The Game Awards had two games it appeared to want to honor more than any other this year (when there was time between ads and celebrity appearances, that is). Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 stampeded through most of the competition and left little room for others, and the situation created a few scenarios that feel upsetting on their face, but less so when more closely examine. Like PS5’s Spider-Man 2 being nominated for seven awards, and winning exactly zero.
It’s not a great look for Sony, who has had many GOTY winners in the past and has a reputation of supremely good first party offerings. And yet above all other comers, this was likely a result of “wrong game, wrong year” for them, and despite a complete strikeout, looking over the categories, you can see why this happened. Both in terms of the quality of its competition, but also the nature of the voting body.
Spider-Man 2 was nominated for the following categories, along with these other games, and this is why I think it lost each.
1. Game of the Year: Alan Wake 2, Baldur’s Gate 3 (W), Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
In this year, in 2023, it is a clear honor to land a GOTY nomination at all. Baldur’s Gate 3 won but you lost alongside what, critic darling Alan Wake 2, a sprawling Zelda game, a Mario game and a beloved remake of a beloved horror game. That’s kind of a win itself, even if GOTY was never really achievable this year.
2. Best Game Direction: Alan Wake 2 (W), Baldur’s Gate 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
This was going to be extraordinarily difficult to win over the winding levels and storylines of Alan Wake 2 or the 300 hour arcs of hundreds of characters in Baldur’s Gate 3.
3. Best Narrative: Alan Wake 2 (W), Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Final Fantasy XVI, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Again, Alan Wake is practically a game entirely about narrative design, so no shock that it won here. And in terms of overall storylines I think BG3 and Phantom Liberty make clear cases for runners up, even if Spider-Man 2 was indeed a very good Spider-Man story. Again, I think a nomination is an honor here alongside these others.
4. Best Audio Design: Alan Wake 2, Dead Space, Hi-Fi Rush (W), Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4
There was simply no chance that Hi-Fi Rush, a game born to win this category, didn’t win this category.
5. Best Performance: Ben Starr as Clive Rosfield, Final Fantasy XVI, Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Idris Elba as Solomon Reed, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Melanie Liburd as Saga Anderson, Alan Wake 2, Neil Newbon as Astarion, Baldur’s Gate 3 (W), Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
This was absolutely a stacked category, which is why there need to be multiple splits for different roles, leading, supporting, etc. Here, it very much always seemed like a head-to-head race between FFXVI’s Ben Starr, who I’d argue was the favorite, and then fan-favorite party member Astarion, played by Neil Newbon, who won. Yuri did a great job as Peter, but this was not the year to have to go up against all these others.
6. Innovation in Accessibility: Diablo IV, Forza Motorsport (W), Hi-Fi Rush, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Mortal Kombat 1, Street Fighter 6
While I do not know the full extent of all the accessibility capabilities in all these games, I do know just how far Forza specifically went for this so I’m not surprised to see it win. And I don’t think this was the award Spider-Man 2 fans were demanding in the first place.
7. Best Action/Adventure Game: Alan Wake 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (W)
Of all categories, I think it could have won here, but that’s because this is a strange category. Spider-Man 2 ,I would argue, has the most bombastic action and movement which to me are key staples of the “action adventure” genre. However, given how many different games are put in here (Alan Wake and Resident Evil feel like something else as survival horror), this is a category with 4/6 of all the GOTY nominees. And then if Zelda didn’t win this one, then it would have been shut out, an even bigger surprise. Do we need a…Best Combat category? Things get weird with some of these sub-genres.
So, I think you can make a case as to why Spider-Man 2 lost each of these in a way that is not “game actually bad.” It was obvious from the jump that critics and those voting in this show were always going to favor Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2. I have seen some very funny, oblivious “look at Baldur’s combat compared to Spider-Man!” comparing apples and fire trucks, but in all seriousness, it’s just an insane year. I think Spider-Man 2 will have to be content with its record-fast sales and the highest critic scores Insomniac has gotten. I think they’ll be okay.
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