The 12 best video games of 2023 (so far)

Indie darlings, big-budget remakes, and, of course, Zelda all dot our list of the best games of the first half of the year

By William Hughes, Sam Barsanti, Jen Lennon | June 15, 2023 | 3:00pm

Games Lists Captain America

The 12 best video games of 2023 (so far)

Clockwise from top left: Dead Space (Image: Electronic Arts), Hi-Fi Rush (Image: Bethesda Softworks), Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Image: Electronic Arts), The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom (Image: Nintendo), Meet Your Maker (Image: Behaviour Interactive), Resident Evil 4 (Image: Capcom) Graphic: The A.V. Club

If there’s a theme to our favorite video games of 2023 to date, it comes down to two conflicting ideas. On the one hand, refinement: As the steady tide of video game remakes continues, apparently unabated, we can at least take some solace in the fact that developers seem to be getting better at the form. Two of the best games of the last few months have been remakes of old classics that manage to preserve what was good, while making room for what was new, both managing to justify their existences both new and old.

Meanwhile, a streak of wild creativity continues to bubble up from both the margins and, unexpectedly, smack dab in the center of the industry. This is, after all, the year when Nintendo released one of the most creatively ambitious titles in its entire history, while other developers bent the power (and trap goblin mentalities) of their own players to the dark aims of pushing the medium to its creative limits.

Here, then, in a spirit of, let’s call it, refined creativity, are the 12 best games of the first half of 2023, listed in alphabetical order, as chosen by A.V. Club staffers.

Dead Space

We liked because it was the ideal kind of video game remake. Far too often, remakes feel like soulless cash grabs that take something that was successful before and try to squeeze more money out of it. But was an under-appreciated horror game the first time around that didn’t really meets its potential until its bigger/better sequel. This remake adds those bigger/better elements to the original game, cleans up some things that didn’t work initially, and throws in some fun canonical quirks for players who still remember its late-game twist. [Sam Barsanti]

Diablo IV

We liked because it actually uses its brain. There’s a mild contradiction built into the idea of a “smart Diablo”; Blizzard’s long-running demon-killing franchise is designed to let you tear through the legions of hell with mostly mindless abandon. But the newest installment in the series bucks that trend, inviting players to think about their strategies—and especially their builds—with each of the game’s five character classes, which each have interesting quirks to keep the monotony at bay. All of this in addition to the incredibly smooth gameplay the series is known for, and even a few twists and turns in its story of the eternal battle between good and evil. [William Hughes]

Most Popular

Hi-Fi Rush

We liked because we were finally able to transition our Guitar Hero experience to a game about killing evil robots. It’s an action game where you’re incentivized to play along to an ever-present beat that’s carried through every level, enemy, and little collectible doodad, and—in a win for intrinsic motivation—you feel awesome every time you’re able to keep up with the game’s pace. Selling that premise also inspired some brilliant design choices, like your character snapping his fingers along with the beat or lights, and billboards in the background pulsing to the rhythm to help you stay in sync.[Sam Barsanti]

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

We liked because it felt like the long-awaited sequel to a game that never existed. It’s as if there was a strategy game with Marvel heroes on PlayStation decades ago where you could level up fan-favorite (if obscure-ish) characters like Nico Minoru, and build up social connections with them between fights—and then this is the years-later refinement of those ideas that throws in more famous heroes like Spider-Man and Captain America. How else do you explain … anything about this surprisingly awesome game? Marvel is the biggest brand in the world, and one of the best Marvel games in years is about magic and demons? [Sam Barsanti]

Meet Your Maker

We liked because there’s nobody creatively crueler than other bastards on the internet. Behaviour Interactive’s online trap-stravaganza takes the best elements of Mario Maker—luring poor schmucks into a hell of player-generated evil—and gives players all sorts of tools to maximize the pleasure/pain. With smart system designs that incentivize an adrenaline-pumping blend of caution and pell-mell running, it’s the kind of game that sneaks into your brain even when you’re not playing it, daring you to ask: Could I put spikes there? (You probably can.) [William Hughes]

