Summary
With Game of the Year (GOTY) awardsstretching back nearly as long as video games have been an industry, there’s a variety of genres and experiences waiting for the player. Lauded as the best of the best, these are the games that should have the best chance of beating the trend of most players not completing video games.
So, looking at The Game Awards, The Game Developer’s Choice Awards, the British Video Game Awards, and The Golden Joystick Awards, which GOTY games have the highest completion rates?
The research for these completion rates comes from Steam Achievements, Xbox Achievements, and PSN Trophies. Games outside these sites were left out. When faced with multiple completion rates on different consoles, we took the sample from the consoles with the highest number of players reporting.
10Batman: Arkham Asylum
44 Percent Via PSN Trophies (PS3)
The first of the Batman games created by Rocksteady (and one by WB Games Montréal), this game not onlyset the tone for the Arkham seriesbut also raised the bar for DC video games. You take on the role of Batman, battling your way through the iconic, and twisted, Arkham Asylum, taking on the most famous members of his rogues' gallery.
The completion rate getting above 40 percent shows how good the game is at guiding you through its dark story.
It may be a surprise to see a game known for being difficult have a higher completion rate, but it isn’t the only one. Maybe this can be explained by the fact that if you go into a game knowing it’s difficult, that probably means you’re also determined to beat it. Isn’t it also great players that are seeking out challenges?
Sekiro is a game that trains you to play it the more you do. It requires a high level of precision to best pursue your path to vengeance, and it, clearly, is a game that keeps you trying until you do finally succeed.
Despite being one of the games that inspiredan entire genre due to its difficulty,Dark Souls 2 has a completion rate of nearly 50 percent. Again, maybe this means that players self-select out, and in, leaving more people ready to actually take on these challenges.
Of course, there’s something invigorating about failing only to make it through, and Dark Souls certainly gives you that high. It’s also beautifully designed, and it allows you to make your own way through, both of which are incentives to keep moving even when you want to quit.
A short game, at only two hours, you don’t play Journey alone. In fact, one of the unique features of the game is how it throws strangers together in a way that has the two of you bonding over the course of your, well, journey.
One gorgeous landscape, and a memorable protagonist, later, and you’ve got the recipe for the higher completion rate. Because of the function of helping each other, this gamealsoencourages replay, and there is probably a pretty good chance that if you’ve beat it once, you’ll go back and help someone else do the same.
The first game in this series had a very low completion rate, but clearly, the developers learned a few lessons between games in order to better balance the game play and story. You take up the roles of Ellie and Abby inthe same post-apocalyptic, zombie setting(and you’re no longer tasked with keeping track of an NPC).
The Last of Us takes about 24 hours to play, and it has a variety of game mechanics, neither of which make the game easy to beat. Instead, it seems like people want to reach the end of the game on the strength of the story, and the game play isn’t standing in the way of that but facilitating it.
A remake, this version of Resident Evil 2 had the benefit of both a well-received classic game and over a decade of feedback from players. With this in mind, the developers decided to not only update the graphics, but also re-imagine the story and game play.
you may play the game as either Leon or Claire, and this already gives you some options if you don’t like one or the other on the first go. Fans of the series, and those filled with nostalgia for the classic version, no doubt gives a boost to this remake, wanting to experience that same Resident Evil magic again.
Blending mythology, combat, and strong character writing, God of War is a beloved series as much for the combat sequences as for the strength of the main character, Kratos. This game improves on both. It explores that character further, juxtaposing him with his son, and makes some small adjustments to the combat system.
Sequels can be disappointing, but God of War lives up to the original with a completion rate of 50 percent.
Based on a simple puzzle-solving mechanic that gets more complex each level, Portal earned its popularity through snappy writing and clever design that isn’t recreated in any other game. Each of the levels build on each other, making progress feel as natural as disobeying GLaDOS.
The game’s popularity is self-perpetuating. The more people talk about its iconic moments, the more new players will want to make their way through the game themselves.
A breakout indie game that tackles the idea of grief, storytelling, and the power of carrying on, it would be very difficultnotto finish What Remains of Edith Finch. A walking simulator, you literally just have to keep moving forward in order to get to the end. This no doubt helps with over half of the people who start the game also finishing it.
It does, also, obviously, have a very engaging story that makes the two-and-a-half hour length fly by. If you have the time to watch a movie, you may probablyknock out this game in one sitting.
Coming hot off the success of the first game, and taking the feedback on it into consideration, you continue Commander Shepard’s story, the developers concerned with making sure the RPG elements and shooting elements blended together.
With only 27 percent of peoplenotbeating Mass Effect 2, the game has an impressive claim to fame as not only GOTY but also a game the majority of players do complete. And this is especially no easy feat with how many players this game has. This rate is from the PS4, which means that it continues to retain players no matter where it’s ported to.
