2023 Games Ranked

I've made lists like this before. In fact, you can see my top games from the last few years on this blog. However, this time for 2023 I am doing something different. Throughout the year to now, I have taken note of every game I completed during the year and have kept a ranked list of my favorites. Of course, this list is subject to change as I play more games that are released in the year, but I consider these the best games that I would want to play anyway, so it is close to my definitive list. I also want to note my criteria. Most of my ranking comes through my overall "feeling" with the games. This overall comes from how I feel while I am playing the game, how I feel about the game when I am not playing it, and how it has sat with me a while after completion. The games on this list are only games that I have completed the "main quest" of. I also want to add that for the most part, none of these games are bad. For the most part, I enjoyed my time with all of them. I'm never really going to finish a game I do not enjoy. My last note is that I play one mostly Xbox and play PC or Switch when I feel compelled to buy a specific game (as you'll see later in this list).

Resident Evil 4 Remake (Capcom) - When I think of games that are perfect, meaning I wouldn't change a single thing about them, the list is quite short. I can say that Resident Evil 4 Remake is now on that list. For a linear action/horror game, it is actually quite long with my playthrough clocking in at just over 16.5 hours. Looking back over that runtime, I can't think of anything that I found slow or boring. The game kept me engaged and entertained for the entire playthrough. The combat and gameplay continue to evolve throughout the game as Leon gets new weapons and fights new enemies. The levels and locations never overstay their welcome. The level designs themselves are never tedious to get through. Lastly is just Leon Kennedy himself. He is the perfect video game protagonist. He's got all the one liners, he's got all the skills, and most importantly he's got the hair. He's basically just a Japanese take on a 1980s Hollywood action hero and it's perfect. Resident Evil 2 Remake is one of my favorite games of all time, and honestly, I think this game isn't far behind, if not completely caught up.

HiFi Rush (Tango Gameworks) - This game is excellent and stands supreme as the best non-Forza Horizon game that Microsoft has released since Sunset Overdrive. It's a rhythm third person action game. It has beautiful 3D anime graphics, a dun story and a charming cast of characters. I'll admit I found myself a little intimidated feeling I lacked the rhythm to succeed the first time I saw this game. Thankfully the game does everything possible to make timing actions to the beat of the music as easy as possible. I even found myself tapping my foot as a sort of metronome to help me land combos better. It's the definition of fun and was such a unique experience. I hope that Tango is able to keep the magic alive whatever they are building next with Krafton.

Alan Wake 2 - I was excited when I heard Alan Wake 2 was coming out. The first game is the only case in which I read the book before I played the game (this was back when Remedy would release literary versions of their stories to coincide with the release of the games) and I loved it. It's silly and takes its Twin Peaks inspiration to heart. Alan Wake 2 takes everything serious up a notch or two. The narrative is much more psychological and horrific as the game's survival horror gameplay suggests. Rather than playing as just Alan, the player also takes over Saga Anderson, who is a super likable and relatable FBI agent and mother sent to investigate an apparent cult murder. The game is gorgeous, the level designs are excellent, and the two stories the game contains are both great. This game just continues the hot streak that Remedy has been on since their founding. One thing to note is that the gameplay is still pretty basic as far as depth goes. The game isn't necessarily "fun" as it is interesting and entertaining. Lastly, I just want to mention that this game also features some of the greatest original rock music in any game ever. I will let you figure out why on your own. 

Dead Island 2 (Dambuster Studios) - I love this game. I understand and acknowledge all of its shortcomings. The gameplay can be repetitive, and the story is pretty basic and doesn't make a whole lot of sense logically. However, what the game is, is a ton of fun. The game's levels are such a great representation of their real-life California counterparts. I ended up playing as the perfectly named male stripper Ryan in my playthrough and all his dialogue and wit was perfect in the game. I know a lot of people are bothered that this game is not technically a good sequel to the first game as it changes the tone quite a bit, but I personally believe that to be a good thing. The main story along with all the side quests maintain a constant B-movie level of quality and cheese that are perfect for a game about a Zombie apocalypse. When I wasn't playing this game, all I wanted to do was play it. When I finally finished it, I found myself a bit sad that the journey was over, that is pretty rare for me and games these days. It's a sign to me that Dead Island 2 was made for gamers like me. 

