2024 is done – and you have made your choices. The branching narrative of this year has been decided, your dialogue options have been locked in, and your ending is ready.
Thank you to everyone who voted this year in what – in the end – was a clear victory for your top choice. Your second place was also hugely popular, mind you – and combined, those two games’ scores equalled the rest of your top 10.
Eurogamer’s own list of our staff 2024 favourites will follow tomorrow, but today it’s all about your picks. Thank you again for taking the time to share yours with us, and remember – if you disagree, you only have yourselves to blame. Enjoy!
50. Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake
“The video game equivalent of a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire,” Retr0gamer wrote. “Grinding has never been so relaxing.”
49. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
“This is one of the series’ highlights,” Hippolytus wrote of Nintendo’s 2024 Switch remaster. “Great new characters, funny, and a presentation that looks just like you remembered it. Good stuff.”
48. Frostpunk 2
“It’s a masterpiece that stays with you long after you have played it,” a reader who decided to remain anonymous wrote. “A perfect game.”
47. Little Big Adventure: Twinsen’s Quest
“The bugs are being ironed out, but even when present they could not overshadow the brilliance of the original game, now with more intuitive controls, a few quality-of-life improvements and of course those beautiful new 3D visuals.”
46. Path of Exile 2
“It is so much fun to play that it scares me a little bit,” a reader who chose to remain anonymous wrote. “Hats off to Grinding Gear Games.” Said Reivilo: “I’m still discovering it, but so far it is the perfect successor to Diablo 2.”
45. Dungeons of Hinterberg
“The combat may not be to everyone’s taste, but on vibes alone, this deserves some recognition,” TC wrote. “A beautiful Zelda-lite.” Added Carl Sheen: “Fantastic setup and excuse for a traditional fantasy RPG being set in the modern day. World building and variety was on point.”
44. Botany Manor
“Probably the cosiest game this year,” wrote Malek86. “The puzzles manage to be just the right in-between of easy enough as not to frustrate, and hard enough as to keep players engaged. And each vista is better than the previous.”
43. Neva
“I adored Gris and this follow-up has that same incredible art style whilst mixing it up a bit with the addition of combat,” Al Pacalypse wrote. “Beautiful and haunting,” TheBigBiscuit77 added. “And short.”
42. Mouthwashing
“Alien if the Xenomorph was Capitalism, Sort Of”, wrote one reader who remained anonymous. “Fantastic pacing and a terrific script, packing both intense, dark twists and enough sensitivity to manage them.” Added ozyous: “A tightly plotted sci-fi horror in the mould of Harlan Ellison which kept me guessing most of the way through and has stayed in my thoughts since. Short but indelible.”
41. Crow Country
“A wonderful example of that very rare breed of indie retro title that doesn’t just aim to replicate its inspirations, but actually takes time to think about what we loved in those titles that are now objectively terrible by today’s standards,” wrote Julian Hazeldine. “The writing is just the icing on the cake, with a wit to the prose which puts mainstream blockbusters to shame, and a genuinely unnerving climax.”
40. Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered
“I teared up at the initial screens and I cried when I went into Lara’s mansion,” wrote Joshua M B. “Tomb Raider and Lara Croft have been a massive part of my life since I was six years old. 4-6 Remastered will no doubt make me sob with joy too.” Added CitizenSiege: “The love for these games was evident and it was nice to see people remembered the games fondly, for all their flaws.” “A remaster done right,” wrote UrineTrouble.
39. Life is Strange: Double Exposure
“Despite some obvious issues in the final chapter, there’s nothing else quite like Life is Strange,” Astonish wrote. “Deck Nine gets that it’s the quiet moments between characters, or when you can just sit back that really make the series what it is. And the character rendering is just astoundingly good. One particular scene between two characters in front of a fireplace is the best video game animation I’ve ever seen.”
38. Hades 2 early access
“How does Super Giant do it?” wrote jackgaydon. “I went in day one expecting something comparable in scope to the early days of original Hades’ early access, yet there was already a game there bigger than its fully-fledged predecessor! And what a game. In the way of great sequels, everything felt intensely familiar while being varied in surprising, delightful, sometimes mind-blowing ways.”
37. Satisfactory
“Conveyor belts go whrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Makes me feel good,” wrote MrTomFTW.
