At this point I’m stating the obvious when claiming that 2023 will go down in gaming history, as rarely before a year had this many high quality games that, presumably, will go down in history with a long-lasting legacy. 2007 pops to mind, maybe 2004 or 1997, but not much else. This year had it all: high quality first party games from all 3 console manufacturers, viral PC-centric hits, long-awaited sequels that met all expectations and beyond, brand new AAA IPs that immediately convinced us – on top of a barrage of incredible indie titles. Boiling it all down to 10 games was not at all easy, and I didn’t even have time to play some of the games this year that I could fully see entering my top 10 in retrospect. But it’s time to check out what I liked the most in 2023 and why, with a honourable mention to the game I ended up playing the most in this calendar year. Let’s go!
#10: Assassin’s Creed Mirage
For what it’s worth, the 10th spot of my list was a very narrow fight between the latest Assassin’s Creed and the new installment in Insomniac’s Spiderman games, both featuring compelling and good-looking open worlds to lose yourself in. And though I enjoyed both and are, well, quite hard to actually compare, I decided to give Assassin’s Creed Mirage the edge. By focusing on a more grounded and less expansive rendition of Baghdad and returning to a more stealthy approach, Basim’s adventure flew by for me, expanding smartly on the Asssassin’s Creed experience with a limited scope but quality game that serves as something that should be liked by fans of classic and modern games of the franchise alike. The actual story could have been more daring and memorable, but the virtual history tours these games give me are simply unprecedented, making it so that whenever an Assassin’s Creed comes out… chances are it makes my yearly top 10. Narrowly, this time, due to its limited scope.
#9: Quake 2
You’re reading this right, it’s 2023 and we just had an absolutely amazing remake/remaster of Quake 2, that brought the legendary shooter to pretty much all modern systems in a fantastic way. Revamped controls, new gameplay elements such as a compass, tons of new levels, a barrage of behind the scenes content and so much more. It’s yet another astonishing remodernization of a classic shooter from the 1990’s, probably even better than the first Quake’s or the original Doom games’. Do yourself a favour and play Quake 2, whether you have before or not.
#8: F1 23
In what is the only yearly game’s inclusion in my list this year (sorry Call of Duty, this ain’t your year), Codemasters’ new Formula 1 game hit plenty of right notes this year. First and foremost, the scripted story mode Braking Point is back and it’s better than ever, touching some surprisingly thought-provoking notes as well. And the general handling, race management with the addition of red flags and the brand new “F1 World” hub, make this year’s F1 the most addicive and replayable in a long while, one I kept going back to a lot this year.
#7: LEGO 2K Drive
The developers for this game certainly had a lot of expectations to live up to, since after its reveal everyone were comparing what they saw to absolute gaming legends. A new LEGO Island, they said. A LEGO version of the open world formula of Forza Horizon (familiar idea, huh?), they claimed. Mutating vehicles like in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, they noted. How do you live up to such wild comparisons? Apparently, this is how. LEGO 2K Drive is a smart and polished racing game with a cool and visually pleasant open world, tons of side activities, but also individual races with distinct identities and a surprisingly well-made worldbuilding and lore, with the voice of Will Arnett making everything LEGO even better as always. I personally had a blast with this one, and while it doesn’t have the long-term appeal of something like Forza Horizon 5, it oozes more than enough charm to be easily recommended to racing fans, LEGO fans and frankly anybody else.
#6: Scars Above
File this under my yearly “I have no clue why this one got such a mixed reception”. I mean, I get it: the production values certainly don’t compete with AAA behemoths, which in the case of a third person cinematic sci-fi adventure it certainly will pop out, with unfavourable comparisons to studios like Naughty Dog. But Scars Above is a game that manages to play its cards right, offering a compelling (if somewhat formulaic) sci-fi story with plenty of dark themes, combined with an element-based gameplay loop of exploring and fighting that felt satisfying and creative enough to make me push on, wanting to see and know more about this fascinating experience. Now that the game is getting regularly discounted, keep an eye on Scars Above – maybe check out my in-depth review for it, while you’re at it.
#5: Alan Wake 2
As I was playing the follow-up to Remedy’s cult classic Alan Wake, I thought it could even become my game of the year. After all, it has it everything: astonishing audiovisual presentation, a much improved gameplay, a gripping story and a cool dark unified lore that unites it with Remedy’s other games like Control and Max Payne and so much more. And the most impressive aspect of it all is that, throughout it’s almost 20 hours of story, it keeps managing to reinvent itself, bring creative ideas and evolve throughout in a way that probably no other cinematic third person game has really ever done before. So, why is Alan Wake 2 “only” fifth? Well, the second half of the game suffers from some repetition, frustrating barrages of enemies and a handful of convoluted sections, making some of the final hours feel a bit more dragged out than they should have. But Alan Wake 2 is, for the most part, a masterclass in cinematic storytelling in videogames, and while it does occasionally fall into the “artsy for the sake of artsy” territory, it’s a game that should be experienced by anyone willing to see the natural evolution of cinematic experiences in gaming.
#4: Mortal Kombat 1
I certainly had a very “Mortal Kombat-y” 2023, as I played through the campaigns (and beyond) of the previous 3 installments of the franchise in preparation for this sequel/reboot that sets up a new universe, following the bombshell ending of Mortal Kombat 11 – a game that, at this point, I considered to be the highest point in the modern era of fighting games for the sheer quantity and quality it offers. Mortal Kombat 1, for the most part, does a masterful job at following that up, giving us a perhaps even better campaign and story with astonishing production values for a fighter, with tons of smart gameplay tweaks that make the fighting extremely satisfying. The main issue is that Mortal Kombat 11 is such a comprehensive and extensive package in terms of content that it’s unlikely this new game will compare, even a year or two from now. But as far as I’m concerned, if you need to play a fighting game in 2023, make it Mortal Kombat 1. Sorry Street Fighter fans, I’m a fatality man.
