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eskewcity · 4 months

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Eskewcity's Top Ten Games of 2023

Hello!!! I've decided to compile a list of the best games I played this past year. As such, this list is not limited to only 2023 releases (in fact a majority of the games I played are several years old atp). Additionally, I only considered games that I had completed by year's end. This means that fantastic games such as Signalis and The Talos Principle 2 will not be included, though I still highly recommend them.

Finally, I will put my ranking under a read more for the sake of not clogging anyways dash. Hope you all had a good 2023 and maybe can find something that interests you mwah <3

10. Subway Midnight by Bubby Darkstar

Board the train! Run away from a weirdo! Solve some puzzles! Make friends with some ghosts! Try not to become a ghost yourself!

While I am not someone usually willing to gloss over a somewhat lackluster story for the sake of gorgeous visuals, I will give Subway Midnight an exception. Even with a game that largely takes place in a subway car, it was exceptional when it came to its visual design. It has a blend of a cartoonish style for the characters mixed with extremely realistic environments. The gameplay itself was also quite fun, if not tedious in multiple runs and I really enjoyed the variety of characters that players encounter.

9. Broken Reality by Dynamic Media Triad

A humorous adventure set in a 3D parody of the internet. Diverse puzzles, beautiful worlds, friends, experiences, upgrades and more, await those who 'log on'!

Depending on yourself, Broken Reality might either be a headache inducing cacophony of colors or a fun exploration game about the internet and the commercialization of products and each other. For myself, I choose to look at it from the latter perspective. I found the game to put quite humorous and I really enjoyed all the different worlds to explore. Much like Subway Midnight, I would not recommend it much on its story but I think the design and concept certainly carries where that lacks.

8. Hylics by Mason Lindroth

Hylics is a recreational program with light JRPG elements.

At its core, Hylics is a game with a pretty simple concept. Fight your way through the world with the end goal of defeating the big bad, Gibby, King of Moon. However past that, get ready for a confusing and abstract adventure. This accounts for several reasons. For one, the dialogue of Hylics consists of randomly generated sentences that feel almost coherent while maintaining a healthy amount of head scratching. The game was also created through claymation leading to characters and environments whose shapes twists and turn in perplexing patterns. While this may seem to take away from the experience, I found this not to be the case at all. In fact, I would say it enhanced my time playing greatly. I could not stop thinking about Hylics after I played it simply because its weird and purposely lacks focus which makes it all the more memorable.

7. Babbdi by Sirius & Léonard Lemaitre

BABBDI is a short, first person exploration experience with light narrative and platforming elements. Visit the town of BABBDI, a forsaken district in the outer ring of the megalopolis. Meet its inhabitants and discover how to escape.

In Babbdi, your goal is to leave Babbdi. You must search through the city to find a train ticket that can guarantee your escape. However, the ironic part of playing this game was that I did not rush to leave. While being a free-to-play game, it had an incredibly sizable area to explore. The game actively encourages the player to search every inch of city to find its secrets while also reminding the player that their goal is to eventually leave all of this behind. If you have an hour or so to spare and love games focused more on exploration than action, this is definitely one to check out!

6. Who's Lila? by Garage Heathen

A reverse-detective adventure, where you control your character's face

In Who's Lila, you play as a young man named Will who cannot properly control the expressions on his face. As the player, your job is to ensure that he reacts properly to the world around him. The game even starts with a tutorial on how to respond accordingly to a variety of situations. While a seemingly simple concept, this game is not as it may appear. In fact, and without giving much away, Who's Lila requires multiple playthroughs to order to begin to piece together what is truly going on.

5. Hypnospace Outlaw by Tendershoot

Greetings Enforcer, and thank you for enlisting in the Hypnospace Patrol Department! As the world falls into its slumber, Hypnospace becomes a bustling global village. These virtual streets aren't going to police themselves!

Taking place in 1999, Hypnospace Outlaw tasks you as a moderator for a new form of technology which allows users to surf the internet in their sleep. As the player, you're tasked with seeking out policy violations and handing out warnings and even banning users, if necessary. There is so much about this game I can say but I find going in blind is the best. I definitely found some frustrations which some of the puzzles and how obtuse their solutions were but its undeniably one of the most unique games I have ever played.

4. Return of the Obra Dinn by Lucas Pope

Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction.

