Drew Scanlon is a former Giant Bomb video producer. He now works in game development as a producer at Digital Eclipse Software, Inc./Other Ocean Interactive and occasionally talks about speedy race cars.
It has been, as they say, a year. After global travel became virtually impossible, I decided to end Cloth Map, the travel documentary project I had been doing since March 2017. The feeling was bittersweet. With the support of hundreds of generous folks around the Internet, we made some videos I’m incredibly proud of. But the opportunity to rejoin the game development world was just too good to pass up!
Anyway, after such a weird year, it seems only fitting that I should give you a weird list.
The list, like 2020, starts normally, with video games that came out this year. I didn’t have the chance to play 10 games thoroughly enough to render an opinion, but did manage to make it to five. Here are the five 2020 games I played the most this year, ranked in order of goodness.
5. The Last of Us Part II
There’s no denying the artistic and technical abilities of the team over at Naughty Dog. This game looked absolutely incredible, even on my stock PS4. Where it lost me a little was the story. The first game’s story, while straightforward, felt nuanced and touching. The sequel, however, felt like a more complicated story told with less finesse. Still, it was a pleasure to play, and had enough going on to pull me though all the way to the end.
4. Half-Life: Alyx
Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, so for me, the pitch for this game could have ended at “return to City 17.” Unsurprisingly, I found walking/teleporting around the city at 1:1 scale thrilling, and could have stayed there all day but for the discomfort of wearing a VR headset. The realities of Virtual Reality are probably why I haven’t finished the game yet. I was playing a tentpole Valve game with Valve's own headset, and still found plenty of rough edges. It’s unreasonable to expect perfection in a still-nascent technology, but I found myself having to psych myself up to play the game, which was unexpected.
3. Hades
I don’t usually go for action roguelikes, but MAN does Hades make a case for breaking with tradition. Supergiant Games’ ability to produce beautiful, polished games is unmatched, and the story is no different with Hades. Except that the story is different with Hades. The team’s commitment to narrative, even within a game structure that makes such a task an immense challenge, is refreshing and inspiring. My only wish is that I had played more of it this year.
2. Trackmania
The pandemic has affected people in different ways. Rather than feeling motivated to engage in deep, complex experiences with all my newfound “free time,” I found myself seeking ways to “turn my brain off” and relax. Trackmania hit at the exact right time for me. The game has a certain zany zen to it, and the experience of chilling out and doing flips with a server full of Giant Bomb fans made it a game I always looked forward to playing.