Felix Threepaper's 2024 GOTY List

2024 was another great year for games, and another crap year for the workers that made them.

We got another consistent stream of bangers. The hose started up in January and didn’t stop spraying until mid-December. Same with the layoffs. I’m old enough to remember when a dev studio, after shipping a best-selling and/or critically-acclaimed game, would generally be allowed to make another game.

At the start of 2024, Australia had around 2,200 folks working in AAA studios in 4 capital cities. By the end of 2024, they were all gone. 20 years of slow, patient industry-building, with the help of chunky government grants, was flushed away in 12 months. Do all these laid-off folks go to indie studios? I wish. Instead, they mostly leave games altogether. Talk about brain drain. How is it ‘efficient’ or ‘smart’ to hire people, train them on your systems, flog them like a 4th-placer at the Melbourne Cup for as long as they can bear (usually 5-8 years), then jettison them, only to have to repeat that process with a bunch of rookies for your next project?

I don’t know what else to say, because I don’t have answers, beyond ‘join a union’ and ‘more socialism’. But it seems remiss to do an article celebrating a year in games without acknowledging that the AAA games industry is an asshole.

I played a lot of great games last year. The problem for my GOTY list is that few of these games were from 2024. I followed my own advice from 2023, and caught up with a bunch of games that I had missed from 2023 and earlier.

If I were making this list under GWJ Community GOTY rules, I would have a top 30 list and Spider-Man 2 would be number 1. Starfield would be high on the list too: it’s good now! However, I only have 5 top games from 2024. You may all note the incongruity of someone who writes a weekly column about the latest hotness having a Pile that is over a year long. I regret nothing! I like what I like, and play what I play.

5. Dragon’s Dogma 2

This game puts its best foot forward, then keeps putting it forward until it loses balance and falls over. The gameplay loop became far too samey for me. Having a Griffon swoop in on your skirmish with some goblins is an “OMG” moment the first time it happens, but it gets old after the twentieth time. The story did not draw me in at all and many of the quests had fiddly, Oblivion-style “meet X at night” requirements. I also enjoyed the first class I chose and didn’t like having to switch to other classes once it was maxed out. The pawn system is quite interesting, especially using them in place of map markers, even if it essentially turns most quests into an escort quest as you follow an NPC to a location. Although a sequel is unlikely (the devs left to make their own studio after this game), I hope some of these ideas are iterated upon in future games and mixed in with more fun mechanics.

Despite these gripes, it still makes my list because those first 20 hours were really fun, and that’s a game’s worth of enjoyment.

4. Classified France ‘44

This was the most mechanically interesting game from the crop of X-COM-alikes that I played in 2024. For example, it has a nice tweak to the standard ‘percentage chance to hit’ mechanic in combat. In X-COM, this is an ‘all-or-nothing’ shot that causes much grinding of teeth when it misses. In this game, missed shots still affect a target’s morale, creating a suppressing fire effect. The lower their morale is, the more they are debuffed, and if it hits zero, they miss their turn entirely. Some classes have skill trees that can augment these morale effects, to the point that you’ll send them on missions with a blindfold so they never hit a target again!

Overall, it’s a solid, squad-based tactics game with a campaign that’s on a countdown, forcing difficult choices about who to recruit and where to focus, because you can’t do everything in one playthrough. I can definitely see myself coming back to this, which is more than I can say for some other 2024 tactics games, and why it gets on my list.

3. Star Wars Outlaws

I have to admit that the Star Wars universe still carries some cachet with me. I might not like all, or even most, Star Wars, but right now, games are delivering better Star Wars than a lot of the Disney output. The recent Jedi games make you feel like a powerful force-user, unlocking ancient secrets on remote planets. Outlaws makes you feel like you live on Star Wars street with all the regular Star Wars people.

Contrary to Dragon’s Dogma 2, Outlaws stumbled out of the gate, but got better as it went on (and after a few patches). Early missions are frustrating when you have no tricks, but once you unlock a decent arsenal of powers and blaster upgrades, it gets a lot more interesting. One power, where you can remotely detonate grenades in people’s pockets, was a hoot that never got old. The story also picks up as it goes and the last third of the game, about assembling a crew and pulling off a heist, is crammed with thrilling setpieces and a great payoff.

Another key to my enjoyment of this game was making the conscious choice NOT to play it like an Ubisoft open-world game. No collectathons, checking out every icon on the map, or endless assaults on cookie-cutter outposts! I zeroed in on what I wanted to do: meet the people who could unlock my skills, manipulate my faction reputation, and enjoy yummy snacks with my pet. I even stayed away from the Sabacc table, even though it was some folks’ favourite part.

2. Skald: Against the Black Priory

This party-based RPG was the best surprise of 2024, after hearing about it through the Conference Call. It was like playing a Gold Box game—not the actual game, as those are super clunky now, but the feeling you had when you did. The graphics may not be cutting edge, but the art style is still evocative. It had just the right amount of crunchy RPG mechanics, open-ended exploration, questing and story choices to keep me enthralled for its mercifully brief, 20-ish hour runtime.

The guy who wrote the “I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I'm not kidding” meme was probably trying to manifest games like this.

1. Black Myth Wukong

Just to prove what a big ol’hypocrite I am, the biggest, most AAA-ass game I played in 2024 is my GOTY.

This is a Soulslite action title that sits somewhere between Dark Souls and the Norse God of War games. Its difficulty is not as tweakable as God of War, but nor does it delight in blindsiding you like Souls games do.

The meat of the combat system is based on dodging and button-mashy flurries, which suits my fumbly, sweaty-thumbed playstyle more than games with precise parry windows. Also you can run around while charging up your heavy attack, which I prefer to other games that make you stand there like a big dummy, waiting for the boss to wail on you.

The Soulslike features were also softened in a way I found more digestible: checkpointing is generous, you keep your XP when you die, and you can respec at any shrine with zero penalty. While there is a gear and upgrade system, your weapon is always a staff, which encourages experimentation without making you feel that you’ve wasted resources on a borked build. For example, there is one ability which lets you perch on top of your staff and avoid ground attacks while you charge up a heavy attack. I respecced to use it against a boss who spammed electricity all over the floor, then respecced back and never used it again.

The Journey to the West setting is one of my favourites, the art is super lush and gorgeous and the story was good enough to carry me along. I especially liked the rendition of Zhu Bajie/Pigsy. Pigsy steals the show with his dialogue, because your character is mute.

After I bounced off the Elden Ring DLC, I found the combat in Black Myth more forgiving but still challenging, which hit a Goldilocks sweet spot. Mastery-focused games are off-putting until you master them, then you become a disciple. Sunk cost fallacy? Probably. But I still had a blast. GOTY.

Honorable mentions

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree: I gave first dibs on this to my son, and he licked the bowl clean. I had a great time watching him play, and recognised how well-made it was, but by the time it was my turn, I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm. It was kinda like watching 4 hours of crossfit videos, then feeling too tired to go to the gym.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown: It’s not a bad game by any means, I just don’t go in for Castlevanioids much anymore. The map annotation feature made me check it out, and persist with it, which is more than I do with most games in this genre.

Crown Wars: The Black Prince: A medieval X-COM-alike with some interesting ideas but also had huge balance issues on release, making some mission types unwinnable. This eventually got fixed with patches, but the campaign is still way too long, even for a game based on the Hundred Years’ War.

2024 games that I did not play, but are on my Pile:
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Astro Bot
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indika
Animal Well
UFO 50
Unicorn Overlord
Dungeons of Hinterberg
SteamWorld Heist 2
Tactical Breach Wizards