Our Favorite Games Of 2024 That Didn't Make The Top 10

Compiling our top 10 games of 2024 was, as always, a challenging process. Dozens of games got votes for consideration, and then hours of discussion narrowed that list down to just 10. But that means that for all of us, we had games that we adored but couldn't include in the list.

Maybe a game just resonated with one of us specifically. Maybe others just didn't have the opportunity to play it. Whatever the case, there are games released this year that we individually feel are stellar and still worth highlighting, even if there wasn't enough staff support for them. What you'll see below are staffers' top choices from their personal top 10s that didn't rank in our list. As such, you might see some more obscure games or those that proved to be more contentious among those who played them.

Whatever the reason for their absence in the top 10, these are games at least one of us here at GameSpot loved, and we hope you will, too.

Tactical Breach Wizards

Available on: PC

My love for Into the Breach is no secret, so I'm both predisposed to be interested in and likely to be highly critical of anything similar. Tactical Breach Wizards features a familiar style of tile-based tactical gameplay in which you know exactly how the upcoming enemy turn will play out and need to act accordingly to achieve your goals. But Tactical Breach Wizards is much more than a simple Into the Breach imitator, making several key changes that make for not only my favorite game of 2024, but one of my favorite games of all time.

Unlike the replay-centric, roguelike style of Into the Breach, Tactical Breach Wizards consists of a story-driven campaign, which is remarkably well-written, full of hilarious dialogue and characters I came to love--the story is not at all what I expected given the silliness of the early proceedings. And while a game that can consistently make me laugh is always going to endear itself to me, where Tactical Breach Wizards really got its hooks into me is the huge set of potential ways for any given move to turn out. As I've previously written, I ended up spending far more time than was needed on almost every turn of the game as I experimented with just how many options there are at in approaching each turn, which can often take you from thinking, "Well, I'm not going to beat this level" to finding a way to beat it in a single turn. Toss in the never-gets-old ability to throw enemies out of windows, and you have a wonderful fusion of humor, narrative, and tactical gameplay. It plays great on Steam Deck, too.

-- Chris Pereira

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Available on: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5

It's amazing that Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 even exists, considering the original released well over a decade ago and wasn't a smash hit. Time can do wonders, however, and over the years we've seen a cult following build around its unique blend of third-person shooting and hack-and-slash action. Remarkably, Saber Interactive has managed to make a sequel that goes far beyond simply living up to its predecessor--it surpasses it, delivering buttery-smooth combat that lets you move seamlessly between blasting enemies with your Bolter and delivering devastating executions with your Chainsword.

Opting for a linear experience reminiscent of the original game keeps the pace quick and consistent from the beginning of the campaign to the end, but Space Marine 2 also showcases massive set pieces in the distance--like an enormous monster or a big-ass explosion--that are actually showing you moments from cooperative missions you can complete with others. They work to complement the main story rather than merely feel like more "content," and though the competitive multiplayer doesn't have this same narrative justification, it's still plenty of fun to blast your enemies into oblivion with a well-placed grenade.

If players could see how good the sequel would be back in 2011, their heads would have exploded. Space Marine 2 certainly isn't trying to reinvent any core gameplay mechanics or "fix" what was a fundamentally solid predecessor. Players just wanted another high-stakes adventure with Titus, and that's exactly what they got.

-- Gabe Gurwin

The Outlast Trials

Available on: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One PS5, PS4, PC

Over the last few years, multiplayer modes have become a major focus in horror games. Most such games have focused on PvP, and I love most of them, but they've also tended to invite controversy. Subreddits descend into arguments over balance, fandoms complain in the comments on social media. It feels like multiplayer horror game dev is a mostly thankless job--except if you're Red Barrels, the team behind The Outlast Trials. Perhaps to its benefit, the game is built around PvE, which seems to wipe away most of the hostilities and leaves only a really fun, creepy, and infinitely replayable co-op game that the community charmingly adores.

I'm right there with them. The Outlast Trials has become one of my favorite horror games. Built for four-player co-op, it's a very different Outlast experience than those before it, but what it sometimes loses in overall scare factor due to the co-op environment, it makes up for with diverse, unpredictable missions. Like the earlier single-player Outlast games, its starring villains are intense and grotesque--Mother Gooseberry most of all. But one of my favorite aspects of the game is actually the live-service element.

The Outlast Trials has received frequent updates, bringing new modes, events, and extremely inspired character cosmetics to the game. As I write this, the Winter Kills event has just launched, and I'm eager to jump in after work today and unlock a stylishly twisted Santa costume. With its move away from single-player as the focus, The Outlast Trials once left me worried about the future of a series I love. But in 2024, it's become obvious this dark game has a bright future.

-- Mark Delaney

UFO 50

Available on: PC

We've seen plenty of retro game compilations for classic, beloved consoles from yesteryear. UFO 50 asks, what if we made one for a console that never really existed? A team of developers led by Spelunky's Derek Yu imagine a fictional retro console, complete with its own developer, UFO Soft, and creates a massive library of fictional, internally consistent retro games--all the actual size and scope of real games from the 8-bit era.

