This year’s Game Awards have just come and gone, and so it is time of course to insert my thoughts about the nominees and winners, in some of the categories of main interest to me at least. As usual, my standard disclaimer of I played what I was able to play stands, but will of course comment on other titles I’m at least familiar with, even if I wasn’t able to get hands-on time checking out. The full list of nominees and winners for all categories is available here over at the official site.

So let’s start as normal with game of the year and work down. The picks in this category were much stronger I thought than some previous years’. There was some very tight competition among the titles and I happened to play 4 out of the 6 total (For full disclosure these were: God of War, Spider-Man, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, and Red Dead Redemption 2.) I might as well mention here too that a good chunk of these titles shared nominations across a number of the other categories, making it a bit tough in general to decide which ones deserved the win within each specific category and/or how far the mileage goes to saying the same ones deserved multiple spots. All that said, let’s dive in:

Game of the Year

My Pick: God of War

Winner: God of War

As I said, a tight race, many of my close associates thought I would put Red Dead Redemption 2 sight unseen here, but (in what may be its own article later) I had my issues with it, specifically regarding a number of its mechanics. Spider-Man was a very strong contender, but in the end God of War edges them both out, as it was the most complete package overall, merging story and gameplay masterfully, and here is rightly recognized by the Awards for its achievement in that.

Best Game Direction

My Pick: Red Dead Redemption 2

Winner: God of War

The caveat that game of year and this category are essentially one and the same largely remains, as evidenced by God of War taking both. But in this case I would’ve actually given it to RDR2. Rockstar has always had stellar production value and the argument that their games, or at least many of the scenes, are directed on the caliber of Hollywood movies absolutely holds true in this instance. Without going into spoilers, that also bleeds over into plot, which as mentioned in the introduction, then itself bleeds over into narrative! But in any case, it would be my personal pick here, while Spider-Man and God of War would be the close runners-up.

Best Narrative

My Pick: Spider-Man

Winner: Red Dead Redemption 2

Another struggle to pick a clear winner, as there are certainly cases to be made for all. Detroit: Become Human was a noble effort, but I felt fell a little flat in its presentation and wasn’t as nuanced as it could’ve been in spots, particularly regarding its lofty attempts at analogous contemporary themes, and thus loses some of its impact story-wise. My instinctual reaction was, and still is, to hand this one to Spider-Man since it unfolded as a great original story; remaining true to all the characters and circumstances that are familiar to fans, while also being quite accessible to those who aren’t as versed in the lore. It was as good (or better) as some of the best Spider-Man tales, comic or otherwise, and that I think is the main reason it should get this spot. This time, RDR2 and God of War battle it out for a photo-finish second place, and thus I have no complaint with RDR2 winning here.

Best Art Direction

My Pick: Return of the Obra Dinn

Winner: Return of the Obra Dinn

Bit of an odd duck category, as the question probably is: what’s the difference between this and direction as a whole? My answer usually points to the aesthetics if not graphical quality of a game, versus its overall design. Given that, I’m initially tempted to give it to AC Odyssey, as while the world of ancient Greece was gorgeously realized, (not to say the worlds in the others weren’t quite beautiful, or at least fitting as well) I think the uniqueness of Return of the Obra Dinn shouldn’t be overlooked, and do check it out if you can, as it’s one of the most intriguing styles I’ve seen recently; and it seems The Game Awards (obviously correctly) agrees.

Best Soundtrack/Score

My Pick: Red Dead Redemption 2 (Woody Jackson and Daniel Lanois)

Winner: Red Dead Redemption 2 (Woody Jackson and Daniel Lanois)

Apologies to keep repeating this, but it’s an inescapable fact that any one of the titles could have taken home a win here. Bear McCreary’s work is well-known in this and other media, and the epic Nordic inspired score for God of War was fantastic. Similarly, the version of adrenaline pumping orchestral sweepings in Spider-Man by John Paesano added a lot to the feeling of inhabiting the world and being the character. Yet I think it’s the alternating badass and mournful Western/country tunes from Woody Jackson and Daniel Lanois in RDR2 that truly match the nature of the setting, seamlessly conveying the outlaws vs. lawmen mood, along with the highs and lows of the story throughout its entirety. I’ll mark this a double-kill, as the outlet and I agree here too.

Best Performance

My Pick: Melissanthi Mahut– Kassandra in AC: Odyssey

Winner: Roger Clark– Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2

Again, I wish all of these voice actors were officially recognized because every one of them turned in an amazing performance. Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker was natural and convincing as hell, while Christopher Judge’s older and (somewhat) more reserved Kratos displayed both the authority central to the character and a vulnerability not previously present in his personality. Forced to pick though, I would have to hand it to Melissanthi Mahut as Kassandra in AC: Odyssey for the range and charm she brought, whether in serious moments of the plot or in more light-hearted/romantic portions, as it really went a long way to making her one of the best protagonists in the series to date. Roger Clark’s Arthur Morgan as the actual winner is perfectly fine, as his role as the character is multi-faceted and praiseworthy indeed.

Best Indie Game

My Pick: Return of the Obra Dinn

Winner: Celeste

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to play many of these this year, as the major AAA titles took up the lion’s share of my gaming time. But from what I’ve gathered of each, it seems Dead Cells was highly regarded as new entry in the Metroidvania genre, while Into the Breach was touted as an equally well-done tactical turn-based strategy title. So admittedly by default, my limited pick is Obra Dinn, which combined its aforementioned striking art style with a murder mystery/detective puzzler. Kudos to Lucas Pope (whose prior title was Papers, Please in case anyone forgot) for delivering another quirky but quality indie game. Since I’m not very familiar with the real winner, Celeste, I’ll simply congratulate it and move on.

Best Action

My Pick: Far Cry 5

Winner: Dead Cells

No interest in Destiny or CoD (who were among the nominees) for years, but I do still enjoy the Far Cry franchise, and quite liked 5 (despite some story shortcomings as I laid out in an earlier post.) Dead Cells being the actual winner leaves me sort of neutral; it’s fine I suppose, congrats to it as well and maybe when/if I get some more free time I’ll give it a go.

Best Action/Adventure

My Pick: God of War

Winner: God of War

I will keep saying this until The Game Awards and perhaps pundits besides myself in general do something about it: I think having separate categories for “Action” and “Action/Adventure” is a completely absurd, if not meaningless distinction. However, as they insist upon the separation, it was between AC: Odyssey and God of War, and to maintain some shred of integrity, I’ll go with God of War, since I already claimed it as game of year. So chalk up another alignment between myself and the Awards, which I’m satisfied with.

Best RPG

My Pick: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Winner: Monster Hunter: World

Woefully, I was unable to get to any of the major RPGs this year (debuff on me, I know I know.) Monster Hunter: World was hugely popular, critically and commercially, although a title I personally wasn’t interested in, but it looks like everyone else loved it enough to hand it the spot here. So to cop out, and because of familiarity with the developer and cast involved, I will lame-duck hand it to Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire; a title which I very much wish to play, and will hopefully carve out some time in the next year to do so.

So there we are, another year, another award showcase complete. Overall I’m mainly content with how it went down, some very deserving titles earned their wins, and for one final time I’ll reiterate that many could’ve easily swapped spots and still would’ve been fine. The GDC awards should be coming up next, so keep an eye out for that and my obligatory armchair analysis. Until then my friends,

-Scott Thurlow