In Return of the Obra Dinn, is a mystery game where you not only have to determine the fates of one person, but an entire ship's crew. Additionally, you have to determine the names of each individual based on existing records. By going in the past to witness the last moments of each individual, players can be able to slowly work out the mystery of the Obra Dinn. As someone who plays many puzzle games, I found this to be one of the most satisfying I've ever played. I also thought the game just looked gorgeous and was extremely fitting for the vibe it was going with.

3. Papers Please by Lucas Pope

Congratulations. The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled. For immediate placement, report to the Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint. An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling.

As a border patrol officer, your job is determine the legitimacy of the documents that are brought to you by people wishing to enter the country of Arstotzka. This requires things such checking if their paperwork has expired, if they match their passport photo and if they have the necessary seals for entry. However, what if someone comes to the border fearing for their safety if they are denied, without the correct paperwork? Will you let them in, risking punishment for yourself or deny them, ensuring that you will able to provide for your family at home? Papers Please is a game that will continuously make you question your own ethics under a authoritarian regime. I found this game to be incredibly emotional and made me replay several days simply because I decided against my initial judgments. Certainly one of the most impactful games I played this year.

2. Presentable Liberty by Wertpol

You have been imprisoned without being told why. All you can hear day in day out is the faint ticking of a clock in your cell. That is, until the first of 5 fateful days begins.

Sometimes there are short indie games in the world that fundamentally change you and this is one of them for me. With that in mind, there is not much I want to say about Presentable Liberty since I find its best experienced blind. The short of it is you play as a prisoner as they receive letters from those on the outside. The gameplay is minimal since the player is stuck in their cell for the majority of the game but promise you when I say it does not much that action when its biggest strength comes from its writing. While this game had its short lived success on Youtube, I implore everyone out there to play it and see why I choose to rank it this high on the list.

1. Cry of Fear by Team Psykskallar

Cry of Fear is a psychological single-player and co-op horror game set in a deserted town filled with horrific creatures and nightmarish delusions. You play as a young man desperately searching for answers in the cold Scandinavian night, finding his way through the city as he slowly descends into madness.

Honestly, it's insane it took me so long to play this game especially when loving a piece of media that's a psychological horror featuring a depressed character wandering a city is kind of what I'm known for. However, I finally got around to it and I'm so glad I did. While not the most technically savvy game out there, it is incredible what Team Psykskallar managed to pull off while offering players the opportunity to experience the entire thing for free. Several times throughout playing Cry of Fear I couldn't stop thinking how much better it was than many of the games I've paid for. Like I said, its definitely not the most polished horror game out for sure but damn was I charmed. Even after I completed this game, I immediately had to restart so I could play with director's commentary as I was just that damn interested in learning about as much of this game's development as I could. And its because of how invested I got in playing this game but also its background, that I choose to make it my number 1 pick this year.

(fuck that train level though)

#GOOD GOD ITS DONE FINALLY YAYY #i know there's so many typos i will have to fix and i cringe a little at the phrasing of a few things but that's tomorrow me's problem #also I am aware I am insane you did not need to write all of that nor did I want to #<33 #game recommendations

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parin-gurumin · 1 year

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I started doing these, like, lists of “what media I indulged in this year” in 2021, I love talking about the things i’ve dove into and expressing my thoughts on them in great detail. The first time I did this was on Twitter so the text limit was frustrating to articulate my thoughts in as few rampant replies as I could muster. I no longer have to worry about being annoying as hell with dominating people’s timelines because I can just totally isolate it all in this one post and just let people read it at their own leisure if they so please.

With the introductory and some backstory out of the way I will now talk about all the media I indulged in throughout the year. I will be giving my honest opinions on these things so please keep in mind that my opinions are my own and you might possibly not share the same ones as me. Your opinions are important and you’re free to think about things however you want. (monkey’s paw kind of thing when I say that)

THE MEDIA CAN BE: SHOWS, MOVIES, GAMES, ETC.

Since the year isn’t over yet I will keep adding on to this, so check back if you want to.

In no particular order, other than the order in which I remember.

moon: Remix RPG Adventure

Developed by Love-de-Lic* and released in 1997 for the Playstation, but never got to release worldwide until 2020 where it was released for the Switch then later on PC in 2021.