36. Nine Sols
“What if Hollow Knight but Sekiro,” wrote eze2g. Added jwt: “Beautiful, and cats.”
35. The Plucky Squire
“No other game has pulled me in visually as much as this one has,” wrote engelzman. “The art direction of this game is a standout for 2024. A truly delightful game for the eyes, and one I look forward to returning to with my kids one day.”
34. Outcast: A New Beginning
“A stunningly beautiful world with remarkable verticality, expertly paired with incredibly fun traversal mixing gliding with quintuple jumps(!),” wrote itsgood2slide. “Original while remaining faithful to its pioneering predecessor.”
33. Pacific Drive
“An atmospheric oddity where your temperamental car is your best friend, your worst enemy, and has more personality quirks than the entire cast of a Bioware RPG,” wrote dajgohji.
32. Sonic x Shadow Generations
“The Shadow portion of this game does for 3D Sonic what Mania did for 2D Sonic,” wrote 2much. “It feels like perfection of the formula. The level design is amongst the best Sonic Team has ever made, and the game’s reality-bending visuals make it possibly the coolest-looking game on the PS5. The only thing that stops it from being higher in my list is how short it is.”
31. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
“Completely new, original title with interesting gameplay and style and great attention to detail,” wrote StephanCTR. “I mean, they took hi-fi speakers to mountain forest, played the soundtrack music there and re-recorded it to get the right atmosphere in!”
30. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
“Great story for once in a COD game,” wrote TF73, “and fast and fluid gameplay.” Added Evariest: “The best single player FPS campaign since Titanfall 2.”
29. 1000xResist
“Best narrative of the year, hands down,” wrote play.nice.kids.
28. Rise of the Golden Idol
Wrote jackgaydon: “Sometimes you might overcome an obscure problem, only to get lost on your way through the mansion. In a room you’d previously opened but completely forgotten about you discover a whole dimension to the game that had until then been hidden. Next thing you know it’s 2am. You’re blearily staring at an item description that references esoteric 20th century happenings you half-suspect may be true. You’re unsure why you’re doing this, though a nagging feeling tells you that that conspicuous string of numbers is vital to a puzzle you gave up on two days ago. It’s truly a labyrinthine game.”
27. Black Myth Wukong
“Hard as nails, but not insurmountable,” wrote StevoPirate, “one of only few games to get the true feel of those early Dark Souls games right. Stumbling upon an upgrade just when you’re starting to feel too squishy, taking a break from a boss only to find a side path that contains an upgrade that finally helps you go back and take your revenge and the unique setting/plot derived from Journey to the West? Deserved every success it had.”
26. Tekken 8
“Having been a casual Tekken enjoyer since a wee lad, I said I’d attempt to actually get good at a Tekken after all these years,” wrote AcidWisdom. “Ended up terribly, horribly addicted. Still not that good at it, though.”
25. Star Wars: Outlaws
“I was sick and lost a good job, so this game was the pure escapism I needed,” McMurphy wrote. “I bought it day one and loved every moment of it – the Star Wars game I’d always wanted to play.” Added Rokkai: “For once, a Star Wars game actually took me to a galaxy far, far away. The detailed and stunning environmental design, combined with the fantastic audio, transport you to another world.”
24. Persona 3 Reload
“Persona 5 Royal was so polished, complete and all-round fantastic that it was difficult to imagine where Atlus could go next,” wrote rogueywon. “It turns out the answer was ‘Persona, but fantasy’, which works incredibly well. It’s a somewhat slimmed back take on the formula, cutting away some of the historic cruft and giving a shorter, pacier game. The change of setting keeps things feeling fresh.”
23. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
“Gorgeous looking game that constantly had me stopping to take in the view,” wrote Grubby_Gryffin. “Really just a phenomenal audio-visual experience, putting you in Senua’s head,” added britesparc. “Also IMO the best ‘photo-real’ graphics we’ve ever seen.”
22. Still Wakes the Deep
“As someone who has been out to a rig in the North Sea, the sound of the wind and waves alone when everything’s ‘fine’ made me anxious,” wrote HerrProduk. “By the time you’re into some of the best voice acting and natural dialogue writing I’ve seen in games, and the claustrophobic, no-escape pressure cooker of increasingly otherworldly horror, very few games have had such an intense effect on me.” Added swedishfishes: “I think the main character called someone a ‘fuckin roaster’ which you don’t hear enough in games these days.”
