Although 2020 was a year full of misfortunes and unexpected events, the game industry delighted us with a plethora of interesting new games from all genres. In this article I´ll give you a list of my personal favorites and I´ll do my best to argument why i picked them.
5 – GHOST OF TSUSHIMA
Ghost of Tsushima is a PlayStation exclusive, open world action adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Studios and released on July 17 2020. The game is set in 1274 Japan, on the island of Tsushima, you play as Jin Sakai one of the only surviving samurai after the mongols first invasion which takes place at the beginning of the game. After the death of his fellow samurais, Jin vows to protect Tsushima and drive the mongols away. As his mission develops, Jin finds himself wrapped in a moral dilema, as he is forced to break the strict rules of his samurai code by resorting to dishonorable techniques such as stealth; and as his legend is known throughout the region, people idolize him, as the «ghost».
Over the years, open world game have gotten stale for most people, mainly due to the immense amount of them them released yearly, in most cases the studio will focus on making the game as big as posible and fill it to the brim with boring side missions and uninteresting collectables. In my eyes your game can be the biggest of all time with hundreds of hours worth of content, but if there´s nothing there interesting for the player to keep exploring, it all just feels like a waste of time. Ghost of Tsushima solves this problem by having a smaller map and making sure each side mission is memorable and different.
The two best parts of this game are, it´s visuals, which make exploring the game worth it just for the breathtaking landscapes and sights you´ll get to experience, you´ll be riding on the back of your horse through a field of flowers as the sun sets on the horizon while Jin reaches his hand to the side and touches the always moving foliage, it really is amazing what Sucker Punch have managed to do here; and then there´s the combat, this is the best sword combat i´ve ever experienced in a video game, each animation flows into the next one as you kill an enemy and block the attack of the next one, there´s also different enemy types such as shield and spear warriors, you´ll have to change stances mid fight to counteract each enemy´s fighting style, and as the game progresses they´ll get harder and harder, pulling of new attacks and improving their defense. Then there´s the story which I found to be really inconsistent, it starts pretty strong and falls of towards the middle, I actually took a break from it for about a week because I had no interest in seeing what happened next, but fortunately it gets way better as act 3 starts, and ends in a perfectly fitting conclusion for a samurai film inspired odyssey
I played this game on a ps4 when it came out, but recently it got a next-gen upgrade, so if you have a PS5 you can now play it at 4k, 60fps. Definitely one of my favorite games of the year and a perfect way to close out the 8th generation of consoles.
4 – ORI AND THE WILL OF THE WISPS
Ori and the will of the wisps is an XBOX exclusive, platform adventure game developed by Moon studios, released on May 11 2020, and it´s the sequel to the original Ori and the blind forest released on 2015. The game takes place on Niwen, a fictional kingdom where everything revolves around The Spirit Tree, a giant tree which gives life to everything around it. You play as Ori, a guardian of the spirit tree, one day an egg hatches giving life to Ku, a baby owl who quickly becomes Ori´s friend. After Ku learned to fly, Ori and him go on a flight where they end up getting separated because of a huge storm. As Ori you´ll have to travel trough Niwen, visiting different areas such as the snowy mountains, the deep end of a dark cave filled with spiders, and an ancient desert forgotten by time.
This game is absolutely beautiful, as you traverse the world you´ll get to see amazing hand drawn backgrounds with music that varies from calm and relaxing to intense and inspiring. Because Ori is so small and agile, traversing the world is always fun, he can double jump, wall climb, wall jump, air dash, and you´ll eventually unlock other moves such as a grapple hook, being able to bounce off proyectiles, and a feather which lets you float through air currents. The game is all about combining all your moves and using them in the right situations to swiftly move around, and get to places you previously couldn’t. You´ll also have to master Ori´s different combat abilities like a spear and a bow to defeat the enemies who threaten you.
This is an amazing game which rewards players who go out of their way to master Ori´s abilities and find their way though the hidden paths of Niwen, if You have an Xbox or a PC I would definitely recommend this
3 – DOOM ETERNAL
![Review] DOOM Eternal - Locos x los Juegos](https://locosxlosjuegos.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/doom-eternal.jpg)
Doom Eternal is a first person shooter developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks, it was released on March 20 2020 for Windows, PS4, Google Stadia and Xbox One, with a released for the Nintendo Switch, the PS5, and the Xbox series X later in the year. It´s the sequel to the 2016 game «Doom» which kickstarted a reboot for the original series. The story follows the Doom Slayer in his mission to protect Earth from Hell´s invasion. 60% of Earth´s population has been overrun and eradicated by demonic forces, You´ll have to locate and kill the three Hell Priests, as your mission continues you´ll be faced with different enemies who will requiere yo to master the Slayer´s movement abilities and huge catalogue of weapons.
The story really stays in the background here as if you´re playing this game it´s probably for the gameplay. Doom eternal takes everything the first game did and amplifies it to the next level, adding a bit of puzzle-like mechanic to the combat as well. As the Doom Slayer you can run, jump, double jump, fly into the air using bounce pads, swing off monkey bars, you can air dash, you can wall climb, the game is a non stop rush of adrenaline as you fly through the levels killing everything in your path while an amazing soundtrack motivates you to keep going. The music is a lot different from other doom games, the composer decided to go for a combination of heavy metal and electronic music to create something truly special, with a «metal choir» full of famous metal screamers for some areas of the game.
