Although many of us have had plenty of time to game due to the nature of 2020, I've actually had a pretty busy year. It's been a little irritating, actually—this year has been amazing for games, and I haven't consumed half of what I want to. Still, I've managed to carve out the time to sink hours into the most promising ones, because how could I not?
These are the games that sucked me away from real life when it was often a necessary escape, and kept me there for a long time. They're the games I'll for sure go back to in the future, and play through the post-game or replay the entire story.
Honorable Mentions
Of all the games released this year, it was actually pretty difficult to pick a top three—even with the whole roster of games I've yet to play. So, here are the honorable mentions—the games that I sank hours into and loved, but didn't quite get me as invested as the ones at the top of the list.
- Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition
- Final Fantasy 7 Remake
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
- Hades
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Demon's Souls
3. Cyberpunk 2077
I know, I know—but the bugs. Let me start out by saying I have a significant advantage for a console player, as I actually played this on PS5 after weeks of hitting refresh on the Sony homepage to score one. So my PS4 didn't have to undergo the burden of all this graphical weight, and I got to go into it without the desire to ragequit as my character was set 500 feet back every hour or so, or their clothes disappeared.
Cyberpunk 2077 was, honestly, the immersive world I wanted to lose myself in. It's not perfect by any means, but it gets third place because it's exactly what I needed. I love morally grey characters like V and Johnny Silverhand, which set me up for a pretty good time all through this game. I'm not usually a sidequester—I'm a 'do the main quest first because I get too excited to see what's going to happen in the story' kind of gamer—but I found myself spending hours doing... well, I won't spoil. But essentially, some pretty interesting branches of the story that were not all required to reach an ending.
2. The Last Of Us Part 2
The Last Of Us Part 2 won Game of the Year for a reason. It's a little controversial amongst gamers, and I've yet to put my finger on why. Sure, it's a different feel from the first game and it almost plays like a movie but it's stunning, emotional, and unpredictable. Even if it's not what you expected from the second installment of the game, how could you not love it?
As well as morally grey protagonists, I love characters that really make you doubt your initial opinion. Give me heroes turned villains and villains that make you unwillingly sympathize with them any day, and—well, it becomes pretty obvious why I was invested in TLOU2.
1. Persona 5: Royal
I had friends recommending Persona 5 for so long, and it didn't seem like my type of game. The main story is many, many hours long, and didn't strike me as interesting enough to want to invest that kind of time in it. I decided to give it a go, though.
It was so good, I stopped playing around thirty hours in so I could wait for Royal instead. That was a good decision.
The story of Persona 5: Royal is just so enchanting. The layers of fantasy, the Metaverse, how invested you become in each Phantom Thief. I have to say, my love for Joker is off the charts, and I'm not sure how that even happened considering he doesn't speak. Every time the clock rolled forward to him alone in that interview room in serious trouble, my stomach churned. Pretty impressive for a character who I think says, maybe, three words in the whole game.
It's a hard year to pick a favorite, but the work that went into Persona 5: Royal has to place it above all the rest.