Misericorde: Volume One

We liked Misericorde: Volume One because it drew us into an alien world—the past. Developer XEECEE’s visual novel is a testament to the power of atmosphere and character, bringing players into the mindset of an Anchoress—a sort of professional hermit—living in a 15th century English convent where a mysterious murder has occurred. (And, yes, there are obvious parallels here to last year’s excellent .) A slow-burn mystery with a heavy focus on character, Misericorde draws players into its insular world with considerable skill, creating one of the most involving narratives of the year to date. [William Hughes]

Murderous Muses

We liked Murderous Muses because sometimes you just want to watch a ventriloquist argue with his own puppet. The latest game from full-motion video purveyors D’Avekki Studios (The Shapeshifting Detective) is heavier on gameplay than some of the studio’s predecessors. But the primary appeal remains the same: Joyfully weird, often funny, occasionally creepy video clips of actors giving committed performances describing their odd and macabre lives. A perky young butcher with unorthodox ideas on meat; a doctor obsessed with timekeeping; and, yeah, a puppeteer who feels like his life is being taken over by his own puppet: It’s all a little goofy, sure, but that’s what makes the game so fun. [William Hughes]

Omega Strikers

We liked Omega Strikers because there’s a mean little multiplayer game underneath the anime paint job. Played from a top-down perspective on tiny courts, Odyssey Interactive’s Omega Strikers is basically soccer with super powers, applying the class-based shooter approach to the world of sports. There’s a lot of anime cruft to get through, but there’s a brutal, deep online sports game buried at the heart of the game’s fast-paced action; there’s nothing like using your character’s powers to execute a last-second save, or slam the goalie into oblivion to set your teammates up for a match-winning score. [William Hughes]

Resident Evil 4

We liked because it wasn’t just playing the hits. There’s plenty familiar in the DNA of Capcom’s latest attempt to reimagine the Resident Evil series for a new generation of gaming—not surprising, given that the original Resident Evil 4 is one of the most influential games of all time. But the hyper-refined revisit to the land of Ganados and Las Plagas keenly demonstrates why nobody is better at working through their own history than this team, creating an experience that invokes the dramatic setpieces, and the best memories, of the original game, while also feeling incredibly fresh and polished. [William Hughes]

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

We liked because it made us feel like an actual Jedi. The exploration and combat are more evenly balanced than in Respawn Entertainment’s previous Star Wars game, , giving protagonist Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) more space to just run around and do cool Jedi shit. Sure, there are plenty of enemies to viciously behead with beautiful lightsaber flourishes, but there are also lots of structures to climb on, jump off, and air dash to without any real goal in mind, other than living vicariously through Cal’s gravity-defying flips. The new lightsaber stances are a welcome addition to the game’s combat, too, making it easier to customize a playstyle that feels right for you. The escapist fantasy of Star Wars was always rooted in the fact that anyone could be a Jedi, and Survivor’s nigh-infinite tweaks make it even easier to see yourself as a lightsaber-wielding hero in a galaxy far, far away. [Jen Lennon]

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

We liked because every element of it is a distinct masterpiece. The art direction and weapon durability (which forces you to focus on fun rather than strategy) return from Breath Of The Wild and are still perfect. But TOTK adds the shockingly versatile Ultrahand mechanic that lets you build tools and vehicles, thrilling new sky and underground areas, a world with more personality that reacts to the way you’re playing in subtle ways, and a story that feels like the classic Zelda formula right up until it very much does not. Nintendo is on a completely different level here. [Sam Barsanti]

Wild Hearts

We liked because it didn’t stop at imitation. Capcom’s Monster Hunter is hard to beat when it comes to the “kill a bunch of big beasties, one boss fight at a time” sub-genre of action games. But we appreciated that developer Omega Force—best known for its Dynasty Warriors games—refused to stop at a simple imitation with , which instead encourages players to get ambitious and creative with their efforts to bring down massive monsters. The star of the show is the “karakuri” system that lets hunters summon structures and devices on the fly, transforming the battle and tipping the odds against the game’s beautifully crafted creatures. (Then you chop them up and turn them into pants—this is a Monster Hunter imitator, after all.) [William Hughes]