1. The Witness ; Some day Im going to delve into the design philosophy of The Witness, how Jonathan Blow made it all work and write a lengthy piece on it. Because what The Witness does is just absolutely brilliant in every facet of that words definition. I dont think that Ive played many other games in my life that have so adeptly managed to teach me mechanics and then meld them together practically without me even realizing it at times. One of the most starkly unique things about this didactic game design is that Blow doesnt necessarily care if you get it. And with that in mind, Im fully aware that The Witness will never be a mainstream GOTY, and thats fine. Because in return for conceding mainstream appeal, Blow has designed a game that doesnt feel play tested or watered down. There are obviously puzzles that most everyone will be able to solve. But there are also puzzles that you probably wont solve, but your friends might. Which to me is pretty brilliant design. Simple and refreshing, surely, but brilliant nonetheless. Every puzzle isnt playtested to death to be solvable by some least common denominator gamer. Every puzzle instead seems unique and meaningful, and perhaps one of the cooler zeitgeist moments around The Witness was talking with other people playing the game and realizing that you thought certain parts were a breeze and they thought that section was hell and vice versa. Whats neat about this is that to get the final true ending, youll need to solve all of this stuff. But if youre just a puzzle-solving lover who kind of sucks (like me), youll be able to pick and choose what you can understand and finish the game that way. Maybe I have more audio affinity than you, maybe you can do more geometric reasoning than me. Whatever the case, we can find what works for us. Truth be told, even though some puzzles might be more difficult for a given person to solve, solving those very puzzles proved to be one of the most compelling and obsessive experiences I had with a game this year. I cut out pieces of graph paper, I drew in a graph paper notebook, I thought about this game constantly from the day I started to the day I finished it. And even now, nearly a year after it came out, I still find it occupying my head. I know many people have stuck to recommending this game to puzzle lovers, and I agree with that as a more safe recommendation, but if you have the time and money I hope that anyone with an inkling of interest picks the game up just to stretch their brain a little.
2. Overwatch ; I have very often poo-pooed multiplayer only titles in the past, but Overwatch seems to have shown a model that works for me. Some of Overwatchs critics have claimed that theres not enough content, and frankly I dont agree. From the very first day I booted the game up in Beta, to today in Competitive Season 3 I have been entranced. Perhaps the game could do better with more maps being added, perhaps the matchmaking isnt perfect. But more often than not the game just works. Kind of like my praise for The Witness, Overwatch has this wonderful quality where it really allows you to have fun no matter your particular skill-set. Maybe you have stellar aim and want to snipe. Maybe youve got dextrous fingers that allow you to play a mean flanker. Maybe youve got horrendous aim and just want to hold a shield or shoot an auto-spreading tesla gun. Whatever youre good at, you should be able to find your niche. The fan community can be a bit goofy, and perhaps even a bit embarrassing at times with their shipping discussions (of which I am most definitely guilty), but I think it speaks volumes about what a stellar cast that Blizzard has created that there is such an enormous quantity of fan-art and love for this game circling the internet. And I think what might speak even more to the quality of the game is how deep it gets your hooks in you. Even when Im feeling kind of down after some poor competitive matches, I find myself going back to my fan-art thread and prowling for neat stuff. When Im feeling like playing some other multiplayer game, I still feel this nagging voice in my head telling me to go back. Even when I swear the game off in annoyance after some terrible matches, I find myself returning time and time again, falling in love each and every damn time.
3. Hitman ; Its 2AM. I just stopped playing Hitman an hour ago and Ive been trying to settle in to sleep for probably an hour after stopping a mission due to not figuring out a solution to taking out a target. I need to sleep, its the holiday season and Ive got a million things to do in the morning. But wait.
What if I trick the target to walk by onto a balcony and push him off while hes distracted? Could I get that to work? I jump out of bed and hustle to the PS4 to see if I can get it to work.
