The Video Games That Got Me Through 2020
By: Adam Konig
Tags: Video Games, Games, Indie Game, Among Us, Competitive Game

I am by no means a writer, so please bear with me. The New York Times published an article “The Video Games That Got Us Through 2020” which had some excellent entries of games that people played to help ease the pain that was the entire year of 2020. I enjoyed reading about what other people played this year to help cope with the daily stress of living in a pandemic so much that I thought I’d write my own list of some of the games I played this year that greatly improved my wellbeing while in quarantine. These were the games that provided me with a sense of personal progress on days that all blend together, relaxation during times of stress, and escapism in moments where I felt trapped in my own home.

Outer Wilds

Taking off in your spaceship from your home planet of Timber Hearth

Outer Wilds is a game about exploration for exploration’s sake. You play as a new astronaut from the planet Timber Hearth originally tasked to simply explore the solar system to your heart’s content. Once you take off, you find that within about 22 minutes the sun at the center of your solar system goes supernova, exploding in a bright blue fiery ball of destruction, incinerating every planet around it. After the explosion, you awake at the campfire where you started to find you are stuck in a time loop and must use every 22 minute loop to progress slightly further in your exploration of the solar system in hopes to find an answer that will save your soon to be extinguished planet and species.

As you begin to start exploring, you find breadcrumbs of clues that lead you to other planets to discover the next piece of the story, creating a literal web of information on your ship’s log.

The ship’s log where story points slowly collect as you progress

As you discover new story points, the new information pops up on the log and connects to the old piece of information that led you to your discovery. I found myself originally finding random and dissociated pieces of the story to add to the ship log but as I progressed further, the web of information slowly started connecting and converging on itself much like a cork board with pictures and yarn connecting points in a criminal investigation.

I loved this game so much my phone case actually has the “Outer Wilds Venture” logo from the game printed on the back. What sets this game apart was that the story was so rich and detailed that the things you “unlock” in the game were not new abilities or weapons like in other games but instead were the actual story points and informational discoveries themselves. It was such a finely crafted story that these breadcrumbs of information alone were enough for you to “progress” without the need for new game mechanics or abilities to be acquired. It was an adventure, a puzzle, and a beautiful tale about the need and wonder of space exploration with an absolutely outstanding ambient soundtrack to boot. It was literally a game about the world ending which felt very timely in 2020. Despite its somewhat tragic and dark theme, after completion it really left me sitting on my couch feeling like I had played a game that I’ll always want to, but never will be able to, play again for the first time.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

An in-game screenshot from my own island, Konigsberg

If you’ve never heard of Animal Crossing then I will assume that you live beneath a rock. But for those who haven’t played, Animal Crossing is a peaceful game where you develop your own personal island into whatever you like. You can build homes for your island residents, upgrade and decorate your own home, plant trees and flowers, dig rivers, buy clothes for your own playable character, and much more. For long time fans of the series, there are plenty of returning characters like Tom Nook and his adopted children Timmy and Tommy, the porcupine clothing making Able sisters, the resident services dog Isabelle, and Blathers, the museum curator Owl, to name a few.

Animal crossing NPCs from left to right: Blathers, KK Slider, Tom Nook, Timmy, Tommy, Isabelle, Mable

I had not played video games with my siblings since we were all much younger, but when I returned to Dallas to quarantine with them, my sister began stealing my Nintendo Switch at any possible opportunity to help develop what was once my island into our island. We began with us two and our first residents: Sprocket the robot Ostrich, Merengue the cheesecake Rhino, and Big Top the Elephant. Our island has slowly grown over time. We now have beautiful stone bridges to connect the different parts of the island, brick walkways, a basketball court, a designated neighborhood for the residents, a field of crossbred flowers, and, of course, weekly performances from Animal Crossing’s greatest songwriter and musician, K.K. Slider.

Animal Crossing was such a welcome distraction during this year even on days where you’d log on just to hit the rocks, chat with the residents, and fish for some sea bass. Being able to play with my sister made the experience all the more enjoyable as I would get to see all the island improvements she would make while I was away and vice versa. The island changes month to month (in real life time) offering new bugs and fish to catch as well as monthly seasonal events so the fun truly never ends. It was a delightful game and in this year we could all use our own Nook Island Getaway Package™.

A Short Hike

Claire beginning her ascent

A Short Hike is a game about… well — a short hike. You play as a bird named Claire whose family brought her on a vacation to a beachy island to “get away from the city and everything else going on” … which feels… relatable? Claire finds herself without cell service to call her mom and must make a short hike up to the top of the mountain on the island to get service. You can explore the island in any way you like, finding golden feathers that allow you to climb higher. Along the way you meet the cast of wacky and friendly characters who help you get farther up the mountain.

Claire talking to one of the characters on her way up the mountain

This is by far my favorite indie game I played this year. It was developed by Adam Robinson-Yu (shoutout to game developers named Adam) and is a pretty short game overall. I think I completed it in about 2 hours, but it was truly a gem. It was simple, interesting, charming, and thoughtful. The characters are memorable and goofy. The story was simple and moving at the same time. I found this game sticking with me for much longer than other titles mostly because the idea of needing an escape was what the game was about and was exactly what I needed. When I was feeling like my life was constrained to the area between my bed and my desk in my apartment, what I really needed was to take a short hike.

Overwatch and Valorant