The Best Games of 2020: Hades, Animal Crossing, and More

As another year comes to an end, we take a look back at the best games to come out of 2020. Although it was a terrible year for a lot of reasons, we did get to play a few fantastic new games. Here’s our picks below…

2020. What a year. There’s not a lot to be said other than we’re glad it’s coming to an end, for the most part.

Amongst the countless negatives, video games and gaming in general have proven to be more important than ever as many people looked to their console for entertainment and escape.

Here at Gamezo, we’ve been hotly debating the best games to come out in 2020. We were considering a Top 10 for a long time. However, 2020 has brought about so many different, truly incredible, gaming experiences… Well, we couldn’t decide on a winner!

So, without much more ado, we’re going into it… In no particular order…

Best Games of 2020 ( In No Particular Order!)

2020 managed to finally take us to Night City, Verdansk, Fuedal Japan, and even our very own deserted islands! Wherever you were stuck during the pandemic and lockdown, there was somewhere for you to escape to… Here’s where we here at Gamezo enjoyed spending our time the most.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

This year, for many of us, Animal Crossing: New Horizons released into the perfect storm. Just as the Stay At Home order was given for so many of us, Animal Crossing: New Horizons offered us an escape from our homes.

With a number of rewarding gameplay mechanics, enough new features to improve on the last AC, and Seasonal Events… It’s hard to deny Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn’t a hell of a lot of fun. It’s adorable, addictive, and deservedly one of the best games of 2020.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the highest rated game of the series, according to Metacritc, and won GotY at the Japan Game Awards.

Hades

Hades is the surprise hit of 2020 and undoubtedly should be regarded as one of the best titles of the year. It follows Zagreus, son of Hades, as he attempts to escape the Underworld and reach Mount Olympus. From it’s wonderful hack-and-slash gameplay to it’s incredible art style, Hades has wowed players around the world this year and deserves a spot amongst the games on this list despite it being an indie title.

Supergiant Games’ Hades is built on the experimentation of Pyre and uses roguelike features to keep it fresh and allowing them to incorporate branching narratives that makes no playthrough the same as the last. Like any roguelike title, it has a unique respawn feature that even makes each life different from the last!

Hades won Best Indie Game and Critic’s Choice at the Golden Joystick Awards and Best Indie and Best Action at The Game Awards 2020.

Fall Guys

Mediatonic’s chaotic party game almost-literally exploded onto our screens when it launched in August. Drawing inspiration from game shows like Takeshi’s Castle and Total Wipeout, Fall Guys pushed people to their bean-limits in a fierce and funny contest for Golden Crowns.

Launching as a free PS Plus title, it quickly became the most-downloaded monthly PS Plus game ever! It also sold over 2 million copies on steam in it’s first week of launch. It’s safe to say it is a popular title; it’s lucky there’s a good reason behind it! Aside from it’s wonderful aesthetic, Fall Guys is easy to play but hard to master making it a fantastic game to kill time with for all ages.

Fall Guys won Best Multiplayer Game and Best Family Game at the Golden Joystick Awards 2020 and Best Community Support at The Game Awards 2020.

Minecraft Dungeons

Minecraft Dungeons is the strangely perfect melding of Minecraft, one of the most popular games of all time, and dungeon-crawling, an ever-popular gameplay feature. So, it’s safe to say this was going to be good.

Admittedly, it is a fairly simple dungeon-crawler but that adds to it’s charm. It embodies everything wonderful about Minecraft and dabbles enough in the common features of an RPG to make it as engaging as it is fun to relax with.

It was nominated for Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2020.

Ghost of Tsushima

Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima is a triumph of a game in every way. It follows Jin Sakai, a complex protagonist, as he fights against the very Samurai Training and Code he lives by in order to save his island from Mongol invasion.

It’s combat is a superb variation on the traditional open-world RPG gameplay, with the island of Tsushima offering itself to be a stunning environment to fight in. Although some found criticism in it’s open-world activities, what activities there are are charming and enjoyable. Ghost of Tsushima offered gamers an exciting insight into the life of a Samurai and, through a stellar cast, is one of the best games of the PlayStation 4 generation.

