliantly designed cities with an absurd amount of layers to uncover. An interesting main story which kept me hooked until the very end, and a fascinating and unique twist on what comes after that.
Starfield isn’t a perfect game, but no game in 2023 drew me in like it did, and once it had its hooks in me it refused to let go.
- Andrew Thornton
16. Ion Fury: Aftershock
The Build Engine-powered Ion Fury was a nostalgic blast from the past when it arrived guns-blazing on consoles and PCs in 2018. Putting players in the combat boots of the one-liner-spewing Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison, this throwback to the glory days of FPS greats like Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior tasked players with navigating labyrinthine stages in a gritty cyberpunk world as they laid waste to waves of creepy cyber cultists while pushing the nearly 30-year-old Build Engine to its absolute limits.
Five years later, the game’s first expansion is here – And boy, is it a doozy. Ion Fury: Aftershock cranks the destruction dial to 11. It offers 15 sprawling new stages to paint red with your enemies’ viscera, additional guns —like the devastating Homewrecker energy weapon— and firing modes for returning ones, and even an Arrange Mode that revamps the base game with the DLC’s arsenal and enemy types.
However, out of all these exciting new additions, the coolest feature Ion Fury: Aftershock introduces is the Road Ripper. This lethal hover bike lets you tear through Ion Fury’s cyberpunk cityscape as you hurl volleys of heat-seeking missiles Into your foes’ faces.
Ion Fury: Aftershock is a wild ride and a technical marvel that proves plenty of fight remains in the Build Engine. If you’re a fan of late-90s shooters or are just looking to soothe your itchy trigger finger, there’s never been a better time to see what Ion Fury is all about.
- Francis DiPersio
15. Super Mario RPG (2023)
When it comes to surprises, Super Mario RPG was the biggest one for me this year. The June 21st, Nintendo Direct had me thinking we were getting the game via Nintendo Switch Online’s SNES catalogue. Which would have been fine. But, to find out a few seconds into the trailer there’s a remake? That blew my mind. Since the game has made our list here, I’m sure you can surmise that it’s good, but why?
Despite pretty much being a faithful remake with only a few new additions, the game holds up even today. The writing is great. The combat is fun. And the gameplay varied enough that you always want to continue on to see what the next area has in store. ArtePiazza really deserves a lot of credit here. However, what truly makes this shine for me is the music.
It’s not every day that a composer gets to come back to a game they made over 25 years ago and show how much they’ve evolved their craft. Yoko Shimomura not only gets that opportunity but delivers a new score that’s both faithful to the original, but something truly unique at the same time. Seriously, if you love video game music, give this a try. And if not, still give it a shot to see why Mario + RPG = some fun times.
- Benny Carrillo
14. Super Mario Bros Wonder
Talk about bizarre and wonderful. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a title, I think, we all were scratching our heads over. Sure we get to play as Daisy (which is awesome!) but the elephant transformation? The weird colors and backgrounds? Trust me, we all made the joke that this game would be a trip. And yet, it all works.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder set out to both remain faithful to the 2D Mario formula but take it in a different direction than the New Super Mario Bros. series. And thank goodness! It’s genuinely refreshing to see such a chance being taken with the Mario franchise. Want examples?
The powerups? Fun. The Wonder sections? Kept me playing the next stage to see what would happen next. Piranha Plants on Parade? One of the most memorable early levels in a game ever. Again, give this a try if you haven’t. It’s the wacky and wonderful world of Mario that I think we’ve all been missing for a while.
- Benny Carrillo
13. Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a gorgeously creative ludonarrative experience that unabashedly celebrates love, friendship, and femininity in their many divine forms.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood will have players take on the role of Fortuna, a lonely witch who calls forth a forbidden entity 200 years into her thousand-year-long exile, together, the unlikely pair create a custom fortune-telling deck utilizing an ancient magic older than the universe itself to provide Fortuna’s visitors with readings that miraculously always come true. While Fortuna and her friends reconnect and deep dive into their pasts, present, and futures, Fortuna unravels the mysteries of her powers, the reason for her exile, and the monkey’s paw-like magic behind her mystical deck.
Featuring deck-building (and card-creating) mechanics, tarot-like reading gameplay leading to multiple endings (so choices matter!), dazzling pixel art, serene music, and such poignantly raw and powerful writing that I couldn’t help but shed a tear or two at the love and beauty expressed by genuine characters with such depth and emotion, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood will simultaneously soothe and surprise players as they live and die, seek their truths, write their fortunes, and experience all the highs and lows that sisterhood has to offer.
