2024 has been a year of massive, perhaps irreversible change for the games industry. The games media space, which has employed me for over a decade, has itself fallen on the hardest times I’d ever witnessed.
You simply couldn’t exist in/around the industry without the layoffs, studio closures, website shutterings, and game cancellations having some effect on your psyche or your gaming habits. And though I know I’ve played fewer games in 2024 than I may have ever done in recent memory, I still found enjoyment in several, and I want to highlight a couple of my favourites here.
You’re hopefully familiar with the VG247 format by now, but if this is somehow the only GOTY piece you’re reading from the site (or first?), I’m going to talk about three games that I consider to be the high points of 2024. Only one of which is the ultimate Game of the Year, whatever value that may hold.
No Rest for the Wicked
I am genuinely quite surprised I haven’t seen much talk about No Rest for the Wicked in the end-of-year discourse. It’s not been nominated for any Keighley’s, and It almost feels as if many of us don’t know it exists. Considering its studio pedigree alone, that is quite surprising.
No Rest for the Wicked is the new release from the Ori games’ Moon Studios, and it’s easily the team’s most ambitious undertaking ever. This is a game that flirts with different genres and does the work to make each of them work within the context of its world. It’s part ARPG, isometric action game with Soulslike elements, a light town management sim, a survival/crafting game, and there was even room for a loot element. Somehow, it also manages to deliver easily some of the most compelling character work of 2024.
Though things have been improved since, the initial launch had a scattering of ideas, many of which couldn’t quite find harmony in the (admittedly difficult) genre medley Moon is going for. This is an early access release, so some of that is to be expected. But no matter how unsuccessful some of these ideas were, you came to No Rest for the Wicked to bask in its gloriously grim art, feel the heft of one of the most satisfying combat systems in any game, and be immersed in the goings-on of your hamlet’s denizens in between dungeon delves.
No Rest for the Wicked is a game that’s hard to quickly pitch to someone, regardless of how long that elevator ride is. If you haven’t heard/seen much of it, it’s best to get into it blind, because you’re going to be taken aback by its depth and clever blend of genres. I can tell you this, however, it’s probably not what you think it is.
Dragon’s Dogma 2
If I were to be an ostentatious games media asshole, I’d probably make a grand declaration that the feeling Dragon’s Dogma 2 is going for, above all else, is to be a reflection of the real world’s inexlipcable frustrations. I’ve already wrote that one of the most attractive things about it is how little it cares about creating a “video game-y” experience, in the traditional sense – so you could say that I already have!
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is not a game that’s willing to meet you halfway. It’s a game that wants to deliver a specific kind of unforgiving experience, both in its challenging combat as well as the oodles of missable content its world hides. It’s so eager to abandon many standard video game conventions in the pursuit of a really specefic experience.
If you played the first game, the sequel is almost exactly the same game. In fact, the ‘2’ in the title doesn’t appear until you’re into the post-game. It’s almost an admission on the part of Capcom that there may no be nowhere else to go, no other limits to push. I wish other 2024 releases – and real life BS – didn’t cause me to fall off, but I’ll always be fond of how it made me feel as I played it, and long after I was done creeping up on some big fellas to chip away at their gigantic health bars.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
In a year as fraught with layoffs and unprecedented uncertainty about job security, is it any wonder that simple game from a bygone era is the sort of thing that stuck out the most to me in 2024? Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 really is an uncomplicated game whose whole schtick can be summarised in one sentence, and everyone reading that would know exactly the kind of experience they’re in for. It’s been called the best Xbox 360 game of 2024 for a reason.
Space Marine 2 is obviously more than a lost record from a bygone era; it’s a confident, incredibly competent game that doesn’t promise much, but delivers on its premise as often as you’d expect, and like it to. There’s a really nice balance between standard shooting and melee combat. It’s done so well, in fact, you’d have to wonder if more games should copy it. The campaign is short enough that, on a first playthrough, you may not always notice any of its shortcomings. There’s just enough panache and production value to distract you. Multiplayer replicates the simplicity of all those lost multiplayer modes from the many, many Xbox 360 games that didn’t need them, but had them anyway. And co-op, well, it exists as a fairly compelling reason to explore a side of the narrative the main campaign doesn’t cover.
Like many games from that era, however, there’s a lot to criticise here, too. The narrative is entirely straightfaced, and isn’t remotely interested in challenging the fascist underpinnings of its fiction in any way. In fact, anyone unfamiliar with the source material would rightly assume Space Marines are the heroes of this story, because of the way they’re portrayed. Even aside from its narrative challenges, Space Marine 2’s gameplay sequence are often safe, without much in the way of encounter design or mechanical innovation. There’s decent variety, but again, you sort of wish it had just a little bit more.
While that is consistent of its character as an “old” game, it leaves a lot of room for experimentation. More than anything, it makes me look forward to the inevitable sequel even more. Think of all the growth! I just hope it doesn’t take 13 years to come out!