Even with all the movement options, you can´t kill demons without guns, and there´s plenty here to help you, you´ll start the game with a medium-range shotgun which you´ll later be able to add mods to to turn into a grenade launcher, as you progress you´ll unlock an assault rifle which turns into a sniper, a plasma gun which turns into an auto aiming plasma ray which overheats enemies till they explode, a rocket launcher, a mini-gun which can turn into a quadruple mini-gun, a double barrel shotgun which has a grapple hook that helps you close the gap between you and your enemies, and the «BFG 9000» which the game describes as, the «Big F*****g Gun» which shoots a huge, green ball of energy which destroys anything in it´s path. Some enemies will requiere certain guns, such as Doom Hunter who has a shield which can only be taken down with plasma gun, or the Arachnotron, a spider like enemy which has a gun on it´s head you can only destroy with the sniper rifle. I the 2016 game it was easy to go through the game using only one weapon not having to worry about ammo because it was so easy to find, in this game gun will run out of ammo really quick, to get more you´ll get a chainsaw which makes enemies drop ullets when you kill them, there´s also health and armor for you to worry about, when a demon is low health you can get near them and kill the with your fists and they´ll drop ammo, this are called glory kills, and you have a flamethrower which makes enemies drop armor after you kill them. So you´ll have to constantly keep track of all this resources and collect them as you go, it´s hard at first but once you get it you´ll find yourself in kind of a Zen state where you know exactly what you need and how to get it at all times.
If you´re looking for a way to blow off steam and regulate your anger issues, Doom eternal is definitely the game for you.
2 – HADES
Hades is an isometric rogue-like action game developed by Supergiant Games, it was released for Windows, macOS, and nintendo Switch on September 17 2020. The game is set around Greek mythology, you play as Zagreus, son of Hades (god of the underworld) as he tries to escape hell and get to mount Olympus. For those unfamiliar with Greek Mythos, Olympus is where most of the gods live, including Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes, Athena, and others, in Greece, hell is referred to as Tartarus, a fiery prison where the souls of the dishonorable go.
A rogue-like is a game genre where you go through a series of procedurally generated dungeon-like rooms full of enemies and rewards, when you die, you go back to the beginning, losing everything you had and starting a new run. This can be very frustrating for most people, what Hades does to counteract this is having the «House of Hades» as a hub world, here you´ll be able to upgrade your character and talk to all the characters who live there, there´s Hypnos the god of sleep who will receive you every time yo die and keeps a record of what killed you, there´s Achilles, the famous warrior who shares his passion for discovery whit you, and your father, Hades who mocks you and tells you to stop trying as you´ll never manage to reach the surface. So basically dying progresses the story, and stops it from being frustrating.
You can choose from 6 different weapons, a sword, a shield, a bow, a spear, a gun, and a pair of metal fists, which all have 4 different aspects of their own, play completely different from each other. To beat a run you´ll have to go through 4 stages, with each stage having 10 rooms with a boss fight after the 10th. As you slowly climb to the surface, the world will change from the fiery pits of tartarus, to the pits of elysium, to the temple of Styx. after beating each room you´ll be presented with 2 or 3 options for rewards on your next room, this go from health upgrades, to money, to gems, to the most important items in the game, boons, boons are blessing from the Olympian gods that will help you on your run, each god has different abilities they can grant, Zeus can make your your attacks strike enemies with lightning, Poseidon can make it so your dash throws out wave that push enemies away, and then there´s duo boons where the power of two gods combine and give you abilities like every time an enemy is touched by one of your waves, a lightning follows it for extra damage. This makes every run different from the last one.
This is one of the best and most addictive games I´ve played and the most surprising part is that it was produced by a very small team of people with a limited budget, if you own a decent laptop, a PC, or a Switch you should definitely try it out.
1 – THE LAST OF US PART II
The last of Us Part II is a Playstation exclusive, action adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by SONY, it was released on June 19 2020. It follows the events of The last of us which you should definitely play before this one, it´s set on a post-apocalyptic world after a highly contagious fungus called Cordyceps spreads around the world, this fungus latches on to hosts rain and makes them loose all control of there body, turning them into what you could describe as «zombies» it spreads though biting and spores, which the fungus will expulse when it grows too much in an area. Ellie, the protagonist, is a 19 year old girl who is inmune to the virus after the evennts of the first game her and Joel (the protagonist of the first game) arrive at a refuge in Jackson, Wyoming, where they manage to have a «normal» and peaceful life for a long time. One day a tragic event changes the life of Ellie and the people of Jackson, which kickstarts Ellie´s mission for revenge. Ellie leaves the peacefulness of Jackson and travels to Seattle, which is now enveloped by nature after 25 years of the Cordyceps pandemic.
This game is all about the story, you´ll inevitably get emotionally involved with the characters and you´ll be affected by what happens to them, sometimes Ellie will make decisions you won´t like and you´ll be forced to go through them. The efforts of everyone who worked in this game, from the animators who make the characters and environments look as life-like as posible, and the talented voice actors who give life to the characters, this story feels more real than most tv shows you can find out there. This is an emotional drama that will tuck at your heart strings and will make you feel like you´re a part of it.
Gameplay wise most of the game is spent exploring abandoned buildings for bullets and resources, you´ll have to choose if you want to sneak your way through your enemies or fight them, sometimes you´ll encounter hordes of runners and clickers (Cordyceps infected hosts) or groups of other human survivors fighting for territory or food. You can hide in tall grass, hide in buildings, shoot enemies with a bow, craft silencers for your hand gun with oil cans, and when combat starts you have access to a shotgun, a rifle, and more. Some of this encounters get really intense as you slowly approach an enemy from the behind and prepare an arrow to headshot them without alerting their friends, sometimes enemies will have dogs with them who can smell your trail even if you are hidden.
All of this together makes this not only one of the best game I´ve ever played, but also one of the best stories if ever experienced. So if you own a Playstation I´d say this is an easy must-play.
TP Times 