Best games I played in 2024
As 2024 nears its end, I’ve noticed lots of game lovers reflecting on the games they’ve played this year, which has inspired me to do the same. Nobody asked for my opinions, of course, but this is a useful exercise for me to organize my thoughts. I’ve heard many people say 2024 was a “light” year for games, and while it’s true there weren’t as many blockbusters as in 2023 (Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, Resident Evil 4 remake, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, to name a few), there were still a number of noteworthy releases, both AAA and indie. Plus, there’s no reason this list should be limited to games released in 2024, as every year I like to go back and revisit some of my past favorites. Let’s dive in!
Rabbit & Steel
There are so many co-op multiplayer games released in recent years, but once I found Rabbit & Steel, it took very little convincing to get some friends to jump in with me. The cute bunny girls and outstanding soundtrack certainly helped, but the game’s unique roguelike take on MMO raid mechanics drew a lot of curiosity. And, thanks to the game’s free pre-release demo, it was not long before we discovered the concept not only works, but is wonderfully executed. Up to 4 players can choose from 10 unique classes to challenge over 30 different bosses, each with her own pattern you have to memorize. Just like traditional raid bosses, these bosses will kick your ass repeatedly until you can master their patterns. But that’s where the roguelike formula comes in play: failure is expected; you just jump back in, change up your build, and try again. With enough determination (and a little luck), you will eventually find victory. And how sweet that victory is… until you move on to the next difficulty and get your ass kicked all over again.
The game is great with friends, but there’s also plenty on offer for solo players. While playing alone, bosses change their patterns to rely less on raid mechanics and more on dodging, like a traditional bullet hell. Oh, but don’t worry: I’m awful at Touhou games, but Rabbit & Steel never gets that precise when it comes to bullet patterns. Plus, every class has a defensive ability that either deletes bullets or offers brief invulnerability, so definitely keep a thumb on that button. Single-player runs also offers some dialogue scenes that give insight into the world and the relationships between the boss characters. The frog girls pursue creative arts like singing, dancing, and painting; the wolf girls are battling to determine the leader of their pack; the crow girls are seeking higher knowledge, but also like finding shiny things and wearing them as hats. Over the course of several runs, you can witness the storylines of each faction progress, plus learn about the overarching story of what happened to the kingdom. It’s a very cute way of expanding on the world and its characters’ personalities without being too disruptive to the main gameplay loop.
Rabbit & Steel is a delightful game, and with an expansion in the works, there’s a solid chance it’ll appear on my list for “Best games I played in 2025” too.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
When Kirby and the Forgotten Land released in 2022, I played it through to completion on release and loved every minute of it. It marks a nearly-seamless transition for the long-lived franchise into true 3D platforming. Most 2D platformers made the jump during the Nintendo 64 era, but even Kirby’s outing on that console (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards) was a strictly side-scrolling affair. Forgotten Land’s levels include some wide, open areas for Kirby to explore his new dimension, but the levels always maintain a sense of direction and progression, and never feel empty (unlike, say, Super Mario 3D World). Each level has its own gameplay theme, which can make it really hard to put down: I really want to know what comes next!
But since I already said I played Forgotten Land in 2022, why is it included in a list called “Best games I played in 2024”? Well, truthfully, I had received a copy of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe for Christmas in 2023, and so I spent most of January 2024 playing that game. And it was fantastic! But around that time I was dealing with a lot of uncertainty in my life and my anxiety was riding high all the time. Playing a little bit of Return to Dream Land every morning before work was a huge help in keeping me grounded. But, as with all Kirby games, eventually I had gotten my save file to 100% completion and I needed to move on. I still needed my morning ritual though, so the next day I dug up my copy of Forgotten Land to start a new save file. It was this second playthrough that highlighted just how incredible this game really is. It’s like an IV drip of pure joy. The game is relaxing without being boring, filled with wonder and whimsy, challenging when it wants to be, and like all my favorite Kirby games, it’s not afraid to get a little dark and a little weird. My only real complaint is I wish there was more of it! Here’s hoping Kirby gets another 3D adventure as good as this one. Either way, I’m almost certainly going to do another two or three playthroughs of this one in the next few years.
Honkai: Star Rail
Yes, Honkai: Star Rail is a gacha game. Please extinguish your torches and leave your pitchforks at the door. Behind the 0.6% five-star pull rate and the absurd amount of resources it takes to fully upgrade a character, there’s a soulful turn-based RPG that’s worthy of your attention. A cast of memorable characters, interesting and sometimes unpredictable storylines, and some genuinely mind-blowing moments await you in this space-fantasy epic.
In February HSR got a massive 2.0 update that introduced its newest destination: Penacony, the land of dreams. That’s not just an empty moniker, either: it’s a resort built in a literal dream world, only accessible by the unconscious mind. The dream is chock full of whimsy and imagination, including self-playing instruments, gigantic fountains of golden soda, M.C. Escher-inspired puzzles, mazes that require walking on the walls and ceiling, and of course, literal nightmare monsters. Compared to relatively simple narratives of Star Rail’s previous locations, the story of Penacony has many more layers, unfolding from the perspectives of several different characters, each with their own agenda within the dream.
