Don Parsons' Top Games of 2023

It was quite the year of games. While not the best year for the people making games, there’s nothing that can take away from the sheer number of high-quality games that released last year.

So with 2024’s coming deluge of games, I want to take a moment to introduce you to some of my favorite games that I played in 2023 and share them with you. Some you might know, some you might not, but lets take a moment to pause and reflect on the great games we had last year.

Cobalt Core

Slay the Spire Meets FTL In SPACE

I talked about Cobalt Core a little bit in our Indie of the Year talk because it’s a game that has surprisingly gone under the radar. Now nominated for a D.I.C.E. award, Cobalt Core is a roguelite deckbuilder in the vein of Slay the Spire that marries it to the space themes of Faster Than Light.

You pick your ship, crew members, and take off on a roguelite run, with your choice of ship and crew deciding your abilities and what card pools you have access to. The focus is often on the battles, mixed with characters, events, artifacts, and deckbuilding all shaping your experience.

Cobalt Core also takes advantage of the roguelite run method to tell a time loop story that explores its characters. While not a major focus of the game, each run you successfully complete unlocks a memory of what happened to cause this time loop, and it’s a nice addition in a genre that can sometimes overlook story and character.

If you have played games like Slay the Spire though, do note you probably will want to up the difficulty above Normal.

Wildfrost

Tactical Deckbuilding Roguey Wogey Action

Earlier in the year, Wildfrost released with a different approach to the whole roguelite deckbuilding thing. Wildfrost combines your deckbuilder with a tactical game and you adventure with your choice of characters fighting enemies. Pathing is simpler here, as the focus is much more on the tactical play, including the deckbuilding and turn-based combat. Recruit characters to your deck, send them out to fight off enemies, and give them some gear as appropriate as you win each run.

Wildfrost has a lot of unlocks that feel very rewarding, as well as a number of mechanical knobs and areas to experiment with. You can plan on going into an archtype based on your leader choice, but be ready to shift based on what you get, as there are always surprises and interactions you never expected.

Lost Connections

A Small Game About Connecting with People

This is going to be the most obscure game I talk about today, and I came across it in one of my not-at-all obsessive Steam Discovery Queue checks (I’ve only looked at over 15k games on it, I don’t have a problem). Lost Connections is a tiny, almost quaint, completely free game by Amber Pearl and Nofar Evyoni that is about building connections with people.

It’s very short, taking less than 30 minutes to complete with all the achievements, but it is one of the more resonating pieces of media I experienced this year. The game talks about relationships and taking chances on the surface, but it also speaks to a deeper level of reaching out to people, finding friends, and being willing to take that step to connect to people that can be so difficult for many folks, myself included.

As someone with social anxiety, it’s a message that resonated a lot with me, as I often struggle to keep in touch with friends, let alone make new ones. The idea that you’re not alone in having that difficulty, that talking to folks will be alright and there are people out there who may relate with you or just enjoy your company was something that I really needed earlier this year, and others may too.

Venba

Walk a Few Hours in Someone Else's Shoes

While Lost Connections touched me in a way that was very close to my own struggles, Venba is a game about reaching outside myself to learn another perspective. It is my pick for the game I want everyone to play this year. It will take you only a few hours, but it is an experience in empathy and learning about a different experience than you may have had in life.

Venba is a narrative-focused cooking game that tells the story of Indian immigrants that moved to Canada (don’t worry, it’s close enough if you’re American or know American media). It talks about the struggles and the joys of being there as a family and explores some of the ideas through food as well. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will have gone, if not a mile, a few hours in another person’s shoes.

In an increasingly polarized world where we are often shouting past each other, Venba warmly welcomes you in to see another perspective on the world.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

A Hollywood Blockbuster Celebrating a Gaming Redemption Story

Launched alongside the huge 2.0 update, Cyberpunk 2077 finished its redemption arc this year with a big, bombastic expansion that wasn’t afraid to take chances big and small. Phantom Liberty takes what worked about Cyberpunk 2077, with the world and characters, and focused on creating a new area to deliver more of that to you, better than before.

The world building and attention to detail are here, as is the fantastic character work with a rich new cast of characters primarily carrying the leads in a story better than most Hollywood blockbusters. CD Projekt Red's storytelling manages to capture the genre they were aiming for perfectly, giving excellent bombastic moments while not forgetting the small character moments that are integral to a story.

The area of Dogtown also has a lot of things to explore, and it’s a ton of fun to just kind of be in this world and travel about. There are important choices to make that impact the entire tenor of the area and how it’s going. It’s a story that may very well leave you in tears as the characters you come to know are in some of the roughest situations we’ve seen yet.

If you have been waiting on Cyberpunk 2077 until it was done cooking after it released raw, your wait is now over.

Baldur’s Gate 3

One of the Best RPGs Ever

A throwback to the turn of the millennia in many ways, Baldur’s Gate 3 joins Wasteland 3 in answering the question: What sort of games would we be seeing more of if the market hadn’t moved away from them and PCs in the 2000s? It’s a big open world that takes advantage of the rules system it's simulating (Dungeons & Dragons 5e) to give the player a toolbox to interact with the world in a huge amount of ways.

As someone who has been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 20 years, it is great to see this sort of experience rendered and letting people of all sorts see a glimpse into the world of tabletop roleplaying. While by its nature any computer program has far more finite limits than an actual GM, the sheer systemic depth and narrative options Larian has programmed in do a great job of letting players come up with crazy ideas and solutions like you might see at the table.

The inclusion of multiplayer is a wonderful grace note, letting friends join together in the experience. Not everyone can find a GM, and this can give a bit of that to folks, and it’s all delivered in a game filled with witty writing, good humor, great characters, and all sorts of fun gameplay.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is an instant classic and will be competing at the top of ‘best RPGs’ for the next 20 years with the greats that have come before, as it more than lives up to its developer's, and series' pedigree.