The entire SIFTER team gets together to share their individual favourite games and these are our picks!
The team is bigger than ever before and we've got seven red hot recommendations for you, with lots of variety to choose from, and a great list of honourable mentions as well.
Did your favourite game make the cut this year? Let us know on Discord, or leave us a rating or review.
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Animal Well, by solo developer Billy Basso, is a masterclass in indie game design. Its pixel-perfect retro visuals and minimalist sound design create a uniquely atmospheric experience that stands apart from bloated, hand-holding triple-A titles.
The game trusts players to explore and figure things out on their own, making solutions feel organic, even when expertly designed.
On the surface, Animal Well is a 6-hour puzzle-platformer, perfect for casual players. But it hides deeper layers of complex puzzles, some requiring real-world collaboration or years to solve.
Even if you don’t explore those layers, the game’s charm and creativity are well worth your time.
Honourable Mentions: DAYZ: Frostline
1000xRESIST is a narrative feverdream. A science fiction epic that spans over a thousand years of history, it touches on everything from the pandemic, the 2019 Hong Kong protests, nature vs nurture, the ethics of cloning and the trials and tribulations of alien first contact.
Canadian studio Sunset Visitor have used their decade-plus of experience in theatre, visual and performing arts to craft a momentous narrative experience that draws on some of the best games and media of the last decade, from Gone Home's lonely environmental storytelling, NieR Automata's perspective swapping platforming to Battlestar Galactica (2002) and the films of Wong Kar-wai.
Honourable Mentions: Path of Exile 2
Talk about the right game at the right time! Metaphor: ReFantazio smacks you over the head with its overt social justice themes, and I love how unsubtle it is. Set in a fantasy kingdom plagued by social inequalities and prejudices, this is wonderful escapism given the current geopolitical climate.
From the Persona developers, Metaphor: ReFantazio perfects the life sim gameplay into a more streamlined version, while the stylish combat remains as satisfying as ever.
Being a weeb, I love Persona but find its pacing uneven and occasionally frustrating. Metaphor is leaner, yet still grand in scale, making it one of the best JRPGs I've played.
Honourable mentions: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Thank Goodness You're Here!, Astro Bot, Hades 2.
I never thought I could feel nostalgia for a game I’d never played before, but Astro Bot made me feel like a kid again.
In this PlayStation-exclusive platformer, you play as Astro Bot, a little guy -ahem- robot, who is stranded on a deserted island after his ship (see: PlayStation 5 console) explodes because a green alien named Space Bully Nebulax steals the ship’s CPU.
Astro Bot is tasked with finding all of his robot friends and fixing his ship by traversing 90 different platformer levels.
Between dressing up robots as well-known PlayStation game characters, compelling game and level design, and enough haptic feedback to make a 90s kid weep tears of joy, Astro Bot is well-deserving of its Game of the Year achievement. Every part of this game was crafted with love, and it shows.
Honourable Mentions: Love and Deepspace
CONTENT WARNING is unhinged, spooky and so much fun to play with friends. It’s one that popped up out of nowhere but blew up thanks to the fun YouTube vlogger styled gameplay.
After you head down into the Old World you seek out scary monsters (some physically hurt you and others do real psychological damage from jump scares), film them and upload a video to SpookTube to try meet your viewer quota.
It’s a simple enough premise that sounds like it would get boring after a while, but the randomization is so good that every round is completely different from the last, even if you’re on the same map.
You learn which items are the best, how to navigate the maps, which sound means what monster, and most importantly what your viewers like to see. And the best part is, you can actually download the videos in real life!
Honestly, this game is so much fun and the randomization is top notch. I’ve been playing the game for a while now and still haven’t seen all the monsters, so every round is incredibly different.
10/10 very spooky.
Do I now have a folder on my computer with lots of unhinged videos of me being traumatized by a creature with a whisk head or a tall guy that runs at sonic speed and slaps you into death? You bet!
Honourable Mentions: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
On the 8th of February 2024 Helldivers 2 landed in our laps with all the violence of the signature drop pods that feature in the game. What would leap onto our screens was a massive technical leap forward from the original tittle. Massive 3D maps to explore, a diverse collection of weapons and tools to help fight off the relentless enemies of democracy, and to top it all off a narrative that seemed to, if only for a moment, unite the global gaming community in a shared goal.
Helldivers 2 brought back the feeling of partying up with your friends for evenings of working together to fight hordes of enemies. Benefiting from a strong drop in drop out style of game play that provided both character progression and low stakes gaming made popular by the battle royal genre.
Every action in HD2 feels tactile on and real, some equipment almost feeling imperfect and clunky with defined shortcomings that make them feel like they were designed by some Super Earth engineer on a budget. Because of this, the world of Hell Divers feels weathered and lived in, that there are moving parts shifting around you that your contributions influence.
It’s because of all these elements that Helldivers 2 is my game of the year for 2024.
Honourable Mentions: Cult of the Lamb: Unholy Alliance, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
The art style had me immediately. The stunning illustrated tactical world of Fevrith has you marching across battlefields liberating and reclaiming your homeland as exiled-prince Alain the titular "Unicorn Overlord."
It's really clever with a squad building mechanic that allows you to create complimentary configurations, that can defend or return fire from any inherent type disadvantages.
You'll set your squad leader and charge into battle as you work out exactly what counters what, with some all rounder heavy hitters in the mix as well.
Plus there is a great story here, with lots of relationships between each of your main soldiers that can be developed. The whole world doesn't revolve around our protagonist which is great and gives you plenty of mileage in this world.
Look it's a Vanillaware game so it's horny as hell, and an optional romance subplot which can grant you some gameplay bonuses, but you can easily dig into the combat skills orders if you prefer.
Runs great on the Switch and is one of the best pick up and play games of the last year.
Honourable Mentions: Hades II Early Access, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Astro Bot, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
