AJ’s Top Ten of 2023

2023 has felt like a landmark year for many – I’ve heard people on podcasts talk about how it is one of the best years in a long time. There was a new Zelda, Alan Wake is back, Bethesda (sort of) released a new game franchise. Baldur’s Gate 3 was a cultural juggernaut that I have seen non-video game enthusiasts talk about with curiosity. Oh yeah, and Spider Man got another game too.

I would probably agree that 2023 has been a landmark year for me too. But maybe not in the way that it has been for others.

The Embracer group expanded to the point of implosion, shuttering studios that have been around for decades. Its rapid growth with, seemingly, no consideration for repercussions has put so many hard-working people in constant fear of losing their job. In this case, there seems like no light at the end of the tunnel for a lot of companies.

Bungie became part of Sony and then immediately started to downsize its team. A senior executive put out a heartfelt message to all the employees he was firing as, I am sure, he dabbed at his tear mottled face with dollar bills from the purchase.

Some employees at BioWare unionised, and then got laid off. There is a silver lining – Canadian employment laws are less draconian than their Southern neighbours and so there is likely a settlement on its way. For all the accusations of the industry going ‘woke’ they still target working class employees that deign to look for a better place in life.

Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard King, great I get to play Call of Duty on Game Pass, maybe. ABK CEO Bobby Kotick is getting ousted from the game industry after wreaking havoc on it for 2 decades. His punishment is a lovely little nest egg that means that he can never really fail in life and learns no lessons from how much worse he has made every person’s existence he has ever touched (except that one cameo in Moneyball – that was ghoulishly fire).

People giggled along to the final episode of season 3 of Mythic Quest – a workplace drama about the whacky life of games workers. Most watchers of the show were oblivious that Ubisoft sponsored the show and ‘consulted’ on it. The show itself portrays a visionary, occasionally difficult CEO that secretly loves his employees. All the while the real CEO of Ubisoft continues to ignore its terrible work environment, allegations of sexual assault, toxic attitudes, and series of layoffs across the company that has left people adrift in an already challenging economy.

Digital Extremes and Epic, two companies with their own game engine, that make billions every year from an online ecosystem and could easily eat the financial cost to not cause any more human suffering than they already do (DE is prime to have its own Ubisoft moment once people stop loving their cyber Samurai MMO) decided that it would be way more fun to turn out a huge chunk of their staff into an already saturated job market.

“Everyone”* complained about quiet quitting for the last two years, a thing that loosely translated as ‘doing your job and not breaking your back for a non-existent promotion’. Now “Everyone”** is complaining that not enough people are actually quitting. The games industry has got you covered buddies***!

Even the Baldur’s Gate 3 release was marred by gamers continuing to be gamers. By that I mean they grossly misunderstood how the industry works. Predictably, when individuals mused on the impact of a really good game coming out and everyone then expecting every game to be like the really good game; gamers immediately started saying that ‘yes we want every game to be like the good game’ but also threw in some good old death threats. In a bid to get the clicks I watched some big websites and about 100 YouTube channels immediately post “Big Devs HATE the games industry after the cool game we like found this one trick”. That one trick happened to be a successful franchise with lots of reusable tech, built over a decade, tied into a beloved name brand, and landing at the exact right time when people were looking for some DnD to play electronically.

They aren’t wrong, devs do hate the industry but I don’t think it has much to do with the cool game that everyone likes.

This article is already out of date as TinyBuild decided to ‘goodbye neighbour’ a dev studio, 3 days before Christmas…

Of course, none of this is really what anyone is going to be complaining about. No, it will be people on reddit and 4Chan complaining that their generic wizard RPG got snubbed at the game awards proving that Geoff Keighley is not ‘Based’.

Speaking of, I think I hear Geoff Keighly telling me to wrap it up, so I will get on with the top ten list.  

10. Venba

I spent the last few years of my life in Toronto and there is moment in Venba where I instantly recognised my old hometown. Essentially a cooking game that has the player mimic actions and solving mini puzzles to make delicious looking dishes, Venba is about family. An immigrant story about how tough it is to settle in a new country, and how raising a child in said country is going to create a person alienated a little by both cultures. Quiet and touching; I want a Venba cookbook.   

