Playing every video game that is released would be an incredibly time-consuming project. To help you sort through the options (and maybe your backlog), here is an alphabetical list of the games that New York Times critics have written about in 2024.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
The loving bond between the scarified Antea and the tattooed Red is evident — in a tender touch or a cradled face — even as Antea is trapped in the ghost world. Red can choose to bring Antea back to life or to let her pass into infinity.
Thankfully, as in any healthy relationship, it’s not Red’s choice alone. The two discuss the morality of the decision, which would require a magic ritual to give Antea energy taken from spirits or the souls of murderous humans.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake
It’s a dangerous journey filled with devious monsters and trauma. But there’s help, too. A friendly troll with a punky mohawk and red-capped mushrooms growing from its back moves the brothers up a mountain by cradling them in its supersize hands.
There’s not much fighting here, which adds to the game’s lasting relevance. Vicious battling and the establishing of power is often expected in games, so when deeper thinking is present, it needs to be appreciated. In Brothers, much depends on solving puzzles or luring enemies into areas where they can’t attack you.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
The game must constantly remind us that the planet is, indeed, dying. Aerith, though she clearly knows more than she lets on, is cast here as slightly naïve and shortsighted, reacting to what she sees on the surface even though the danger has never been greater. An existential threat looms just over the horizon.
Her problem, and ours, is that Square Enix, the studio behind the game, has built a world that really is beautiful, filled with pleasurable diversions.
Open Roads
This five-hour interactive drama with humorous touches is cuts above a Lifetime movie. Long-held family secrets are uncovered by finding dusty letters, yellowed newspaper clippings and a child’s artwork. Teenage Tess does all of the sleuthing; Opal interprets dialogue, offers subjective, parental perspective and provides biographic history. The two are stunned to discover Helen’s passionate letters in addition to hints about bootlegging and a jewelry heist. What was going on in this family?
Pacific Drive
As someone who doesn’t mind getting dirty when installing auto parts, I wanted to enjoy the game. But it is difficult to do so because of the clunky methods of repair.
The inventory system is complex, requiring too much searching to find tools. The same goes for a GPS system that’s unintuitive. There are also complex blueprints that make crafting car parts a chore. Ultimately, the item management and crafting make Pacific Drive longer and more difficult but not particularly richer and rewarding.
Ultros
Far, far away in the vastness of deep space, an ebony spaceship awaits. Inside is a lush, lurid botanical expanse of plants, trees and fungi, species that have never before been seen. Vibrant vegetation sprawls everywhere, through tunnels, crawl spaces and gardens. It’s not simply a bucolic environment. About five hours into Ultros, you realize this heady biome is both a sarcophagus and the place of birth for something dark and unknown.
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