2024 Game Rundown

My Steam Replay in case you want to see that.

In somewhat chronological order, here are my thoughts on games I played in the year of our lord 2024.

HELLDIVERS 2

Really fun mission-based, co-op third person shooter. Played with some buds and got far enough to unlock a lot of the gear. The pubbies are a mixed bag; some toxic behavior here and there, but not the worst I've seen. Big issue here is the devs were trying too hard to balance certain weapons while completely ignoring others. What happened is a sort of meta-game developed where everyone took the railgun because it was the only weapon that was correctly tuned to give you a chance to beat the hardest difficulties. Then the devs nerfed the railgun because it was so popular. They did this without properly tuning the other weapons. When I stopped playing, certain weapons, like the anti-materiel rifle, were completely useless. All these problems with balancing were my main problem with the game; still though, it's a ton of fun, and I would pick it up again in a heartbeat if I had friends who wanted to play.

Risk of Rain Returns

I did not like Risk of Rain 2. I played this co-op with some pals, and it wasn't bad, but honestly Risk of Rain has this slot machine thing going on that I don't like very much.

Baldur's Gate 3

An instant classic. This game has been lauded by everyone so I don't need to add any more. I really love that there are studios who will go for it and make games using a classic formula. Larian already crushed it with the Divinity: Original Sin games, so they were already equipped to make an entry into this series. It's sad that Fallout has been permanently Bethesda-fied into a half-breed abomination. If a studio under the Bethesda umbrella wanted to make a CRPG Fallout game, a lot of Fallout fans would tilt their head and say "what is this?"

NEBULOUS: Fleet Command

Intense space combat game where you have to do on the fly calculations in 3D space. I wanted to play a space combat game, but NOT Homeworld, because I just cannot get into that series. I finished the long ass tutorial and then found out there was no campaign mode. Womp.

Underrail

Yes, I played Underrail again. Still a GOAT in my opinion; but one that I will probably recommend to no one. So anyway, this time I ignored the expansion and just played the main game content. I got a lot farther and figured out way more stuff this time then on my first playthrough. I actually got some infused leather and found the crazy Oculus guys. And then I got to the "end-game" area, which I won't spoil, but I did not make it there on my first play-through. Mostly because the expansion felt like closure to the game, finding the Acorn and all. After several tries, I did manage to end the final boss, something only 2.8% of players have done. Truly a GOAT game.

Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector

A lovely turned-based adaptation of the tabletop game to the digital. I appreciated how fine-tuned it was by making "rolls" fully percentage based instead of relying entirely on a D6 for practicality. I whooped the computers plenty of times and had fun doing it. But also, they have Adepta Sororitas in the game, to my pleasant surprise. The Sisters are certainly getting more attention in the 40K universe in the last 5ish years and we love this. I have been desperately trying to get anyone to one vs. one me, so far coming up empty.

ANIMAL WELL

Excellent platformer game. I only played one session, but it was quite good. It didn't quite grab me because I just wasn't in the mood for it.

Barony

Played this co-op with Dan. First run was so confusing and rough. But it evened out. We did not get too deep, but I can see the appeal. I just like NetHack so much that every game like it gets compared to it in my head, and that's such a high bar.

Against the Storm

Yeah, I fucking love this game. And I have to keep playing it because the devs keep updating it and adding new shit. I got up to prestige level 15 or so on this campaign. But now the game has a new species and new water mechanics (fishing and sailing). So, uh, I might have to play it again this year.

Gunpoint

Played this game in anticipation of Tactical Breach Wizards, because it was made by the same guy. This game is short and sweet, with excellent writing, and levels that are challenging and fun. Super simple, yet, there are many possible outcomes. It took me three hours. You have no excuse to not play it.

Borderlands 3

I played a shitload of Borderlands 2. My buddy Dan and I played 3 for a bit and didn't get that far, but this game was fine, mid even. Some of the jokes land and some are pretty cringe. I just like Borderlands so much that I want to stick with it. Dan didn't want to play anymore, but I've been thinking about firing up a single-player campaign.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

Hell yes. Another masterpiece, complete with an insanely difficult boss. Had a ton of fun with this one, especially sharing info with people in Discord. There's a lot of moments of "how the hell do I get there?" along with "how the hell do I fight that?" The big pots will never not be funny to me, I like chucking them at unaware enemies because of how silly they are. Also, new war arts include a lot of movement abilities and some martial arts kicks and stuff. This isn't really a DLC, it's like a fully playable sequel to Elden Ring.

Frostpunk

What a great take on a city builder. I finished at least two of the scenarios. The second one where you have automatons and you find the other struggling city far away was cool. You can choose to ignore that city, or you can try to help them which puts a lot of strain on your own economy and help them survive.

