After a long year, it’s finally awards season here at Twinfinite and throughout this month we’re going to look back at our favorite games of 2020. In such a busy year, some games have stood out as doing something new and special, so here are our picks for the most innovative games of 2020.
Voted on by our editors, these were the games that stood apart from the pack by introducing us to something new, whether it be via gameplay, story, or something else entirely, so let’s take a look at the best of the year.
Most Innovative Games of 2020
Honorable Mention: Genshin Impact
Senior Editor Alex Gibson: I know what you’re thinking: how could a game that is so obviously a pastiche of Nintendo’s superb The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild be considered inventive in its own right? Isn’t Genshin Impact really just a copycat?
The answer is yes, and no. Because for all its liberal borrowing of popular Zelda mechanics, so too does developer miHoYo put its own clever spin on things. The result is an epic adventure that feels familiar and wholly unique in equal measure.
Genshin Impact’s fusion of anime-esque storytelling, epic exploration, and deep, engaging RPG mechanics is something we rarely see on such a massive scale — and all completely free-to-play, and available across not only console and PC but mobile as well.
It really is a game that feels as though it’s a landmark title for a segment of the industry that’s often marred by controversy and skepticism.
Genshin Impact, by comparison to what has come before, is a rare breed of gacha game that encourages you to spend not through manipulation but the quality of its design and the commitment from its developer to provide a robust experience no matter your budget.
It’s no surprise that its community continues to grow at an astonishing rate, and I’m certain they’ll be sticking around to enjoy miHoYo’s impressive live-service support moving forward.
