Edward Lee Explains Why 2023 Was The Terrible Year Full Of Incredible Games | Winter Spectacular 2023

I wasn’t sure what I should write about for the startmenu Winter Spectacular.  I fancied making a list, but I also wanted to ramble about the industry at large and my own experience. I’ve decided to smash both together.  It is a Winter Spectacular, after all!  2023 has been a massive year for video games.  You can’t scroll for long without someone reminding you.  We really have been spoiled with an absurd number of quality games, but for every game that goes green on Metacritic, there’s a correlating story elsewhere that isn’t exactly cause for celebration.  

It’s impossible to ignore the industry-wide issues that feel like they have hit harder than ever before in 2023.  Almost every year-in-review I’ve read so far mentions it. Lay-offs are hitting major studios and publishers once thought of as the most secure places to work, with those in the trenches thoughtlessly cut because of the blunders of untouchable executives. I’m no financial expert, but the video games industry is gigantic, and when publishers are constantly bragging about games breaking sales records, surely there’s a way to ensure that those who have worked hard on all these different titles have even the smallest amount of job security? It frustrates me greatly.

Live service games have also been shutting down left, right and centre.  Many have set out to create their own version of Fortnite or Destiny, but live service games take up players' time, and there aren’t enough players around with enough free hours in the day for every single studio’s attempt at a living, breathing game.  I currently have Mortal Kombat 1, Call of Duty and a little bit of Destiny 2 on my live service plate, and I accepted long ago that I wouldn’t be able to complete every activity and unlock every reward in any one of these anymore.  By embracing FOMO and rejecting it, we can all become stronger.  It is no surprise that Sony seems to be pivoting away from its live service mandate before we experienced a single one of the rumoured twelve(!) games it had in development.

The damage also extends to the broader industry as media outlets have slashed their video game coverage, resulting in further lay-offs, and many independent journalists and podcasters have had to readjust business practices to make ends meet. It seems like the worst possible time to look at starting a career in the video games industry.  So, of course, I signed up.

I started publishing my writing around the Summer.  Since then, I’ve earned my first byline, am writing more consistently, and have become more comfortable with sharing my writing (something that has held me back for many years).  I also found a great community in startmenu.  Everyone has always been happy to help and answer any questions.  It’s cliche stuff, but everyone is on the same team. Thanks to Lex and the rest of the gang! #NotAnAD

As much as I’d love to rack up the word count, with a year like 2023, there’s just not enough time to discuss every game I played.  So many great new releases came out this year, and there was also the inevitability that other games (be it backlog, the need for a nostalgia hit, or a reasonable sales price) that would end up on my periphery.  So, rather than a formal list, I’ve decided to cover all my highlights as swiftly as possible. 

I completed the Power Wash Simulator campaign for the umpteenth time, this time on Nintendo Switch.  In addition, the continued support for the game through free and paid DLC expansions meant there were all sorts of things to wash pixel by pixel.  Keep ‘em coming, FuturLab!

I’ve made significant headway in Person 4 Golden, which has been a fantastic experience.  Persona 5 Royal is one of my all-time favourites, but at this rate, it may no longer be my favourite Persona game.  The small-town aesthetic strikes me harder than Tokyo in Persona 5.

With Modern Warfare III, Call of Duty feels like an arcade shooter again and less like the quasi-tactical shooter that Infinity Ward insists on trying to make.  Modern Warfare Zombies is a thrilling prelude to next year’s Call of Duty, which will likely have a massive Zombies presence with Treyarch being the rumoured lead developer.  The less said about the Campaign though, the better. 

Fishing and inventory management are two of the most satisfying side activities/ mechanics in video games.  Dredge skillfully implements both and sends you out on a boat to explore a mysterious archipelago that gets more dangerous at night.  It's a great wee game that is still receiving support, with more DLC to come! I’m excited to see what Black Salt Games does next.

I’ve had quite the taste for fighting games this year, splitting my time between Mortal Kombat 1 and Street Fighter 6.  Street Fighter has more to do with World Tour being a robust single-player mode that helped a scrub like me learn the basics, but I prefer Mortal Kombat’s gameplay and characters.  I’m a strictly offline fighting game player, and I doubt that’ll change, so hopefully, MK1 can continue to improve its Invasions mode, which has gradually been getting better season by season.

