What I Loved in Video Games in 2020: Part 1

Most Adrenaline-Fueled Combat: Doom Eternal

Just watching my husband play Doom gets my adrenaline going! I tried to play the last Doom game but got motion-sickness. That’s a testament to how fast-paced and incredibly smooth the game is, and despite my own inability to play it, I’ve enjoyed watching my partner play for short bursts.

Several aspects of combat contribute to its atmosphere of pure mayhem. For one thing, every enemy in Doom Eternal is weak to a specific type of weapon, so you constantly swap between them. In addition, different types of kills — such as melee versus using your chainsaw — grant you different items, such as health or ammo. This means you have to keep an eye on what you need and kill accordingly.

With so many things to keep track of, things get frantic fast. But there’s no time to slow down! Doom is not a cover-based shooter; you have to keep moving all the time, jumping around multi-level environments while dodging and attacking enemies as they appear all around you. The result is combat that keeps your heart racing and adrenaline pumping the whole time. And the metal music only makes it feel more intense.

Most Innovative Mechanic: Recruiting NPCs in Watch Dogs Legion

When I first heard about the mechanic in Watch Dogs Legion, which lets you recruit literally any non-playable character off the streets of London, I was floored. In fact, I was almost skeptical. The idea of the entire game being populated by millions of potential characters who might join your party seemed crazy. How would that kind of thing even be technologically possible?

But the idea drew me in, and I couldn’t wait to try it. It’s that mechanic that really makes the game worth playing. After choosing your first recruit from a short list in a menu, you are set loose on the streets of London to start conversations with anyone you like. Different characters have different skills and weapons; for example, I recruited a constructor worker who can board a drone to fly to rooftops, as well as an investor who extracts extra money from ATMs and a hacker who downloads intel super fast. After a while, I noticed the same dialogue and missions cropping up again and again, so the game clearly recycles things. Yet it’s still a fascinating and fun mechanic. I kept playing the game just so I could find cool new Londoners to recruit to my team — it was that addicting.

Most Interesting Combat Move: Harden in Mortal Shell

After playing Dark Souls 3 this summer, my husband wanted another game of similar difficulty, and Mortal Shell hit the mark. Even the dark world and knight’s armor reminds us of Dark Souls. But what makes Mortal Shell unique is its “Harden” move, which makes combat much more forgiving than it is in Dark Souls.

With Harden, you can essentially brace yourself for impact, freezing in place mid-motion, and the next strike that hits you deals no damage. What makes it even better is that it doesn’t consume stamina, so it doesn’t interfere with your next moves. You can also activate Harden in the middle of an attack, such as mid-swing of the sword; as soon as the enemy hits you, it breaks your Harden and you reanimate, no damage felt, to automatically complete your attack.

Best Story: Tell Me Why

I began playing Dontnod’s episodic game Tell Me Why when it first launched in August, right around the time I was going back to school for the first time in a decade and starting student teaching. It was an exciting yet stressful time in my life, so I looked forward to Saturday mornings on the couch with Tell Me Why. With this game, Dontnod — the studio behind other incredible stories like Life is Strange — has created another series that transported me to another place for a while, with unforgettable characters to guide my journey.

The protagonists of the story are 21-year-old twins Tyler and Alyson Ronan, who live in a small town in Alaska. After their mother was murdered when they were still children, Tyler was found guilty of the crime and went away to Fireweed juvenile detention center for 10 years. Now, Tyler is being released, and the twins are reunited as young adults. Together, they clean up their old house to put it on the market, all the while trying to figure out whether their late mother had mental health problems when they were kids. As a player, you switch between the twins, having conversations with townspeople and investigating clues about their past. You can also rewind your memories. When the twins’ memories of the same event don’t quite align, it’s up to you to decide which twin to side with — and this affects their relationship.

What makes this game so profound is not only the mystery, but the fact that Tyler is, for me at least, the first transgender character I’ve seen in a game. The opening scene shows Tyler in his room at Fireweed, where you can explore items to learn more about him; this includes a calendar that marks when he receives his testosterone, for example. The game never hits you over the head with this representation, choosing a subtler and respectful route that I found really special. This is the sort of game I would like to show my high school students someday when we discuss identity and diversity. A beautiful story with realistic characters, I recommend Tell Me Why to anyone who enjoys narrative games.

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Stay tuned next week for Part 2 of this 2020 video games round-up! Some of the best games of the year came out in the past month or two. My husband and I both have a few more picks based on what we’ve been playing more recently, and I’m excited to share them. Let me know your favorite games and gaming moments below! =)

— Ashley