- Heather Johnson-Yu
12. Sea of Stars
I fully expected Sea of Stars to be a competent ode to the 16bit era of JRPG’s, but what I didn’t expect was for it to come close to, and in some elements, even surpass the greats that inspired it.
Sabotage Studios created a world that I simply never wanted to leave, with its writing and characterisation leading to a cast of characters who almost felt like friends by the time I finished my playthrough. In terms of its setting and narrative, it was pure JRPG comfort food that I was more than willing to devour.
While somewhat traditional in the narrative stakes, what really cemented Sea of Stars as one of my favourite JRPGs of all time were its incredibly well polished gameplay loops. The battle system managed to innovate and create a truly exciting turn based affair with its focus on interrupting enemy attacks with certain damage types, and boosting the power of spells and abilities with the nifty boost mechanic. It was a combat loop that paid homage to the classics of the genre, while not being afraid to innovate upon a tried and tested formula, making each encounter a thrill to play through. That Sea of Stars was also balanced impeccably in such a way that grinding was in no way necessary to conquer each battle, only added to its wonderful sense of moreishness.
The real star of the show, though, was the focus on verticality and exploration. By adding in such a degree of verticality to its world, Sea of Stars opened up exploration in a way that I simply had never encountered in a traditional, retro-inspired JRPG. It blew the door wide open in terms of how its world interconnected, and the way in which secrets were tucked away, and, for me personally, set the new gold standard for how exploration can be handled, even when going for a more classic JRPG type experience.
Simply put, Sea of Stars came together to create a spellbinding experience, and established a new universe that I cannot wait to experience more of. Now, bring on that DLC!
- Shane Boyle
11. Spiderman 2
If it aint broke don’t fix it! Or in Spider-Man 2’s case, if it aint broke, make it leaps and bounds better than it ever was before. Spider-Man 2 is a rollercoaster ride that takes everything from the 2018 GOTY contender Spider-Man, and semi-sequel Miles Morales in 2020, and ramps it up considerably to the point that it’s a phenomenal blast to play and experience, with phenomenal pacing and many superb and high-octane moments.
Spider-Man 2 is like a full-circle sequel, taking the protagonists of both Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, putting us in the superhero sneakers of both superheroes, whose similarities and differences shine resonantly to create a truly earth-shattering collaboration you need to see to believe. The opening gambit is a true showpiece of the extent of PS5’s true technological horsepower, and Spider-Man 2 is one of only a select few PS5 games that utilize current-gen hardware in such an unbelievably jaw-dropping way.
Spider-Man 2 retains the accessible but thoroughly engrossing fundamentals of its predecessors, feeling like both a huge and manageable open world, where it’s sizable enough to please, but stuffed with inviting activities that melt with gooey delicious lore, you really won’t want it to end.
By sticking to what it knows, amplifying and refining every single aspect of the Spider-Man experience, Insomniac has once again hit a homerun that should please the vast majority of Playstation gamers and is a 2023 juggernaut that shouldn’t be missed.
- James Davie
10. Cobalt Core
Funny how I managed to be the person to write up not one but two rogue-like adventures in this GOTY list. But bear with me, because much like Astrea, Cobalt Core was utterly incredible. Though both are nominally deckbuilding rogues, this game has one key difference – it’s a hybrid of a deckbuilder and a Shmup!
I really didn’t think that concept would necessarily work on paper, but in execution, it’s remarkably fluent and very well made. Your crew determines the types of cards you add to your deck, and you’ll have to always be playing with the position of your ship in mind. Avoid asteroids, deflect missiles and ravage the spacecraft that want nothing more than to slag you.
If all that wasn’t enough to sell you, let’s throw in some really cute and colorful graphics, hilarious banter between your time-looped crewmates and tons of stuff to unlock. This is absolutely a one-of-a-kind adventure worth playing.
- Josh Speer
9. Hi-Fi RUSH
Rhythm Action games across the ages have fought to nail that perfect synchronization between combat and tunes, sometimes finding that sweet spot and others struggling to sync up. Hi-Fi RUSH dared to strive for that smooth and accessible rhythm action and never missed a beat.
What Hi-Fi RUSH does best is making every fight perfectly tuned in. Hitting enemies to the beat is so satisfying, eliciting a rhythmic “Hey” or “Cha!” on that perfecting timing that just flows in so perfectly with whatever track is rocking in the background. Some so many mechanics are effortlessly drip-fed in as well, always knowing when to spice up combat without horribly overwhelming the player. Hi-Fi RUSH’s ability to stay on the beat extends to every part of the environment, from shrubs getting twiggy with it to the very paint on the wall pulsing to the beat. The world is not just in-tune, it’s living off the very same bass and beat that Chai is. All of this while having an utterly flourishing and charming world to dance around in makes it hard not to fall in love with the adventurous world of music you’re given here.
