So here it is for you Stardew Valley. You were one of the brightest parts of my 2024 and a game I already know I'll be coming back to for years.
— Lee Hutchinson
Grounded
Credit: Xbox Game Studios
Obsidian; Windows, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation
My favorite discovery this year was probably Groundeda survival crafting game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Microsoft that was initially released in 2022 (2020 if you count early access), but received its last planned content update in April.
You play as one of four brave preteens, shrunken to a fraction of an inch tall as part of a nefarious science experiment. The game is heavily inspired by the 1989 classic. Honey I shrunk the kidsboth in its eighties setting and in its graphic design. Explore the backyard, fight bugs, find new crafting materials, build a base of operations, and upgrade yourself with special items and increasingly better equipment so you can figure out what happened to you and return to your normal size.
Grounded It came about because I was looking for another game for the four-player group I also played galactic deep rock and Raft with. As Raft, Grounded It has a main story with achievable goals and an endpoint, plus a varied enough mix of activities that everyone can find something they like to do. Despite some netcode hiccups, if you like survival style games but don't like minecraft-Stylish, goalless and fun game, Grounded It might scratch your itch.
— Andrew Cunningham
Fights in small spaces
Soil destruction; Windows, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation
I spent a lot of time browsing, playing, and thinking about roguelike deck builders in 2024. Steam's recommendation algorithm noticed and discarded the 2021 one. Fights in small spaces me. I was on a languid week of vacation, with a full Steam Deck, with enough distance from the genre to then maybe dive back in. More than 15 hours later, the “Is this relevant to you?” from Steam. The question is easy to answer.
Back in college, I spent many weekends completing my knowledge of Asian action films, absorbing every instance of John Woo, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, flying guillotine, drunk teacher, and everything I could get from friends and rental stores. I loved frantic fights that took place in tight, crowded or extravagant spaces. When the hero ducks so one bad guy can punch the other and then jumps back over a railing to double-leg kick the guy coming from below? That's the question.