Robot-Republic: Cally's Top Games of 2023
Welcome to the Offshore Game Awards, the lesser known but also markedly better game award show. My name is Cally, editor in chief of Robot-republic.com, firstly my thanks to the lads of Offshore Gamescast for inviting me back this year. A great opportunity to look back and think about what in video games I enjoyed.
Strangely despite 2023 being a phenomenal year for gaming, I haven’t personally been all that involved. That said, I smashed out a few great games and of those, here are some highlights.
Starfield
My game of 2023 has to be Starfield. And if ‘has to be’ sounds like more of an obligation than a choice, that’s because it’s not far off the truth. Don’t misunderstand me, I loved my time with Starfield, I’ve sunk multiple days worth of hours into it, but at the same time there wasn’t too much that felt new or overly memorable.
I was lucky enough to be given the tip to run through the main quest line first, get to new game plus, then do everything else there is. For those who have completed it you will understand why this is the best option. And now I’ve completed everything else, I’ve ceased playing until mods or DLC arrive.
There are a few different quest lines, each of which feels like they could have been the main story alone. But in this none feel quite involved, or conclusive enough, to make me sit back in satisfied awe once finished. Perhaps that is quite fitting with the vast and lonely nature of space exploration, nothing you can do feels world changing.
Yet despite these negative observations Starfield is still my game of the year. The combat feels great. The designed planets feel well crafted and lived in. Landing on a moon and seeing a vista of planetary rings taking over the sky is phenomenal. All those somewhat inconsequential quest lines were still very fun to play.
I think for me my love of Starfield, and it is love, is more akin to the love of a sibling or close friend. Rather than the passionate excitement of a new romantic partner. It feels like it’s always been there. I imagine I’ll be dropping in and out of Starfield for years to come, as more content is added. It exists in my world now and brings me comfort in it’s doing so. It’s now up there with my favourite games of all time, even though it doesn’t get my pulse racing to think about playing it. A strange feeling no doubt.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
I’d had my eye on Ghostwire for a long while before its release. I love Tango Dreamwork’s previous horrors of The Evil Within 1 & 2, in their monster design and style, as I’m too much the coward to have any serious attempt of playing those. But they are high on my list of ‘horror games I’ve watched other play on YouTube’ list.
So, when I saw Tango were releasing a first person magic shooter with Japanese Yokai style monsters, I was thrilled that it might be something I’d be able to brave.
Indeed, that’s exactly what it turned out to be. Set in an abandoned Tokyo city, with the beautiful glow of a relaxing LowFi playlist. Ghostwire allowed me to enjoy the ideas of creepy Yokai without the survival horror stresses.
The story was passable to good, the collectathon elements were samey but enjoyable, and the combat was varied enough and infrequent enough to keep me entertained. For hours I’d spend hunting down the many souls about the city just for the opportunity to spend more time in the wonderful recreation of Tokyo.
Having a few more variety of Yokai to fight, or find would be on my list of improvements this game could do with.
Some side quests acted as their own mini game in itself, for example the terrifying school, where you find yourself dealing with a Silent Angel situation. A few more of these pace changers would take this game to a greater height. But overall I had a great time with Ghostwire and it furthered my desire to visit Japan in the real world, hopefully with a few fewer ghosts.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
I’ve ranked this quite highly on my list but i must come clean and say that i’m only part way through it as of writing this. While I respect and understand the view that a game must be finished before reviewed, this view can respectfully piss off.
That said, I have seen this game played all the way through so can comment on the story being fantastic, and the gameplay, while much the same as the first Jedi game, is still phenomenal.
It truly is a great time to be a Star Wars fan. Never has wielding a lightsaber in a video game felt so impactful. While the Force Unleashed games were great, they don’t quite have the same heavy reality of a fight that Jedi Survivor does. On top of great combat, the traversal in Jedi Survivor is a real highlight. In fact, i’d say it’s the main game mechanic above combat. Working your way around different environments in fun traversal puzzles.
What I have so far felt Survivor does better than Fallen Order is the approach to open world. Namely quality of life improvements such as fast travel between meditation spots. Often in Fallen Order what prevented me from going back to explore planets was just how much i’d have to go through to get back to my ship after, just to try and locate a couple of hidden areas. Now, it’s simple to just fast travel to the nearest point you want to explore, then back to the ship later. Call this lazy, but it’s a major bonus point for me.
