My Best Games of 2023 (Patreon)

So, while I'm warming back up (and working through the Sunlantern Armor, Screaming Sun Lucy cards for reviewing) I wanted to touch back and look at the best games (other than KDM) that I played through 2023. I'm going to look at the following categories:

• Best 2023 Board Game Releases
• Best "New to me in 2023" Board Games
• Best 2023 Video Games

Before we get into them; I am excluding KDM products from these lists, but we'll quickly acknowledge the top two here.

Obviously the Gambler's Chest (GCE) gets to top the charts, not only was it one of the most important releases for us as a community, but it is also one of the most significant releases in 2023 for board games as a whole . The GCE needed to be something really special to justify all of the delays that it had caused; it was a huge roadblock in the way of so many elements of the Kickstarter and thank goodness we're past it. It is something really special and the aspect of the game I was least sure of during previews - Arc Survivors - is probably the best part of the entire box and it's not even close. 

The second huge thing was the KDM Simulator, which has grown from strength to strength over this year, it has a huge amount of care, love and attention being put into it and honestly it has utterly buried the Tabletop Simulator mods for me. It's affordable, it's theatric and every update it just gets tighter and tighter. I am looking forward to the GCE landing on it because that means I can play the exciting new updates to game with my friends over in Scotland and Wales.

It's been a milestone year for KDM, and all of this has been something we as a community really needed. It's not the end of the tunnel, but it does show us the start of the light.

Best 2023 Board Game Releases I Played

Games with cards in them dominated my board gaming experience this year. Forest Shuffle and Cat in the Box both proved to match the hype, though Forest Shuffle is a lot easier to play than it is to score. Working out how many points you've got is quite a challenge and it obfuscates just how well everyone is doing. Cat in the Box on the other hand has a low barrier to entry and sensible scoring, but the twist of having every card in the game be "all colours" until it is played is a fun twist on the quantum measuring concept. It's got a lot of depth to its play and even has more than one way to score points, making it not just about winning the tricks, but also about playing the right cards to help fill out the grid and pay off your bet. If you like Trick Takers give it a look.

Votes for Women successfully merged the Twilight Struggle card based "war game" with a theme that gripped me; it went one step further though by not only giving us a two player vs. game, but also a four player team game and a cooperative/solo game where the players are the suffragettes. I've not known much about the Women of America's struggle to gain the vote as the history I was taught covered the UK's suffragettes exclusively. Love the mechanics, love the challenge and love that one can play it coop as the people on the right side of history. Along with Freedom (see below) it's one of my top historical games.

I wrote about Unmatched: Tales to Amaze on the Discord review channel, but I'd like to also give it a huge recommendation here. Unmatched is an amazing system and it translated into the coop-boss battling experience really well.

Speaking of games converted into boss battlers, I think the title of best single new release goes to Ashes Reborn: Red Rains - The Corpse of Viros, which takes the dueling dice and deck construction game of Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn and transforms it into a 1 to 2 player boss battling game with some real panache and confidence. The game is one of the best boss battling games out there right now and you can play it with little more than the core game + The Corpse of Viros. 

Best "New to me in 2023" Board Games

I got to play a bunch of older games for the first time this year and some of them made a heck of an impression, in particular I'd like to give a shout out to Meadow, Doom (2016) with cooperative rules, Orleans/Orleans: Invasion and Freedom: The Underground Railroad (a game that I think everyone interested in American history should play). 

Dawn of the Zeds is the absolute winner here, I despise tower defense as a mechanic, but I didn't realise that Dawn of the Zeds was a lane based tower defense game until someone else playing at the same time commented as such. The game is heavily coated in a rich thematic sauce and creates so many emergent stories that absorbed me so deeply that I love this game despite it being in a genre I traditionally shy away from (something Set A Watch couldn't manage to do in 2022, Set A Watch is fine, but Dawn of the Zeds is on another level).

Best Video Games I played in 2023

2023 was a big year for video games, though most of the major releases landed flat for me. Even Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't make it onto my top list, in fact I tried to like the game but the execution of it was fatiguing to me. However, the smaller releases out there were just so incredible.

First up is Lunacid, this niche little retro game inspired by old FROMSOFT games (that I never played) managed to be a delightful voyage of discovery and challenge. Inscription managed to be a very satisfying deck building/lane battling video game with some inspired mechanics.

For multiplayer Lethal Company has been a massive hit with my gaming group, its simple loop, high lethality and mix of horror plus hilarious moments is something we keep coming back to. It's no surprise the game has been such a gigantic hit with streamers and I can't wait to see what more surprises Zeekerss has for us. The games we put most time into however were Remnant II, Lords of the Fallen and Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader. All of which are games that fall a little short of triple A greatness, but keep us coming back over and over.

However the video game of the year for me is A Highland Song, a game that celebrates one of the two countries my family originates from (Scotland, the other is Wales). It's a side scrolling exploration game where you play a young lass called Moira McKinnon as she runs away from her home to a lighthouse where her Uncle Hamish is. He has asked her to come in time for Beltane (Gaelic May Day festival) and you have to race against time.

The really exceptional way that the game grabbed me is the sheer freedom for exploration that is in the game. The mechanics are relatively straight forward, you can move left and right, climb, jump and there are a few other mechanical elements. It's the way the game constantly rewards and encourages you to look around, search and interact with things that brings the world to life and adds so much joy. Even when you've made it to the Lighthouse in time for Beltane and experienced the "true ending" I have found plenty of other reasons to go back in and have another run. I've still not named every mountain correctly, I've still not met every character, there's a load of things I've not seen or been unable to progress in. 

As such I find myself going back to this game for another run quite often, one day I'll 100% this game for sure.

Honorable Mentions and Old Favourites

Marvel Champions continues to go from strength to strength and the X-Force releases have been amazing. NeXt Evolution has been a joy to play through more than once and the new 'Pool Aspect, despite being controversial through the community, is probably my favourite aspect now. It's a joke, but it's also powerful and engaging. Arkham Horror didn't get a big box release this year, but the Print and Play investigators have included some of my new favourites, especially "Suzi" and Parallel "Ashcan" Pete. I'm very excited about The Feast of Hemlock Vale coming in February. 

Final Girl continues to be an amazing update to the unique boss battler that is Hostage Negotiator, however I didn't back the latest campaign because I just can't budget for it. I might pick some of them up eventually, it's just I'm not tired with Season 1 and Season 2 yet and I can't see that happening in 2024. I've also started playing Legacy of Yu, but I'm not sure how I feel about the game yet; currently I'm favouring the Hadrian's Wall campaign over Legacy of Yu's resettable 'legacy game', because of the mechanics. I think I'll write/talk about it once I finish my first playthrough of Yu's campaign.

I know I've forgotten other things and I've not even gotten into the games we collectively talked about on The Last Standee. 2023 has been a great year for board and video gaming.