Dead Space (Motive Studio) - I have no problem including a remake on this list. Last Halloween I watched Alien for the first time. I loved it! It's one of the best sci-fi movies I have ever seen. When it came time to play the Dead Space remake, I had hope that it would capture a lot of the same atmosphere and mood as Alien. It does so masterfully and even stands on its own as a great sci-fi horror game. Visually the game is gorgeous. The gameplay is tightened up and fun, and the level design is still great. With how good a job remaking the Resident Evil games Capcom has been, I thought nobody else could do as good a job. Motive proved me wrong, and I couldn't be happier that they did. My only problem with the game is that it wasn't the kind of game I could play forever. I usually played in hour stretches before I wanted to play something else. 

Baulder's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) -  My wife and I were looking forward to playing this game for a while as we play a lot of games and a lot of DnD together. We were so excited in fact that we decided to play Divinity: Original Sin in preparation. We had a good time with that game, and it did in fact do a great job of preparing us for BG3. Now I will also say that I think it may have spoiled BG3 a bit for me personally. What I wanted out of BG3 was the chance to be an awesome adventurer taking on all kinds of jobs and quests in the name of loot and money. What I got instead was a more linear RPG in the vein of Divinity: Original Sin. Playing BG3 didn't feel like anything insanely new to me as most of the things the game did have been done before in other games. That is not to say I didn't enjoy the game. I thought it was great and loved being able to play through it next to my spouse. I'm not sure there will ever be a better replication of Dungeons and Dragons in video game form than Baulder's Gate 3 is. 

Cocoon (Geometric Interactive) - Cocoon is without a doubt the best puzzle game that I have played in recent years. Let me think of how to briefly explain it... The player uses orbs filled with entire worlds that each have different powers to solve puzzles inside the worlds of other orbs. That gave me a bit of a headache and I'm not totally sure it makes a lot of sense. This really is the kind of game that has to be experienced to be understood. It's fairly short too, but for me it came close to overstaying its mind-bending welcome. Based on my experience, it's also a technically perfect game. I didn't run into any issues of any kind while playing. The controls are simple and make sense. Now the one part of this game I would say I have issues with is that it's not technically "fun". But who plays these games just to have fun anyway?

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (Respawn Entertainment) - I was a fan of the first game, and I am happy to say that this game improves upon the first in just about every way. I did find the game much easier than the first despite playing on the same difficulty, but I will attribute that to my increase in gaming skills thanks to finishing Dark Souls III. With more ease it becomes a 3rd person Metroid Vania action game rather than a souls-like. The story is also great as it stands mostly apart from the greater Star Wars saga. The developers also added more fighting stances to the game, the blaster and dual wield being my two favorites. I played it pretty late, so I skipped all the technical issues, so overall I don't really have much to complain about. 

Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo) - After seeing how much fun everyone was having with this game I cracked and bought it. I will say I was disappointed in myself because my playthrough seemed to lack the creativity I saw online. Still, the new mechanics introduced add interesting layers to the gameplay. Though the world from Breath of the Wild is mostly here, it has been improved upon and added to. I love all of the sky regions and would consider them my favorite parts of the game. I'm not a big fan of the dark underworld and found things to get a bit tedious down there, but thankfully the game never really required me to go down there other than for the fire temple (which I loved). It's hard not to think though that this game would have greatly benefited from some more advanced hardware than the 2017 released Nintendo Switch. 

Jusant (Don't Nod) - The hardest thing about Jusant is defining it by a mainstream game genre. Is it a platformer? No. Is it a narrative game? Not really, though it does have great narrative elements. Jusant can be defined as a climbing game. That's what you do in this game, you climb. I never thought climbing would be so engaging, but it works really well. Each wall the player climbs seems to be its own unique puzzle that the player has to figure out at the moment. There's not really a way to fail in Jusant, but progress can definitely be lost with mistakes. The thing that blew me away in this game though was the art. The texture work and lighting are top notch. I'm not really sure if the climbing ever got old, because anytime I had any such thoughts, my mind was set at ease by the view I had while climbing. 

