In 2024, we saw games where soldiers dove headfirst into alien planets to defend Earth, Princess Zelda led her very own legend, a little robot overcame impossible odds to rescue PlayStation’s greatest characters, and a game of poker played out unlike anything else.
There can be arguments for why any number of our Best Game of 2024 nominees could take home the crown, a stark contrast from last year where Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom were locked-in favorites. The breadth of games on display, from Black Myth: Wukong to Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, means picking this year’s winner was harder than usual, but ultimately there was one clear winner. Here’s IGN’s Best Game of 2024.
Before we get to the overall winner, let’s look back at some of the other games from this year that deserve your recognition, starting with our Honorable Mentions. These nominees were much-loved by IGN’s editorial team but didn’t get as many votes as our winner and runners-up.
The mystery is afoot in the sequel to 2022’s delightful point-and-click game The Case of the Golden Idol. Set 200 years after the events of the first game, Rise of the Golden Idol returns with more devilishly clever puzzles where you solve various crimes that begin to combine into one grand mystery.
The Fashion Nikki series has always had its share of devotees. The dress-up simulator was a pleasant, cozy way to pass the time, collecting different outfits and making your character as cute as they can be. But Infinity Nikki is a bold reinvention, combining all the elements fans loved, along with the amazing outfits they could create, and adding a vibrant, Zelda-like open-world to explore.
There were doubts as to whether Bloober Team could faithfully remake one of the most beloved horror games of all time. Even Bloober admitted as much, citing the mixed reception some of their previous horror games have received. But the determination to do right by the source material paid off as Silent Hill 2 delivers one of the scariest – and best – gaming experiences of the year. Faithful to everything that made the original great, while updating the rusty, aging bits beautifully, Silent Hill 2 embodies everything that’s great about the original and then some.
The Prince of Persia, one of gaming's forgotten greats, finally got a new entry worthy of the Prince’s title. This 2.5D Metroidvania delivers one of the most exhilarating revivals of any franchise in recent memory, and with its tight controls, excellent action, and swashbuckling storytelling, this is the best Prince of Persia game since Sands of Time.
Black Myth: Wukong captivated audiences ever since its first trailer was revealed, but that was only a part of the story. Yes, the boss fights are epic, and the combat is sublime, but this loving recreation of one of China’s oldest, most beloved stories means millions of players can finally appreciate the legend of the Monkey Prince in a whole new way.
One of the earliest surprises of the year was Animal Well. On the surface, it’s another well-made homage to past 2D Metroidvania games. But the deeper you go, the more you realize Animal Well isn’t all that it appears. While the core gameplay and platforming are excellent, you quickly discover there’s a massive puzzle at the heart of it all. So take out your notebook and get ready to put your brain to work to uncover the truth behind Animal Well.
Next up are games that were oh-so-close to being crowned Game of the Year, but narrowly missed out to the overall winner. MachineGames is back with another Nazi-punching blockbuster. And no, this isn’t a new Wolfenstein game. Instead, the Swedish studio has endeavored to bring one of cinema’s greatest heroes into the modern gaming age. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is essentially a truly great Indiana Jones movie brought to life. And by truly great, we mean up there with the original trilogy. Buoyed by Troy Baker’s frankly insane portrayal of Harrison Ford’s iconic archeologist, The Great Circle feels like a dream come true for anyone who grew up enraptured by movies like The Last Crusade and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Indy was never a shoot ‘em up hero; instead he used his brains as well as his brawn to solve ancient riddles and punch out bad guys, and that’s something MachineGames has wonderfully adapted here. Whether it’s exploring the ancient catacombs of The Vatican or sneaking up on fascists and bonking them over the head, The Great Circle literally puts you into the dirt-caked shoes of Indiana Jones, and it turns out it’s every bit as fun and exciting as we imagined.
“Why is it called The Legend of Zelda if it stars Link?” is a question most have asked at one point in their life. Well, ask no more as Echoes of Wisdom puts Zelda in charge of her own legend in this new top-down adventure game. Visually similar to the 2019 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom is very much a true Zelda game, complete with the classic puzzles and dungeons the series is known for.
Its creators have clearly learned from more recent games in the series too, and even though Echoes of Wisdom is more of a “classic” Zelda experience, the freeform creativity of Breath of the Wild is present thanks to the Echoes mechanic that lets Zelda conjure whatever item and enemy she encounters, leading to all kinds of madcap solutions. Stuck on the other side of a ledge? Just stack a bunch of beds together to cross. Duh.
Are you doing your part in the war to save our galaxy? If not, jump into Helldivers 2 and start blasting away at alien and robot scum. Arrowhead Game Studios delivered one of the new live-service games of the year with the sequel to its isometric alien shooter. Reimagined as a squad-based third-person shooter, Helldivers 2 is both a satirical take on the military-industrial complex while also being an addictive blast thanks to its potent mix of high-powered weaponry, devastating orbital drop missiles, and a spirit of Earthian patriotism.