#3: Forza Motorsport
Another post-review shock for me. After spending nearly 60 hours playing Turn 10’s massively revamped simcade racing experience, I formulated my lengthy review, pointing out the enormous and much felt improvements to the core gameplay, the excellent technical background, the high amount of content, the focus on online spec races being a positive thing, the focus on practice and qualifying, the high quality tyre and fuel management. Forza Motorsport is back, and it brought its A-game, despite a few shortcomings and occasional crashes. Yet, turns out many people had a lot more technical issues, a lot more graphics woes, and in general many felt like this racer failed to live up to the high standards the franchise has set for itself. But ultimately it boils down to what you want from a simcade racer, and for what it’s worth, I’ve found Forza Motorsport to be the most compelling such experience on consoles right now. Sure, Gran Turismo has a better eSports package, and simulators on PC beat Turn 10 to the punch in many ways. But the quality of the on-track experience and the racing makes the new Forza Motorsport the most satisfying racer of its kind as far as I’m concerned, which is reason enough to put it in my top 3 for 2023.
#2: Hogwarts Legacy
I have a mixed history with the Harry Potter IP – never been a huge fan, yet I did watch the various movies, some more than once, with some book-reading here and there. J.K. Rowling has some rather outdated views of the world and she seems hell-bent to let everyone know about it, but the world of magic she created is legimitately fascinating. It’s in this universe that Warner Bros. gave us the first proper “modern AAA” game the IP has ever gotten, in the form of a prequel that explores the famous wizarding school Hogwarts, long before the name Harry Potter ever meant anything. And while the game certainly suffers from a little bit of ‘openworld-itis’ when it comes to the external areas, exploring the ever-changing and fascinating school of Hogwarts is an experience in itself, with the compelling flow of the magic-based combat that seals the deal for what is, to me, undoubtedly one of the most intriguing open world games in recent times. It has a couple shortcomings which narrowly made it miss out on the game of the year status for me, but here’s hoping that it can get a transformative “number 2”, much like how Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed or Watch_Dogs did.
Honourable mention: Fortnite
It’s 2023 and, somehow, I’m addicted to Fortnite again – possibly more so than ever before, despite having played many seasons of it throughout the years. How so? For starters, Fortnite is an absolutely transformative game, adding completely new game mechanics and ideas every other season. Throughout the years, it received completely new game modes, a whole engine change, massive revamps to the movement and shooting, community-created content and so much more – and it did so at a rate that would make other games as a service blush. So why did I single out 2023 for the game in particular? For its recent seasons. November 2023 was the so-called “OG Season”, where the improved tech and mechanics have been brought back to old maps, weapons and items, bringing an excellent mash of old and new that reignited the spark for people who, like me, used to play a lot back then but not so much lately. And then the current season that begins Chapter 5 catapults Fortnite into its own Metaverse, launching three different high quality games within Fortnite itself: the fun and polished block-based survival LEGO Fortnite, the high-octane acrobatic racing Rocket Racing and the Guitar Hero/Rock Band-style rhythm game Fortnite Festival. Not only Fortnite is continously one of the better made battle royale games, but now it contains multiple officially supported “games within a game”, all of high quality and very promising future update plans, making Fortnite in late 2023 an astonishingly inviting package, offering plenty of content even for those who have 0 interest in shooting.
#1: Diablo 4
As little as the post-launch seasons are interesting me, it can’t be understated how the core gameplay of Diablo 4 is the epitome of action-RPGs – or RPGs in general. An astonishingly satisfying combat, much improved traversal, a lively open world that legitimately looks and feels dark and compelling make roaming and fighting in these leads immensely satisfying. It’s an enormous evolution from Diablo 3 that, in many ways, was already the golden standard. No game released in 2023 has a gameplay loop this polished and this addictive, and for someone who focuses on gameplay first and foremost, it’s reason enough for me to put Blizzard’s latest on top of my chart for the year. There’s a lot to criticize and dislike about the management and Blizzard and the way they handled their post-launch windows, and I’m still mighty mad about how they treated the remaster for my beloved WarCraft 3. But when they sit down and tackle what they truly excel at, they still are able to crank out absolutely bloody brilliant game experiences.
So that’s it! All in all, it was a stellar year in gaming. As far as notable absentees go, I’ll gladly admit I wasn’t that fond of the latest Zelda (still not into the combat), the new Super Mario Bros. Wonder (charming but inconsistent level design), Baldur’s Gate 3 (I don’t like that sort of combat at all, sorry!) and so on. I had a good time with Spiderman 2 and Dead Space Remake, but they missed my top 10 by a little. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I haven’t even got around to play multiple titles that had a chance to hit the top 10 potentially: such as Resident Evil 4 Remake or Pizza Tower. I had a good time with a long list of other games, from less talked about AAs and AAAs like Atlas Fallen and Immortals of Aveum, all the way down to what are already modern indie classics for me like Turbo Overkill and Xenotilt. But alas, these are the 10 (+1) games that defined my year the most. What about you? What were your favourites in this unusually packed calendar year? Let us know!
