When I think about all the games I played this year, there's a very obvious throughline that I didn't quite put together until recently. Action RPGs, those monster bonking simulators with sparkling loot, represented the majority of my gaming diet. OK—most of it was Diablo 4, but I dabbled in almost all of the action RPGs that came out this year and not a single one was a miss.
Part of the action RPG genre's strength is, admittedly, its broad definition. Loot lovers have Diablo 4, soulslike sickos have Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, roguelike ruffians have Hades 2, and then there's Dragon's Dogma 2 for anyone who wants their action RPGs to be delightfully weird. Black Myth: Wukong and Final Fantasy 16 veer heavily into the action side of things, and we just got a new Dragon Age that is a better action RPG than I think anyone expected. And don't forget Path of Exile 2, which didn't quite make the cut, but is still on track to come out in early access this year.
