GameTech: The six biggest video games of 2020
Games that provided talking points in 2020 included Among Us, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Cyberpunk 2077, and the Spy Within section of Fortnite.
The great thing about gaming machines is they have a reset button. When something goes wrong, you can just hit the switch and reboot. We can’t do that for 2020, so instead let’s take a look back on the biggest games of the year – the games that kept us going.
If you’re reading this, then that means we trust you. Don’t worry, come closer. We promise you can trust us too. For a game about tension and paranoia, Among Us was a surprising salve for the craziness of 2020. Parents might initially have been concerned to hear their children openly talking about ‘knowing who the killer was’ or even doing the killing themselves, but Among Us is a pleasantly social game at heart, a kind of hide and seek in plain sight, where people got to exercise their social muscles (and their mischievous side) in a year of restrictions.
Fall Guys is the Black Friday of video games, the antithesis of lockdown. Sixty players start a game bunched closely together, stampeding towards a finish line, falling over each other in the crowd. Although the numbers eventually dwindle to a single winner, there’s no doubt that the success of Fall Guys was partly down to it feeling like a virtual crowd simulator, during a time when crowds are no longer allowed. It also helped that Fall Guys is a very silly experience, where skill is less important than patience and laughter. Alongside Among Us, this was the biggest breakout game of 2020.
From the breakout games to the broken game. Forget tumbling in Fall Guys, because nothing fell harder in 2020 than the reputation of CD Project Red. Cyberpunk was intended to be their masterpiece. Instead, it has become one of gaming’s most disastrous ever launches. As of writing, less than two weeks since release, Cyberpunk 2077 has been pulled from the PlayStation Store, refunds offered on console versions, CD Project’s stock has fallen by almost half, and reports indicate that investors are consider class-action lawsuits for ‘materially misleading information’. Many people are still enjoying Cyberpunk, but there’s no doubt it released in poor state and customers were let down. A sad moment for what should have been a classic game.
Love it or hate it, Fortnite is the world’s greatest babysitter. Sure, that babysitter never seems to stop changing their outfits, buying new bling, or ranting about rotation and exotics – and they are a little obsessed with weapons - but boy do they connect with kids, of all ages. We all needed a babysitter this year, so no complaints that Fortnite continued to be ever-evolving, entertaining and reliably consistent. Most recently, we’ve even started to enjoy the crossover content, hunting down the Mandalorian in the sand, or trying Fortnite’s take on Among Us, called The Spy Within.
Take us back to 1997, when things were simpler! (Except give us fast wifi. And smartphones. And easy food delivery. And Zoom.) On second thoughts, perhaps we’ll stay in the present after all? Final Fantasy VII did the impossible. It took us back to the past, but with all the benefits of modernity. It revived an all-time classic, with the graphics, gameplay and presentation expected from current-day audiences. Most importantly, Final Fantasy VII Remake lived up to its name – because the story was also remade, with massive implications for the sequel. In a year where big games were disappointing, the most unlikely candidate exceeded our expectations.
Many moons ago, we remember thinking games like Animal Crossing were pointless. Why spend your time building a life in sleepy virtual villages, performing menial tasks like gardening, fishing, collecting curios, doing odd jobs? If there was no end game, what was the motivation? But as the years went on, these games brought a welcome, more chilled out audience to gaming – and in 2020, that audience expanded massively. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a joyful life simulator, in which cuddly animal-people build their ideal communities on a beautiful island. If nothing else, it’s a reminder of how life should feel when done right – and something to aim for in 2021.