The Penacony saga was released gradually over a series of patches this year, and quite honestly it was my favorite narrative experience of the year. At times it gets somewhat hard to follow, especially with half the characters talking in riddles, but the payoff of the grand finale is huge. Honkai: Star Rail’s next major version update, 3.0, is currently set for January 2025, and I’m hopeful it’s worth mentioning on next year’s list too.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape
Oh, Destiny 2. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. No, really, the 2022 expansion The Witch Queen was one of the best of the series, while the 2023 expansion Lightfall was easily one of the worst. This, combined with a huge layoff at Bungie in October 2023 and the announcement that the 2024 expansion would be delayed from February to June, led to much uncertainty within the community. Many fans expressed their doubts that the expansion would be any good. But Bungie rallied, and after they released a well-received updated called Into the Light in April, the 2024 expansion The Final Shape released to much fanfare.
The Final Shape marks the finale of the 10-year saga that began with the release of the original Destiny in 2014. It’s an incredible capstone to an incredible journey, complete with a great campaign, a new subclass that lets players mix-and-match abilities from all the other subclasses, a brand new enemy faction (the first since 2018), and of course, plenty of powerful new loot to chase. And the grand finale is the expansion’s new raid, “Salvation’s Edge.” For the unfamiliar, raids are Destiny 2’s endgame cooperative player-versus-enemy activity. 6 players band together to fight cosmic horrors in the biggest challenges the series has to offer. Lightfall’s raid, “Root of Nightmares,”" quite frankly failed to deliver–the World’s First raid race was over in a mere 2 hours and 25 minutes. But in keeping with the theme of TFS being a rallying cry for Bungie, they delivered what is hands-down the hardest raid they’ve ever produced. The “Salvation’s Edge” World’s First raid race took an unprecedented 18 hours and 59 minutes. It’s a fitting struggle against the series’ ultimate antagonist, and finding success really feels like you’ve prevented the end of the universe.
I wish I could stop writing about Destiny 2 here, but unfortunately the series did not end with The Final Shape. Bungie had plans to continue D2 into its next multi-year saga, but even after the critical success of the expansion, they were hit with an even bigger layoff in July. This, combined with the incredibly boring Echoes season episode, led to lots of players logging off seemingly for good, myself included. The subsequent episode, Revenant, has been plagued with bugs, almost certainly as a result of the reduced size of the QA team. And now Bungie has announced they’re no longer doing large annual expansions and seasons/episodes, but rather 2025 will have 2 “smaller” expansions, each with 2 “major updates.” With the greatly-downsized team at Bungie (many of whom are working on their unreleased game Marathon) and the seemingly-reduced scope of future updates, it seems the playerbase will only continue to shrink over the next year. It’s been sad to witness, since Destiny 2 has given me some of my favorite gaming moments over the past several years. But even though The Final Shape delivered a bang, it seems the series will continue on its hands and knees until it dies with a whimper.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
There were a few notable releases in the survivalcraft genre this year, namely Palworld and Once Human. Incidentally, this is also the year I learned I have a crippling addiction to gathering resources and upgrading tech trees. As a result, I started browsing Steam looking for a new game to obsess over, which is when I ran into The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria. Originally released in 2023 as an Epic Games Store exclusive for PC, Return to Moria finally made its way to Steam in August 2024. For those that need a LotR refresher, Moria is the homeland of the Dwarves, a vast underground kingdom beneath the Misty Mountains. Once a prosperous kingdom, the dwarven miners eventually dug too deep and disturbed the Balrog (basically a demon), which ultimately led to the dwarves being forced to abandon Moria and scatter across Middle-Earth.
Return to Moria takes place after the trilogy, in which the Balrog was killed by Gandalf. With the demonic threat destroyed, the dwarves, led by Gimli (voiced by John Rhys-Davies, the actor from the movies), attempt to reclaim Moria. But, some things go wrong and your dwarf (and your dwarf friends, should you be playing co-op) ends up trapped inside Moria. The premise is what makes this game so interesting: most games in this genre take place in a post-apocalyptic wilderness, but here we’re trapped in an ancient dwarven civilization overrun with orcs and other threats. Exploring Moria is immensely satisfying, and all the survivalcraft staples are here: gathering resources, building bases, upgrading tools, farming, and so on. There’s a story as well, meaning progression is well-defined, but it’s not at all hand-holdy. Exploration and discovery are central to progressing.
