2024 review: part 1, games

Alli Grant Est. 6 minutes (1083 words)
year in review games 2024
Year in review of games! 2024 edition.

I still do these! I’ve actually been keeping the records still, more or less, so I do intend to backdate the posts for the missing gap years. What missing gap years, future reader? Exactly. Concern yourself not. These are the games I played in 2024, ordered roughly by date of first play, except for when my notes sucked.

2024! Well, you sure weren’t a 2023 in terms of gaming. That’s not a slight against you–Armored Core 6 was rough competition. That’s probably one of my favorite games of all time now, and for something to reach that list these days is pretty imp-no, no, Fields of Mistria, wait your turn, I’m writing over here-ahem, difficult. Now for some brief thoughts!

I was late to the Balatro party, which was my fault. I was not late to the Mistria party, which is the first game to say something in that genre since Stardew Valley. It’s still in early access, I’m still hedging my bets on it, but the promise is definitely there. It’s odd that the thing that it brings to the formula, more than anything, is writing. There is so much NPC dialog and so many scripted interactions that, at least in year one, I don’t know that you’ll see duplicates unless you actively go out of your way. The lack of automation and actual time investments required make specialization feel nice – an aspect that I’m sure will disappear with additional content updates, almost out of necessity, but the first update adding an upgradeable mount system makes me feel like not entirely. Fantastic game so far. Sun Haven is… fine. Not nearly as enjoyable.

Vampire Survivors Castlevania DLC is, quite possibly, the best DLC release any game has gotten at any point in history. If you enjoy Vampire Survivors, pick it up. If you enjoy Castlevania, pick it up. If you’re a fan of KEYGEN CHURCH, pick it up. It roughly doubles the size of the game, and unlike the other major DLC, it has the hilarious benefit of being able to add the “official” version of what the base game riffed on. My first thought was that it would make it feel samey. I was wrong. It’s difficult to describe how adding mechanics to a game so simple doesn’t mess everything up, but here we are, best ongoing game release of the year.

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is perfectly serviceable. I enjoyed it! The music is nice, the new zones are cute, story felt a little bit like some of it maybe should have been in the 7.1 branch, but it’s fine. Job balance changes certainly could have been better, and I’m not just saying that as a former Astrologian main. PVP job design, and the mechanics of Pictomancer, show they do know how to do it right. The first wave of expert dungeons were some of the most fun I’ve ever seen. I’m glad the stakes reset in terms of story escalation, and that the Warrior of Light is settling into the role of the traveler nicely.

Factorio: Space Age is the other big expansion release of the year as far as I’m concerned. I like it! It’s got what made Space Exploration (the mod) fun, but introduces a lot of interesting forced variety in playstyle. I do think either loaders or adjustable inserters should become a part of the base game alongside it now, but that might just be the result of being this deep into the Factorio experience. Vulcanus is probably my favorite planet – scaling up is just a blast there, it feels like a miniature Seablock. Fulgora’s inverted crafting tree was genius. Gleba exists. Heat management on Aquilo makes for a pretty unique challenge. To be more fair to Gleba, there’s a Gleba Reborn mod that very slightly tweaks the ore / nutrient rates, turning it into the same sort of logistics challenge as a burner only run. The idea is cool, the execution’s numbers could just use some work. Space platforms have so many fascinating logistical challenges. The engine enhancements to Factorio could be a blog post on their own, and the devs made about a hundred of them on the subject.

Yolk Heroes was a cute Tamagotchi-like. Necese (in brief, Rimworld + Terraria) got some fun updates over the course of being introduced to it, and I think the town management aspect is fun. Bakeru is a blast which I need to finish, because I never expected another Goemon style game to begin with, and who can say when I’ll get another. Creeper World IXE is not competing for my favorite entry in the series, but I’m enjoying my time with it. ATLYSS is a new classic-style “MMO” that is furry bait, said very affectionately. The full release of Mind over Magnet makes for a fun dose of platforming and puzzles every so often. Giving Terraria another shot now that I’ve distanced myself from its boss rush focus for a few years? I don’t regret it. They’ve fixed a lot of the issues I had during the initial transition to that. Kitsune Tails reminded me that I’m no longer at my “can beat Kaizo” levels of platformer performance.

I got back into DotA for a bit with a partner, I probably do regret that, but the game is still fun and has so much depth of mastery available to players. It’s one thing in something like a shooter, where someone smurfing into a lower ranked lobby just feels like someone aimbotting. Denies, map control, Roshan/Tormentor control, rune timing – if a player is on a different level, you can tell.

Whew. Okay. I think that’s all the thoughts I’ve got on them, and if I missed anything, I’ll just write an individual post. Onto the list!