The onslaught of video game releases never slows down, and 2024 was no exception. This year felt like a lot of smaller game releases that wowed instead of a ton of AAA behemoths clamoring for the top spot.
That's a good thing, because it means we played plenty of games this year that are all worth your time. As is our tradition here at Culturess, here is our list of the 13 video games you should have played in 2024 in absolutely no order.
Stellar Blade
The story is nothing to write home about and if you told me this was a spinoff of NieR: Automata, I'd believe you (especially with the free DLC NieR costume for Eve). But oh man, is that combat some of the most satisfying combat I've played in a long time. It's fast-paced and just the right amount of brutal with that gnash-y feel to it.
There's also enough side quests to keep you entertained and the bosses will keep you on your toes as well.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
You finally, finally get to play as Zelda in an official Legend of Zelda game. She does have an alternate form in a version of Link (complete with sword, bombs, and arrows), but 90% of the game is played as Zelda.
And the key to this one is beds. Beds are the echoes you make that will come in clutch in any situation. Need to cross a gap? Beds. Stuck on an island? Beds. Almost dying during a boss fight? Boulders with a bed behind it and take a little nap.
It's the perfect mix of old-school Zelda game with the creativity of Tears of the Kingdom and it was one of our favorites to play this year.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Hey, if a DLC can get nominator for GOTY, then it can be included in this list! Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree feels like it was more than just your basic DLC, as it added over 25 hours of additional gameplay (50 if you're a completionist).
This DLC is full of secrets, horrifying monsters and bosses, and plenty of valuable treasures. It gives you more Elden Ring without feeling like too much of a retread either. It may just take you some time to get back into the hang of the Souls game if it's been a while since you played. It's even more brutal than the base game.
Alan Wake 2 DLCs: Night Springs and The Lake House
We'll get the DLC choices out of the way. These two add-ons to Alan Wake 2 (our 2023 GOTY) definitely feel like DLCs compared to Erdtree, but more Alan Wake 2 is more Alan Wake 2, and these are the perfect short little additions to the game.
Night Springs is more of a fanfic-y take on the series, giving us "episodes" of the in-game television series that includes Rose the waitress writing her own harrowing tale of saving Alan Wake, "not" Jesse Faden trying to find her brother in Coffee World, and the coolest one revolves around Tim Breaker, getting incredibly meta and definitely not talking about Quantum Break for copyright reasons.
Meanwhile, The Lake House gives us an adventure as Agent Ramirez, the FBC agent who shows up towards the end of Alan Wake 2. It explains why she's in Bright Falls in the first place and gives us a background of Cauldron Lake and the experiments the FBC was running. Our only issue is how short it is.
Black Myth: Wukong
If you love battling against the big bosses in a Souls game, then Black Myth Wukong is right up your alley. The game is based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West.
You play as the Destined One and your main weapon is your staff. You can upgrade your staff, your armor, stamina, health, and have plenty of skill trees. It's a solid action RPG in the Soulslike genre, but it truly is almost like a constant boss rush. They're everywhere while you're exploring and vary in difficulty. Some are pretty simple and some will take you a dozen tries before you beat them.
Balatro
The hype is real on this poker roguelike game. You will waste away hours trying to make it through a playthrough and not realize it's been six hours. You're so focused on what jokers synergize with your deck and what's in that next celestial pack that it's suddenly two in the morning and you work at seven.
No, but seriously, developer LocalThunk has a darling on his hands with this one. There's a reason it won best indie and best debut indie at The 2024 Game Awards. It's addicting and fun and there's always the thought of one more run being it.
Hades II
Listen. It might just be early access in 2024, but this is an incredibly polished game for early access. Publisher Supergiant Games came out of the woodwork earlier this year and dropped the game into early access.
You play as Melinoë, Zagreus's sister, as she attempts to break back into Hades, which has been taken over and shut down by Chronos himself. Early access takes you all the way to the battle with Chronos but it also gets you to the surface as well. But only two worlds up above. You don't quite make it to Mount Olumpus yet.
We cannot wait to see what the rest of the game entails when it releases fully in 2025.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Did you love Final Fantasy Remake? Then you will love Rebirth just as much. It throws every single open world trapping into its wide open areas and gives you hundreds of hours in the world outside of Midgar. Honestly, it can be a little overwhelming, too.
Combat is mostly the same as the original, but adds in Synergy Skills and Abilities between the various characters you fight with. It's a cool tweak to the combat and results in some pretty flashy moves
And if you loved the minigames in the Golden Saucer in the original, you'll love them even more here.
Dungeons of Hinterberg
This one really flew under the radar. It's an action RPG developed by Microbird Games that takes place in the Austrian Alps, you play as Luisa, a character trying to escape from her day-to-day life as a law student and make her way through every magical dungeon that's opened in the last three years.
This game can be as cozy or as intense as you want it to be. You can make friends in town that will give you skills, upgrades, or weapons the higher your friendship. There are resources to gather and outfits and weapons to buy and upgrade. And you can take all the time in the world making your way through the dungeons; there's enough variety in them to keep you going back.
Astro Bot
Listen, if you didn't play Astro's Playroom, then you won't immediately understand the appeal of Astro Bot. But there's absolutely a reason it won Game of the Year at the Game Awards. Yes, it can feel a bit like marketing and fanboying towards Sony and the PlayStation, but it's so much more than that.
It's the perfect happy platformer that even has speedrunners entertained. It's adorable. It's everything you wish video games were nowadays wrapped up in a neat little package. It definitely deserved GOTY and it deserves to be added to your "to be played" pile.
Dragon's Dogma II
Listen. Dragon's Dogma II was hard to play on PC when it launched and it's still kind of a struggle. But if you were a fan of the first one, you'll really enjoy the second one. It improves on everything you loved in the first one and makes the world even bigger than what it was, though you may still find some of the same issues that the first game had.
Regardless, this is still one of the better RPGs that released this year and you can easily spend over a hundred hours playing and grinding. and upgrading your character and gear and spell slots.
Hatch Tales: A Heroic Hookshot Adventure
This one definitely flew under the radar and also took nearly six years to get released (it started as a Kickstarter!). If you’re an older gamer like me and can remember back to the days of renting your games from Blockbuster and spending Friday night trying to make it through puzzle after puzzle, level after level, smashing the jump button so hard that your thumb hurts the next morning, this encapsulates those games perfectly.
Just with better graphics. It will also make you feel like maybe you were better at platformers when you were younger. Because it is hard. That’s not a detriment to Hatch Tales at all, but shows you how true to old school they kept this platformer. It's an adjustment.
And you'll find yourself trying to perfect all 102 levels (eight worlds with six levels each, six side levels each, and one throwback retro stage (that one is hard)).
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
One of the last new games of this year, we can't leave out this excellent Indiana Jones tale. It's not long enough for our liking, capping out at just under 15 hours for a main story run.
But man, is this the perfect Indiana Jones adventure that the last two movies haven't given us. Troy Baker gives it his all as an early-forties Harrison Ford. The humor's on point, the throwback to old characters will bring a smile to your face, and just that opening scene will make you realize you're in for a treat. Jumping in and out of first-person takes a little bit of getting used to and sometimes the AI of bad guys leaves a lot to be desired.
It's more Indiana Jones. And it's pitch perfect.