9. Hi Fi Rush

A genuine surprise in many ways. Made by Tango Gameworks, who are known for their gloomy horror games, and released straight to Game Pass with no build up. Hi Fi Rush, is a colourful, music-based fighting game. It was a much-needed antidote to the dark winter months. With a breezy story about one himbo and his guitar, the people around him that lift him up, and simple beat-based combat, Hi Fi Rush was an immediate shoe-in for my Top Ten. Notable is the fantastic localisation done on the game – I played it in Brazilian and I kind of couldn’t go back.

8. Aliens: Dark Descent (Xbox Tavern review)

I said this in my review – but Aliens: Dark Descent has nailed the feeling of ‘Everything is about to go wrong any minute now’ and it manages to tread that knife’s edge tension for way longer than most games in the horror genre, let alone ones that are an RTS with an upgrade path and progression system. I loved that you should be able to outclass any challenges. However, the fatigue system, and the hive escalation mechanic stop that. Soldiers get worse the longer they are in combat, and resting them takes time, time that can cause the levels to get harder.

Yes, there are bugs, yes, not everything works perfectly all the time, and it is really hard. It is worth it though. Dark Descent is something special that people who love Aliens should pick up.

7. Ghostwire Tokyo

You can tell it was a slow year for games (for me) when not one, but two games from Tango Gameworks made it into my top ten list. Released this year on Xbox, Ghostwire Tokyo is absolutely fascinating as a subjective experience. The game has a fair amount of awkwardness, stealth that never really gels, a shooting system that is really interesting but underexplained, and a lot of walking places with nothing but the vibes to keep you company. Those vibes are out of control in the best way.

A rain-soaked Tokyo with ghosts might seem generic, but as someone who has wandered the city’s nameless streets Ghostwire is immaculate. The way the ghosts and demons interact with the player, in a distinct style that you don’t see in a lot of western games made it more refreshing. There was a richer, more interesting approach to the underworld, and the act of exploring every spot, knowing that there might be a mind-bending liminal space to wander through, made it worth it. Ghostwire always felt deliberate in its choices, from the snarky cats that run the convenience stores, to the wails of the lonely Yokai flying around the tops of buildings, this is a game where I believed that someone had sat down and thought about why things were the way they were and then figured out the rest of the game around that.

6. Cocoon (Xbox Tavern review)

This is just a really good puzzle game; it is so smart and so thoughtful in the way that it treats its audience. My first reaction to the puzzles was ‘this is too simple’ but within 30 minutes I was going ‘none of this is simple it just makes it seem like it is simple’. You play a space bug in a space world, you basically only need one button, it is genius.

5. Merge & Blade

A good roguelike knows how to make you ‘and then I realised I can now do X’. Each step of Merge & Blade does that. It is a Puyo Puyo-style, Match 3, auto-battler. That’s a dizzying combination of game mechanics that feels like it was built to please an SEO algorithm. The player drops two units at a time needing to match 3 to build a stronger unit. There are a set number of turns before the auto-battle section starts, there are limited moves the player can use to adjust formations to try and improve their army’s chances. If the battle is successful a new match 3 session starts to rebuild.

And then I realised matching more than 3 units gave me extra turns, and then I realised that comboing matches (causing one match 3 to link into another match) gave me more bonuses. The campaign is a great teacher of all the mechanics as well as levelling up units and unlock new ones. AND THEN I tried the roguelike mode, which unlocked a whole new set of discoveries. AND THE-

I’ll stop now.

4. Clash: Artifacts of Chaos (Xbox Tavern review)

I played this game for review for Xbox Tavern, and it stayed with me. Ace Team have a talent for making ugly-beautiful games. I mean that the worlds they create are breathtaking, but their sensibilities are for having a protagonist with “a face like a hot dog that slipped down the back of the couch”.  The combat has its own style too and it takes a while to get used to but becomes deeply rewarding the more time you take to figure it out.

And that world, just so goddamned pretty.

To those that have finished Lies of P and Elden Ring, they should jump on Clash.

3. Remnant II (Xbox Tavern review)

Something that I always forget about is that Remnant II has a great sense of weight and movement. The feel of walking across a plain as a group of monsters turn to attack, flipping into aim mode to track an enemy, popping off specials and then dodge rolling out of the path of a charging blob, it is all impeccable. The game could have been a generic corridor shooter, and I would still have played it for the satisfaction of existing in the character’s skin. Remnant II is also an all-round improvement on its predecessor. It is a game that has more procedural generation. More guns. More weird things that can happen. The Co-Op is great with there being more meaningful distinctions between each class. But man, it is that cohesive animation and flow that makes me look forward to playing this game.