Hogwarts Legacy (Avalanche Software) - This is the first (and only) game on this list in which I know people who worked on it thanks to my time in the games program at the University of Utah. I have to be honest. The first time I played this game I was not a fan. I tried to make myself in the game and was naturally selected to Hufflepuff. I tried to make my character look like me, but something kept feeling off. I struggled to invest myself into the game. Months passed and I decided it was time to start anew but this time I chose Ravenclaw because it feels more like me. With a second go in the character creator my avatar had a much stronger resemblance to myself. I was able to enjoy the game much more at this point. The combat design is excellent considering its a game all about spellcasting. The story is also pretty good despite any major twists or turns that I can remember (there may be a huge one, I seriously can't remember). There is also some silliness considering the player can murder without consequences in a wizarding world where murder means Azkaban. Overall, the first time I played this game I wanted a Hogwarts spin on a BioWare RPG. I realized the game is much more of an open world action-adventure game without a lot of true roleplaying, and once I came to peace with that, I enjoyed it much more. 

Ghostrunner II (One More Level) - With all the frustration the first Ghostrunner caused me, I was ready for a similar experience with the second one. Thankfully I was wrong. While I don't think there were any changes in the fundamental rules of the game, I do think things were perhaps balanced a little better. In the game, you die in one hit and instantly respond at a checkpoint. I don't know if it's because the checkpoints are fairer, the timing is a little kinder, or if I'm just overall better at games than when I played the first one, because I was able to get into a great flow state while playing Ghosrunner II. Even though I was dying a lot, I rarely got frustrated and was having fun every time I played. The writing and story are pretty good, passable for an action game. On top of all this the game gives the player a motorcycle to add to the fun. Though this was fun, I will say my major gripe with this game comes from a more open motorcycle section of the game where I struggled to know where to go or what paths to take to get to the objectives. 

Trepang2 (Trepang Studios) - I haven't ever played any of the FEAR games, so I didn't have much to compare this game to when I started it besides other first-person shooters. I was pleasantly surprised when I found a fast paced and action-packed shooter with light horror elements to boot. The minute-to-minute gameplay itself was fun, however I found most of the guns never had enough ammo, so I had to reload every other second. That got old quickly. I also feel like the horror elements of this game were the best parts, but they were few and far between and always left me wanting more than they were delivering. The game also wasn't particularly long, but I will admit I did find myself happy that it was over when the credits rolled. 

Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios) - Oh Starfield, the game that should have been. All I wanted was a game that was going to allow me to live out my space explorer fantasies, but things can be summed up with my initial experience exploring our own Solar System. It started when a few days before the game came out, I looked up into the night sky and saw the moon. I thought about what stepping on the moon would actually look like. Images of the baren crater covered surface entered my mind. I realized at that moment that Starfield would be my opportunity to step foot on the moon's surface. That got me very excited. When I was playing the game and was finally able to go to the moon, I landed on the surface and walked around for a bit. I quickly realized that this wasn't the moon I imagined in my head. There were way too many rocks on not enough craters. I was disappointed, but I trekked on. When I started playing Starfield I was ready to explore distant and unique worlds. Upon exploring I realized that a lot of the worlds in the game are the same as others. I suppose this makes sense in reality, there can only be so much variation on what the surface of an ice planet looks like, but it almost feels like the developers used this as a crutch rather than putting in the work to make the individual worlds more interesting. I almost wish they had focused on making 10 solar systems with around 10 moons or planets each that all featured at least one unique story mission, side quest or activity. Oh well, the game is still good and accomplished a lot in being the first true open-universe game. The stories and quests are interesting and as always, the lore is a joy to uncover. Even the minute-to-minute combat and gameplay is BGS's best work. I just wish the exploration had been more fun. This game would probably be my favorite game of all time if it was. Overall, I still enjoyed it. I just was left disappointed. 

