2020 in Review: My Top Games & Gaming/Kickstarter Experiences (Patreon)

So, I wanted to round out the year with a retrospective look at the various things I either played or backed this year, both in the board game and the video game format. As while I spend most of my time writing/talking about board games, I spend my recreational time very much playing video games. 2020 has certainly been a good year for gaming, the terrible state the world is in has given us a lot of space to be indoors and that's allowed for family board gaming, solo gaming and video gaming to shine; because you don't need to go out to the cinema or a club or a restaurant and risk the health of yourself, your loved ones and others around if you are having a night in with the people you care about.

Lets get to the various arbitrary categories and talk about what's been great.

Best New Kickstarter

There have been a number of great kickstarters this year; I would especially like to give praise to Geektopia Games for their exceedingly consumer friendly kickstarter Fearsome Wilderness, which gave us a short, concise campaign and multiple different options to get the content you wanted in the way that suited you. 

However, due to my involvement with Geektopia Games going ahead providing bias; the crown simply has to go to panicroll for Townsfolk Tussle. It is everything a first kickstarter should be; small sized, with clear precise goals and run by a company that is starting out. I have no fear of the game disappearing into development hell (Super Dungeon Explore: Legends) being mismanaged so they can't get all of their content out (7th Sea), experiencing constant delays (Siege of the Citadel) or being bloated with content that was not pitched for (KD:M). Instead I know exactly what I'm getting and I am exceedingly excited about this. Special shoutout for the TTS demo, that went huge strides towards building hype in a very real and tangible fashion.

Best Completed Kickstarter

Precious few kickstarters I backed actually managed to deliver in 2020, so this list doesn't have very many contenders. But even if it did I think I would still be giving it to IDW Games for their TMNT: City Fall kickstarter. The coop game has some serious issues and needs an additional expansion to patch it; but as a 1v4 game or as a fun game to play with a younger audience (coop mode works there) it can't be beat. They got it out in a good timeframe and delivered everything they promised. It is just a shame that this game is not everything it could have been and even more of a shame that it's hard to justify buying it off the shelf because of how the content is structured and how much of the stuff is KS exclusive.

Best New Board Game

Or, if you prefer, best new board game to me. There's a bunch of contenders for this title; and here are some of the honorable mentions. On Mars (really complex to learn, which holds it back); Villainous (I just love card games, though the balance in this one is a bit off). Tiny Towns and Nemesis. However the crown has to go to Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy, which has immediately replaced every single 4x game I've played (apart from Space Empires 4X) due to its depth with simple to access rules.

Best Solo Board Game

I nearly gave this one to Nemo's War due to it's depth, replayability and even the potential to run it coop (though the coop mode kinda sucks). However, once I played Coffee Roaster I knew I had a new solo game king. I am going to talk about this one in Q1 on the Last Standee, but the blend of length, challenge, randomness, strategic decisions and just the tactile experience of playing this game means that it's proven to be a repeated experience that involves repeated joy and engagement. Honorable mention to Mage Knight, which I finally managed to secure a copy of.

Best Cooperative Game

Pandemic: Legacy Season 0. I didn't much care for season 1 or season 2. But the Cold War setting of Season 0 is just perfect for the mechanics. Add onto that an incredibly inclusive way of creating the characters and a great story that doesn't fall into 'it's zombies' (at least so far, we've not finished the storyline, no spoilers thanks) along with a beautiful aesthetic and you have a phenomenal cooperative game. I would have given a nod to Nemesis, but they made the best coop content Kickstarter exclusive. So... pffft.

Best Returning Game

Hard one to really cover. I got to play a lot of old classics this year, including The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 (best Thing game, worst models), Darklight: Memento Mori, Uchronia and the rare 'not shit Knizia' game Masters Gallery. The title goes to an old favourite which I haven't played since I left the UK. Glory to Rome. This game changed so much of what came afterwards and it is a crying shame that it is so hard to get in English. My old, ugly, Cambridge Games artwork edition retails for $150+ on the secondary market. The game is that good.

Best Digital Board Game (Not TTS)

Root. Easily. It's Root. (30% off on steam right now) Though thumbs up to the Scythe adaption. Now we just need the expansion factions and alternate boards asap thanks. I miss how crowded and tight the 6 player nonsense can be (I also miss my moles, otters and corvids). 

