I do not see me doing all that much gaming over the next week, so may as well start looking back at the year now.
Obviously the big disappointment was Necromunda.
It looks pretty, but not only did they make design choices that went against what the game should be, it was and is a buggy mess with possibly the worst AI in computer gaming history. It is amazing how they managed this. If they had simply reskinned Mordheim, a lot of people would have been happy. The fact that Rogue Factor is now a subsidiary of Cyanide and Cyanide got sold, so Focus didn't care anymore for this title, didn't help.
Immortal Realms: Vampire War was another disappointment. One of the "strange" things is that from beta to release, nothing seems to have changed. They called it a beta, but in reality it was a "Play bits of the game as we finish them".
Troy - A Total War Saga on the other hand was a very pleasant surprise. It is the first Total War game I ever finished. It treated the mythical setting well and follows the "historical" events while giving players freedom to do as they please. I would call it one of my top purchases of the last couple of years, but it was free.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Star Kings DLC was also better than I feared. The Empire mode makes skirmish games more involved and may have come a bit as a result of the very negative feedback the single player campaign got. It has its issues - the AI has real trouble handling some of the random planet traits and can become non functional city states. But it is a step in the right direction.
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark 's DLC was also great. The game becomes a little grindy towards the end, but I am glad I got it from the Giveaway thread and people who passed it by were silly 😛
Phoenix Point's Year One edition was on the other hand rather meh. It improved a lot over what had been released before, but all of that they could have done a year earlier if they had simply listened to Backer Build feedback. And the DLC so far is pretty bad. Especially the Legacy of the Ancients one is so grindy, it makes asian MMOs feel casual (yeah, a bit of hyperbole, but imagine you'd play XCOM, and to gather resources you'd have to keep the Avenger hovering over the resource site to pick up alien DNA one unit per hour and you needed 150 units for one weapon). It also means I feel that the rest of the DLCs will simply bloat the game and not make it more interesting or fun.
Chimera Squad on the other hand I absolutely loved. Well, not some of the characters and their banter, which I found annoying. But the gameplay and direction the game took were very enjoyable and I did finish it three times to explore everything the story had to offer and try different squat compositions. I am looking forward to FiraXCOM3.
The best writing this year was easily Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest. It would have been great if it was longer and the end felt a bit rushed. On the other hand, the whole story makes sense and is the best introduction to the world of darkness I have seen in a game.