While I liked Breath of the Wild, I didn’t enjoy it as much as others. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom resolved virtually every pain point I had with it and introduced a medley of new features.  Exploring the Hyrule Depths was a highlight, with an almost survival game-like feel, and all the building puzzles were a great showcase of the ultrahand power.   It still amazes me that the game runs on the exceedingly long-in-the-tooth Nintendo Switch.

Many expected Tears of the Kingdom to be the Nintendo Switch’s swansong, but Nintendo, as it often does, had other plans: a flurry of quality titles launched throughout the second half of the year, and I had a great time with Pikmin 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Super Mario RPG.  It’s remarkable how strong the Switch is still going, but it’s time for new hardware, and I expect a momentous 2024 for Nintendo. I will become insufferable if we haven’t heard about a new console by March.  Please, Furukawa-san, we all know it’s happening.  Just pull the trigger!

I’d be remiss if I failed to mention Baldur’s Gate 3.  I need to return and finish the game (I’m somewhere in Act II), but having completed the first act alone is enough time to know Larian Studios deserve huge props on what it has accomplished.  It’s a game where choices actually matter, and you have countless ways to approach every situation.  The combat system loses me a little when fights go on for too long, but it’s clear I’m in the minority on that one.  

Following a rebrand in January, there is no better time to jump in if you’ve not played the modern Hitman trilogy, now collectively known as Hitman: World of Assassination.  There are thousands of hours to be spent across sprawling maps, each with unique assassination opportunities and a mastery level that rewards creativity and repeat playthroughs, as well as a near-infinite amount of content via user-created assassination contracts and the rogue-like Freelancer mode that also launched this year.

Spider-Man 2 is a lot of fun, and it improves upon the last two Insomniac Spider-Man games in quite a number of ways, but for a sequel surrounded by a massive amount of hype, it fell a little flat for me. It’s still absolutely worth playing, but I can’t deny that I enjoyed the first game more.  

Plagued by performance issues at launch, Star Wars: Jedi -Survivor has flown under the radar for many, which is unfortunate.  As a big Star Wars fan, I’m pleased to say the fantasy of creating your own lightsaber and using it to fight across the galaxy is fully realised here.  It’s a sequel that swings for the fences and improves upon its predecessor in almost every category.  Exploration has vastly improved, and I found myself wanting to return to the hub area on Koboh rather than being ordered back by the game itself.  Respawn has created a lovely little pocket of diverse characters in the Star Wars universe, and I hope it can continue to tell stories from Koboh and beyond.

I love a shadow drop.  That's especially true when said shadow drop is on Xbox Game Pass!  I’m not sure how interested I’d have been in Hi-Fi Rush otherwise, as I’m not usually a fan of beat-em-ups, but I’m glad I gave it a bash.  The rhythm-based mechanics are challenging to master, but the game is lenient enough that even those with no sense of rhythm can still have fun. As expected from a game like this, the music is excellent—a lively mix of original and licensed material makes the soundtrack perfect Chai and Co.’s romp through Vandelay Technologies.  The story, characters and visuals all scream Saturday morning cartoon in the best way possible. It’s light-hearted and amusing and a lovely contrast to many other games on this list.  It doesn’t always have to be monsters and existential crises – we can have fun too! Although Scotland doesn’t exist in the world of Hi-Fi Rush, I’m claiming Korsica as one of our own.  Another Scottish icon to add to the list, folks. 

I nearly forgot about Dead Space.  It’s a shame because, any other year, this would have likely been in my Top 3.  It’s a testament to the quality of games this year rather than a slight at Dead Space.  Having never played the original, I was fortunate to experience the remake blind and what a rush it was.  The close-quarters combat is tense, focused, and highly satisfying (particularly when using the iconic Plasma Cutter).  Exploring the entirety of the USG Ishimura was incredible and conjured up the same feelings I first felt when exploring the Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil.  People tend to focus on inventory management and enemy design in Survival Horror, but exploring an interesting setting is just as – if not more – important.  You need a location that oozes ambience, and that’s what you get here.