The big bad bosses though are where Hi-Fi RUSH had me hooked, line and sinker. Every boss is a pinnacle of rhythm action, bringing eclectic bosses like the Jojo-inspired R&D head Hanzo or glamour queen marketing head Mimosa to life with some of the best damn music you could get for a game like Hi-Fi RUSH. Nine-Inch Nails, The Black Keys, even The Prodigy, all of the licensed tunes know just how to get the player jammin’ along with the fight, and never skimps on the jaw-dropping setpieces all while it’s going on. Truly, Hi-Fi RUSH has set the bar to 11 when it comes to rhythm action, and has more than earned the right to be loud and proud about it during the whole ride
- Cory Clark
8. Cassette Beasts
I have to make a confession here: I haven’t played a creature-collecting game since the original Pokemon Diamond and Pearl came out. And yet, when I got my hand on Cassette Beasts, I struggled to put it down, up ’til wee hours in the morning absolutely enamored with what Bytten Studio did with the simple idea of monster collecting.
Where Cassette Beasts really sucked me in was the idea of transforming into creatures by using a portable cassette player, with your individual creatures literally being cassettes. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m an absolute sucker for anything with a musical theme, but the things that Cassette Beasts did to sync up with that theme made me so giddy. Even simple things like evolving your cassettes via “remastering” or having the equivalent of Shiny Pokemon here being bootleg cassettes, I just loved what Bytten Studios did with this idea of a music-fueled creature collector.
Most of my time spent was trying to find any and all wild and interesting creatures, from a trash can that looks like a Dalek to a fairy made of stained glass. The combat benefited greatly from the wild and varied creature types, like Plastic or Glass, making a whole slew of type interactions that, while a bit confusing at first, really added some of the weird and novel magic. Cassette Beasts dared to turn the genre on its head and found a mound of hidden gold and gems while doing it, and has definitely rekindled a love for creature collectors that I haven’t gotten to truly sink my teeth into for a very long time.
- Cory Clark
7. Final Fantasy XVI
Final Fantasy 16 is a funny old thing. My expectations for it were very low. Since Final Fantasy 12, really, I haven’t been interested in a new entry in the franchise, bar the odd fling with the fabulous remake of Final Fantasy 7.
The the thing is, back in 1997 on the original PlayStation, JRPGs didn’t really have rivals in the west. Final Fantasy; like Shining Force, Chrono Trigger and Zelda, are all Japanese titles, created and published by Japanese studios.
Over the years, Western companies paid attention, learned what they could and improved their storytelling to match JRPGs.
Arguably, WRPGs like Knights of The Old Republic, Mass Effect, Deus Ex began to displace the mainstream hold Final Fantasy had on western audiences in the early 2000s, as players craved more gritty and grounded gaming experiences.
And I reckon all of this has been true until 2023.
After over a decade of soul-searching, Final Fantasy 16 is a triumphant return to form for the series. Without abandoning the melodrama associated with JRPGs, Square Enix took its first steps to modernize and iterate the franchise by embracing the work of George R.R. Martin’s brilliant A Song of Fire and Ice books.
The result is a rip-roaring romp through Valisthea, a world in turmoil, facing the twin, but symbiotically-linked existential threat of the blight and dominants. The game dispesnes with the niceties afforded to other Final Fantasy titles, and within the first five minutes, you’re hit over the head with a sex scene, swearing, and enough backstabbery and betrayal that even Walder Frey would blush.
The result is an imperfect, but incredibly fun JRPG, that very much deserves its spot in this list.
- Jon Davis
6. Cocoon
There have been many cool indie games in recent years that come up with a great mechanic and keep finding ways to add more layers to it. This can drive a lot of results. Cocoon starts with just such a mechanic. The ability to literally put the world on your back and layer different worlds upon each other. Manipulating these layers offers some moments of true wonder which I’ll never forget.
If that was all there was to Cocoon, that would be enough for me to love it. What truly sets it apart as one of the very best games this year had to offer though is how much more it has to offer beyond that mechanic. The way it mixes more and more elements into its formula to the point where I was constantly surprised. Every time I thought I’d figured Cocoon out it had something else to show me. The only complaint I had by the end was that I wanted more Cocoon.
- Andrew Thornton
5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
2023 marked the long-awaited return to the magnificent version of Hyrule first introduced in 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild.
The question Nintendo faced, is how do you manage to improve on one of the greatest games of all time? A daunting challenge for mere mortals, but not for game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and his team.