After the prelude that was Final Fantasy 7: Remake, we finally get to the heart of the adventure in the second in Square Enix’s planned trilogy. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth encompasses some of the most important moments from the original, but more than that stands on its own as a brilliant open world RPG.
What stands out almost immediately is how much love Square Enix has for these characters. It’s clear Square Enix wants players to spend as much time as they can with Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Barrett, and Red XIII, providing plenty of side quests and minigames, and expanding entire moments so that we can all spend just hang with the gang some more before they resume their mission in the fight against Sephiroth. It makes these moments all the more valuable too, given the ending to Rebirth and the approaching finale.
Astro Bot’s life began as a humble mascot for the Playroom tech demo. Anytime Sony had some new hardware to show off — whether it was the PS VR headset, or the PlayStation 5 — Astro Bot was there to guide players through the ins-and-outs of whatever new system Sony wanted to show off. But with Astro Bot, the adorable little mascot finally takes center stage.
This colorful, vibrant 3D platformer isn’t just a showcase for the PS5’s powerful GPU and fast SSD, because between the unbridled level of creativity in each level and the controller-stressing difficulty of some of the harder challenge runs, Astro Bot is pure delight and wonderment. Every ability Astro Bot plays around with — from inflating into a balloon or punching enemies with bungee fists — never fails to amuse even the most hardened gamer. I don’t say this lightly, but PlayStation might have just found its answer to Nintendo’s Mario.
After a brief interlude into the live-service genre with games like Anthem, and a perhaps ill-advised attempt to rush out another Mass Effect game with Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare has gone back to what it knows best – a good old-fashioned, dungeon-crawling RPG full of delightful characters, witty dialogue, and the chance to create a character who looks and talks exactly the way you want them to. But while BioWare may have opted for a back-to-basics approach to storytelling, there is one area of major improvement: the combat.
It’s not unfair to say this is the best a BioWare game has ever played, from its sword-and-sorcery combat to even the way you traverse the myriad of dungeons and mystical locales. While we’re only one game into the BioWare renaissance, all eyes are back on the storied studio.
“It’s just a poker game with some roguelike mechanics,” I remember saying to friends, incredulously, when they first told me they spent all night playing a little game called Balatro. “How good could it be?” Turns out after tens of thousands of poker hands and hundreds of hours spent playing, Balatro still has me wrapped around its fingers.
A lot can be said about Balatro’s addictive qualities and how it has this magnetic ability to get you to play just one more round. The reason for Balatro’s rapid ascendency is how it took one of America’s oldest games and refashioned it for one of gaming’s most popular genres, the roguelike. The combination of classic poker rules and randomized Joker and Tarot cards that augment your combos and bump up your high score so you can get to the next round is pure gaming bliss. Balatro is built on creating seemingly endless moments of elation and devastation in equal measures. All you have to do is play your cards right… literally.
For years, Atlus’ cult-RPG Persona went from being a cool underground RPG series from Japan to one of the biggest franchises in modern gaming. But with Metaphor: ReFantazio, it’s clear the developers behind Persona were seeking to push themselves to new heights. Trading in the modern-day Japanese high school setting for a pure fantasy world full of long-eared knights and bat-like ninjas, Atlus’ Studio Zero has created an incredible and timely meditation on political strife and demagoguery.
After the death of the King, the United Kingdom of Euchronia, divided by racial prejudice among its citizens, begins the process of holding its very first popular election that kickstarts a grand, cross-continental adventure. For anyone familiar with the Persona series, you’ll find familiar hallmarks here. Players split their time crawling through difficult dungeons full of horrifying monsters, while spending free moments building up relationships with various party members and inhabitants around the country.
But while the Persona games took these quiet moments to reaffirm the virtues of youthful friendships, Metaphor uses these times to tackle headier questions. What defines a knight’s duty, or the responsibilities of those born into wealth? Can one ever heal from the pains of racism, and is religious tolerance a foolhardy endeavor? These aren’t easy questions to address but are asked plainly throughout Metaphor’s 70-hour playtime.
While Studio Zero refrains from giving clear-cut answers to these questions, it instead acknowledges the virtues of empathy, kindness, and strength in the face of overwhelming fear and hatred that can take root in an uncertain world where leaders promise salvation in exchange for unwavering loyalty. Wrap these philosophical musings in a stylish, turn-based RPG that looks and feels stupendous — complete with beautiful character designs from artist Shigenori Soejima and music from Shoji Meguro – and you’ll quickly understand why Metaphor: ReFantazio is IGN’s pick for Best Game of 2024.
So congratulations to Metaphor: ReFantazio and Studio Zero, and also to all of our other winners and runner-ups in 2024’s IGN Awards. Be sure to check out our full list of Award Winners for Best Movie, TV Show, and more, and we’ll see you again in 2025 for even more gaming goodness.