Dune: Spice Wars

This is a pretty good formula for a game. You mix 4X with RTS mechanics, so you get the advanced empire building of a Civilization with "moving soldiers around on a map" of an RTS. Main issue with this game is that is moves slow, slower than balls, so much so that you need to constantly bump up the game speed so stuff gets done. I played until I ran into a mission where I did a "sneak attack" to the Harkonnens and could only use mercenaries instead of my regular troops. This was fine until a lot of them died, and then I got stuck where I couldn't build any more troops until they mercenary pool replenished. It was a very stupid and poorly designed mission, so I quit and never came back. My conclusion is that it's a cool idea that just felt clunky in practice.

Chained Echoes

A very pulpy JRPG that throws in everything the dev wanted and it turns out pretty good! The story has a bunch of twists and it honestly does work pretty well even if it doesn't make sense all the time. It has good turned-based combat where you need to balance a meter from getting too full or too empty, meaning you might not be able to make the most optimal move every time in order to not go into the bad zone. This game is also stuffed with content. You will also get these huge mechs which have a different combat system to spice things up. My only issue with the game is there a system of unlocks that depend on exploration, and I was entirely unsure if I was supposed to explore and dig in every nook and cranny or if the game would lead me to new areas to explore as I was suppose to discover them. In this game, you retrace your steps a lot, so it ended up being a lot of both situations. The result is that I missed some stuff and I also was trying to explore in areas that I was not equipped to explore in yet, as I did not have the strength or items to fully complete that area anyway. I still really liked this though. And props for being an original indie title.

Nioh

I once again tried to play this and once again failed to like it. I hate the unlocks. I hate the lack of healing options. I hate the needless weapon system/specialization you must commit to after the prologue. I hate the stupid tutorial level that is a mix of extremely obvious information and extremely important information. I hate the stance system. I hate the first boss that kills you in two hits.

Left 4 Dead 2

I want to inform everyone right here that this is still a good time, and probably will be forever.

Infection Free Zone

Create your own town in a zombie apocalypse anywhere on the globe. It takes open-source map data and builds the level based on it, so you can play in own your hometown or whatever. This was a fun gimmick for a while, but there just isn't enough meat on the bone yet. I liked making squads and having them drive around in their cars, but once you have your squads equipped there isn't much after that.

TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children

Strip away the aesthetics and it's a nice XCOM style game. But it's anime and a lot of it. I can only stomach so much of teenagers defeating crime using the power of friendship. The systems and menus in this game are quite convoluted. It moves slow, and frankly the missions were piss easy and felt like time-wasters. The dialogue is long and cringe, and you know exactly what the conversation is about and what it's for long before it ends and it just takes way too long to wrap it up. Your main character is kind of a fish-out-of-water which helps you explain how stuff works, but again it's one of those things that you can figure out if you've played a video game before. It did not grab me and I found the characters annoying. Not only that, but the setting is a city that is plague by crime, so it addresses that by deputizing teenagers to cosplay as cops. That is some not great vibes around law enforcement.

Factorio

Factorio is eternal.

Tales and Tactics

Kinda cool concept for a game. You play cards and they spawn into creatures that do a little auto-combat fight. It's neat, but god damn do I wish I could micro them like Warcraft III.

Slice and Dice

Steam version, still owns.

Heat Signature

Same guy as Gunpoint. I didn't like this one much.

Tactical Breach Wizards

I anticipated this game and it owns. Tactical combat, lots of throwing henchman and cops out windows and such, and with great characters and writing to boot. Comparing it to TROUBLESHOOTER this is a clearly superior game.

DOOM + DOOM II

id and Nightdive updated the DOOM entry on Steam with a bunch of new features, plus some extra campaigns and options like level select and mouselook. I played through No Rest For The Living which was awesome, and also Episode 4 of DOOM which always slaps. I did every level with a pistol start which was quite good. I tried playing through all of DOOM 2 with pistol start, but it does require knowing secrets and knowing the levels pretty well. I can do the first 10 or so levels, with The Pit being the hardest, but I started losing steam after Refueling Base. The Suburbs was the one I ultimately got stuck on. This store item owns though, and DOOM still rules.

Project Zomboid

I tried this out and holy hell is it hard to get into. There is a huge learning curve, and you can find a hundred reddit threads or steam reviews of people saying "just stick with it, it's awesome!"

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

This game should be boring but it just isn't. There isn't anything else like it that really scratches the itch that starts with you leading a small mercenary company to eventually commanding armies with many lords and generals in your retinue. I can't think of anything else that has that breadth of scale. It has bugs, some cities/castles are just fucked up to attack or defend depending on the AI. There's a lot of good mods you can install to improve the units or combat mechanics.