This is kind of what the Hitman experience was to me. Much like the two games above it on this list, Overwatch and The Witness, its a game that sunk its tendrils so deeply into my brain that it consumed me for a good week or two after I bought the complete season package. Which is amazing because Hitman is a game that frankly has no right to be as good as it is. It released as an episodic, always-online game, which sounded like codewords for disaster. However, the game seems to have proved so many of us wrong as it has shone forth in thanks to the former and in spite of the latter aspect. Let's just quickly address the main issue with Hitman so I can praise it uninterrupted. The always-online stuff was complete garbage and there was absolutely no reason that it needed to exist in the base single-player campaign. There is no benefit to me having a game chugging just because some remote servers are having trouble. Without that stupid design choice, Hitman might have had a chance to jump up another spot on this list actually. That said, there rest of the package here is genuinely special stuff. Part of me can't help but wonder if the game is accidentally good, because it really is that expectation defying. Levels are immaculately crafted (I've said and will continue to say that I feel like Hitman is close to the game I wanted MGSV to be). Assassination methods are varied and clever. The OST plucks along with your escapades perfectly. Most surprising to me is the sincerely hilarious parts of the game, from dressing up and pretending to be a model to the addition of a Christmas DLC utilizing the Home Alone robbers. There's such a warmth of character and heart that underlies the game that it would take someone pretty dour to not be charmed by it all. And similar to what I've said about other games on this list teaching you mechanics, one of the neatest things about Hitman is how it teaches you its levels. You start by completing the base story mission. Maybe you go back a few times to complete it differently. Then perhaps you go and do a few escalations to learn some other things about the level. And then the pièce de résistance of the game, the trial that puts all you've learned to the test is the Elusive Targets. While I do feel slightly cheated out of not getting to play them due to buying the game only once all the missions were out (and I do feel like Elusive Targets are a potentially dirty kind of content that can be used to influence preorders), I can't help but be awed by the genius of them. One shot to kill a target. One small real-life window of time to get them. No redos. Little intel. Just you and the level. It's a distillation of the entire lessons of the game, and a scintillating application of a realistic concept (a hitman) into gamification. If you were somehow a hired hitman or assassin, this is what you imagine it would be like. You wait around for months for your next mission, and when it comes you only get one shot at it and you only have a small window to take out your target. And that's exactly what Elusive Targets will have you doing, the difference being that instead of loading a real-life gun, you'll be loading up your copy of the game. I can hardly express how neat I think that concept is. I'm not sure what a Season Two will hold for Hitman, but you can bet that I'll be there from day one this time around.
4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Blood and Wine ; The Witcher 3 is one of my favorite RPGs of recent years, so much so that even though I played it for over 120+ hours last year I decided to replay the entire game this year, moving through the main story of TW3 to Hearts of Stone before finally ending on Blood and Wine. And while I noticed some fresh complaints I have towards the base story, I think Blood and Wine is an absolute masterpiece of an experience. Its frankly incredible that CDPR has sold as DLC what could easily have been a standalone title, and in fact their piece of DLC is far better than many full games I played this year. Sure, I can hear the cries that Im making an unfair comparison because B&W already had a treasure trove to base itself on with the base TW3 game. And yet we got mastercrafted armor, mutagen mechanics and a new Gwent deck. That alone might be enough to make this title feel fresh, but thats experienced alongside a whole new landmass, a new cast of characters, a new host of enemies to fight, a new set of stupendous quests and frankly everything I wanted is here. The landscapes are lush and colorful, the story is much more Witcher-ish than the world-spanning romp of TW3 and theres a genuinely fresh sense of wonder to be had when you arrive in Toussaint. Hell, I got to play house in Blood and Wine, and boy was that a perfect addition. Im honestly not sure if they could have come up with a better, more respectful and sweet sendoff to Geralt. Hats off to CDPR, they did it again and proved that they really do have a special pedigree.
5. Dishonored 2 ; Lets just briefly cover the negatives here: the story and characters of Dishonored 2 are pretty much tosh in my eyes. The story is functional, but it seems like too much of a retread of both the first game and the first games DLC. In terms of characters, Emily in particular seems poorly conceived as her eye-opening in Serkonos has this laughable sense of white girl on a mission trip to Africa that comes across as completely eyeroll worthy and totally unsympathetic. Whatever, the story in the first game was pretty okay and I loved it too. So what does Dishonored 2 do right? Most everything I believe. The amount of lore that theyve stuffed into every nook and cranny of the world is just fantastic. More importantly, that stuff comes across as so well designed and so well written that I found myself taking inordinate amounts of time (especially early on) exploring each level to find out more about this world that I was in. And coming from someone who often skips picking up lore notes and such, thats a pretty hefty compliment for me. World-building is great, but really the king of Dishonored 2 is the level design. I absolutely adore how this game isnt open world yet manages to make each mission feel incredibly massive and open to player input, giving a sense of freedom that was topped this year by only Hitman. Only on the very rarest of occasions did I find the game pushing back against my attempts to do things differently, and generally the design seems to welcome you finding ways around, under and above obstacles. I understand that a lot has been written about the game being a frustrating experience, especially if youre going for a ghost, clean hands playthrough. And I do agree to an extent, that extent being Mission 3 which is the precise mission that I think a ghostly playthrough stopped feeling like a pain in the ass. As soon as I got to Mission 4, I had enough powers and enough experience with the mechanics of the game that the openness of the world became crystal clear. And perhaps most impressive about this game is that there was a noticeable feel of going through an actual learning curve throughout the game, which is something that I think too many games allow to plateau about halfway through. I could rave for hours about the genius of the Clockwork Mansion and the Crack in the Slab mission, but frankly those are spoiler-filled discussion that are better off being tabled in favor of you playing the game yourself.
6. Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End ; I went into this game thinking itd be one of the best games of the year, no questions asked. And sitting here at the end of 2016, I still think its one of the best games of the year, but certainly not no questions asked. Theres a lot to consider here. Gameplay. Narrative. Consequences. Uncharted 4 exists in this really odd place where I feel like Naughty Dog nailed so much of it, yet also failed to really decide what they envisioned for the game. The game gets a lot of flak for being a walking simulator, and while I think thats ultimately an unfair way to talk about the game, I think theres a worthwhile point underlying the name-calling. Uncharted 4 never feels like a game that can commit. The combat is actually incredibly satisfying this time around (particularly evident in the extremely fun multiplayer), but theres not that much of it. The ambient conversations that go on while exploring ruins and figuring out puzzles is incredibly well done, but theres not much of those puzzles either. There are openish sections which give a pretty hefty feeling of scale to the game, but theyre blown by too quickly. Which is to say that in the end you do get a rather disjointed game that can indeed feel annoyingly like a traversal simulator as you just maneuver stoically from event to event. In terms of committing to an aspect of game design, I wish the game would have just been more of one particular thing. You could go in on your fun combat system and just own that stuff, create some great encounter design and have fun with those mechanics. Or you could go in on the puzzling and ambient conversations and actually make those puzzles more meaningful and interesting, and thereby really kind of own the adventure game stylings that it shows at time. Those critiques aside, I think that Uncharted 4 for better or worse is carried along the shoulders of its narrative. And before you say oh it should have just been a movie then! no I dont think thats an acceptable response. I think the narrative at least how its currently structured works best in the game-y format its in. And while some people had complaints about wanting to see more consequences, I found the ending of the story satisfying. Outside of maybe SG0, I dont think many stories actually moved me this year, and I think in fact that UC4 moved me the most. Chapter 17 For Better or Worse and the OST track that shares that name probably stands out as one of my favorite moments and pieces of music in a game this year. Theres something so incredibly real and meaningful to me about the things that Elena and Drake say (or perhaps dont say) during that chapter that I still think about the scenes from time to time. And maybe they should have or could have done more with what they start in that chapter. But it was enough for me.
7. Overcooked ; Overcooked might be one of the genuinely best party games that Ive had the pleasure of playing in a good long while. I would actually stick it higher on my list if it werent for two major caveats that I have towards it. First, its pretty much terrible as a single-player experience and some of the later levels in fact seem to require a full complement of players to successfully complete levels. Thats a slightly daunting level of entry for a game, although I do appreciate the controller scheme that allow for controller sharing to cut down on a literal cost of entry to the game. The second caveat that I have regards the level of approachability because Im still not sure how broadly appealing the game is outside of a kind of gamer audience. Thats not to say the game is super difficult, but its certainly something that can get pretty chaotic and hard to parse if youre not used to the kind of sensory overload that video games can put out. What made me think of this was when I compared it to games like Sportsball or Push Me Pull You or even the Jackbox Party Packs. All three of those titles can be pretty chaotic experiences, but theyre also often A) derivative which renders them familiar (Sportsball being akin to arcade stuff like Joust and Jackbox having similarities to non-video game party experiences like Apples to Apples) and B) pretty easy to control. Overcooked can actually be a deceptively complicated experience that can require some real teamwork to play properly, and I need to playtest it more with some of my non-gaming friends and family to see how it sits with them. With that said, I just love everything about Overcooked. I dont know if theres really anything that was quite as openly hilarious this year as yelling at my friends while we tried to finish making an order of fish and chips on an ice-block or finish an order of soup while fighting off rats. From the genius character design of putting a raccoon in a wheelchair next to a bearded white dude to the moving level designs to the adorable framing device of the story, the package here is just brilliant and its amazing how well it all comes together. I cant recommend it enough for everyones next party.