Though Return to Moria was a very satisfying experience, it’s certainly a rough gem. Combat leaves a lot to be desired, and boss fights do not seem well-balanced for solo players. Most of the time I found myself “cheesing” the orc encounters by rushing in, destroying their flags (which act as their spawn points) while tanking damage, and then fleeing. Fast travel out and back again, and the orcs will have despawned. The game also has an odd obsession with damage-over-time, with the environment having multiple stacking sources that can melt through your health. The random orc raids on your base(s) can also get infuriating (though I think there’s an option to turn these off, but I’m always adverse to options that affect difficulty). Still, I enjoyed my time in Moria, and the adventure has a gratifying conclusion that really made me feel like a Tolkien hero. I may return one day to explore the game’s sandbox mode, and since allegedly Moria is procedurally-generated, it may be worth jumping back into the campaign too. The game is still receiving regular quality-of-life updates too, so it can only get better from here.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Quite possibly the least-shocking statement of the year is that the new Legend of Zelda game is good. There were some doubts, of course, with this entry being the first time in the main series where we play as Zelda. Most notable of the doubters seemed to be Nintendo itself, as the game received much less marketing and fanfare than they usually allocate for a Zelda game. I think the hesitation not only stems from the change in playable character, but also from the gameplay changes: instead of defeating enemies with your trusty sword and tackling puzzles with a variety of strange items plundered from dungeons, Zelda conquers all challenges using “echoes,” copies of ordinary objects and enemies that do her bidding. Combat largely involves summoning echoes of powerful enemies to slaughter on your behalf, and puzzles involve stacking ordinary objects like tables and beds to reach new areas.
Before we get further, let me state plainly that the traditional Zelda formula is in play. There’s a huge overworld, plenty of dungeons complete with bosses, lots of exploration, and, for the first time since A Link Between Worlds, a story! Yes! My gosh, a Zelda game with a story! I can’t believe it. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom had characters, yes, and certainly things happened, but you can summarize them in so few words, they feel too insubstantial to be considered a proper story. And polytheism is back! Zelda lore used to be all about the three goddesses that created the world: Nayru, Din, and Farore. But then Skyward Sword went and introduced the goddess Hylia and nobody cared about the other three goddesses anymore, except maybe naming some dragons after them. I could go on, but I digress. The point here is that Echoes of Wisdom handles itself like the Zelda games we grew up with.
In fact, Echoes is a pretty satisfying mix of old-and-new Zelda. The overworld is massive and full of little things to find and a huge number of side quests, clearly inspired by Breath of the Wild. There’s even a kind-of cooking mechanic! But the dungeons are old school for sure: large, linear structures full of enemies and puzzles. I wouldn’t say any of the puzzles are show-stoppers, but there’s a few head-scratchers that make creative use of the “echo” mechanic. Oh, and a note on Zelda’s marketable companion Tri: I love him. He’s too dumb to tell you how to solve puzzles like Fi did in Skyward Sword, and he doesn’t understand a lot of high-level concepts like “gratefulness” or “tact,” but he makes for a very cute dialog stand-in for Zelda, and his own character development benefits the story.
This is all to say, I know a few Zelda fans who passed on Echoes of Wisdom, and here’s my message to them: give it a shot. You’ll like it.
Games I’m looking forward to
As with every year, there’s always a huge selection of upcoming games in 2025 and beyond that I’m looking forward to. The demo for Dynasty Warriors Origins has me excited for its January release. (I even started reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms because of it, and let me say: I hate Lu Bu.) Stray Children, the latest game by Onion Games (the studio that finally localized Moon: Remix RPG Adventure and is led by Love-de-lic alumnus and Rule of Rose creator Yoshiro Kimura), just released in Japan and, while it doesn’t yet have an international release date, Onion Games assures us one is in the works. And of course, koROBO, the spiritual successor to Chibi-Robo! being developed by several key members of Chibi-Robo!’s development team (including Love-de-lic founder Kenichi Nishi), had its successful Kickstarter campaign this year, and I can’t wait to see what they cook up. (If it’s not obvious, I have an obsession with Love-de-lic and its alumni.) I was also impressed by the Rift of the Necrodancer demos I played this year, which is shaping up to be a kind of mash-up of Guitar Hero and Crypt of the Necrodancer. Though I didn’t write about it above, I enjoyed playing Tomb Raider I-III Remastered this year (though I still need to finish III), and in February the same studio will release Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered. In April we’ll be getting Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, the first new Fatal Fury since Garou: Mark of the Wolves (a fighting game I adore) released in 1999. Another fighting game is 2XKO, the League of Legends-themed fighter, which is getting another playtest soon. I never did finish Ghost of Tsushima, but I loved what I played and Ghost of Yōtei is looking just as good. And as I mentioned above, I’m also excited for the upcoming Rabbit & Steel expansion and Honkai: Star Rail 3.0.
Needless to say, 2025 is looking like a great year for games (2025 is also the year I plan to release my own game, nudge nudge wink wink). If I decide to do another list like this next year, hopefully there will be many great games to discuss. Even narrowing down this year’s list was a tall order, and there are some games (like L.O.L.: Lack of Love) that I feel deserve their own write-up instead of having a paragraph or two smashed in here. I make no promises I’ll deliver, but I hope I’ll have some time in 2025 to write about more games, and perhaps another end-of-year list like this one. Until then, have a safe and fun 2025!