Return to Grace (Creative Bytes Studios) - I'm the kind of person that does not think the label "walking simulator" means a game is going to be bad. Sure, games called that tend not to have in depth gameplay, but they usually have an interesting story, and world to explore. Also, they usually only take 2-3 hours to complete, which I love. Return to Grace is no exception to this. It tells an interesting story about the future of Humanity where an AI solves everyone's problems. The thing is though; in order to commune with the AI, people need to make a pilgrimage to the space base where the AI is housed. For some reason the AI was shut down and it is up to the player to find out why. The game also has a 60s vibe in the art and themes. It works pretty well and makes exploring interesting. Though I do enjoy games like this, it's hard for me to say they are the best, or that a good one would be very high on this list because of their lack of interesting gameplay mechanics.  

Diablo IV (Blizzard) - I was excited when I found out Diablo IV was coming to game pass. It had been on my radar as a game I wanted to play with my spouse. When we finally sat down to play it together, we were met with a game that has a beautiful and grand presentation. However, throughout our playthrough we began to realize how empty Diablo IV feels. There isn't much depth to the gameplay, the boss battles are all the same damage sponge dodge fests, the side content all played the exact same, and overall, there was no real variety in the enemies. We did end up playing through the entire game, but afterwards we looked at each other and talked about how plain it was. I don't regret playing it, but I do wish more time was spent on making a fun video game instead of making a visual showcase.

Bookwalker: Thief of Tales (DO MY BEST) - Bookwalker's premise alone is so unique from most any other video game. A character that can go into books and take objects out in a literary heist of sorts sounds like something out of the BBC rather than something from a video game. For the most part it works. When the character is outside of the books, the game is a first-person narrative game. When inside the books, it's an isometric adventure game with puzzles and dialogue as comes standard. Each book the player dives into has a unique theme and tone definitely referencing texts of our real world. To give you a glimpse, the player goes into a book about a magic school for kids with different houses and a grandmaster and professors and the works. That should sound quite familiar. The thing that holds the game back for me though is that the controls on the Xbox controller weren't very optimized. I had to finish the game on the PC version simply because I found the console version a chore to play. The game also doesn't do a lot of new things in terms of overall gameplay other than mixing the two perspectives.

Minecraft Legends (Mojang/Blackbird Interactive) - I didn't really know what to expect going into Minecraft Legends. I knew it was a Minecraft RTS, but that was about it. I had a decent amount of fun with it, and I actually really liked the open world aspects of the game. It made the whole world a massive battlefield. Given that the game was likely meant to be played by kids, it's not particularly difficult and it took me around 11 hours to complete. Despite the ease, I still had fun taking on the different mobs and baddies the Minecraft lore conjured up for the game. There wasn't much depth to the game and if it had gone on much longer, I'm not sure I would have been able to finish.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath (Big Z Studios Inc) - This is a game that knew exactly what it wanted to be and does a great job of it. The developer claims he and his friend started working on this game in 1998 and finally finished it. I don't know if this is actually true, but the game feels exactly like what two teenagers in 1998 would conjure up if they had peak fps development and design skills of the time. If you showed this game to me and said it came out in 1998, I wouldn't doubt you for a second. The gameplay itself isn't anything to write home about. It's a straightforward boomer shooter with some interesting weapons and twists. I had fun with its brief playtime, but it's not the kind of game that pushes any boundaries or does anything particularly new.

Star Trek Resurgence (Dramatic Labs) - My Star Trek fandom is second only to my religion. I've loved it since I was a kid and have seen every movie and every (quality) TV-show. I've been dying for a narrative focused Star Trek game so when this got announced I was very excited. It came and went, and I was satisfied. It's not the greatest story ever told, but it fits nicely in the grand scheme of Star Trek. The story itself has some nice twists and turns, but the biggest drawback is that it almost acts as a sequel to a random episode of the second season of TNG (arguably the second worst season). This does allow for familiar faces to show up which is always nice considering my love of William Riker. The gameplay is a slog to get through and I came across a few nasty bugs in my playthrough. Janky gameplay combined with bugs do not make for a very fun game. The fact that this is a quality Star Trek story goes a long way for me.

