By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
firebush03 on 09 September 2025
Edit Thread
Jaicee said:

I feel that indie games are typically underrated in these aggregations, at least in comparison for more "major" titles with bigger budgets, to which end I have literally adopted the practice of mentally adding 10 percentage points to the aggregate score of any 2D or isometric indie game I run across on OpenCritic to get the value it would realistically have to me. Silksong is the rare sort of game where it looks like I won't have to. I feel like a 95% is what this game deserves and kinda hope right about there is where it lands. And I believe that's actually not unrealistic in this case.

I definitely don't think it's "guarantee[d] a GOTY sweep" though and in fact think that unlikely for lots of reasons. First of all, backlash is sure to follow any perceived tilting of the scales by prominent publications. (Though I must add that these scores are NOT a tilting of the scales, IMO. Silksong really is outstanding.) Secondly, indie games rarely win the ultimate award and 2D ones never do, at least at the Game Awards. Finally, add a female main character to the mix and the fact that TLOU2 remains the only female-centric video game ever to win GOTY at the Game Awards and you have a formula for likely defeat in reality. Call me a cynic. The winner is probably going to be Donkey Kong Bananza or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I wouldn't mind if Silksong won though. It'd be refreshing! Not that a win by Expedition 33 wouldn't be, but for a 2D indie created by three people to win...that would be truly historic! And make me less of a cynic.

Seeing how 2021 through 2024 has had an “unprecedented” winner (It Takes Two - 2021; an indie platformer) (Elden Ring - 2022; JRPG) (Baldur’s Gate 3 - 2023; it was going up against an equally acclaimed, open-world experience, Tears of the Kingdom) (Astro Bot - 2024; simple 3D platformer), I think it’s fair to say that we need to drop this notion of “this type of game likely will not win GotY.” From what I can gather, it is almost always the game with the highest OC/MC score that wins the overall award.