---
title: 'My Top 3 Games of 2024'
pubDate: '2024-12-12'
tags: ['Gaming']
---

Back in December 2022, I wrote about [my top 3 games of that year](/posts/2022/my-top-3-games-of-2022/) in what I hoped would be a yearly tradition. For 2023, Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur’s Gate 3 blew me away that I couldn’t fathom selecting a third game that stood up to them. This year however, I’m returning to the originally envisioned format for my top 3 games of 2024.

One of my regrets from the 2022 post was that I didn’t go into very much detail as to why I liked the games, so this time around I wanted to make sure to go more in-depth (but not too in-depth). So, over the course of the year, I’ve kept a journal of every game I finished in 2024, and wrote down what I thought about it while the experience was still fresh in my mind. I chose this list by re-reading my journal and picking the 3 games that, upon reflection, still resonate with me in the same way.

### Star Wars: Outlaws

Ok, this is a controversial pick, but, despite its many flaws, Star Wars: Outlaws is a game I genuinely enjoyed from start to finish. Granted, many of its strengths are a result of it being a Star Wars game, but as a fan of the franchise that’s enough for me.

To me, this game nailed the feeling of being a roguish scoundrel going on adventures across the Star Wars galaxy. From classic locations such as Mos Eisley, to new places like Mirogana, it all felt authentically a part of that galaxy far, far away. It’s clear the people behind the game are big fans of the universe George Lucas created.

Even the typical Ubisoft open-world tropes didn’t detract from the experience. In fact, setting the game across multiple planets, and therefore segmenting the game into smaller open areas instead of one huge map, did a lot to remove the tedium that comes with open-world games.

Another aspect of the game I enjoyed was the “Reputation System”. During the course of the game you’ll encounter and do missions for various criminal syndicates; The Hutts, The Pykes, Crimson Dawn, and the Ashiga Clan. Which missions you do, and whether you succeed or fail, will affect your standing with these organizations. Raising your reputation with a particular group can unlock special merchants, allow you to take higher paying missions, and freely move about the gangs territory. However, betraying a gang, stealing from them, entering restricted areas, or just being a menace towards them, will lower your reputation. It’s a cool system, and I think it has plenty of room for iteration in a sequel.

### Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

I have to say, this is the game that most surprised me this year. While I enjoyed Final Fantasy VII Remake–the first entry in this trilogy-to-be of games re-imagining the classic 90’s RPG–when I originally played it during Covid lockdown in 2020, I found it very tedious when I revisited it a couple years ago In addition, 2023’s Final Fantasy XVI left me a bit down on the series as a whole. But I gave Rebirth a shot anyway, and I’m glad I did.

One thing this game shares in common with the first entry is how well it handles real-time combat, especially compared to the more recent “mainline” entries. Final Fantasy XV’s real-time combat was tedious, while XVI’s was frustrating and shallow. I really appreciate the ability in this game to switch characters in combat to not only keep gameplay interesting, but provide a level of depth and control that the aforementioned mainline games just don’t.

The world design, similar to Star Wars: Outlaws, is more segmented, which makes the exploration much less tedious, and far more varied. Each map is littered with side objectives to encourage exploration, but it’s not so much that it’s overwhelming. The only 2 exceptions were Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga, which I found extremely convoluted and not at all enjoyable to navigate.

The game has a multitude of mini-games, which felt like a throwback to an older style of video game design, and I thought it was fun. They weren’t all bangers, but I did find myself engaging in Gwen…sorry, I mean, Queen’s Blood. Also, Chocobo Racing ended up being another big time sink. It was enough to keep me coming back for many more hours, even after I finished the story (and is probably why I didn’t finish more games this year 😬).

### The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

It goes without saying, if there’s a new Zelda game out it’s going to make my top 3 games of the year, no question. Like any other game, it’s not perfect. As the first brand-new “2D” Zelda in a decade, and the first in the series to star the titular princess, it had high expectations to live up to, but I think it ran away with them.

It’s the first Zelda game of this style to take on the open-world design of the 2 most recent 3D games–Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom–and it really fit a lot better that I was expecting. In fact, I’d say it did the open-world much better, because it was reigned in just enough to not impede on the storytelling (such as it is in a Nintendo title), but still gave the player a good level of freedom to explore.

Another area this game excels is the puzzles. Much like in Tears of the Kingdom, the puzzles in this game are more focused on player creativity and finding fun solutions than simply trying to figure out the one solution the designers intended. Much of this creativity comes from what this game calls “echoes”, basically various objects and enemies you can conjure up.

I hope this is a concept Nintendo revisits, because I really want to see a successor to this game that iterates upon what is already great, and improves on what didn’t quite work. Basically, what Tears of the Kingdom did for Breath of the Wild.