Ghost of Tsushima won Best Art Direction and Player’s Voice at The Game Awards 2020, and Game of the Year at the Famitsu Awards.

Call of Duty: Warzone

Despite the Battle Royale genre being a bloated corner of many player’s libraries, Call of Duty: Warzone brought the expert gunplay and fantastic narrative of Modern Warfare into the market spectacularly. Warzone launched in March and since then has been subject to an incredible array of free content additions, new Operators, and new weapons.

Warzone follows the traditional Battle Royale gameplay formula largely, but it stands apart from it’s competitors with Weapon Loadouts, Killstreaks, and the infamous Gulag. Like any competitive shooter, Warzone is addictive for a whole lot of reasons and it’s hard to deny that it wasn’t one of the best titles to release this year.

Call of Duty: Warzone won Esports Game of the Year at the 2020 Golden Joystick Awards.

The Last Of Us Part II

One of the most anticipated titles of the year, The Last of Us Part II did little to disappoint those waiting. It continues on several years after the first Last of Us title and pulls us back into the chaotic post-apocalyptic world that was created. It holds a number of harsh truths and important lessons throughout it’s thrilling narrative and is undeniably a truly fantastic title.

The Last of Us Part II is graphically beyond compare. Although it draws on many of the gameplay features of it’s predecessor, it fine-tunes these and makes for a challenging title with a narrative that keeps you hooked throughout. On top of all this, Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson return to their roles as Joel and Ellie to give standout performances amongst a truly epic line-up of secondary characters.

The Last of Us Part II won Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Innovation in Accessibility, Best Action/ Adventure and Best Performance ( with Laura Bailey as Abby ) at The Game Awards 2020. It also won a lot of the same awards at the Golden Joystick Awards and the Titanium Awards.

Genshin Impact

Despite the criticism for it’s similarities to Breath of the Wild, Genshin Impact is a fantastic title in it’s own right. Set in the sprawling and ever-expanding world of Teyvat, Genshin Impact has players take control of a lost twin in search of their sibling in a battle against the Gods and their elements. It’s beautifully stylised and offers an insane amount of gameplay for a free-to-play title.

Genshin Impact‘s gear and equipment system isn’t the most in-depth, but the ability to play near-simultaneously as a curated team of four characters makes it’s gameplay enough of a strategical experience to keep it fresh well-after the opening fights.

Genshin Impact was downloaded over 17 million times during it’s first week of launch and has quickly become one of the highest-grossing mobile games in history.

Cyberpunk 2077

Okay, we know Cyberpunk 2077 has had a less-than-optimal launch but it’s hard to deny that amongst the bugs and glitches it is a fantastic game! It is one of the hottest titles to launch in the last few years and the sheer slew of content it comes with does not disappoint.

Cyberpunk 2077 has players take control of V, a fully-customizable player-character, and throws you into the deep end of Night City. Its gunplay is fun and fluid and its RPG features run as deep as they did in The Witcher III. It truly is a feast for the eyes and for anyone looking for a new open-world title to jump into it’s definitely worth a go….if you’re on a PC.

Cyberpunk 2077 won Best PC Game, Best Role-Playing Game, Best of Gamescom, Gamescom “Most Wanted” Consumer Award, and Best Sony PlayStation Game at the Gamescom Awards 2020.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

We know it’s a remake, but it rightfully deserves to be on this list for a whole number of reasons. Final Fantasy VII is one of the best in the series, an iconic entry that many have played multiple times. When you compare the original 1997 release to the FFVII Remake, though… It’s insane. It feels wholly new yet also brings about so many of the same emotions, the same excitement, as the original.

FFVII Remake has players back at the helm of Cloud Strike, fighting against Shinra to save the world, but updates almost everything about the game to raise it the high standards 2020 releases have. It’s gameplay truly wonderful, and similar to the more-recent entries in the series, and it’s graphically insane.

Final Fantasy VII Remake won Best RPG and Best Score/ Music at The Game Awards 2020 and won IGN Japan’s Game of the Year Award.

There you have it! The Gamezo Team’s picks for the Best Games of 2020! Whatever your preference, we hope you enjoyed playing games this year and we hope that you have a wonderful 2021. Happy New Year!

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