Best DLC/Expansion of 2023 - Article

by Lee Mehr , posted on 15 January 2024 / 4,759 Views

Whether in the form of free DLC (hello God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla) or long-awaited semi-sequels, expansions have blossomed into their own thing across every genre. A commercial & creative necessity for MMOs way back when is now a commonality everywhere. And there's great incentive behind it too; generally speaking, who wouldn't want to have the gameplay skeleton of their favorite titles utilized to explore new storylines and locations? In 2023, this comes with a cost for last-gen-only gamers in the form of Horizon Forbidden West and Cyberpunk 2077. Despite both titles having 8th-gen versions at their respective launches, Guerrilla Games and CD Projekt RED decided to forego the technologically-constraining PS4 and/or Xbox One consoles to fully realize their creative visions.

While that doesn't tell the full story of these four finalists, it's an intriguing factoid that marks 2023 as a turning point in cementing future titles or DLCs for only this current generation... and maybe Switch.

The Shortlist:

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways

The Runner-Up:

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

In the words of our own Miles Gregory: "Despite Xenoblade Chronicles 3 feeling complete, Future Redeemed somehow feels so essential that I couldn’t NOT recommend this to any owner of the base game, or any player of Xenoblade Chronicles games in general." When someone uses an enthusiastic double-negative you know you're in for a great time! That excitement seems so natural for an accomplished developer like Monolith Soft because it's a team consistently dedicated to iterating and polishing on what's come before. And when your previous baseline is one of the best RPGs of recent years, you're in a much more comfortable spot to create outstanding work.

The Winner:

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

It almost seems unfair to the other competitors. Phantom Liberty isn't so much a grand expansion as it is the climax to a redemption story. When considering the background, from one of the worst reputation-destroying launches of all time to winning gold for Best Ongoing Game at the latest Game Awards, it's a genuine surprise CD Projekt pushed it across the finish line. Now, there are fair critiques over whether that award is correct to this special scenario, or if burned 1.0 customers should afford Cyberpunk 2077 any leniency, but it's tough to disregard the determined steps taken to right this ship. All of the major title updates eventually culminated to this point and resulted in an expansion so good that some might place it as one of 2023's best games period - like our previous winner.

And don't forget Idris-motherfucking-Elba.

8 Comments

Koragg (on 16 January 2024)

Phantom liberty is excellent. Well deserved.

Leynos (on 16 January 2024)

PLayed both runner up and the winner and Phantom is better than the main game for sure. Tho I'd still give it to Xenoblade.

UnderwaterFunktown (on 15 January 2024)

Good year for expansions but the only one I've played is Valhalla

firebush03 (on 15 January 2024)

(It seems as though the two MarioKart DLCs cannibalized each others votes.) Well deserved victory for Cyberpunk and runner-up for Xenoblade: both incredible expansions!