Dualshockers' Game of the Year Awards 2020 -- Hades Takes the Throne

2020 has obviously been a rough one, to say the least. With last year in the rearview mirror and 2021 ahead of us, all of us at DualShockers are looking forward to (hopefully) brighter and better days ahead for everyone in a year that was especially challenging. But before we completely put 2020 to bed, there’s one last thing from the past year that is worth celebrating, which are the incredible games that we played throughout 2020.

This past year was notable for the games industry in a multitude of ways, both positive and negative. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic radically altered the landscape of the industry in 2020 by forcing studios to work remotely, delaying several major releases, and cancelling the vast majority of this year’s major events and conventions. This year also also sparked new conversations around many of the current issues facing the industry in terms of racial inequality, crunch and development practices, and accountability for studio management.

But on the positive end, this year also saw the closure of one generation and the beginning of a new one with the launches of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Even in the face of substantial challenges like those we faced throughout 2020, gaming–perhaps now more than ever–became an important outlet for finding entertainment and comfort, making connections with friends and strangers from around the world, and discovering what makes this medium so special.

With that being said, all of us at DualShockers are excited to officially reveal the winners of our Game of the Year Awards 2020, which saw around 100 unique games nominated across all of our categories. That number only speaks to the strength of this year’s roster of games that brought us comfort, new perspectives, and a deeper appreciation for what we all love about games, especially in a year like 2020.

Before we jump into revealing the winners: we want to give a quick shoutout to our readers and the DualShockers community for your support over the year, and especially for those that participated in our Game of the Year Awards voting. This is the second year that we’ve had community voting for our GOTY Awards, and much like last year, we had an amazing turnout for both our community awards–Game of the Year – Readers’ Choice and Most Anticipated Game – Readers’ Choice–and especially for the community vote in our official GOTY Awards. In several contentious categories for this year’s awards, the community vote ended up being the deciding factor in several “too close to call” races and tiebreakers.

Now that all the business is out of the way — below you’ll find the winners of our Game of the Year Awards 2020. Once again, thank you to all of the nominated developers, studios, and publishers for their incredible titles released this year, thanks to our readers and community for their incredible support, and see you all in 2021: a year that I’m sure we are all looking forward to in more ways than one.

DualShockers’ Game of the Year Awards 2020 – Full Winners List:

Game of the Year: Hades
Game of the Year – Readers’ Choice: The Last of Us Part II
Most Anticipated Game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel
Most Anticipated Game – Readers’ Choice: God of War sequel
Hardware of the Year: PS5
Best Developer: Supergiant Games
Best Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Best First-Party Game: The Last of Us Part II
Best Indie Game: Hades
Best PS5 Game: Demon’s Souls
Best Xbox Series X|S Game: Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Best PS4 Game: The Last of Us Part II
Best Xbox One Game: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Best Nintendo Switch Game: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Best PC Game: Half-Life: Alyx
Best Mobile Game: Genshin Impact
Best Virtual Reality Game: Half-Life: Alyx
Best Action-Adventure Game: The Last of Us Part II
Best Competitive Game: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Best Cooperative Game: Among Us
Best DLC or Expansion: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
Best Family Game: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Best Fighting Game: Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate
Best Horror Game: Phasmophobia
Best Interactive Story Game: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Best Metroidvania: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Best Multiplayer Game: Among Us
Best Ongoing Game: Final Fantasy XIV
Best Platformer: Astro’s Playroom
Best Puzzle Game: Tetris Effect: Connected
Best Racing Game: F1 2020
Best Remake: Final Fantasy VII Remake
Best Remaster: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
Best Roguelike: Hades
Best Role-Playing Game: Final Fantasy VII Remake
Best Shooter: DOOM Eternal
Best Sports Game: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
Best Strategy Game: Gears Tactics
Best Art Direction: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Best Audio Design: The Last of Us Part II
Best Character: Abby (The Last of Us Part II)
Best Graphics: The Last of Us Part II
Best Narrative: The Last of Us Part II
Best Open World: Ghost of Tsushima
Best Performance: Laura Bailey (Abby, The Last of Us Part II)
Best Soundtrack or Original Music: Final Fantasy VII Remake
Biggest Shocker of 2020: Microsoft acquires Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax Media
Best Moment in the Gaming Industry of 2020: Accessibility reaches new milestones in 2020
Best In-Game Moment or Scene of 2020: The Museum (The Last of Us Part II)
Best Self-Care Game of 2020: Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Game of the Year Awards 2020 – Games by # of Wins

10 wins – The Last of Us Part II

3 wins – Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Hades, Ori and the Will of the Wisps

2 wins – Among Us, Half-Life: Alyx, Final Fantasy XIV, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

1 win – 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Astro’s Playroom, Demon’s Souls, DOOM Eternal, F1 2020,  Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Gears Tactics, Genshin Impact, Ghost of Tsushima, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Phasmophobia, Tetris Effect: Connected, Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Best of the Year Awards

DualShockers‘ Game of the Year 2020: Hades

Additional Wins: Best Indie Game, Best Roguelike

Just like Zagreus’ quest to reach the surface and get past the underworld, we here at DualShockers couldn’t escape from Hades and named it as our Game of the Year for 2020. Though it faced steep adversaries in The Last of Us Part II and Final Fantasy VII Remake–the other two games that made it to the top of our staff’s GOTY deliberations this year–ultimately we could find few flaws with Supergiant Games’ latest (and perhaps best) title. From top to bottom, Hades was the game this year that our staff had the most overall enthusiasm for, making it more than worthy of the Game of the Year title.

While it started out as an Early Access title, with its final release this year, our staff nearly unanimously praised the high degree of polish that Supergiant has delivered with Hades. Not only does the game manage to weave an intricate, well-told story filled with memorable (and unbearably hot) characters and fast-paced gameplay, but it accomplishes this all through an impeccably designed roguelike. Whether our staff loved or hated roguelikes, nearly all of them agreed that Hades strikes a near-perfect balance of being accessible and fun, while also challenging and with enough depth for players to keep coming back to, run after run.

Though The Last of Us Part II and Final Fantasy VII Remake were more or less our runners-up for Game of the Year 2020 for how they pushed boundaries in storytelling and graphical fidelity in this generation, to us Hades was as much (if not more) impressive for achieving so much with a much smaller team. As we noted in our review of the game earlier this year, Hades managed to pull off an impressive hat trick; it’s likely Supergiant’s best game yet, it’s one of the best roguelikes ever made, and to us, it is unequivocally 2020’s Game of the Year.