Best games of 2023 — Baldur, Zelda and a Shiba Inu
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
What were your favourite new games of 2023?
Tell us in the comments below and the best submissions will make it into our readers’ round-up
Baldur’s Gate 3
As giddy and gargantuan a fantasy role-playing game as you’ll find this year, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a triumph of storytelling set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe and overflowing with delightful distractions. Whether you talk your way through its 2mn words of dialogue or start encounter spells blazing, it’s a game that never makes you feel guilty for doing things your own way. In a world this big and ambitious, that’s a remarkable achievement.
PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Sea of Stars
Don’t be fooled by its retro stylings — despite paying tribute to titles such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy, Sea of Stars is a pixel-perfect, warm-hearted tale that delights in setting its own tone. Its atmospheric world, filled with warrior chefs and musical pirates — plus the evil Fleshmancer that your intrepid sun- and moon-themed protagonists must save the world from — is nothing less than a joy to journey through.
PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Series X/S
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Nintendo had a mountain to climb to surpass the The Legend of Zelda’s 2017 instalment Breath of the Wild, but Tears of the Kingdom picked up the plot, threw in new powers and a dizzying array of crafting potential, and let players loose in an infinitely interactive incarnation of Hyrule. The results are “genuinely intoxicating”, to quote the FT’s review, and never lacking in magic or invention.
Nintendo Switch
Humanity
We all know humankind needs saving from itself, I just wasn’t expecting help to come in the form of a Shiba Inu. But that’s who’s in charge in this creative puzzle game: lead the mindless, faceless humans towards salvation and broach all manner of existential quandaries along the way. I was expecting Humanity to be intricate and a bit odd — what really elevates it, though, is its ethereal and disconcerting beauty.
PC, PS4, PS5
Dredge
Few games have managed to make fishing compelling and spooky in equal measure, but Dredge captures the lonely beauty of the job thanks to a simple set of game mechanics and a liberal application of mist. Its archipelagos are sparsely populated but full of character and eerie charm — just be sure to make it back to harbour before the sun sets, because there’s more than just fish lurking in the deep.
PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Series X/S
Viewfinder
With its roughly sketched plot and relatively short duration, Viewfinder can feel at times like a stylised science experiment with you as test subject. But what a hypothesis: this platforming puzzler proffers a Polaroid camera and lets you insert the images it takes into the environment around you, with mind- and reality-bending consequences. It’s utterly innovative and somehow never breaks.
PC, PlayStation 5
Alan Wake 2
“This story is a monster,” Alan Wake 2 tells you in its opening moments. This long-awaited spectacle of a survival-horror sequel means this both figuratively — courtesy of an isolated corner of the Pacific north-west where a supernatural killer is on the loose — and literally, as it begins deconstructing its terrifying narrative around you.
PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Chants of Sennaar
In most games, language provides context and colour. In Chants of Sennaar it is the game: slowly piece together words of fictional vocabularies to solve the puzzles that stand between you and the top of a beguiling Tower of Babel. Challenging, unique and probably the prettiest language-learning experience you’ll ever have.
PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One
Cocoon
With infinitely fewer words but an equally singular art style, Cocoon quietly conveys its curious world to players. Guide your beetle protagonist through levels contained within little orbs that also bestow powers to help you solve the game’s puzzles. A masterclass in visual language and intrigue.
PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Series X/S
Dave the Diver
Ever wonder what one of those nightmarish mobile games you get Instagram ads for would be like if charm, humour and ambition, rather than tricking you into microtransactions, were the driving goals? Part diving adventure, part fishing foray, part restaurant simulator, every day in Dave the Diver’s brightly coloured and infuriatingly addictive universe brings something new and wholesome to the table — even if it usually comes with a side of sushi.
PC, Nintendo Switch
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