Over the next eight days, Hardcore Gamer will be revealing its Best of 2023 Awards leading up to our Game of the Year. Today we present you with the Best Expansion, Developer, Worst and Most Disappointing Game.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
To say Cyberpunk 2077 had a rough launch is an understatement, but in the three years since its initial release, CD Projekt Red has worked tirelessly at updating the game and turning it into the game it was always meant to be. These updates include the Phantom Liberty expansion, which brings a substantial amount of additional story content along with several side activities that can keep completionists occupied for over a couple dozen hours. Leading V through the new adventure is their new choom Solomon Reed who is brought to life by a stellar performance by Idris Elba. The new content begins with V investigating a distress signal from a plane crash, and what unfolds after that is an action-packed tale of political corruption and betrayal where V’s choices shape how the events of Phantom Liberty play out. It took some time for Cyberpunk 2077 to become the masterpiece it was intended to be and Phantom Liberty only makes this excellent game even better.
Runner-Ups
Remnant II - The Awakened King
Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores
Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania
Larian Studios
Larian Studios might not be a household name, but Baldur’s Gate 3 proves they are a developer people should pay attention to. The Belgian developer has been around for a couple decades and prior to now were known for releasing the Divinity games, which are also highly recommended. Baldur’s Gate 3 built upon their experience in crafting excellent RPGs based on tabletop gaming in making Baldur’s Gate 3. Those familiar with Larian’s previous titles and the original Baldur’s Gate games had sky high expectations set for Baldur’s Gate 3, which it exceeded, proving itself as one of the greatest video games ever made. Larian Studios might not be as well known as some of the major developers like Capcom or Nintendo, but Baldur’s Gate 3, along with their back catalog of games, has shown the world that they’re a developer that is capable of making games that can rival the biggest names in gaming history.
Remedy Entertainment
Tango Gameworks
Insomniac Games
Destiny 2: Lightfall
Bungie finally found a winning formula with Destiny 2: The Witch Queen. After multiple years of wild swings in quality, The Witch Queen finally delivered a great campaign, a great antagonist, setup plenty of intrigue, and provided endgame content worth pursuing. All Bungie had to do was follow that formula to deliver an excellent penultimate expansion before the grand finale. Instead, Bungie faceplanted. Destiny 2: Lightfall was everything wrong with vanilla Destiny. A campaign bereft of tension, a word salad of proper nouns, another lifeless Patrol zone and a surprising lack of endgame content. Lightfall’s campaign was so lackluster that Bungie had to spend the future months patching in answers for what the Veil is, who and what The Witness is, and just what exactly happened to The Traveler. For moments that had been building up since 2014, Destiny 2: Lightfall dropped the ball and has left Destiny 2 in a terrible state as it hobbles towards its grand finale. Hopefully, the extra development time provides Bungie the ability to close off the story in Destiny 2: The Final Shape in a satisfying way, but the hobbled state Destiny 2 now finds itself in due to Lightfall makes it the most disappointing release of 2023.
Overwatch 2
Sports Story
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
A game based upon Gollum/Smeagol was always going to be a tough sell as he doesn’t necessarily exude the prowess or mystical skills traditionally portrayed in previous games based on The Lord of the Rings. Still, a narrative focused game showcasing his split personality with a dash of stealth could have worked. Unfortunately, Daedalic Entertainment’s take on the character is awful. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a travesty of a video game when viewed from any angle. Its level design is outdated with quests that might not even trigger, its gameplay mechanics barely function and its AI is laughably bad yet also still able to detect Gollum when it chooses. The story was interesting, but poor pacing, voice acting and some off choices towards the end dilute the strength of its narrative. Even the best aspect of the game, the dueling personalities, feels watered down and barely utilized within the narrative and gameplay. By far the worst aspect of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, however, is its presentation and performance. Visually ugly, the beauty Tolkien used to describe his world never manifests. Meanwhile, the game is so broken and unoptimized that simple features like hair effects have the power to crash the game every five minutes. For all these reasons, it’s clear that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is by far the worst game of 2023 we reviewed.
Flashback 2
Skull Island: Rise of Kong
Enchanted Portals
The Walking Dead: Destinies
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