Summary
Though the new generation of consoles released in 2020 didn’t bring about a generational shift as many had hoped, the lack of advancement in graphics means that a massive roster of games has already been released that push game design to its limits, experimenting into new frontiers, and an ever more vibrant indie scene that is outselling the biggest AAA releases.
Whether it’s massive AAA worlds that set a new benchmark for the genre, or simple but deviously designed indie games that put obscure developers on a worldwide stage, the 2020s has already seen a host of influential games that are bound to effect every game that’s still to come this decade. As a note, this list isn’t ranked by the quality of each game, but by the degree of influence it’s likely to have, or has had already.
The hype forCyberpunk 2077’s release was immense, and there’s no denying that the launch was a bit of a disaster. However, with years of patches and with the truly excellentPhantom Libertyexpansion (which introduced anew equally brilliant ending), the true potential ofCyberpunk 2077has finally been uncovered.
Even during its original shoddy release, even the game’s biggest critics had to admire Night City as one of the greatest open world settings ever made in video games. Every open world game that comes afterCyberpunk 2077has to compete with this richly realized city, and the attention to world detail from a first-person perspective is already influential in the ever-popular world of open world games where immersion is becoming more and more important.
The originalHelldiverswas well liked by its small cadre of fans, but few would have predicted the massive success of its follow-up when it released in 2024, becoming not just one of the biggest PlayStation hits of the year, but one of the biggest hits of the entire year.
This is partially because of howHelldivers 2tapped into a nascent desire for co-op gaming outside of the battle royale format with the wrapping of straightforward but compelling narrative content blasting arogue’s gallery of monsters. Every co-op game that comes afterHelldivers 2will be taking a lot of notes to figure out how to capture the world’s attention as it did, and it will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the greatest co-op games of the entire decade.
The stock of Remedy is only increasing as one of the few studios that is self-evidently interested in blending film and video games together, with the zenith of their work coming inAlan Wake 2, the long-gestating sequel to their original cult classic that pushed the boundaries of what video games can do in storytelling.
Every story game that tries to compete with films will have to take a leaf out ofAlan Wake 2’sbook, fusing ambitious non-linear narrative with punchy game design that serves the story and performance above all.Alan Wake 2showed that gamers are ready for the mainstream to get weirder, and, with any luck, that will prove a big influence on the narrative games to come.
It is genuinely hard to imagine where FromSoftware will go after the release ofElden Ring, the logical conclusion of a near 15-year journey of inventing, refining, and perfecting the Soulslike genre into one of the largest and commercially successful mega-RPGs ever made.
Elden Ringproves that mainstream gamers are not only happy withincredibly difficult bossesand stranger stories, but crave it, particularly in the increasingly stale open world format thatElden Ringrejuvenated with creative energy. Any RPG of this scale and size will inevitably be compared to the unparalleled scope and scale ofElden Ring.
Deck builder games have been around for a long time, with the success of games likeDominionandSlay The Spireto prove it, but none quite captured the gaming world’s imagination quite likeBalatro, an ambitious fusion between poker, the roguelike, and the deck builder all with a distinctly retro aesthetic.
InBalatro, game design is king, which may as well be the motto of the indie world that supports games like this.Balatrois proof that sometimes, to capture the world’s attention, focusing on simple but clever game mechanics is better than scope and scale. Every indie game released afterBalatrowill be attempting to mimic its massive success, and AAA dev studios will likely be more encouraged to implement deck-builder principles into new and experimental settings.
Vampire Survivorsis a very strange game to capture the world’s imagination. It wasn’t the world’s first “idle” bullet-hell game, but its fine-tuned game design principle that dishes out rewards on a regular time schedule as players iteratively work towards and improvised build is a self-evidently brilliant piece of design that overcomes the rough edges of the game’s lo-fi visuals.
LikeBalatro,Vampire Survivorsproves that visuals in the world of gaming are important, but ultimately secondary to the core principles of engaging game design where players need to make difficult but compelling choices to build a path to success, based ona fearsome roster of playable characters.
Wordlemay not be the first game people may think of regarding the most influential games of the 2020s so far, but in actuality, it’s likely the most popular game of the 2020s so far with millions of players daily, compelling hardcore and casual gamers alike with a simple but compelling puzzle process of trying to figure out a random five-letter world through inductive trial and error.
Wordleonce again proves that the 2020s are broadly an age of video games where, despite unparalleled graphical advances, game design remains king.Wordleis game design reduced to its most simplistic, but it’s still compelling to millions around the world.
Larian Studios were always a darling among the CRPG fanbase, butBaldur’s Gate 3launched the studio into the upper echelons of game dev royalty as the new kings of the RPG genre.Baldur’s Gate 3defied the odds of AAA gaming best practices by whole-heartedly engaging the complexity of the D&D 5e system, difficult permanent story choices, and letting the player fail, bursting through the noise and becoming one of the best-regarded games ever made.
Larian somehow pulled off the impossible move of impressing old-school RPG fans as well as introducing millions of new gamers to the world of TTRPGs like no new edition of D&D has ever done before. Every RPG released in the 2020s will be held againstBaldur’s Gate 3, and its style ofcompanion-focused quest structure, richly realized branching narrative will almost certainly influence every RPG made from now on.
