A year ends, and a new one begins. So many things happen and it’s easy to forget what happened recently, let’s then take a look back to imprint in memory what was seen during the year and regroup all the reviews in one place. I’ll first list all the elements of a category, then have a handful of titles for the more memorable ones. However because something is listed isn’t equivalent to a mark of quality, or a lack thereof if it’s not awarded a title. It’s worth seeing for yourself if something would feel interesting or not, I will add an excerpt to help giving an idea.
Of course this is a wholly subjective evaluation and might include elements from before the current year because I experienced these first this year. Before deliberating on how impactful each was, I will do honorable mentions of every element for even being part of what I had the chance to try. Well done on having been made! Creation is a difficult and often ungrateful endeavor, so this is the least I can give to appreciate this.
Games
List
Impostor Factory - Reality is what we perceive as such. But it’s important to discern what is real outside of our perception, otherwise it becomes an illusion we get lost in. Don’t mistake one world for another…
Ori and the Will of the Wisps - Life is neither fair nor unfair, all it cares about is the cycle of life and death to perpetuate. Yet, caring isn’t superfluous, each individual cycle does matter. There’s no point in giving up early.
Outer Wilds - A vast world of manifold elements, when combined they bring infinite possibilities and in that, solutions to most questions. The question then becomes, do you truly want to get an answer for it?
Chaos;Head NoaH - It is easy to become complacent and lose yourself in delusions. Facing reality will take pain and effort, but it’s something all too important to protect what is truly mattering. Are your eyes yours?
Ara and the Empty Universe - What a strange experience.
Our Way Down - Interested in seeing what’s next.
Steins;Gate: My Darling’s Embrace - Nothing mind-blowing, but it doesn’t hurt.
DOOM Eternal - Dip into the slaughter, can it really be called a power fantasy when any mistake is fatal? Every progress here is made through blood and tears. Only rule: rip the rewards and tear the obstacles down!
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - Surprisingly fun.
Bottoms Up! Part 1 - It reminds a bit of the Witcher, if it was a lot more realistic.
Robotics;Notes Elite - Staying grounded is important, but having a dream to drive us is just as much. Mixing both is how you can combine the strengths and lessen the flaws, progressing forward with united goals.
Chaos;Child - There is an apparent higher production value/quality, yet somehow something feels missing.
OneShot - Choosing to believe or not is what determines your reality, and while it might not reflect for others or the main one, sometimes it’s enough just for yourself.
The Looker - It’s silly, witty, but most importantly a love letter.
AI: The Somnium File - Nirvana Initiative - Understanding isn’t always a necessity to fall in love. Simply feeling it can be enough, and even nothingness can lead to a state of ascension. Tear at the seams.
Inscryption - Even in a moment of comfort, the familiar is yet unfamiliar, and dread comes from the known unknown. Those dreadful changes are what brings necessary evolution to encrusted doors.
The Hex - Success can blind and make you forget what led you to it. At the same time, it can become a dreadful machine stopping you from reverting on the ruinous path. Every light casts shadows.
Blasphemous 2 - All is preordained, if so, is it fate to be fighting against it? Strange will to be self deleterious, anything goes when nothing makes a difference. What’s left is to fight for convictions.
Steins;Gate 0 - I wasn’t hooked from start to finish, but I won’t say I hated it either.
Omori - Escape is not an exit, it’s longer alternate way before reaching one. Things have a cost and sometimes it feels too heavy to bear, but how much will we let it run before we wish for the initial price.
Robotics;Notes DaSH - Consider this like a beach episode mixed with a sequel.
The Talos Principle 2 - Can we learn from past mistakes? If failure is inherent, should we even try? Would hope be enough to avoid the pitfalls? Could overwhelming power really be worth the risks? There is no right answer.
Titles
- Space has never been this attractive
- Outer wilds managed to instill a sense of wonder and exploration never before felt. It impacted how I view open world and puzzling.
- Ready to blow your brains out
- DOOM Eternal completely overturned DOOM 2016, which had already overturned nervous gameplay that even I, not liking FPS games much, was conquered by. There’s a tightness and intensity unmatched here.
- I don’t like Mecha, however…
- Robotics;Notes Elite is a chiller one in the Sci;Adv franchise, it should have been my least liked one because the story involves robots and mecha. Surprisingly it did a great job of accompanying someone that dislikes them, and in the end was an interesting one.
