This is easy for me because I mostly voted for indie games in the GOTY thread, heh. Thumper is excellent, but I couldn't finish it to put in my ballot because it was too hard
1.
Kentucky Route Zero - Act IV ; How could it be any other game at the top? There is still no other game doing what Cardboard Computer has been and to this level of resonance. Unlike many other games on my list, this is politically relevant. While it has become a joke phrase because of Trump voters, this game is genuinely about
economic anxiety and working class malaise. No wonder it's had influence on many other videogame developers, especially the upcoming
Night In The Woods. Even more so than Act 3, this fourth and penultimate act really nails down what the overall plight is of the characters and the themes are in this game. You've built up quite an ensemble by now who are all travelling together on a boat. At points, you can switch between people on the boat and the people who got off the boat to check out certain buildings or weird places. To where, we don't quite know, which is emblematic of the aimlessness found in the characters, but it's all about savouring the journey and new experiences. Conway the deliveryman is not getting any younger, and once he gets a replacement robot leg and meets with what can just be crudely called skeleton people, he decides to settle for a job in the underground to Shannon's surprise. The whole game is about working class people trying to make ends meet while holding onto ambitions and philosophising on their existence. In that way, it's even more emotionally relevant and topical than the David Lynch influence. Yes, the game has eye-catching visual storytelling in its amazing and unique presentation that changes perspectives at a moment's notice, but the focus is on characters first and foremost.
Kentucky Route Zero should be seen as one of the most important videogames of our time.
I can't wait for the final episode!
2.
Severed ; There have been quite a few games in 2016 that had fantastic and emotionally enriching stories, and none other were they as resonant as in Drinkbox's firstperson dungeon crawler
Severed which is about loss, grief, and moving on. I loved
Guacamelee and would follow Drinkbox's games wherever they went. For their next venture, they went exclusively to the Playstation Vita. I literally bought a Vita just for this game. I'm glad it's finally now on other devices (iOS, Android, 3DS, Wii U). I had no idea how big of a departure this would be from
Guacamelee not just in terms of gameplay but also in tone. This game much like
Hyper Light Drifter is purely melancholic in its tone and atmosphere. As for the typical hero's journey, there are early deaths in the family, but the hardest and subversive part is the protagonist Sasha having to move on from all these hardships. This game is funereal. It's the videogame equivalent of Darren Aronofsky's
The Fountain in terms of being about moving on past your grief, in a fantastical manner. In this oppressive and lonely world of nasty monsters, there are only two other talking creatures that you interact with which adds to the purgatorial atmosphere. Easily, the coolest and most interesting female protagonist of 2016.
Not only does the game have excellent storytelling, it's packed to the gills with variety in locations, enemies, mechanics, and the perfect level of challenge, rounded by top-notch presentation. Who expected such depth from just the main interaction of swiping? The neon-bathed art style is immediately eye-catching compared to any other dungeon crawler. The
original soundtrack by Yamantaka Sonic Titan and Pantayo is memorable, it's like a mix of tribal instruments and modern rock structure. The track
"Home Revisited" is like out of the best work of a JRPG composer.
Severed is just well-executed on all levels, and left a big impact on me.
3.
Superhot ; This innovative first person shooter, much like the best of games (like the recent
DOOM), is more of a puzzler. Variety and new mechanics keep on being introduced until the end, packaged by a high level of replayability through various modes that bring new challenges to the same levels because of a different playstyle you have to adopt like with
just a katana sword or your bare hands or only being able to hotswitch between bodies where guns don't exist. Top notch aesthetics and gamefeel really make
Superhot stand out. Of mention is actually the postmodern metatextual narrative. The game is fully aware of the Matrix-like cyberpunk hero's journey it is and works to subversively undermine that in its text adventure in
hilarious fashion. It brings a refreshing sense of self-aware satirical humour that never takes itself too seriously and makes for an engrossing tale from start to finish.
4.
Hyper Light Drifter ; This is another game genre like
Severed's that I didn't expect loving so much this year, being a top-down action adventure. Part character action game and part dungeon crawler, not only does this have top-notch presentation in terms of music, animation, art, and melancholic storytelling, but also a healthy amount of challenge throughout especially with the memorable and excellent boss battles. Thankfully, it's not as morose as
Severed so you could play them one after the other, where there is light-hearted atmosphere and a bright lively hub to return to after all the hard adventuring. There is no dialogue but what story the game is about to tell through gameplay, cutscenes, and art is one of being afflicted with a terminal disease (
inspired by the developer's own heart condition) that is appreciably ambiguous, melancholic, and hard-hitting.
5.
Aragami ; One of the first stealth games I ever played was
Tenchu on the Playstation 1. I'm glad there finally is a spiritual successor that even improves and innovates in certain ways to give an incredibly fast-paced and replayable stealth adventure thanks to the shadow leap mechanic. There are three playstyles, but my favourite is ghosting where you shadow leap all the way through a level without being noticed or even touching an enemy. While the story is not exactly the most engaging, the levels and challenge are. The stealth is satisfying to the level of
Mark of the Ninja, so if you're hankering for some more ninja goodness, look no further.
6.
Anatomy ; Your mind is scarier than anything physical, which is exemplified by Kitty Horrorshow's
Anatomy about a haunted house and listening to tapes. The game plays on your mind's power of suggestion and making up patterns in the dark. This psychological horror game is like no other, with the lack of monsters, and in a Lovecraftian way is more about an inexplicable abstract horror. There is an intimate and uncomfortable relationship between the player and the house. There is plenty of metaphorical meaning that can be layered, especially because it's narrated by a woman about how this could be a tale of domestic neglect, abuse, and revenge. It's only ten minutes long with three critically important subsequent playthroughs amounting to less than an hour, but it's one of the best horror games I've ever played. If you love games like
Silent Hill that stick in your head forever, you need to play this.
