It’s that time of the year yet again, a time to reflect and write mostly pointless lists because they’re fun. Yup, it’s my top 5 games of 2024, ranked based on absolutely no scientific criteria.
I admit, though, that I didn’t play as much as I wanted to this year and missed out on quite a few big hitters. So when I was browsing back through the games I have reviewed and played this year, it felt lacking. I did play a number of older titles, but I’m keeping this list strictly to games released this year.
So without further ado, here’s the top 5 games of 2024 that I enjoyed the most in no particuilar order.
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2
Picking up a Warhammer branded videogame can be like flipping a coin, except one side is shiny and golden and the other side is covered in monkey pop and HIV. But by the Emperor, Space Marine 2 is one of the best licensed Warhammer games, right up there with the likes of Dawn of War, and I’m angry at myself for not reviewing it.
Basically, you’re a human-shaped tank, a mountain of a genetically modified super-human clad in massive armour that lets you run straight through lesser beings in a shower of gore. Even walking feels satisfying because of the sense of weight and power that the developers have imbued Titus with. Every step feels like a seismic event.
That sense of powers carries through to the meaty combat where thousands of angry little Tyranid burst out of every corner of the level and swarm over you like the world’s ugliest tsunami. But you can wade through the mass of flesh, swinging a chain sword like the wrath of God made manifest in battle armour and pure spite. It just feels so right. The thump, thump, thump of your boltgun is the icing on the blood-flavoured cake.
Really, the game’s biggest strength is also probably the reason some people won’t like it – Space Marine 2 feels a lot like an Xbox 360 game that’s been transported through time. It’s a straightforward action game with minimal bells and whistles, and sometimes that can leave it feeling a bit archaic or lacking in polish. Linear levels with little room to move around, some rough transitions and so on can make it seem like the game is caught in a time warp.
But it’s those things that make it so enjoyable to me. It’s a balls-to-the-wall shooter, unafraid to be exactly what is: simple, fun, uncomplicated double-A action that revels in the comedic seriousness of the Warhammer 40k universe.
Astro Bot
When I was a kid I loved wholesome stories where right and wrong were clearly divided, where good would ultimately triumph, love would conquer all and everything was colourful and fun. As I grew into a teenager and then into an adult, I craved what I deemed “mature” stories where right and wrong were not so clear, where morality was muddied, characters were complex and imperfect, and good didn’t always win the day. Now, though, at the ripe old age of 32, I find myself going back to those happier, simpler experiences. We live in a world we talk all the time but never communicate, where right and wrong aren’t very clear, where everyone needs to have an opinion on everything and entire friendships and families must be destroyed based on them. It’s nice to go back to something wholesome, happy and pure.
Pure. That’s a good word for Astro Bot. It doesn’t care about your politics, your religion, your creed, your race, your gender identity or your opinion on whatever celebrity bullshit is currently blowing up social media. It just wants you to have fun, and it does that through rich, vibrant graphics, plenty of platforming shenanigans and an endless supply of charm so strong that it may have to be made illegal lest its power be used for evil.
Does it rival the Mario franchise? Tough to say, and even harder to judge. Mario has years of nostalgia behind it, and it’s hard to separate the quality of the games themselves from that feeling of warmth and love that my brain automatically generates as soon as it glimpses the iconic red hat and moustache. And I ain’t talking about Santa, baby.
It doesn’t matter, though, because there’s plenty of room for Mario and Astro to co-exist. PlayStation does a lot of amazing games but they have some big gaps in terms of genre and Astro neat fills one of them. And who knows, considering we have a PlayStation published game on the Nintendo Switch, maybe an Astro bot and Mario crossover isn’t impossible?
Indiana Jones & The Great Circle
Read my review of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Xbox as we know it is in the midst of some massive changes. Hardware sales are in decline, games are being ported to other platforms and the whole brand seems to be shifting toward becoming the globe’s biggest 3rd party publisher. But while out that chaos is swirling around it’s easy to forget that Xbox has a lot of talented studios working away in the background creating a potentially very strong line-up for the future.
