Games From The Year 2024
This less a game of the year and more just highlighting games that really stuck with me this year.
In A Grove
A delightful 'murder mystery' party game that is really a bluffing and deduction game. I have seen one of the most perfect bluffing traps deployed in this game that the whole table stopped for a full ten minutes to try and figure out what happened.
Arcs
Arcs is on the fast track to being my favorite boardgame. Having appreciated more than enjoyed Twilight Imperium (and outright disliking Eclipse) for a while my "big space opera board game" was Star Wars Rebellion. I coincidentally played Rebellion only a month or so before getting my copy of Arcs and even on that last play I felt like it had run out of steam for me. Arcs does everything all those above games do and a dozen other equally ambitious ideas, in a much more elegant package.
Helldivers 2
I coincidentally showed my brothers Helldivers just before 2's release date was announce and so we got a nice "then and now" comparison point. I was initially miffed at 2's perspective change to over the shoulder, but none of the Helldivers magic was lost. Over the year it's remained a consistently great time.
Dread Delusion
I had a really nice time with Dread Delusion, in particular its writing and worldbuilding are fantastic. It does a wonderful job in it's opening few hours to draw you in while keeping you off balance, and while that naturally fades over time I still had a nice time seeing what the world was up to.
KOtOR 2
I sprinted through a replay of kotor 2 over the summer to refresh my memory of it, and in some ways I wish I hadn't. Last year I did the same for kotor 1, which I feel held up over time, the sequel unfortunately hasn't. While generally the combat is better and some of the level design is more interesting, the story and structure flaws are hard to overcome. The pacing differences between Korriban and Dantooine (basically large dungeons) and Nar Shaddaa (a sprawling, overlong multi-zone hub) and Dxun & Onderon (short snippets that are regularly interrupted) felt very disruptive. Not that I'd want them to all be of homogenous length and density, but they all felt like bad fits for the story being told. Similarly the story and more critical examination of the institutions of the Jedi and Republic don't fully take off or go as deep as I remember.
Morrowind
My typical Morrowind playthrough is to look around at the mod scene, try and fail to get them set up in a way that I like, and bop around Seyda Neen for an hour total. This year I tried a new approach of "playing the game" and predictably had a brilliant time. Morrowind still hits like nothing else, even just going through the Theives' Guild questline. Morrowind is one of a scant few games I get pleasure in being lost in; getting lost is part of the path to understanding a space, and Morrowind deserves it.
Heimlich and Co.
A while back I played the The Name of the Rose boardgame, a decent game that is twice as long as it needs to be. This year I played Heimlich and Co an older game, and captures basically every emotional beat of The Name of the Rose in a much simpler and elegant package. Comparing the two immediately shows how careful understanding of goals and shaping of rules can provide an equally rich experience with a quarter of the complexity.
Caves of Qud
Caves of Qud might be my favorite videogame ever made.