It's an audacious idea, made all the more impressive by the sheer quality of the library. The 50 games included in the library cover a wide range of genres, while also spanning a subtle, years-long meta-narrative covering the developers' different ideas for the company and how game development iterated on itself for sequels and spin-offs. You can dive into the games and easily find dozens of retro games you'll enjoy on their own, but as a package it adds depth and clarity as a statement about classic game development.

This is all presented in-fiction as friends finding an abandoned game console in a dusty attic. You start games the first time by blowing the dust off of them. It's the perfect framing device for a game that is both about and an approximation of discovery. So much of the appeal of classic games was discovering strange experiments in a nascent medium that was clawing its way toward relevancy. UFO 50 is a game that understands it and replicates it, letting us recapture that sense of wild, untamed mystery.

-- Steve Watts

Minishoot Adventures

Available on: PC

Steam has no shortage of Zelda-likes, and without exception, these almost always pay homage with certain familiar visual motifs--a young spritely character, usually a boy, often in a tunic with a sword and shield in tow. These are all loving tributes to the classic top-down Zelda game, but Minishoot Adventures takes a different approach. Rather than imitate the look and feel of Link to the Past, it recaptures that feeling of adventure with style and grace.

The key differentiator for Minishoot is that rather than a top-down melee action game like Zelda, it's modeled after a shoot-em-up like Geometry Wars. You're Minishoot, a little sentient ship summoned to defeat the blight of cursed and corrupted ships. Within that framework, however, this manages to capture the feeling of a classic Zelda through and through. You'll explore dungeons, find new gear to augment your battle and movement abilities, and use it to defeat fearsome bosses. The pacing between exploration, combat, and upgrading your abilities is top-notch, making it easy to lose hours at a time as you delve into the rich world. And if your shooter skills aren't exactly elite, no worries, because it has loads of difficulty and accessibility settings to meet you at your own skill level.

-- Steve Watts

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Available on: PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4

The Black Ops franchise was never my preferred Call of Duty sub-brand, as Zombies never really did it for me and I never synced up with the movement and feel of Black Ops. It always felt "off" to me. Instead, I normally preferred the Modern Warfare series from Infinity Ward. But Black Ops 6 hooked me from the start, perhaps in part because the game has the same "feel" as the Modern Warfare franchise now that all Call of Duty games run on the same engine.

Whatever the reason, Black Ops 6 has impressed me from day one with its fresh set of multiplayer maps (and a great returning one in Nuketown!) and a diverse arsenal of powerful and unique weapons, gadgets, and Scorestreaks. I mainly play Team Deathmatch, and after 30+ hours, I've not yet grown tired of the experience, but rather always find myself excited to come back. With the big holiday update, a consistently refreshed in-game store with all manner of wacky and weird items for sale, and regular events, I think Black Ops 6 will continue to keep me engaged and happy for a long time to come. I have not touched the campaign or Zombies as of yet, so I can only imagine I'll eventually get to those and get deeper into the Black Ops 6 experience overall.

-- Eddie Makuch

1000xResist

Available on: PC, Nintendo Switch

From the moment I started 1000xResist, I was enraptured by its surreal world and immersive storytelling. I was gripped by its cold open and even colder characters, who spoke in eloquent riddles I wanted desperately to decipher.

Yet much like our game's protagonist, 1000xResist is a game that is both impenetrable and extremely vulnerable. As you delve through its fragmented, non-linear memories--some heartbreaking while others, horrific--things become clearer, but decidedly more complex as well. Much of this is due to its themes, which include generational trauma, immigration, and sexuality, among others, and are all handled with care, consideration, and nuance. It's a game that relies on your own introspection alongside its own, and the reward for doing so is a work of art that is transformative.

Yet even on the surface, the sci-fi adventure game delights. Part of this is thanks to its highly stylized graphics--which are richly saturated and perfectly capture each moment's tone--and simplistic gameplay that is still engaging. But even more vital to the experience is the world and overarching story it builds, which draws inspiration from great works of science fiction while also feeling entirely its own. In a year filled with great games and fascinating narratives, 1000xResist stands out as one of 2024's greatest works of art.

-- Jessica Cogswell

Dragon's Dogma 2

Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

From an outsider's perspective, Dragon's Dogma 2 might look like more of the same compared to the original game--and to a large extent, that's what Dragon's Dogma 2 delivers. But for those of us who waited almost 12 years for Capcom to follow up on its open-world, high-fantasy action-RPG, that's exactly what we wanted. Not because we've waited over a decade for a plot cliffhanger to be resolved or to be reunited with beloved characters from the original, but rather because nothing else delivered the specific blend of Capcom's signature action combat acumen, old-school RPG sensibilities, and open-ended sandbox systemic interplay of the original Dragon's Dogma. That is, until its sequel finally launched back in March.

