When 2024 began, it was widely accepted that it would be a “bad gaming year.” There would still be games that people got excited about, but there was no way it could compare to 2023. Last year gave usBaldur’s Gate 3,Alan Wake 2,The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,Spider-Man 2,Hi-Fi Rush,Street Fighter 6,Dead Space,Resident Evil 4,Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and many more. How could this year compete?
I don’t know if you noticed, but all the games I mentioned above were major releases. This is what it normally takes to make a year in gaming rise to the level of GOAT consideration: a lot of big, expensive games from large studios that are well-received by critics and audiences. 2017, the last year that generated this kind of talk, similarly had Breath of the Wild, NieR: Automata, Horizon Zero Dawn, Prey, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Super Mario Odyssey, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, Resident Evil 7, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Splatoon 2, Injustice 2, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Destiny 2, and Fortnite.
2024 Has Been A Weaker Year For Triple-A Games
On those terms, 2024 just can’t compete. There have been afewgreat triple-A games this year —Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealthis thehighest-rated game in the long-running series, andShadow of the Erdtreebrought hordes of players back toElden Ring— but largely, 2024 hasn’t delivered at that level.Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthis fun, but itsweird half-open-world designmakes it a step down from Remake. And others, likeRise of the RōninandHellblade 2, have come and gone without much fanfare. Later this year will also see the likes ofIndiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed,Astro Bot,Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and many more. So there is still plenty to come, but even then, will it match up to previous all-timer line-ups?
That brings me to theactualreason why 2017 was probably the greatest gaming year of all time: triple-A games weren’t all that came out. Indie games constantly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, to fill the gaps between big releases. What Remains of Edith Finch gave us one of thebest levels of the century so far. Butterfly Soup had some of my favorite writing ever in a game. Night in the Woods is the rare actual LOL-worthy video game. Observer evokes the cyberpunk mood better than just about anything I’ve ever played. PlayerUnknown’s Battleground introduced the world to battle royale. Pyre was an excellent Supergiant game before the excellent Supergiant game that put the studio on the mainstream map.Hollow Knightis widely considered one of the best Metroidvanias of all time. Cuphead is one of the most stylistic games of all time.
But Indie Games Stepped Up
It was a killer year because it didn’t rely entirely on the heavy hitters. If, say, you weren’t a fan of Horizon Zero Dawn’s approachable RPG design, Torment: Tides of Numenera offered hardcore role-playing crunchinesson the very same day. A truly great gaming year delivers those kinds of choices, something that will wow casual players and something that will keep the genre obsessives busy for months.
2024 isn’t looking like a great triple-A year. But, it has already been a great year for indies. My favorite games, likeAnger FootandCrow Country, have all been from small developers, and each is either doing something new and fresh or iterating on something old in an interesting way. I still need to put more time intoIndikaand Nobody Wants To Die, but those games have impressed me in their first halves.Balatrois killer. People swear by 1000X Resist. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes seems cool. I still want to try Dungeons of Hinterberg and Flock and Still Wakes the Deep and Phantom Fury and a bunch of other cool games from small teams. 2024 has a deep bench and, as long as devs keep making indies, it’s hard to imagine a year where that isn’t the case.