21. Unicorn Overlord
“Crunchy and compulsive strategy gameplay, and it’s a miracle of UI design that its many menus and systems are coherent on the Nintendo Switch,” wrote larry4000. “Excellent layered strategy that just gets deeper as you play,” added The_Weird. “While it has ideas taken from other titles, the whole feels fresh and original. Beautiful art style too.”
20. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
“It was just fun,” wrote Citizensiege. “A slick campaign, a generous operations mode and three player co-op, which is just the sweet spot for me and my Xbox friends. All two of them.” Added Mallow_the_destroyer: “It’s the Gears of War sequel I didn’t know I wanted!”
19. Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl
“An exceptional game that holds nothing back,” wrote StormbringerN. “Hard to the core and with the design and gameplay to back it. Stalker places complete trust on the player to find their way. We need more of these!” Added Moxyz1: “My most played, favourite series of all time.”
18. Tactical Breach Wizards
“This was such an absolute pleasure, and honestly came close to taking my GOTY nod,” wrote OmagnusPrime. “A fantastic tactical game with a wonderful cast of brilliantly written and charming characters. If you like tactical games this is a must. If you like fun games, this is also a must.” Added blackpaladin105: “I don’t expect this to make many people’s lists but I loved the concept, writing, and gameplay loop. Turn-based strategy like X-COM has appealed to me for a long time and this brings it to you in bite-sized chunks with a lot of fun mechanics that let you approach combat in ways that aren’t just ‘shoot everyone in the room’.”
17. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
“A game for a very particular type of puzzle and narrative game sicko. I am that sicko,” wrote maccydee. “A fantastic entry in one of the most compelling new puzzle genres (Obra Dinn-likes) which also potentially forms its own new genre that requires pen and paper for some side note doodling,” another reader added. “If someone had seen my notepad post rolling credits they might have assumed I was the Zodiac killer!”
16. Dragon’s Dogma 2
“It’s a goofy-arse fantasy sandbox with entertaining combat shenanigans,” wrote apocra. “It’s an action RPG, sure, but more than that it feels like a Lord of the Rings-like,” added 2much. “I know it’s not for everyone, but the act of walking most places makes even the most minor quests feel like adventures full of peril. I don’t know if I’ve ever played a game that’s felt like that before.”
15. UFO 50
“Probably the most creative ‘thing’ in a very long while, UFO 50 shows not only incredible range by its developers, but also how to construct a metanarrative through the most concise and sparse details,” a reader wrote. “Many of the games are absolutely great on their own, and some would have been classics if they came out in the 80s (or even the 90s).”
“The bargain of the year,” wrote retr0gamer. “Weeks later and I’ve still not explored this collection of games fully. It’s constantly surprising and the quality of the games remains consistently high.” Said erwie: “Party House alone would already be #1 of 2024.”
14. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
- Developer: RGG Studio
- Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth review – Yakuza’s excessive delights head to a crime-ridden Hawaii
“There will never be enough of these games for me,” wrote sonoftvsadam. “Whether it’s Kamurocho, Sotenbori, Ijincho, Honolulu, or some other yet-to-be-identified locale, I will roam the streets looking for guys to hit with bicycles as often as RGG Studios offers me the opportunity to do so.”
Said Robo-Moon: “Have you ever wanted to shred adult nappies on a rooftop to fulfill a dying woman’s dream of seeing snow falling? Then this is the game for you.”
13. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
“Truly earned its place in the Pantheon of contemporary Metroidvanias alongside the likes of Metroid Dread and Hollow Knight,” wrote larry4000. “Top-tier platforming, combat, boss fights and time bending powers.”
“It’s peak Metroidvania, and what a thing to behold. VERETHRAGNA indeed,” said TC. Meanwhile, KarlosCV added: “One of the best Metroidvanias ever.”
12. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
“What if we take the faster-paced Link’s Awakening framework, add some Breath of the Wild-style systems and set it in map of A Link to the Past?” wrote Fallout2. “Also, you can play as Zelda. It’s a bit chattier than I’d like, but fun, inventive and does not shy from a few tricky challenges.”
