Since January 2024, gamers have been fortunate to play and experience many great games released this year.
With only five months left until the Game Awards in December 2024, it has been a fantastic year for gaming, and many other publishers and developers are getting ready to release their products to see whether these will win the coveted Game Of The Year award.
The Game Of The Year award goes to a video game with the best creative and technical experience for gamers or consumers and is determined via nomination and voting. Last year, Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios won the Game Of The Year 2023.
With a complete list of recently amazing games, let’s see which video games are contenders for Game Of The Year 2024.
In no particular order, here are the top 5 GOTY contenders for 2024.
Unicorn Overlord
Unicorn Overlord is a tactical RPG developed by Vanillaware and published by Sega and Atlus. Featuring comprehensive gameplay, including real-time combats across the overworld battlefield and between different units, Unicorn Overlord combines classic RPG elements into an innovative 2D tactical video game that is easy to adapt and learn whether you are a veteran or a newbie when it comes to tactical RPGs.
Aside from large-scale real-time battles, players can still freely control their characters and visit villages and cities, providing side quests. Unicorn Overlord also heavily relies on recruiting various characters and classes, each affecting how the game’s storyline unfolds. There is also an option to recruit former enemies who can then be spared or killed depending on player choices, ultimately affecting the storyline.
Unicorn Overlord gathered an average rating of 87.3 across the Switch, PS5, and Xbox platforms on Metacritic, with a whopping 99% critic recommendation on Opencritic, which makes the game a tight contender for this year’s GOTY award.
Dragons Dogma 2
Developed and published by Capcom and the sequel to 2012’s Dragon’s Dogma, Dragon’s Dogma 2 took the gaming world by storm, especially with its highly customizable character creation. From utter absurdity to impressive character creations, franchise fans were showcasing how their player characters looked even before the game officially launched, thanks to a character creation demo. But Dragon’s Dogma 2 has more to offer than fantastic personalized characters; its gameplay, combat, and worldbuilding are top-notch, putting Capcom’s latest video game into the GOTY contender’s list.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 lets players choose between different character classes, called Vocations, which defines the class abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Dragon’s Dogma 2 also has a gameplay mechanic that lets players recruit NPCs called Pawns to assist them in battle. Combine these with a seamless open world and exciting storyline, and players will easily sink hundreds of hours in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
While the game looks perfect in almost every aspect, it was plagued by various criticisms, mainly due to Capcom adding microtransactions. The game offered different paid consumables, such as ferrystones used for fast travel, albeit being able to farm these items for free. Many players believe that having microtransactions in a single-player game seems counterintuitive and baffling, and the game has received several review bombings on Steam. However, the game still has an average rating of 86 on Metacritic while having a 93% critic recommendation rate on Opencritic, which shows that the game is still in the running for GOTY this year.
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Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade is another game title that has the potential to bag the coveted Game Of The Year award. Developed by a Korean game studio called Shift Up, Stellar Blade was also published on the PlayStation 5 by Sony Interactive Entertainment. While Stellar Blade’s story is heavily criticized by many, players praised its combat and visuals, making it the top-selling video game in the US last April.
Stellar Blade’s combat has various similarities with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Both games focus on identifying enemy attack patterns while encouraging players to perfectly time parries and counters. The game also fully utilizes the PlayStation 5’s DualSense haptic feedback during combat, which lets players know enemy attacks and determine their accuracy when using weapons and attacks.
Stellar Blade’s visuals are also one of the main drivers of the game’s popularity. Eve, the game’s protagonist, can be customized using different collectible costumes, and each of these costumes has various buffs that offer multiple gameplay advantages. However, many people think that the game has an overly sexualized protagonist. Shift Up defended that these character design choices are aimed at the more adult audiences. Despite this, Stellar Blade still has an impressive 81 score on Metacritic and an 84% critic recommendation on OpenCritic.
Helldivers 2
From being PlayStation Studios’ largest launch on PC to having the spotlight in a PSN account controversy, Helldivers 2 is one of the most controversial and popular games of 2024. A third-person cooperative shooter game, Helldivers 2’s core gameplay revolved around completing objectives during operations while contributing to community goals called “Major Orders.” This type of shooter gameplay encouraged players to team up and accomplish specific objectives towards a universally common goal. The game also features a non-expiring battle pass system called “Warbonds,” which lets players earn in-game currencies.
Developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Helldivers 2 is available for PC and PS5. However, a recent controversy over the requirement of PSN accounts for PC users plagued the game, which then caused it to become unavailable to 177 countries that do not have PSN availability. This resulted in a negative review bombing on Steam, which prompted Sony to stop the PSN account requirement for PC players.
While Helldivers 2 is no longer available on Steam in the affected regions anymore, the game is still popular and is currently sitting at an 82 score on Metacritic and a 90% critic recommendation on OpenCritic, which is possibly enough to claim this year’s GOTY award.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
If fans thought that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is already impressive, considering how Square Enix remade the 1997 classic, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth amps up what the studio and game franchise offers. Now featuring a fully open world map including iconic locations such as Costa Del Sol, Cosmo Canyon, Gold Saucer, and Gongaga, FF7 Rebirth breathes new life into Final Fantasy 7. The game’s combat mechanics are almost similar to Remake, while new elements such as the Synergized Mechanic allow players to customize their gameplay while utilizing each party member.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the second title in the planned trilogy, remaking the 1997 original. The second game added more playable party members, such as Red XIII and Cait Sith, along with the appearance of popular characters like Cid Highwind and Vincent Valentine, which is a real treat to long-time fans of the franchise.
Despite several criticisms of how Final Fantasy 7 is planned to be a trilogy, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth shows how popular the title and the franchise are. The game’s universal acclaim score of 92 on Metacritic and 99% critic recommendation on OpenCritic suggests that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth may have the GOTY award already in the bag.
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