To be clear, Dragon's Dogma 2's player-antagonistic design or systemic unpredictability isn't novel; such principles are alive and well in indies and smaller titles, and those of us who need more friction in our RPGs can always boot up classics like Wizardry or Daggerfall. But it's rare to see such choices in a AAA game of this era--especially one with the budget, visual fidelity, and action/combat polish that Capcom's biggest titles are known for. It makes Dragon's Dogma 2's seemingly harsh, archaic proclamations that "no, you can't fast travel everywhere," "no, you can't ignore gameplay mechanics without incurring serious consequences," and perhaps most frustrating for some, "no, you can't see and do everything in a single playthrough," all the more exciting and, to my mind, something worth celebrating.

-- Brendan Hesse

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Following the best-selling installment in the Dragon Age franchise was always going to be a challenging act to follow, but piece-by-piece I found myself thawing to Dragon Age: The Veilguard's story and heart. While the franchise's fourth installment wasn't a blazing return to form, it was a love letter to the missing pieces of Inquisition, with just enough snappy dialogue and combat intricacies across classes to keep me coming back for more. Veilguard was more closely related to the Mass Effect formula of BioWare games: Build a team of exceptional party members, bond with them one conversation at a time, and hopefully save the world. Trying not to cry as the chips fall where they may was optional, but for me, unavoidable.

Veilguard is a story of grief, loss and redemption packaged in sometimes-cringe dialogue and missions that give glimpses into years of lore, yet somehow it was enough to hold even the weakest moments together. Opting to pull on franchise lovers' heart strings, primarily surrounding the players relationship with returning characters such as Varric, Solas, and the previous lead of the series, The Inquisitor. In many ways the ending of Veilguard was the conclusion of Inquisition so many of us waited 10 years for, and regardless of the choices you made along the way, it was impossible to not feel the familiar pull of BioWares proclivity towards the dramatic. Solas, The Dread Wolf, is not just a villain but once again an ally leading a path of regret right up to the game's final moments, and Rook stumbling along, desperate not to join him in his centennials of grief, created a dynamic I never anticipated as the game's central theme.

Each party member of the titular Veilguard managed to settle into the cracks of my heart against my better judgement, and several have even joined ranks of my personal BioWare hall of fame. When all was said and done, it felt like Dragon Age. While my personal ideals for the title were unreachable, I walked away with one thing confirmed: This game did have a soul.

-- Shelby Reese

Tales of Kenzera: Zau

Available on: Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Switch, PC

I'm a big metroidvania guy and a sucker for the ones that tie the themes of their narrative to the mechanics and structure of the genre. In that regard, Tales of Kenzera feels like the most successful metroidvania of the year, amplifying its story of grief and growth through parabolic boss battles, cinematic and emotionally charged platforming gauntlets, distinct and allegorical environments, resonant musical scores, and symbolic traversal and combat upgrades.

It was never a question for me as to how or why the efforts of protagonist Zau to fight his way through legions of enemy-infested locations translated into an experience as introspective and personal as a young boy grappling with the grief over his father's death. Within the fascinating lore of Tales of Kenzera--which pulls inspiration, imagery, and flavor from Bantu mythology--Zau's efforts not only make sense, but they helped me better relate to the young shaman's seemingly insurmountable struggle, moments of jovial reprieve, and eventual understanding and wisdom.

Tales of Kenzera is frustrating yet rewarding, it feels both like an otherworldly epic and intimate affair, and it made me both laugh out loud and quietly sob. Much like grief itself, this game is multifaceted and nuanced, delivering a carefully curated experience that I'm still mulling over eight months later and will undoubtedly continue to think about for years to come. I'm so thankful it was made and that I was able to play it and draw strength from it during what's been a difficult year.

-- Jordan Ramée

Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut

Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

There's no denying we've seen an influx of games in which death is seen not as an end state, but as a new beginning. Slay the Princess is one such game, but approaches it in a fascinating way, as each one of your violent ends causes the game to splinter into dozens upon dozens of new scenarios and endings, each as compelling as the last, before you are thrust back into the same situation without your prior knowledge impacting the game in a way that is immediately noticeable.

Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut--the definitive edition of the 2023 title--only strengthens this quality, as it adds several new branches and endings to an experience already laden with them. As you enter and navigate the game's horrific time loop and start to make sense of its overarching story, you're faced with a narrative that is equal parts profound and humorous, despite its gruesome content. Its brilliant writing and phenomenal voice acting are largely responsible for this, as you can't help but be captivated by the dozens of personalities and their various intricacies and quirks--by the way they convey pain, mania, rage, and devotion. Yet the game's entirely hand-drawn art and atmospheric music add to the experience as well, with the former offering a lot of character and room for experimentation while the latter fills the game with emotion.

As a self-proclaimed love story, a horrific visual novel, and a work of narrative-driven psychological fiction, Slay the Princess is remarkable.

-- Jessica Cogswell