Chants of Sennaar is a late entry to my list, but within 15 minutes of starting it up, I knew I had to include it.  Much like Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol, this is a deduction puzzler, a genre that’s quickly becoming my favourite. The satisfaction of working out the meaning of each word and progressing up the tower is a buzz that never gets old – though the later areas require a lot of patience and methodical puzzle-solving (something I can struggle with!).  The stealth elements help to break up the puzzles, but forgiving checkpoints ensure it never gets too frustrating.  The game also looks beautiful, even on Switch, with each tower level having a slightly different art style. The musical flourishes accompanying each puzzle's solution also make you feel like a God… until you make your way up a level and a character laughs at you in a language you don’t understand yet.

The biggest achievement of the Resident Evil 4 remake is that it keeps the action of the original while turning up the survival horror with more of an emphasis on inventory management and puzzles.  I enjoyed the original, but I much prefer my Resident Evil games to focus more on survival horror; therefore, this trumps the original.  Leon Kennedy is still cool as fuck, the previously bloated Island has been shortened, and the Plagas Arana (spider-like) enemies are even creepier.  The knife parry mechanic is a perfect fit and should be a series staple from now on.  Separate Ways launched in September and was worth the additional wait.  This was a huge step up from the original mode, with Ada fending off unique enemies, including the fan-favourite U-3 boss, which was missing from Leon’s campaign.  The entire package is modern Resident Evil at its absolute best.  Hopefully, Capcom can keep up its momentum, as it’s been on fire since Resident Evil 7.  

You know that feeling when you get really excited about something and completely give yourself over to the hype, only for it to disappoint you in the end? Thankfully, I don’t.  Alan Wake II is a miracle – in more ways than one. The original game resonated with me so firmly in 2010 that I was gutted when it was announced that a sequel wasn’t in development.  Yet here we are against all odds, thirteen years later, and I’m head over heels for the sequel, just like I was for the original.

I don’t want to get too deep into the woods for those who haven’t experienced it yet. Simply put, this game is Remedy operating on all cylinders.  The studio has always experimented with live-action, and Alan Wake II shows Remedy has finally landed on a format that switches between live-action, gameplay, cutscenes and scripted events with incredible confidence. 

The survival horror genre fits Alan Wake incredibly well, with a combat system inspired by a mix of the original Alan Wake and the Resident Evil remakes. The Metroidvania-like hub areas of Bright Falls, Watery, Cauldron Lake, and The Dark Place are breathtaking to explore and look. So. Damn. Good. The Writers Board / Mind Place mechanics used by dual protagonists Alan Wake and Saga Anderson mirror each other well, and it feels like Remedy is just scratching the surface of what these mechanics could do in the future. 

I’m still reeling from the twists and turns of the story and chewing on all of the lore.  While it might have taken thirteen years to coalesce, the Remedy Connected Universe has finally arrived. With it, we have a growing cast of fan-favourite characters Remedy can pick and choose from for future games.  While we know Control 2 is coming, we don’t know who will turn up.  I’m hoping we might be lucky enough to encounter a man in a red puffy jacket.

Remedy wasn’t content with just releasing a fantastic experience, though.  New Game Plus mode The Final Draft adds further context to many of The Dark Place's mysteries and features a new ending and all-new narrative content, including video diaries from a beloved familiar face.  Two DLC expansions are also on the way, as if Remedy even needed to ask if I wanted more.

So, there we have it.  I hope you enjoyed the whistle-stop tour of what I played in 2023.  The thing that excites me the most when looking back on it is the variety of games.  As much as the industry's business side is on fire right now, the sheer creativity on display from people from all walks of life means I’ll never stop believing that video games are the premier art form in the 21st century.  Sam Lake said it better than I ever could in his acceptance speech at The Game Awards:

“When more than 100 people believe in the same vision and build something out of it, we can make miracles, we can make art, and we can be more than the sum of our parts.  Our world today could use a bit more of that.”  

I hope everyone has a great New Year and that 2024 brings us all good health, happiness, and a new Nintendo console!