- Parody is not dead
- The Looker overturned my whole experience of The Witness, it was fun and didn’t fall into cheap tricks. Well orchestrated.
- Let’s have deep existential philosophy in our game
- The Talos Principle 2 took what was built in the first, and went even farther with the pondering and meaning of existence. All that along fun puzzles to dilute the thinking a bit.
Minecraft Maps
List
Patchwreck - A proof that event maps can be fun even with experimental stuff. review
Sanctimonious Rhapsody 3: Revelations - The gameplay style is completely changed from the outset, meaning you don’t approach familiar things the same way. review
Untold Stories 09: Castlemania - It is a good map, and it manages to offset the quality scope creep that such a series had. review
Boots - The layout feels a bit random and loot chests are fairly equal in each area. review
Chain Zap Unchained - Bigger, better, stronger. review
The Distant Lands II - Starblight Desert - This is what good vanilla feels. review
Dans le Puits - It’s absolute chaos. review
Feverdreams 1: Potatoe - Life is potato. review
Nausea - I got used to the effect fairly fast, and would have liked to experience something a bit more balanced to truly test it out. review
Trails of Green and Gray - The gameplay is both familiar and unusual, with some use of very fast spawners for increased difficulty. review
The Lights Are Out - Not much more to say, it’s short and explores a gameplay idea. review
The Hub - It’s a funner Diversity, I like how it’s also a mix of “open world” with bits and bobs to fiddle around. review
Deadly Sandstone Mines - I think I’m allergic to the old school gameplay grind, so after losing most of my gear, I just gave up - it wasn’t for me. review
The Lucid Dreamers #2 - Heatwave - It definitely felt like a lucid dream. review
Lucid Dreams 1.5 - Frostbound - The pressure of nat spawns combined with very open places made it not worth fighting, and now I need to do skeleton therapy. review
Sinful Skylands: Feast and Fortune - The areas are fun and the custom textures/items give a nice flavor(get it?). review
Broiled Worlds 1: BIGTREE - This is probably the most vanilla ctm I’ve ever played. review
Icecream Meltdown - This was a strange experience. review
Toilet Under Maintenance - I like the unique biotopes of each room along with the new plants. review
The Last Morning - There were clear improvements in level design and reward for exploration, I can see a hold was taken in those concepts. review
Lucid Nightmares 3 - The Empress - I like the cohesive theme for all the objectives, while it’s not too relevant past the first, you still get the feeling it’s all part of one world. review
Contrary - I’m so happy to see a map incorporate a puzzle like that. They’re fun and twist the mundane! review
Uncomplete - It starts a bit weak but goes hard as you progress. I had quite a lot of fun. review
Sun Guardian - Honestly, I’m shocked this is a first map, it’s reminiscent of Paradigm and Weaves of Fate in how much effort outputs such a massive and fun first map. review
Sandman’s Dimension - I think the biggest trap when playing this map is thinking it’s a standard ctm, it’s first and foremost a giant open world to traverse. review
Mapwreck 5 - Currents - Due to the linear progression and spread area locations, it was a bit annoying to follow the set order by running around.
Midland - There were shortcomings, but I really liked the concept of skills and relics.
-賭城風雲錄 Alea Iacta Est- - The sheer chaos of each floor, combined with the great theming, and wacky items give the whole experience a particular feeling. review
Explorer’s Undergate - The style was too vanilla for my tastes but there’s still bits like the npc trades or green that change things up. review
Episodes of the Infernal - The biggest strength of the map is level design, it’s made to be played, not explored with secrets to find. review
Void Hero - The more you progress the crazier the map becomes. review
Quickfire #22: Roselit Rush - The mechanics are well made and interesting, I regret not being able to enjoy it as much. review
Sky Frontier - With funny balance and simple gameplay, it’s short enough to stay fun to the end. review
DINO’s Disadventures 01 - Novelty - It’s as short as advertised, if you want something to do for a small hour, it does the job fine. review
6HM - Biggest regret is it’s too short so all feels compressed for progression. review
Haunted Chills - A Sandurs Halloween special. review
Final Paradox - It’s rare to have big maps with production value like that, so each should be savored.