Hearts of Iron IV

Gave this a try and I can see myself getting deep into this like Stellaris after giving it an initial attempt. I played Spain and managed to win the initial civil war and install a Communist government. After that you can keep progressing into WWII.

Norland

I got obsessed with this game as a kind of feudalism simulator. It has city building, battles, equipment/crafting, and a touch of political intrigue. It's mostly procedural, but the map is set in stone. It's pretty cool how much the devs managed to pack into this game, you can do a whole lot of interesting things like poison your enemies or assassinate them. It was pretty addictive until I got to a point where it just took a ton of effort to maintain my empire and my lords kept cheating on each other making everyone pissed off.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor

Played this briefly. It is a completely acceptable auto-shooter.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall

Again, played briefly, and I think this is a game I could get really into if I wanted a sci-fi Civ knockoff.

Total War: WARHAMMER III

Played a campaign as the Chaos Dwarfs. Really fun, really interesting economy system.

Farthest Frontier

This is an interesting city builder from Crate who also made one of my favorite games: Grim Dawn. This is pretty good although it's not quite done yet. I like a lot of the systems in the game, like crop rotation and needing to staff guards and soldiers to protect from raiders. It is missing some kind of end-game step that something like Against the Storm perfectly fulfills: a reason for your city to "win" and move on to something else. It's somewhere in between Against the Storm (towns that take 1-2 hours to complete) and Factorio (a sprawling base that takes weeks to complete). Both of the above still have a definitive ending, but this one doesn't yet.

Frostpunk 2

Instead of just doing Frostpunk again, this studio has done something different while still in the Frostpunk universe. You manage cities in the macro, carving out districts where people live and work, and build special buildings as add-ons in those districts. Chop through the ice to find resources and keep the generator going. You manage thousands of people at the macro level instead of a small band of survivors. The most interesting thing about this game is how positive and negative effects are sometimes hidden. Enacting a harmful policy isn't always obvious just by reading the in-game text. Like, how harmful could child labor be? Send them to the mines! And later on a bunch of bad things happen and it becomes clear there was way more risk to that then the game told you plainly. I love shit like that.

Pikman 4

This core game is actually fun, but god damn this starts you off with a million tutorials, popups and dialogues to explain every fucking detail of the game like you have never played a game before in your life. It was relentless. I was dying, begging for the game to JUST LET ME PLAY. And this is the fourth in a series!? Don't we know what Pikman is by now?

Diplomacy is Not an Option

Combination RTS and Tower Defense game. A lot of stuff I like in it, but it comes out pretty slow and grindy. I couldn't pin down the difficulty level. The "normal" difficulty is way to easy, but anything harder is quite unpredictable. There are story interludes that are long and are quite cringe, doing the same comedy beat over and over.

Quake Champions

It's Quake 3.

Sixty Four

Played this for a few hours and I can see it being quite addictive.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

Very cool and immersive CRPG brought to you by the same studio that made the Pathfinder CRPGs. There's so much to love about this game I can overlook a lot of the bugs and other issues. I wish the combat system wasn't made up of so many conditional passive talents that makes it so hard to figure out how much damage or defense you actually have. Sometimes my weapon does, say, 20 damage, and I hit a guy and it does 200. Why? I don't know, my crazy combination of talents and bonuses all added up into something ludicrous that time. There are so many of these talents and they are dense with text, and the worst thing is a lot of them are pretty bad. I am currently stuck in Act IV on a boss that is ridiculously difficult. I can find a dozen reddit threads of people saying you need to turn down the difficultly for that one fight because it simply isn't balanced. Oh well. Game still rules, there's a ton of good 40K lore stuff in here. You get an inquisitor, a sister of battle, and a space wolf in your retinue. It also has the courage to do what I don't think any other game has done: completely remove encumbrance as a mechanic. Yes, you can carry around as much gear as you want and equip whatever you want without having to worry about god damn weight. What a blessing. I hope more games can design their shit around that instead of making me having to waste time managing inventory.

7 Days To Die

It's out! Finally! I managed to convince some buds to play this and they are now into it. I have a few concurrent games going, and who knows how far any of them will go. I think this game has one extremely good thing going for it over other games in the survival genre. It's that the combat doesn't absolutely suck, in fact it feels pretty smooth and nice. It might not look the best, but it does the job, and the tech doesn't get in the way of murdering zombies, like it does in other games like Valheim or even Grounded. It's been in development for something like ten years, and it will probably get more features and updates for another ten.