Brotato (Thomas Gervraud) - Coming off my Vampire Survivors addiction I was really hoping Brotato would be the next game to scratch the itch. For the most part it did. Through 20 waves of action the player collects up to 6 random melee or ranged weapons with plenty of upgrades and variations to make things interesting. There is also a collection of "Brotatos" the player can choose to play as, and each have different skills or bonuses like extra weapons, or more melee damage. I would also say that I love the first 19 waves of this game. The majority of my runs ended in the 20th and final wave against the bosses. I didn't mind this as much at first, but had the wind taken out of my sails after losing 30 minutes of progress seemingly after every run and strategy that I tried. There may be people who like that kind of thing, but I do not. I have too many games and too little time to play to spend time doing that. 

Scars Above (Mad Head Games) - When I was deciding whether or not I wanted to play Scars Above, I watched a few reviews. It seemed like a lot of people mentioned the game's difficulty in combination with its movement and combat mechanics could get frustrating at times because things weren't as responsive as you'd expect in third person souls like. I figured, since the game had an easy mode, I would crank it down and enjoy it simply as a third person action-adventure game with minimal to some challenge. I think this approach really helped my overall perception of the game because I never really found myself getting frustrated. It was a fun little journey and well worth the on-sale purchase. Overall though the game doesn't do anything new or unique in terms of gameplay or presentation. 

Venba (Visai Games) - Playing this game was perfectly timed for me because it was as I was preparing for a work trip to India. I have always enjoyed Indian food, but the stuff we get here in the US doesn't really count as authentic. Playing this game gave me actual Indian food to look forward to, and even though I traveled to a different region than the one in the game, I was still able to see some of the dishes from the game itself. As far as the game goes, it's pretty straightforward and not at all difficult. It's more about following this family on their journey west and the impact it has on them. It definitely gave me some perspective on how hard emigrating can be on families and only reinforced my respect for people taking such steps. I have a hard time ranking this very high though because of the lack of any depth of gameplay. I've also done only one playthrough, so I'm not sure if the choices in the game matter or if they're just there to make it feel more interactive. 

Immortals of Aveum (Ascendant Studios) - This is the perfect example of a game that was close to greatness but fell short. All of the game's problems can probably be boiled down to a first-time game studio biting off more than they could chew. This game is seemingly meaty, but upon playing I realized that nothing in the game seems to have a lot of depth. Even the best part of the game: the combat has some holes or gets stale towards the end of the game. The worst part of the game is without a doubt it's Disney channel level dialogue and writing. The story and world are interesting, but the game tries to tell way too much in its runtime. If the dev team had focused on making a story-light, fast paced, one man army spell slinger game and ended it at that this game probably would have reviewed and sold better. I doubt I'm the only one if this game had been more of a DOOM than a Call of Duty. I just ripped the games apart, but I do want to add that I did have some fun with it. I just couldn't stop thinking about how much better it could have been with some focus the entire time I was playing it. 

Forza Motorsport (Turn 10) - I did enjoy my time with Forza Motorsport, but I wouldn't say that this game does anything new enough to make it stand out against previous entries in the franchise. The developers tried to make the progression a little more interesting and streamlined by having the player level up each car rather than a career or player overall. It's interesting at first, but makes things feel less grand, like once I switch to a new car I have to start over. Another gripe I have is that once you get into the later races of career mode with faster cars the lap count increases. This wouldn't be so bad if the count increase did not also increase the race time. I don't want to spend 10 minutes in one race. I am playing on a controller and the game got very repetitive very quickly. It's unfortunate because I haven't seen it as a problem with previous games in the series. I also struggled with the difficulty changes as I found myself needing an in between because one mode was two easy, and the next was too difficult. It seems like the difficulty was better in previous entries. I will end by saying, as with any Forza game the cars all feel unique and fun to drive in their own ways. I hope Turn 10 can bring it together in the next Forza game, because when I finished this one, I was glad it was over.