Trick question, Nuclear Throne
Inquisitor: Martyr was a lot of fun. Plenty of loot, oodles of skills to mess with, gems to socket, all kinds of mission modifiers. A quasi-roguelike endgame system. Lots to do.
I picked up God of Weapons the other day. I guess they're calling them "Bullet Heaven" games. The goal it to assemble different weapons and buff items in to a whirling blender of death that automatically attacks all the monsters around you while you try to survive until the timer runs out. There's a mechanic where you have a grid inventory and each time you gain a level you can unlock a few more blocks on the grid. You need to plan out the actual shape of your inventory carefully - some items take up a lot of space. Some are weirdly shaped. Some gain bonuses from being adjacent to other items of their type. So as you grow your inventory you have to also play a tetris-ish puzzle to optimize your build.
Theres a lot to do - you can unlock characters by completing challenges during runs, and you gain currency by defeating bosses or surviving to level 20 that you can use to boost your starting stats and equipment or unlock new gear to add to the item pool.
I've really been enjoying Hades. I almost wish it was a visual novel so I could spend more time with the gorgeously realized cast, but the gameplay is also excellent. A rare and winning combo. Eurydice's song is one of my favorite piece's now,
I'm not super interested in bullet heavens but that second one sounds neat
To me the appeal is almost entirely in the build crafting. Each round lasts about 1 minute, which is just about enough time to figure out "Is this build super broken or am I gonna die?" and then it's back to trying to hyper-optimize your inventory to create a fully automatic death whirlwind of angry cutlery.
One of the characters gets physically larger as you gain HP. I had fun trying to slam as many +hp items in to his inventory as possible.
I haven't played Hades yet this year, but I agree.
I replayed hades again this year and it was a blast as always. quite literally my favorite game of all time. maybe not the one ive played the most, or the one i've had the most fun with, but i couldn't tell you a single thing i'd change about it.
Does Vampire Survivors count?
Path of Exile had an amazing year. We had one mid league (Crucible) that was honestly still one of the best states the game's been in ever, and 2 other leagues which are GOAT contenders. I'm on my second character of the league, trying a build I wanted to do last time but was too busy (Life -> ES stacking CoC inqui).
warm snow
I've played so much Hades and I'll keep playing that shit.
I played waframe for a while, there's so much to do for a free game