The answer, of course, came by doubling down on the creative freedom the first game gave players. After dispensing with all of the Sheikah Slate powers, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom introduced the Zonai and their powers Ultrahand and Fuse.
Ultrahand and Fuse brought all my Lego fantasies to life in a video game world. For weeks and weeks after its release, the internet was awash with elaborate machinations, painstakingly built for a range of purposes.
Some were Megazord-like automatons, used to do battle with the dizzying array of bosses in the game. Others were simply vehicles to traverse the enormous world, (which Nintendo had somehow managed to make even bigger, with Sky Islands and a whole underground area.)
And some were for more far more nefarious purposes, such as launching those bloody annoying lost Koroks into to stratosphere!
I’m reasonably confident Nintendo didn’t anticipate exactly how people would the sandbox they spent years painstakingly put together. I don’t think they’d necessarily condone BBQ Koroks(!).
But as a creator, Fujibayashi and his team, after seeing some of the more engineering-inspired creations, such as a windmill, couldn’t help but smile.
And that’s the key The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom. It’s a game that’ll never hit the heights The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, but it’s a title that’ll always find a way to make you smile.
- Jon Davis
4. Resident Evil 4
What if someone remade Casablanca and it was somehow better than the original? That is what the remake of Resident Evil 4 achieves; taking one of the greatest games of all time and improving upon it. The remake is faithful to the source material; a classic tale of the President’s daughter going missing somewhere in “Europe” and only the devestatingly beautiful special agent Leon Kennedy can save her. Along the way, he will face the most terrifying collection of mutagenic foes you’ve ever seen where blowing their heads off may only be the start, as tendrils will burst from their heads and violently whip at him. He’s occasionally aided by the sexy and mysterious mercenary Ada Wong, the femme fatale with questionable motives who’s also the protagonist in the game’s equally brilliant DLC: Separate Ways.
Despite the story, setting and most of the locations being similar, you’d be mistaken to think that the remake is just a rehash. This is a root-and-branch remake from the ground up with gorgeous graphics that put any of the latest triple-A titles to shame and improvements to nearly every aspect of the gameplay. New areas are added, with some of the story better fleshed out. There’s a whole new slew of collectables to upgrade Leon’s abilities to be gained from the shooting gallery. There’s an entirely new stealth mechanic where Leon can sneak up on patrolling zombies and take them down without wasting bullets or perform a devastating finishing blow when enemies are stunned. He can also parry melee attacks, allowing Leon to perform a wonderfully satisfying counterblow.
Like the original, there’s plenty of treasure-hunting and secrets to find, with new mini-quests for the gravelly-voiced masked merchant, but there’s never so much busywork that it slows down the action-packed blockbuster of the main storyline. Some say you can get a distorted idea of the past by looking at it through rose-tinted goggles, but this remake brings a past game to the present and polishes it to a glorious sheen. Resident Evil 4 brings you back to warm halcyon memories of 2005 while still being polished and modern enough to be one of the best games of 2023, and that’s quite an achievement indeed.
- Jonathan Trussler
3. Alan Wake 2
The first Alan Wake might just be my favourite title from the Xbox 360 generation. With Remedy honing their craft to near perfection with the studio’s work since, I fully expected the eventual Alan Wake 2 to be an absolute triumph.
What I didn’t expect, was for Alan Wake 2 to be a triumph that not only done justice to the weirdness and tone of it’s predecessor, but done all that while completely changing genre’s and gameplay. Alan Wake 2 is almost Remedy showing off, the confidence and success with which they’ve transitioned what is, perhaps, their flagship series over to the survival horror space the move of a development studio that cannot fail at this point.
And then we get to the narrative and storytelling. Alan Wake 2’s narrative and methods of conveying its story feel like the culmination of everything Remedy has produced over the years. All the tricks of the trade that Remedy has dabbled in are here, now all fully realised – episodic TV-style interludes, masterful use of live action that feels perfectly placed and contextually relevant given the subject matter of the narrative, and the use of musical segments that are so impactful and so creative that I genuinely felt emotional thinking back on how far Remedy has come.
It all comes together to create something that I feel moves the medium forward in a way that it hasn’t for some time. The argument over whether video games can be considered art is one that frequently crops up, and for me, Remedy has settled the argument – sit someone down for even twenty minutes in the company of Alan Wake and the other inhabitants of this weird and wonderful universe, and they will struggle to deny what this medium is capable of.