“Of all the games I’ve played in 2024, this is the only one I still think about,” wrote KinanEldari. “Echoes of Wisdom didn’t just give us Zelda as a playable character, it also gave us fun mechanics, excellent dungeons with great puzzles, a decent story and several collect-a-thons that actually were fun, unlike those gosh-darned 900 Korok seeds in Breath of the Wild! If you love Zelda games as much as I do, you really owe it to yourself to play this one.”
11. Thank Goodness You’re Here!
“It’s very short, it’s very northern, and its mostly about punching everything until something happens,” wrote Madame-Drofla. “It was also the source of my most memorable and absurd gaming moments of the year. I laughed a lot, and I would recommend it to anyone who can get the very British context.” Added H1ppyDave: “‘Peans – not quite peas and not quite beans, but something special in betweens.’ A quote my 10-year-old and I have shared regularly since playing. It’s an utter joy.”
“Some of the funniest few hours of gaming of my life,” said Omgokami. “I still don’t miss Yorkshire but it stayed with me.” Mycrofty concludes: “It’s fresh, it’s funny, it’s gorgeous, it’s everything the current games landscape isn’t, it’s not cosy or edgy or any of that. It’s just reet good.”
10. Stellar Blade
“Biggest surprise of the year and probably the most fun game,” wrote Col_McCafferty. “Excellent combat, intriguing story and brilliant soundtrack. Shift Up have done a fantastic job especially considering this is its first single-player title on console.”
“There’s a conversation to be had about sex and violence in games, where one is lazily hand waved through while increasingly the other is stopped outside the door with an especially disapproving look, but this isn’t the place for it,” wrote MarcusJ. “Stellar Blade is an extremely entertaining and generous (both in content and additional freebies post launch) game which deserves the utmost praise. Arguably the most actual fun I’ve had playing a game in years. And it’s had nowhere near enough recognition as a new IP either.”
9. Dragon Age: The Veilguard
“After nearly 10 years I’d forgotten how much I wanted a new Dragon Age game,” wrote Greenllama88. “Luckily it didn’t take more than a couple hours of playing the Veilguard to remind me how much I love this world and how good it can be with such a confident style and vision. When the real world is going mad outside, it feels great to stay in and solve the problems of one that feel so much more manageable.”
“The final act is excellent,” wrote Boooo_urns. “It has issues, but in the main the gameplay is fun and story is engaging.” Said pierrot: “Really responsive and expressive action combat and some beautiful maps to navigate.” Added another reader: “A long-due followup to one of my favourite series that didn’t disappoint (even if it’s no Dragon Age: Origins – but what is?)
8. Helldivers 2
“A game that actually feels more fun to play the more shambolic you are at it,” wrote The12thMonkey. “When everything just falls apart and you’re running for your life, frantically tapping out the reinforce sequence, only to cause the drop pod to crash onto your own head, and it is still fun to play? That is some quality design.”
“Not necessarily a new take on a multiplayer game but one that redefines a genre of what PVE can be,” added Peter McNally. “A game that feels like a creative sandbox but with proper objectives and, if you put the difficulty up, a chaotic frenzy.”
7. Silent Hill 2 Remake
“Like everyone else I was worried the game wouldn’t live up to expectations,” added LemyAtom. “I was shocked when they far surpassed it. I nearly $h!y myself in Toluca Prison and had to limit gameplay to 45-minute chunks for a bit. Pant-wettingly frightening.”
Mark1412 agreed: “The absolutely brutal and suffocating prison level, played with headphones and the lights down low, completely redefined survival horror for me. It was awful. When I finished I said I wouldn’t forget it, or play it again, in a hurry. A week later, I’d finished it again.”
6. Animal Well
“I’ll admit I’m not smart enough for the advanced late game puzzles,” engelzman wrote, “but the pure wonder and awe of exploring this world for the first time and soaking in the atmosphere through audio and visual design alone, this game is a true masterpiece.” Golazodave said: “No one can forget being chased by that ghost dog for the first time.”