2. Exoprimal (Xbox Tavern review)

Look, people slept on Exoprimal. I’m not bitter – Capcom had an incredible year with all their Street Fighter, Monster Hunter, and Resident Evil content. There is only so much Capcom people can keep in their hearts before they have to play Fortnite (dressed as Leon Kennedy (you’re godamn right – ed)).

What makes Exoprimal special is that it figured out how to make Overwatch without turning every player into screaming miscreants, hooting orders out of their dickholes, and being generally insufferable. The answer seems to have been to introduce dinosaurs. Not just a few dinosaurs either, a cavalcade, a flood, a plague of dinosaurs.

This is not an exaggeration.

There are levels where the player, and 4 teammates, will be expected to shoot, punch and explode thousands of dinosaurs, they will pour forth from spawn points bouncing off of masonry and awkwardly charge forward with a viciousness that means you have to make them dead.

I digress, Exoprimal is a hero shooter at its core, there are the archetypes – big guy with a shield, small fella that heals, punchy man that you just know is played by edgelords – but how Exoprimal sidesteps the ranting neckbeards is through two processes. The first is that for the initial rounds the two teams are competing abstractly, instead of fighting each other they are trying to kill dinosaurs faster than the other team. This means that bad teams still get to progress, kill stuff, and have fun, even if they don’t win. When they do meet to fight over a cube, or whatever, the encounter only lasts about 5 minutes. There is no slow slide into frustration, finger pointing and teeth gnashing.

The second genius decision is to punish loners, there is seldom a situation where a team won’t be together – there are just too many dinosaurs to go it alone – and this makes teams cohere even if they don’t know it. It is hard to be insufferable when you rely on other people to like you when you are playing.

And everything about this game is tight, stomping into a fracas of raptors and slamming down a shield, knowing a healer is blasting your back, while a minigun mech is plastering them just works in a way that few developers know how. Exoprimal deserves your attention, it is the best Capcom game released this year.

1. Jusant (Xbox Tavern review)

I’ve been rock climbing for over ten years and most games that include it don’t understand the sport. Part puzzle game, part meditative conversation with your own body’s limits – climbing is tough but invigorating. Games tend to understand the puzzle element of climbing, but games like Assassin’s Creed only see it as a power fantasy, rather conveying that ‘when you do the cool move, there is a good chance you are not going to be able to do that again’.

Before Jusant only I am Alive hit the idea of stamina impacting a player’s ability to do daring moves. I think both games do it well but where Jusant shines is the subtle nods to climbing’s history and process.

The mechanics are sublime, the freeform nature of using the triggers to control the grip of each hand gives the feeling of having to choose your moves carefully but also of quick improvisation. The way that moving, jumping, and even resting causes a degradation of stamina translates the stress of climbing perfectly. The tension of trying to push further up a cliff, with a hint of controlled panic, knowing that there might not be enough juice left in the tank is what climbing often feels like. But there is more.

There are a good number of historical documentaries around the climbing pioneers. One that impacted me the most was around the freewheeling hippy types in Yosemite. Despite their obvious talents – it is clear that the way these climbers ascended the dangerous peaks in Yosemite was by sloppy means. They would jam metal spikes into the rock at a rate of every 5 feet. These rusted bolts remain in the cliff-face to this day as a reminder to the newer climbers of how far they have improved. Technology and technique mean that people climb the same routes with no support.

Throughout Jusant the player sees the remnants of previous climbs. Decaying struts and dilapidated rungs litter the paths. In between each ascent, there are records of others that have gone the same way. It suggests a communal nature to the climbing in the world. A world where the protagonist is able to use far more effective methods of traversal.

As a game, Jusant is a solid, well thought out experience. As a re-enactment of climbing, it is the gold standard.

Runners up:

Streetfighter 6, Ed-0 Zombie Uprising, RoboCop: Rogue City, Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader

*Incredibly conceited bosses

**those same incredibly awful bosses

***the term ‘buddies’ was meant sarcastically

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