- Shane Boyle
2. Dave the Diver
From the moment I spotted Dave the Diver in the Steam store, with its tags promising a mix of roguelite deep-sea diving and sushi restaurant management, I knew I had found my kind of game. This initial intrigue was well-rewarded; the game turned out to be far more than a simple genre mash-up. It’s a world meticulously crafted for those who dream of a Jacques Cousteau-meets-Iron Chef adventure. Diving by day and crafting sushi by night, I quickly found myself hooked into this richly humorous and character-filled experience that felt like it was made just for me. Finding a game that perfectly balances an engaging story with a compelling gameplay loop is rare, but Dave the Diver achieves this with a finesse that elevates it above the ordinary.
The continuous unveiling of new gameplay layers is where Dave the Diver truly shines. Each dive and restaurant shift doesn’t just progress the story; they introduce novel elements that expand the game’s universe. It’s a testament to the game’s design that with every new character met and every secret uncovered, my connection to the world deepened. This ongoing evolution of gameplay kept the experience fresh, always offering something new to discover and master.
Contrastingly, the game’s narrative charm is rooted in its lighthearted and humorous approach. The story might not seek to profoundly move players, but its delightful blend of whimsy and warmth creates a world that’s irresistibly engaging. The colorful cast of characters doesn’t just add to the gameplay; they enrich the entire experience, making every interaction a moment to look forward to.
As Dave the Diver’s story ended and the stream of new content dried up, I did something unusual for me—I went for 100% completion. It’s not typical behaviour on my part; games generally lose their appeal for me once the main act is over. But Dave the Diver had spoiled me with its engaging world, and I found myself not ready to let go. Even with nothing new to discover, I was driven by sheer attachment, a desire to linger in the game’s depths a little longer.
- Connor Starkman
1. Baldur’s Gate 3
In a move that surprises probably no one, Baldur’s Gate 3 tops Hey Poor Player’s GOTY list for 2023. Set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a party-based RPG that follows the story of a ragtag group of adventurers with nothing in common — nothing, that is, except for the mindflayer tadpoles invading their brains, simultaneously bequeathing them with unusual powers and cursing them to become hideous creatures after an indeterminate amount of time.
It’d be simple to say that the party must work together to overcome the mindflayers’ “gifts”, but each member possesses dramatically different opinions borne of a lifetime of choices and experiences that drives each of them to fight for what they feel is the best path. Bloodthirsty githyanki warrior Lae’zel tenaciously demands everyone follow her to her kin’s creche for a tadpole cure passed down from generations, while the elf-turned-vampire-spawn Astarion is in no real rush to rid himself of the parasite as it miraculously allows him to do things he took for granted in life, such as feel the sun on his skin and cross rivers. Players will need to decide for themselves which path to take, but with a warning — pleasing all party members is a delicate, often impossible, balance. Some will agree with the decisions made while others will feel forced to leave the group to forge their own path forward.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has so many individual aspects contributing to its greatness that it’s mind-boggling. The writing is engaging, imaginative, and deep, the script weighing in at a jaw-dropping 2 million words. The voice acting is literally award-winning, Astarion, in particular, seeming to woo the most hearts and ears with his pompous yet sultry posh accent. The gameplay is relatively easy to learn, with mastery opening up impressively creative mechanics in both exploration and battle stages. The music is instantly memorable, serenely serenading during intimate moments while getting the blood pumping during intense ones. The environments are full of interesting people and items, some feeling like exciting treasure finds after being passed over in previous playthroughs. The character growth is astounding, each party member possessing a veritable multitude depending upon choices made. And that’s nothing to say of all the steamy romances that have kept players titillated for far longer after the controllers have been put away.
Singling out itemized specifics that make Baldur’s Gate 3 GOTY material would be a difficult task, as each player’s story varies depending upon the character they created, their moral alignment, and the choices they’ve made. To that end, what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 one of the all-time greats is simply that — it’s a game that seems to truly encapsulate the creatively customized TTRPG experience in video game form. My playthrough as a mostly-good drow female warrior romancing Astarion will differ drastically from someone playing… literally anything and everything else. NPC treatment varies, options change, rolls may pass or fail in different places, etc., and that’s not even mentioning the creativity the actual player possesses, as people won’t always solve problems in the same manner yet will often still find their logic provides a way forward regardless. It’s like Disco Elysium in a legitimate D&D form with even more variables than previously thought possible. In every capacity — but especially in its TTRPG feel — Baldur’s Gate 3 is worthy of the GOTY title.
Also, you can fuck a bear.
Not my bag, personally, but someone’s, apparently.
- Heather Johnson-Yu
That wraps it up for another year, folks! Have any opinions about our picks? Any great games you think we left out? Feel free to sound off in the comments below and have a great 2024!