Best Single Player Video Game

Disco Elysium. Gripping from start to finish. It has a unique system, a fantastic and rich world and a lead character who is fascinating despite being 'you'. While I am tired of the 'you have amnesia' start to a roleplaying game, Disco Elysium is the exception to this. It's on sale right now and if you at all enjoy text heavy, thinking, roleplaying games in the tradition of Wasteland/Fallout/Torment/Baldur's Gate. This should be your jam. Gripping from the start to the end.

Best Multiplayer Video Game

I'm giving it to Deep Rock Galactic this year. No other game comes close to having such a satisfying coop game loop. Despite the core concept being: 1. Pick a class. 2. Pick a mission. 3. Complete mission which always involves mining. 4. Return, drink at bar and repeat. The game never fails to just feel amazing to play and it doesn't feel like a grind.

However, I want to really wax poetic about a not as good coop game which has just captured our interest. Generation Zero. This is a looting/survival/exploration first person game set in a fictional part of Sweden during the 1980s. A bunch of robot military defense things have gone haywire while you were away on a camping trip and you've come back to a world with virtually no life outside of plants, occasional animals and highly aggressive robots.

The game is janky as heck, with a terrible inventory system that is just hell to manage, and it has a limited selection of foes to battle (a lot of them are just upgraded recolours of other options) and you'll spend 75% of your time travelling & looting. However, the world that this game is one of the richest and most natural feeling ones out there. I live in the part of Sweden that this game reflects and it is incredible to see how well depicted it is. From the trees to the houses, to the roads and the way the settlements are arranged it all feels very real in a way that something like Cyberpunk 2077 just could never manage. Even though there are no living souls (outside of one DLC), the game just feels like a real world and is a delight to walk through. 

It's huge open spaces, forests, small towns and villages, but everywhere is always a new adventure. Even the looting is engaging because the places you loot from are filled with stories, laid out to discover. Why does this one hut have dozens of alarm clocks? What happened to the people in this house riddled with bullets? Why is there a bunch of people dead inside this small church? Exploring these stories has been a delight.

Also the sound and lighting design is engaging as heck, the plant life feels super realistic in how it reacts and the gameplay loop of sneak, loot, sneak, loot, fight/run just works. It's been an amazing game to hang out in and just chat with others. Janky as heck and terrible alone/or with randos, but amazing to explore with 2-3 friends.

Finally on the subject of entertainment, there have been a bunch of great new shows out there. But the ones which have stuck with me the most have been the Watchmen miniseries, Lovecraft Country and The Expanse; which has just started its 5th season and is amazing, shame about Alex's actor Cas Anvar turning out to be a sexual predator (here) and shame that there will only be 6 seasons. Don't let Cas' being a douche reflect on your enjoyment of the series or of Alex as a character. It's not Alex's fault that Cas is trash.

Still the greatest joy has been re-experiencing watching JoJo's Bizzare Adventure in English with nijiq who is watching it for the first time. Laughing at how terrible the first season's story is; coming to enjoy Joseph's time both as a young man in Battle Tendency and later on. Seeing the switch from 'generic magic power Hamon user' to the utterly brilliant Stands that the series is famous for. Enjoying the superb voice acting (especially from Patrick Seitz as Dio) and all the lulls/highs of Stardust Crusaders has been an absolute delight for me. Especially when nijiq criticizes the dumber (or more dated) parts of the series. We're as far as Diamond is Unbreakable right now (beginning of the second arc) and I don't know which I'm more excited for, watching that story unfold again with Matthew Mercer as Jotaro or watching Golden Wind for the second time in English.

Regardless, 2020 hasn't all been bad, though it's done it's best to suck and I think it's been very much on us as individuals to make what we can of it all. I am glad to see the back of this one and hope that 2021 brings the vaccines and return to a new form of normality, one with less emphasis on travel and more work on healing the problems our societies and environment have. We've got tough years ahead of us all still yet to come, but with games and entertainment, we have something to support us during the harder times!

Here's to 2021, and possibly one more announcement before the end of the year. We'll see!