Making a moment hit is a delicate matter. There has to be build up and payoff. There has to be that aha factor where players either wonder how they missed the signs leading up to it or marvel at how well laid the plans were leading up to it. It takes a deft storytelling hand to invest players such that the moment hits. This year, the biggest games delivered the biggest moments in spades. They paid off years of character investment and hours of in game time. With that said, these are our winners for Golden Lance for Moment of the Year.
*Warning: Full Spoilers Ahead*
Winner: Savathûn and the Hive Revelations
It has been many years coming, that Destiny players have awaited the arrival of Savathûn. She had been a lingering voice in the background. Whispered about, referenced, a puppeteer pulling everyone’s strings. It seemed nearly impossible that she could live up to the billing in person, yet somehow she did. Over the course of the Witch Queen expansion, Destiny players unraveled the mystery of the Hive and their acquisition of the Light. After all, how could Savathûn deceive even the Traveler itself. The Traveler who for all intents and purposes is the god of the Destiny universe? The answer, quite brilliantly, was that she did not.
It is a marvelous subversion of expectations as we witnessed Savathûn walking to a hilltop to die. Her looking up at the Traveler, and rather than deceiving the glowing orb, simply asked for its blessing. A blessing she then received. Coupling this with the revelation that the Hive were always intended to have the Light and that the Worms and the Witness had tricked Savathûn and her siblings into embracing the Darkness made this moment a chef’s kiss of marvelous pay off. This moment makes the players question everything about the Destiny world after nearly a decade. That in its essence, is what makes this worthy of being the Golden Lance Winner for Moment of the Year.
Runner Up: Acquiring the Elden Ring
Elden Ring has a total of 238 bosses making this game one of the most challenging entries in the series with so many ways to experience the game whether it be through the use of Magic, Strength, or Status Builds nothing compares to when you are crowned Elden Lord after beating the Elden Beast. This moment is the icing on the cake after grueling battles and hours of exploring. The visual of seeing yourself on the throne as Elden Lord was one of the best gaming moments of the year.
Runner Up: God of War Ragnarok Twist
Death in Ragnarök was inevitable. By every measure from mythology to marketing, we knew that death would rear its head eventually. And yet, even the most raven-eyed amongst us did not see Brok’s horrifying demise. Odin’s deception as Tyr is one of the best written twists in gaming precisely because of the characters involved. Brok certainly didn’t consider himself a scholar or an intellect by any stretch. Yet, in a room full of those who had been deceived by Odin time and time again, even in the company of the self-styled ‘Smartest Man Alive’, it was Brok who saw through the fog, and it cost him his life.
Throughout Ragnarök, we are exposed to the difficult lesson of self-forgiveness. Accepting prior sins as things belonging to the past, unshackling yourself from them and allowing yourself the freedom to pave a new path is a hard lesson to learn, and a harder one to practice. Kratos, Freya, Thor and more, all grapple with this notion, yet Sindri’s sins brought Brok back to life, while leaving the fourth of his soul parts in the lake at Alfheim, giving him an unlife. There is no afterlife for Brok and there will be no fraternal reunion. His story simply ends at the hilt of Odin’s blade.
It’s a tragic conclusion to a wonderful character and one that was entirely unforeseen. Odin’s deception offers a game-changing perspective for a second playthrough and the consequent, inconsolable hatred that Sindri feels towards Atreus, Kratos and himself feels uncomfortably real, thus earning it its spot as runner up for Moment Of The Year.