I was looking forward to this thread.
For me a lot of 2020 was about just getting through it, a strategy I'm sure I wasn't alone in following. And that meant playing a few new games but also a few "comfort food" games, older titles that were just relaxing and engaging to spend time with. There's a mix of both on the list below.
OXYGEN NOT INCLUDED -- my big time sink for the second year in a row. And yet I've never launched a rocket! It's fine, I set my own goals and I always feel like I learn something new with each restart. I just want my duplicants to live comfortable lives of leisure.
80 DAYS -- An older game from developer Inkle, the people who made Heaven's Vault. Inkle are very into dialogue, text and branching narratives, if those things are your jam. 80 Days is their steampunky take on Jules Verne's
Around the World in Eighty Days, with you as the valet Passepartout accompanying Phileas Fogg on the titular bet. You have a lot of options in your route to circumnavigate the globe -- I went overland across Eurasia, then across the Pacific to South America, then across the Atlantic to western Africa, and north through Morocco, Portugal and back to London, making it on the last day. But it could have gone so many other ways. There were dialogues and things to do at every stop, and this being Inkle, the writing is clever and uniformly excellent. You'll only ever witness a fraction of the game's full content in any playthrough.
BLACK BOOK: PROLOGUE -- This game is still in development, but a free demo of the first chapter has been made available, and I like the aesthetic. It's set in 19th-century Russia near Cherdyn in the Urals, where the belief system is a blend of Christianity, Old Slavic religion and various superstitions; where spirits and devils lurk everywhere and can be appeased or put to work using the proper rituals. Vasilisa, a novice
znatka (sorceress/exorcist), resolves to resurrect her beloved, who committed suicide, by mastering the powers of the titular Black Book. There are choices to make as you ply your trade for the local community, a deck-building system for your magical bouts against unruly spirits, and plenty of regional lore and stories to read. I like the art style and just generally find it an interesting world to visit.
Click for Fullsize
CLOUD GARDENS -- This is a chill puzzle-type game where you are presented with abandoned parking lots, road signs and other industrial detritus and lay plants on them. The idea, I think, is to strike a balance between living greenery and modern junk. But I never really understood what I was supposed to do, and the graphics were too low-rez to do anything for me aesthetically. Shrug.
ELSINORE -- Ah, I ought to go back to this one! This is an adventure game based on the events of
Hamlet from the POV of Ophelia, who in this imagining has good reason for acting erratic -- she's stuck in a Groundhog Day time loop unless she can unravel the mysteries that keep leading to her death. Turns out there's more afoot in Elsinore than a murderer and one angry ghost. As Ophelia you can move around the castle grounds (bearing witness, if you wish, to scenes portrayed in the play) and can change the course of events depending on things you learn and who you confide in. The game keeps track, in some detail, of which facts each character knows at a given time, and that seems to be the main mechanic -- uncovering secrets and telling the right thing to the right person at the right moment, to hopefully make the course of events a little less tragic.
Click for Fullsize
FLICKER OF HOPE -- Another free game, a short project from a team of students which I hope gets expanded to full length one day. Previously called Wick (they had to change the name due to legal whatever), in this game you play an animated candle in a haunted cathedral. You have to dodge shadow monsters and an extremely creepy possessed nun while making your way across the stone floors, replenishing your constantly-melting body at pools of wax. This is a short game but a neat idea with a great visual look.
Click for Fullsize
FLORENCE -- Originally a mobile game, I think, but I played it on Steam. It's the story of 25-year-old Florence and her relationship with new boyfriend Krish. Told without dialogue and with comicbook-style panels, it is an experiment in storytelling using the interactive medium of videogames. And it does it really well.
FROSTPUNK -- I played through the first scenario a couple years ago when it first came out, but in 2020 I decided "Hey, I wonder if I were to go back to this and actually get good." And so I spent a fair part of the year playing Frostpunk and exploring its mechanics. A good time. Feels like I got my money's worth now.
MEDIEVAL DYNASTY -- Early alpha first-person medieval peasant simulator. This game is not nearly finished; there's plenty of jank, a lot of content is still being worked on, and everything is subject to change; but it's darn pretty and I appreciate the draw of carving out your own little home from the medieval Polish wilderness. That feeling when you come across a place in the wild and think "This would make a good camp" -- this game triggers that a lot.
More to come.