Ever since Chibi robo I’ve always been a fan of LDL* and getting to play the games they made prior to Chibi robo is a refreshing experience. I have to return to this game because I haven’t beaten the game yet, however the time I've spent playing the game thus far has been pleasant. The game is very vague and hands off with having you collect the animals, and I personally find that fun and engaging. Though there are some animals that are legit so vague and precise that you essentially have to look up how to obtain them. I love the music, art, design, environments, etc in Moon and everything feels so lively and full of love so I eagerly await my return to the game.

Murder by Numbers

Developed by Mediatonic and released on Switch and PC in 2020.

Let it be known that I have never played a picross game and at the moment I am too stupid to figure it out still. Whenever I think I’ve figured out how this kind of game works I always find out that I’m still painfully wrong. For a beginner it is very simple looking from the outside view but when you start playing it makes you feel dumb. I like the game’s art and visual novel story style, in addition to the investigations incorporating the picross aspect very cleverly. I need to return to this game; but I'll need to figure out how to properly play first.

Subway Midnight

Developed by Bubby Darkstar and released on PC in 2021.

For me this game is all about the visuals and not so much about the story because that was always what I was drawn to from the outset. A short and sweet game with many colorful and fun visuals to be had. I like to lump this game in the same category as YUMENIKKI DREAM DIARY for the similarities they share in gameplay and visuals, not at all the stories they convey. The most standout character for me was Benson as a human, because I relate to that kind of character.

Terraria

Developed by Relogic and released on PC in 2011.

Look, man. I’ve had this game for so many fucking years and never played it “properly” until this year. As a kid I always just played it how I saw fit, I used any weapon I wanted to use and same goes for the accessories because I didn’t think that the gameplay could possibly have complexity to it because of Minecraft numbing my brain. With my newly acquired enlightenment I jumped back in, playing as a designated class of my choice making sure to acquire the optimal accessories for said class that suited my play style as well as actually….utilizing the potions and buffs. Eventually I grew weary of the lax normal difficulty so I made the leap into Expert and it made the game far more engaging along with all the difficulty exclusive items that I could now use. I started getting some of the fun visual mods that the steam workshop has to offer and even made my own Yume 2kki music pack. Eventually I got tired of the vanilla Terraria experience so I turned to Calamity, I felt so refreshed. I could really feel that I had truly improved at the game at this point but now with the inclusion of Calamity I had a new world ahead of me.

I’m a fuckin addict when it comes to Terraria, I initially had about 300 hours or so in the game from years prior but I managed to add 200+ more hours on to the game in a stupidly short amount of time. I FIRMLY prefer Terraria over Minecraft.

Grub house lol

Team Fortress 2

Developed by Valve and released on PC in 2007.

SO, from Terraria to TF2 the theme is: Returning to games I used to play as a kid. Originally I dropped TF2 simply out of boredom because I didn’t have anyone to play with, but I think I returned to it again in 2019(?) temporarily because I now had friends (at the time) to play with; but that was short lived because eventually we just stopped playing together altogether. I started playing Apex in 2021 for a few months but dropped it due to my growing concerns with the developers’ employees rapidly leaving and it overall having a lot of strain on me when playing with my friends and/or my boyfriend. Ever since then I was assbroke and craving an FPS game to play but have no interest in/don’t want to play any of the modern release ones. This year I finally went back to TF2 and while yes I do not have any friends to play with I still have a lot of fun anyway.

I used to play as Pyro when I was a kid, but now I play as Engie, Medic and Heavy sometimes Soldier or Demo. But honestly if I’m looking to fuck around I’ll play as anyone even if I suck at someone like the Spy, fun is fun.

Also fun fact, when I would play as a kid I only had a trackpad. A FUCKIng trackpad and no mouse, but I somehow had the balls to play like that. I could only freely look around when I was standing still but I eventually figured out that as long as I was walking I could eventually unstick the camera by jiggling my cursor around. I’d have to repeat this any time I died or stopped moving, so I think it’s obvious why I played as Pyro LOL.

Also initially the game I fell back on after Apex depressed me was playing Titanfall 2’s multiplayer, but always the harvester gamemode. After TiF2 went to shit I REALLY had no FPS games to play, I miss my wife. (Titanfall 2)

Wobbledogs

Developed by Animal Uprising and released on PC in 2022.