“There might be better Metroidvania games,” Ross Farrey wrote. “There might well be subjectively or even objectively better games from 2024. But Animal well drew me down a rabbit hole like few games ever have. It’s weird, with an air or mystery that hints at more than you can ever hope to find. When I wasn’t playing it I was neck deep in YouTube videos and comment threads hoping to find the meaning of it all. I was eight years old playing The Legend of Zelda again only this time the game was Animal Well and the internet was my playground. Magical.”
5. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
“Remake didn’t sit well with me,” Slowdog76 wrote. “The changes still felt weird and unnecessary. Rebirth started to make those changes make sense, though, and even appreciated. I love this game. Almost as much as the original. There is not one area it failed to delight.”
“Ultimately I’m glad they changed things up,” added Wrathbone. “The game is beautifully faithful in all the ways that matter, which allows the story to become an intriguing extension of the original rather than a simple retelling. The whole thing is a massive, sprawling joy to experience.”
4. Metaphor Refantazio
“A great story paired with a great cast of characters, and notably a great villain – something that many games, but particularly modern JRPGs, tend to fumble,” apocra wrote. “Had a superb time with it. (Didn’t half look pretty, too! And the soundtrack!)
“Atlus always produce such polished games, everything is perfect, everything fits,” fragglerocks added. “This is the first of their games that feels like it has real depth of story and characters to create a perfect experience.” Said another reader: “Persona in a fantasy setting? A plot that’s disturbingly timely? Fuck yes.”
3. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
“I’m 48. It has been an awful long time since watching a movie or show has made me secretly wish I could grow up to be a spy, or an adventurer,” wrote slowdog76. “This game whisks me back to my youth, running around the playground, whip cracking an imaginary whip and putting one over pesky Nazis. This game makes me happy, a nostalgic dollop of fun and cool and memories of all those times I saved the damsel, and the world.”
“Perfectly captures the adventure and humour of the original movie trilogy and combines it with a blend of great combat, exploration and puzzles,” added Darren. “The icing on this tasty cake is the superb story, visuals and music. It’s MachineGames best game to date, taking everything they learnt from their sublime Wolfenstein games and refining the formula to create one of the best first-person games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing.”
“Having grown up with the Indiana Jones movies, playing this game brought me back to those times,” concluded Evariest. “The atmosphere and details are spot on, it is so good that it could (should?) have been the fourth Indiana Jones movie.”
2. Balatro
“Game design in its most delightfully pure form – a familiar and compelling concept, but with countless possibilities thanks to the sheer variety of options at the player’s disposal,” wrote maccydee. “Every decision you have to make is a meaningful one. It helps that the music is so memorably repetitive and the art so instantly iconic.”
“More addictive than crack,” declared Bushmonkey. “At least I imagine it is. I can’t think how anything could be more addictive than Balatro.”
“I bought Balatro seven times this year, five of which were for friends,” admitted Tomo. “I am a digital croupier, firing out the most amazing deck-building game since Slay the Spire. It’s a perfect collision of the world’s most classic card game and well-trodden roguelike gaming mechanics, yet manages to feel completely fresh. I hear the music in my sleep.”
1. Astro Bot
“Tactile and joyous,” wrote jonappetit. “A complete delight from start to finish. Easy enough for the kids to play, challenging enough that I’ve spent late nights trying to rescue all the missing Bots.”
“Maximum Possible Game,” wrote Anslant. “I heard Warren Spector speak of his dislike of the term ‘Minimum Viable Product’, and how this doesn’t suit games. He said he prefers the term ‘Maximum Possible Game’. Team Asobi embodied this adage with Astro Bot.
“It has all the staggering quality of a Nintendo platformer, but on a Sony console – but it’s also much more than that,” wrote Golazodave. “It’s an irreverent celebration representing decades of gaming history, and every time I played I had a huge smile on my face. Magnificent.”
“I’ve had such a magical time playing Astro with my four and six-year-old daughters,” mattb2020 wrote. “One of the most amazing gaming experiences of my life.”
“In a year where work and life pressures made it hard to commit to anything that demanded more of me than jumping and grinning, Astrobot was just what I needed,” Lalaland wrote. “Simple but exquisitely crafted to delight with something every 30s or so that made me smile and for that reason alone it’s my #1 this year.”
“I’ve avoided platform games for over 30 years since probably Super Mario Bros as a child,” concluded Billhickswaaright. “This made me feel like that child again.”
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