The Ultimate CTMC Quiz - Finally I can capitalize on all the hours well spent here. review
Riptide Summit - The map used the riptide movement well for traversal, gameplay was fast and fun. review
Tree Exploration - The item quality is varied with some punishing drawbacks on some(which makes it hard to consider a use) and other good standard ones(also an infinity unbreakable bow whew). review
Sandman’s Gift - It was a more mixed experience, the highlight being the level design which had fun ideas and gameplay. review
Fungal-Floric Up-Down Hoedown - It’s a very vanilla style map, we can see the aesthetics and level design are basic, but they’re there and only ask to find a strong identity in the future. review
A Renewing Adventure - The bite sized is accurate, having small maps is a good balance to not always needing to go on 30 hours adventures. review
Santa’s Naughty List - Next time is krampus? I guess I better be silent… review
Curse Of The Snowy Desert - Nooo! Why am I cursed… The loot certainly is, it was interesting having to figure out if the item was good to use or not. review
Closing Time - The plushies were so cute! review
Otter Wilds - Not to mistake with the otter worlds. review
Corrupted Winter - The mobs lived up to the hard difficulty, remember to frequently take a nap while progressing! review
The Snow Globe - Can’t learn without making, mistakes included. review
Vortex of Ordeal - I hate you. review
Paralyzed - I went for a walk on the beach and all I got was those lousy burns. review
Melted Spires - Expect it to be nervous because it’s not an easy climb. review
-= Trials of the Sorcerer =- - A very solid and fun map, don’t fear the difficulty too much, because it’s generous enough to let you experiment. review
Santa Boss Battle - No gifts? Time to get them back with interests. review
Sandbox Forces - Don’t expect it to play like a standard CTM, it’s quite fun in its own way. review
Fight for a Night Snack - I spoke too soon, but I’m not late, here’s the real last gift of 2023! review
Titles
- Avant-Guarde
- Sanctimonious Rhapsody 3: Revelations was a real moment. With unusual textures and sounds, it really pushed how a ctm map can feel like and play. The final wool was a great challenge to overcome.
- Paradigm Shift
- Sun Guardian is a first map, did you know? Yet it feels as big as the biggest maps, a long adventure in perspective. It also had many interesting designs explored, I can’t praise it enough.
- Block of the Wild
- Sandman’s Dimension opens a big toybox of floating blocks to play around with, with no direct bridges it asks you to be inventive and explore around your way. The most “exploration in open world” fun I had this year, even if it was the only gameplay.
- Skyblock is outclassed
- Void Hero has such an different approach to building the map, it reminds me of the ZungryWare style. I had a lot of fun finding all the different things and optional objectives. I love those kind of diverse checklist goals, and wish more maps would try some.
- Flawed Masterpiece
- Final Paradox, what hasn’t been said about it? It’s clear there are issues, mechanics don’t fit all the time and level design can feel lacking. But it’s just such a blast to play, with epic boss battles and crazy items. The scales broke under the sheer weight.
- Highway to Heaven
- Trials of the Sorcerer is a great map, but there’s more to it. It has a gameplay style I really vibe with, and not being the only one pushing for it givz m hop for the future CTM maps we’ll see. Having so much places to explore and optional bits of content gives a particular feeling to maps, especially open worlds.
Minecraft Modpacks
List
StoneBlock 3 - It’s not bad, it’s simply very standard kitchen sink, and that’s not what I have fun with.
Craft of the Titans - It was a try that birthed a better version I’m eager to try one day!
Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons - It had so many mods, but they were far from necessary.
Titles
- What a disappointment
- Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons is a big modpack that I often heard about, but when I played it I was quite underwhelmed, clearly I had a wrong impression of what it would be. One of the rare I ever gave up on the middle of. Or is it the first?
Wrapping Up
What a year! Despite being busy with some particular projects, I still managed to play many of the games I had planned to, along with the huge amount of CTM map releases. The modpacks were less glorious, but I won’t lose hope I’ll find some great ones! The games were so incredibly stacked with masterpieces I couldn’t afford to give a title to all of them, but know there’s a lot more I loved enough to consider part of the best. This new year should see an enormous game down, hopefully it’ll go well. I might add even more categories…
More promising things to come, see you soon!