In a world full of massive IPs resurrecting Indiana Jones, which hasn’t exactly been going from strength to strength, might not sound like a good move on paper and yet that’s exactly what Microsoft and MachineGames did.
I said it in the review, and it’s absolutely a horrid cliché, but Indiana Jones and The Great Circle genuinely does make you feel like the good doctor himself, venturing through underground tombs and punching Nazis in the face. The first-person view sounds like an odd choice at first but MachineGames quickly proves that it was the perfect decision as you keeps you immersed in the world and gameplay.
I was also surprised by how much of a focus on stealth there was. Most of the time pulling a gun or trying to square up to the Nazis was a bad idea and would get Indy quickly swamped.
Going into it I thought Indiana Jones was probably going to be a solid but forgettable licensed game, doomed to fade away unto the annals of history where it could be inevitably be dug up by an archaeologist with a whip strapped to his belt and a hat on his head. But boy was I wrong. Indiana Jones is an exciting adventure full of fun puzzles, stealth, brawls, excellent cutscenes and terrific acting.
Really, though, the best part of the game is how well it captures the look and feel of the models. Troy Baker’s brilliant performance as Indy certainly helps, but it’s far more than that – the camera angles, the music and the humour all mirror the trllogy.
Helldivers 2
Read my review of Helldivers 2
For a few months there it seemed like the entire world had been drawn into Helldivers 2. Everybody was playing it, everybody was fighting in the great galactic war against the endless bug tide and robo-bastards. But the most amazing thing is we all joined in with the roleplaying, gleefully talking to each other like it was all real, absorbed into the crazy comedy of fascist Super Earth and its propaganda. To their credit, developer X stuck with the idea, extending the games lore to the real world, putting out game updates like they were in-universe news broadcasts, constantly teasing upcoming content and additions, randomly dropping stuff into the game and letting word spread among players who were busy debating whether it was real or what it could mean. Clever stuff.
The funny thing is, Helldivers 2 is a very simple game. Like, you get dropped onto a map with a few other people and told to complete a handful of basic objectives while fighting through hordes of enemy bugs or robots. It’s not complicated stuff. That’s the fun of it though: the matches ramp up in intensity, the enemies get bigger and tougher and before long it feels like you’re in an epic war movie making a desperate last stand against a endless tide of monsters and terminators. It’s amazing with friends, but even when you play with strangers who don’t have a microphone, an unspoken bond is formed in the midst of chaos and carnage, a brotherhood forged in fire and gore. It’s glorious. And then somebody calls in an airstrike a little too close and blows you the fuck up like you’re an Acme firework factory worker who forgot that smoking on the job was a bad idea.
Admittedly, I haven’t gone back to the game in a while. I had to move on and play other things. But I do know over the last month the game has seen another huge surge in players, and the consensus seems to be that it’s in a great place, which has me wanting to strap my armour back on and defend Super Earth once again.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Read my review of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Low sales and a general lack of interest have seemingly all but guaranteed that we won’t be getting a sequel to The Lost Crown and that’s a fucking travesty because this was a fantastic metroidvania.
In all honesty it probably didn’t get much from having the Prince of Persia moniker plastered all over it. The name doesn’t mean a great deal these days, and the game didn’t have much to do with the universe anyway. I mean, you don’t even play as the titular prince. Really, the only connections are that you mess about with time control, swing a sword and run up walls. Then again, without the name The Lost Crown might have had an even harder time finding an audience, especially given Ubisoft’s currently crumbling position within the industry.
The gameplay is where The Lost Crown shines. It feels brilliant to play thanks to the snappy controls. The large map gradually opens up satisfyingly as you unlock new upgrades, the combat is excellent and the platforming/puzzle solving is great, too. A somewhat forgettable story holds the game back a wee bit, but it’s not really a problem. I’d put The Lost Crown up there with some of the best games in the genre and highly recommend checking it out.
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