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  • Disco Elysium

    I know it did not release this yer, but I got to it now, so it is GOTY for me.

    • I also finally completed the full story finally this year. I had always gone about 3 days in and started over trying completely different options lol

      • I got hooked, but I was like "what if I chose this option now?" all the time. So I started completely different character right after I finished. Got couple hours in, but... 1) it's too fresh experience and I should probably give it a bit more time and 2) I wanted the new character to be this fascist, racist, egoist, alcohol and drug abuser, but damn. It's so tough to play against some basic human principles.

    • I'm re-playing it right now, and it's great.

      • I've played many different RPGs during my life, but Disco really is like nothing I've played before. Maybe, just maybe a little like Planescape Torment, but other than that? Nothing comes to mind. Which is unbelievable in this age, where most developers play it safe with basically sequels of successful games and new ones you barely can tell apart...

  • Nine Sols. Really underrated metroidvania that flew under the radar for many people.

    • I saw it was classified as a souls-like. Did you find the combat to be hard?

      • It's a fairly difficult game, yeah. The combat is more akin to Sekiro where you need to time your blocks.

  • Helldivers II, baby!

    Im a simple man. I see bugs or bots, I spread managed democracy onto them.

  • Combat Complex

    Twin-stick shooter against various bugs and robots with some ARPG gearing, and the action here is fantastically tight with probably three key factors:

    • Enemies target you but hit each other, so you manage their attacks to help your fighting instead of just staying out of trouble.
    • "Frenzy" orb pickups, which act a bit like combo meter fuel except instead of chaining hits you make frequent choices about whether an orb drop is worth chasing, keeping you close to danger.
    • Instant gun switching with overheating instead of reloading, so you fight hard and switch constantly between your three guns to keep any one from overheating while getting the best out of their specific properties.

    I play a lot of twin-stick and top-down shooters, and this does a great job mixing the arcade twin-stick feel of high intensity fending off a swarm with tactical top-down dungeon crawling elements, and it's just really special feeling to play. The core action feels not just well designed but like it was made just for me, and I'm genuinely glad someone made it (or is making it, since it's early access). Plus, it's extraction style instead of being a roguelite, so you're always right at the best action while still getting procedural levels, so each run is a little different.

  • Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]

    UNI finally gets rollback, which means I finally gave the series a shot. The GRD system is a very unique concept that adds an additional layer of trying to win the advantage state, then pressing the advantage when you have it or respecting the opponent's advantage when they do. And Vatista is just a very fun character to play, I'm having a blast with her.

  • THE FINALS

    Rather advanced gameplay, extremely fast-paced and chaotic, quite heavy to run, even with most of it running on servers.

    But damn when it was first released a year ago, I instantly got hooked from the vibes and then stayed for the breath of fresh air in the FPS genre. The description above also happens to match really well with my ADHD tendencies.

    There's a reason why it took 47% of my entire play time this year.

  • According to Steam, I spent most hours this year playing Book of Hours. (The word "Hours" is in the name of the game, so what choice did I have?) It is an amazing game, and I recommend it to anyone who likes cozy games with lots of lore to explore.

    However, there is one game that I must confess I had even more fun with, even though it's relatively short: The Pristine Cut of Slay the Princess.
    \ I can't really say much about it other than that it's a horror visual novel with excellent voice acting and incredibly good writing, as almost any detail of the game's story would be a spoiler.

    (Edit: I know, both of those games released last year, but the question was about which Steam Replay and which games one had fun with this year - not about games that released this year.)

  • I think the game I've probably had the most fun with throughout the year and not including games I've recently gotten over the past month or two would have to be a 3 way tie between Balatro, Peglin, and Backpack Heroes. Balatro barely hangs on there, though, do to the boredom of playing it for long enough it's starting to get a little boring.

  • Age of Mythology: Retold. By far. It only came out in September and already it's my 7th most-played Steam game of all time.

    It was never in contention for the goty, by frankly I'm disappointed that it didn't win its own category at least, because it is just so good. It delivers so perfectly on what it promised. It's a remake that feels like how your nostalgia remembers the OG game, adding in excellent modern polish and exciting gameplay while keeping the core of what made the 2002 game so great.

  • Not on Steam, it's World of Warcraft, specifically the MoP Remix mode. That was some of the most fun I ever had in the game.

    On Steam, maybe Lies of P. I played a few great games, but honestly I didn't really play any GotY material this year on there.

  • For me Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, my fav game - so much stuff to do , and I love Zelda

    I am so tired that came out last year

    Zelda wisdom was cute , I started switch dark souls 1 this year and it's been my fav

    Maybe balatro

79 comments