8. Stardew Valley ; Calling this game a mere Harvest Moon game does such a disservice to it. I understand that its a convenient way to explain the premise of what its doing to someone who hasnt played it, but its so much more than that. Seeing such a labor of love put in by one dude is absolutely awe-inspiring. And thats not to say that Im rating this game higher because it was made by one dude, but I think thats an aspect worth considering. For those nostalgic for Harvest Moon, Im sure youll dip your nostalgia tendrils in here and suck up the game. But as someone whos not nostalgic for Harvest Moon (having only played one old game on my Vita), I still found this game hugely compelling. Harvest Moon of course is the most obvious comparison, but I think Animal Crossing has to be mentioned too (Rune Factory is probably an even more apt talking point). Theres treasure hunting, theres mining, basic combat, farming, fishing, interacting with townspeople, marriage, higher-level crafting/resource growth and town growth. I think the Animal Crossing comparison is actually the more interesting one because Animal Crossing is a game thats built to be played in snippets. You generally turn the game on for a half-hour, take care of some stuff and put it down before you get worn out. Comparatively, and I think to its benefit, Stardew Valley does not care about real-world clocks. It lets you progress through as many in-game days, weeks and seasons as you like. And the reason I think this is to its benefit is that I think Animal Crossing actually has a greater stress inducement for me (odd to say about such a relaxing game, I know). Say if I miss an event or season in Animal Crossing, outside of messing with the system clock, youre supposed to wait for that event to roll back around. Whereas in Stardew, I dont feel stressed about much of anything. So I missed doing something at a festival this season, who cares? It can roll back around as soon as I want to. I missed some seasonal item? Whatever. I didnt talk to my neighbor today, well big deal, I dont need to wait 24 hours to do that again! And to be clear, I understand and appreciate that the two games Im comparing are trying to accomplish different things, but I think its worth articulating what I found special about Stardew. You could say that theres a grind to Stardew, but its not a slow grind. Its what you want to be. Each day being so open, and time being so constant makes each day feel like you can do something genuinely new and exciting.
9. Pocket Card Jockey ; I feel very passionately about solitaire. Thats probably a silly sounding statement to most people, but outside of maybe Tetris, virtual solitaire is probably the kind of game that Ive played the most of in my life. Its simple, its something that I can do pretty much anywhere as it doesnt require too much from me and it just passes time well. Pocket Card Jockey takes that game that I love so much and it up the momentum a few notches. At first glance it sounds like such a stupid concept, horse-racing and solitaire? Who even comes up with this nonsense? I tried the demo after hearing some people here on GAF raving about it and I was hooked within a few seconds of starting the game. Whats perhaps the most impressive is that the game isnt just a passive solitaire experience. The developers actually bothered to include some neat mechanics for solitaire itself, as well as neat stuff on the horse-racing side, including of course the horse-breeding itself. Although with that said, I do think the actual horse-breeding was one of my least favorite parts of the experience and not something I really cared about in terms of dealing with maturing horses and all that strategy. I think its great that stuff is there for people who want to play around with it, but honestly I just wanted to enter races and play solitaire to see if I could win. Frankly this seems like the kind of game that could be a hit on mobile and I dont know whos call that might be (Nintendo or Game Freak), but I desperately hope they stick it there soon.
10. SteinsGate 0 ; There are so many singularly unique and special games this year like Titanfall 2 or DOOM or Picross that I really struggled to find a spot for SG0 on this list. But when push came to shove when filling this final slot, I couldnt help but indulge myself on this final spot. SG0s obvious weakness will be that without playing the first game (or watching the anime), its not a game that can even remotely be recommended. And I fully understand thats a fairly high bar of entry to ask for people to cross before they can enjoy a game. Perhaps an even harder aspect of SG0 to come to terms with is that its telling a story where you already know the outcome. Personally, as a great preacher of journey over the destination and someone who laughs in the face of spoilers, I didnt find that to be a significant issue. But I could see people really questioning why when it comes to this game. Given the interconnectedness to the first game, and with the fact that its a VN (and therefore all story), its really hard to talk about this game in too much depth without spoiling things. Even though I had a notion of what the end of the game held, it managed to hold my attention throughout. Some of the new characters fall a bit flat, and theres still some pretty eyeball worthy anime interactions. But theres also moments like a particular scene referencing Orihime and Hikoboshi that just melted me to my core, and so even with all of that obvious anime influence, the story manages to be dark and riveting and perhaps even one of the more genuinely moving stories I played this year.
