The Game Awards 2024 nominees have been announced for a little while now, letting fans stew over them ahead of the showcase on December 12. While all eyes are likely on the Game of the Year award, each one carries its own weight and represents an important element of video game design. The cohesion of that, though, is represented by The Game Awards‘ Best Game Direction category, which focuses on “outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design.” Still, that’s a little hard to pin down and separate from something like Game of The Year. As a matter of fact, Best Game Direction and Game of the Year have the same exact set of nominees: Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring‘s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Metaphor: ReFantazio.
That doesn’t mean Game of the Year wins Best Game Direction, but it easily could. For example, Game of the Year could also consider outside factors like reception, with Balatro‘s near-viral reception being a good example as well as the high player counts of Black Myth: Wukong. Balatro‘s virality, though, was a direct result of its game design and direction, but I digress. For the purposes of my prediction, I am solely considering the inherent cohesion in game design highlighted by vision, direction, and design. Not that it makes this any easier.
OpenCritic Reviews of Best Game Direction Nominees
By process of elimination, Black Myth: Wukong feels like the easiest cut. Not only is it the lowest-rated of the bunch (and lowest-rated in TGA’s history of GOTY nominations), but it also has the most rough edges in terms of design. It doesn’t necessarily feel cohesive in its direction, even if that direction overall is appreciated by fans. On the other end of the spectrum, Elden Ring‘s Shadow of the Erdtree feels like another cut. It more than holds its own here, and there is the fact that Elden Ring won both GOTY and Game Direction at TGA 2022 to consider. However, it is more of the same (which is the opposite of innovation), its narrative and story direction have been criticized plenty of times (Consort Radahn instead of something fans wanted), and on its own, I don’t think it stands as strongly as Elden Ring does on its own. Finally, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feels like the next cut because, like Elden Ring, it is more of the same in terms of overall design. It is not a bad game direction by no means, it’s a strong contender for GOTY because of how well it pulls everything off, but its cohesive design is one seen in a lot of games.
That leaves Astro Bot, Balatro, and Metaphor.
This seems to be a tight race. If we consider the cohesion of its vision, direction, and design, Astro Bot is excellent, fun made manifest, and overall the result of a strong platforming vision, a focus on fun for its vision, and all the necessary design elements needed to achieve this. Balatro, meanwhile, is truly unique. Roguelike games are incredibly popular and practically a dime a dozen now, but no game before has applied roguelike elements to a game inspired by Poker before. That is a unique vision, a fun and exciting direction, all of which is achieved by strong design pillars. Metaphor‘s various systems, as well as its narrative, feed into each other in ways that are only possible with a cohesive vision, direction, and design.
I could see it going any number of ways, including Elden Ring winning it again, but I have to go all-in on Balatro. Of all the games here, it is the only one that, on its own merits, is wholly and applicable unique. That’s what this category is meant to celebrate, and while every game here executes in its direction well, Balatro feels like the one that stands out when you look at them all, which should be a major determination in this category.