Because my computer is 6 years old it’s not the best at dealing with modern games like this when too much is happening at once on screen. The game runs extremely well but it WILL have frequent spurts of just lagging my whole computer to shit and ultimately hindering my ability to truly enjoy the game more.

BUT, my computer aside…I had a lot of fun with this game and wish to return to it whenever I get a new computer. Wobbledogs is what I would call a mix up of Viva Pinata and Cubivore and that rules. I love my doggies.

AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative

Developed by Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and released in 2022.

I have not been so disappointed in my liiiiiiife, I AM SO SAD ABOUT THIS GAME. I loved the first game when I played it in 2019 and still love it to this day. I was ecstatic to see that it was going to get a second installment, but I was overall confused with how they were going to expand on the story. I’m no newbie to Uchikoshi’s works and LOVE the nonary games series, specifically VLR. I was somehow hoping for the same treatment like 999 to VLR with taking a good game and making it a MASTER CLASS game but I was let down.

This game was way too easy, I know people had problems with the somniums in the first game being tedious but that’s the point of them. Dreams are nonsensical in real life, a majority of your average everyday dreams won’t make sense, they may even contain subjects and people whom you met/experienced THAT day but they’ll become perplexing utter nonsense. The somniums in the first game had so many red herring interactables that it made the time so much more cut throat especially when you don’t know what to expect from the cast. Aini greatly downsized on interactables and made them so blatantly obvious to notice with the labels that oftentimes I had so much time left over that I questioned why the time limit was so high still. Outside of the fact that I knew that that’s just the function of somniums with that being the final time limit every time in canon but also because a huge advertisement point was how this SEQUEL was beginner friendly so I can see why it turned out this way.

I was so…so…so unhappy with the game being beginner friendly because it made everything from the first game seem so irrelevant that it actually pisses me off to think about. A huge issue I have with the game is that the game just feels like it doesn't care if you played the first game or not because the “spoiler mode” was so insignificant that you’re essentially not missing out on anything whether or not you have it toggled. Outside of the characters making a different comment about a certain subject, that was also in the first game, in spoiler mode the only other thing “worth” mentioning is the anecdotes Tama or Aiba leave on the top of the screen for you to read. They’re…I guess neat to have there at all but otherwise completely unnecessary had they actually done anything substantial in the spoiler mode.

Look, I get the gimmick of this game with the whole pairs of two and the flowchart being in the shape of dna, but come on. The concept of the flowcharts containing many endings with different characters as the highlight of them has been extremely integral for enjoying both the stories and characters as a whole. The removal of that very system made so many of the characters into one trick ponies that are just there to be there until they’re relevant for all of 5 seconds and then someone else gets their time in the spotlight. Each character has their own internal struggles, secrets and motives which is why the multiple character ending system was SO important. The characters in this game are all over the place and you can’t get a very good read on them outside of what their entire purpose of carrying the plot on for Mizuki to obviously then take over. I hated that so much, the thing about Uchikoshi games is how cast forward they are especially with giving even the unexpected seemingly unimportant character the spotlight and getting to be fleshed out. I have practically no attachment to any character from this game as a result, because everyone BUT the main focus characters (protagonists and antagonists, but a few friends as well) for the most part don’t have too much going for them.

I could go on and on and on about how disappointed I am with this game and how had I known that this game would be how it was I would have just chosen to keep the first game as a one off but I’ll rein it in with this last thought. I am greatly worried about the future of the series because of this game and how it’s confirmed to be getting a third installment. Also, it doesn’t surprise me that a majority of the people who love this game are Persona 5 lovers, FUCK.

Placid Plastic Duck Simulator

Published and developed by turbolelento games and released in 2022.

From talking about a game I am so utterly disappointed in to talking about a nice and peaceful game. Although it WILL do the same thing that Wobbledogs does to my computer I still loved the fuck outta sitting idle waiting for my next duck to spawn. I loved watching the day to night cycle with the weather system, random encounters off in the horizon and music adding to the atmosphere. I cry thinking about the propeller hat duck escaping the pool and flying away every time. (that is a joke about being moved to tears but the propeller hat duck WILL escape pool containment) I also love water as a whole so just chilling out watching the ducks idly float by in a pretty pool is very :) for me.

I love the little mini baby ducks that eventually spawn given that enough ducks are currently in the pool.

Should have won GOTY.

#not art #wrenchspeaks

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