Redfall
I’ve spent a decent amount of time defending Redfall from the internet at large, a burden I really feel I shouldn’t need to do. Why it has been so universally panned is not clear to me honestly. I had a great time playing it. There were some aspects it could improve upon of course, some of the missions getting a bit samey for example. But a lot of the hate I heard about it regarding bugs just never occurred for me. And the baddie AI wasn’t exactly Skynet, I never felt it to be a problem.
I very much enjoyed the stylisation of Redfall. It didn’t lean too heavily on being multiplayer and I had a perfectly good time completing it solo. I later joined my partner in their play through and found it to be much more fun with multiple people, but then that’s the case with most activities.
The story was often told through notes found about the place, something which might well have caused many who didn’t bother to read anything to not find it particularly engaging.
The combat felt good, powers were fun when I remembered I had them. Enemy variety could have done with a couple more vamp types, but the ones we did get were interesting enough.
I’ve yet to go back to it since they added a big update, and maybe I will someday, for now I’m happy with my experience of it on release and would recommend anyone who’s up for shooting some vamps to give it a try.
Arcade Paradise
I wasted an extraordinary amount of time on this simulation game. The premise if you are running a laundromat, but decide to invest in sticking a gaming arcade out back instead.
Game play consists of sticking laundry in machines, taking it out and placing in a dryer, tidying up trash from the floor, and collecting the money at the end of the day. All while distracting yourself with the ever-increasing number of arcade machines out back.
Each of those opposing activities, running a laundromat and running an arcade, would make a perfectly great simulator on their own. But by combining them it’s certainly held my attention longer than one or the other would. Even if I think I do prefer the mundane laundromat simulator to playing the actual arcade games…
Supraland: Six Inches Under
An underrated gem of a game. You play as a tiny person trying to save their tiny kingdom by traversing and solving puzzles, or something like that. Honestly, whatever the actual motive for the game play is really doesn’t matter. It’s a great game where you pick up new abilities to solve the newest area of puzzles and collectables. Metroidvania style in going back to old haunts with new tricks to get additional secret areas.
While fun as just that, what really makes this game is the writing. Little conversations with self aware NPCs are a delight, as well as references to other games and real world happenings. The writers for this deserve big kudos, this and the first Supraland capture some of the old Lionhead Studios silliness in ways most other game’s attempts at comedy could never achieve.
Mineko's Night Market
I found this while looking for something to kill some time between other bigger games, and I’m glad I did. It’s got a cute style, funny writing, and feeling like that of a studio ghibli film. Though that might just be the Japanese setting with a magical mystical giant cat character.
It’s a resource gathering and crafting simulator where you make your arts and sell them at the Saturday night market. Interspersed with mini games and friendship meters that gain you additional crafting receipts when you fill up.
It’s simple and cute and certainly worth your time if you’re a fan of cosy games.
Planet of Lana
A side scrolling puzzle game in the same vein as Limbo but without the absolute nightmare body horror. Planet of Lana is a visually striking game with an intriguing mystery story, but one you can complete in a few short hours. Which is honestly perfect length for the game.
I don’t tend to replay games at the best of times, and this will be no exception, but I enjoyed my time with it.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
I’m a huge Warhammer 40k nerd. Not the table top but the lore. So any game in this setting will always grab my attention. Most however, tend to be turn based strategy games, fitting given the source material being a turn-based table top game. Unfortunately, they don’t often appeal to me. Darktide on the other hand is a big dumb shooter. Perfect for a big dumb me.
I’ve added Darktide at the end of this list as I’ve only played maybe 5 games on it. Hardly enough for me to seriously include it in a game of the year discussions. But i will say i think they have hit the aesthetics of grim dark perfectly. The combat is solid. And in the few games I have played I’ve had a great time bashing through hordes of Chaos foe with my friends.
There it is, the games of the year 2023. I must say I’ve not played nearly as many games as usual this year. With life changes and what not getting in the way. As any followers of Robot Republic will have noticed by our lack of presence. Hopefully we’ll see you more in 2024 and we’ll be back to gaming then.