It's hard to believe, but another eventful gaming year is over, in which it was hard to avoid great games. Whether triple-A or the smallest indies, the studios offered something for every taste. If you can't decide because of all the highlights, you can find help here: We have voted within the editorial team and are presenting to you here what we consider to be the 20 best games of 2024.
20th place: Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga
Phew, it was only with a lot of effort that the successor to the highly praised Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice made it into the top 20 of the year. But if you take a closer look, it becomes clear why the dark foray through mystical Iceland wasn't the winner you'd hoped for. The action-adventure shines with an incredibly intense atmosphere, not least thanks to the almost brilliant depiction of the psychological state of the main character, and audio-visually it is also one of the best that the Xbox Series X|S had to offer up to that point. In terms of play, however, Ninja Theory didn't necessarily cover itself with glory, recycling a little too much and showing a little too little courage. Ultimately, the game is an artistically and technically impressive psychological trip, but with relatively little real gameplay, it's too close to the walking simulator, which is ultimately not enough for a higher ranking.
Xbox fans had to wait a long time for the exclusive title Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2. Now the game is finally released. We'll reveal whether you're in for a hit here - or "just" an extraordinarily stylish but boring action adventure.
19th place: Stellar Blade
The action fireworks that the Korean studio Shift Up is launching with Stellar Blade defy description. The extremely fast and stylish fights score points with well-thought-out mechanics and crisp controls; the motto “easy to learn, difficult to master” applies here perfectly. You can further improve your heroine through upgrades and adapt her to your individual playing style. Numerous religious references and philosophical questions about humanity create an exciting story principle, but unfortunately Stellar Blade does not fully utilize its possibilities. Nevertheless, it is a brilliant spectacle that will make all action fans happy.
Stellar Blade detonates one bombast grenade after the other and skillfully places itself between Souls-like and hack-and-slay.
Platz 18: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
If a DLC suddenly becomes a full-fledged game, it can only go wrong. Accordingly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 greatly disappointed fans in 2023. Treyarch and Activision had a lot to make up for with Black Ops 6 and they more than succeeded! The campaign tells an exciting spy story including stealth missions, undercover operations and the bombastic shooting typical of the series. Black Ops 6 is also no slouch in multiplayer and offers tried-and-tested modes, ingenious zombie maps and the new Omnimovement system. Treyarch is also constantly working on balancing and providing fresh content. Call of Duty hasn't been this good in a long time!
For a long time it seemed as if Call of Duty was in a crisis of meaning - that's over now!