7.
Inside ; A dialogue-less game that has more power in depicting a dystopic world through mechanics and environmental storytelling than any other. The game is ultimately a tale about human nature, both the bad and the good, rendered through aspects of mind control, population control, and body control. It's been a year of melancholic stories in games, and you should definitely not miss out on this.
8.
Quadrilateral Cowboy ; Do you like the old heist capers? Do you adore
Jazzpunk? Do you love production design and animation where you pore over every object and want to zoom into details of the world? Well, this decidedly 20th century take on cyberpunk with an all-female heist team should be up your alley. You play as Poncho the hacker in the funniest, quirkiest, and most varied game of 2016. The new mechanics keep on coming to the very end. Each time you type out the commands to increasingly complex steps to complete your heist in success, it's super satisfying. More than that though, is the character building through intimate moments such as finding
Poncho waking up after a one night stand or
playing badminton with her friend that really give this a heartwarming touch.
9.
Virginia ; Another dialogue-less game that has shown the power of storytelling in videogames can also be conveyed much like in film through editing, multiple character perspectives, jump cuts at the right times. This 2 hour tale of supernatural mysteries and conspiracies might not have much in the way of interaction where you just walk around levels (or
scenes) to then press a button and have the story jump but it's something that can't be achieved in any other medium. My favourite bit however is a bit of social relevance with the theme of understated racism in an emotionally compelling montage towards the latter half. The multiple characters and the question of character identity along with confusion is incredibly potent, reminding of the likes of Bergman's
Persona and Robert Altman's
3 Women. The fantastic
Twin Peaks-inspired orchestral original soundtrack deserves mention, too. The best walking simulator of 2016.
10.
The Deadly Tower Of Monsters ; One of the funniest games of 2016 thanks to the director narrator's fourth wall breaking that is always aware of whatever you're doing in the game, even down to
spinning around (
commented on twice!) in an idle manner. What started as an innocent and funny examination about spinning in videogames turns into a heart-wrenching story of love and loss. It's a cute retro sci fi romp through movie sets and a gorgeously designed tower. Now ACE Team, give me Zeno Clash 3!
11.
That Dragon, Cancer ; An autobiographical game about cancer that has more to appreciate it for such as the surrealism, theme of frustration and cherishing the good moments, multiple perspective, and how to let go through mechanics at the end.
12.
Bound ; Unique and interesting 3D platformer about the power of ballet in defeating enemies and reminiscing about a dysfunctional family that deserves to be played. Especially recommended if you're into surreal landscapes. Especially if you liked
Papo and Yo. My favourite female character design of 2016.
13.
1979 Revolution: Black Friday ; With
Never Alone and a few others, it's pretty cool to have videogames about different cultures and histories that you don't ever get in this medium. In this case it's Iran around the time of the Islamic Revolution when anti-establishment sentiment was soaring against the Shah totalitarian regime. It's fascinating to learn about that through the game while having a cohesive and compelling story so it doesn't feel like just a narrated walk through a museum exhibit. All the historical and cultural tidbits you learn and uncover makes for an enlightening experience like the political climate of the time such as about SAVAT or the Mujahideen, Iran's version of backgammon, the food, and why there was such an anti-American fervour.
The game plays like a historical Telltale game where you have player control and moral decisions to make but it's not quite an adventure game and more a cinematic experience. It's well-written drama with moving music and great voice acting. There are large crowd setpieces which are quite impressive for how much detail is packed in for a crowdfunded game (that missed its initial Kickstarter goal of $395K). There are sometimes QTEs which just reminded me of
Indigo Prophecy and they can be silly but the most effective one is when you're moving between a hail of bullets and can die pretty easily, so patience and attention to audio cues is key. There's a framed narrative so you're reminiscing about this time of the 1979 Revolution while being interrogated and tortured. You play as Reza, who's a photographer struggling to remain neutral as it becomes increasingly harder to do at the cusp of a revolution. You've been away from the country so it's also a homecoming story. All the photograph taking reminded me of
Beyond Good And Evil, so that was great. Often when you take a photo, you can read more info about the real event which reminded me of
Never Alone's tapes.
There's a cast of characters that are all interesting (especially Bibi the woman leader of the protests, Babak the close friend, Ali the hothead, and Hossein your brother who's Shah security). Moral decisions relating to them can be trying with your own politics like whether violence such as throwing rocks during a protest is justifiable under such oppression. There's a particular one in the last quarter of the game that will feel like you're given nothing to make such a potentially devastating accusation or who to save which plays into the endings. There are 19 chapters, some of them can zip by in a few minutes while the ones where you're controlling Reza and navigating environments while interacting with hotspots can be longer, so overall it's a 2 hour experience. The story is eventful enough that it doesn't feel short but despite both endings, the abrupt ending(s) is a major cliffhanger. Abrupt not in an artistic sense where there's meaning to it but just as if there will be a continuation to do with other characters.
Despite the intense drama around the revolution, it was the smaller specific moments that stuck with me more. At one point that's not related to the plot, you can decide to pray or not. I've never seen muslim prayer in a videogame ever and have to say it was very faithful with even a step-by-step photo guide. From that prayer, you get a line of dialogue about Prophet Muhammad PBUH that can be used later on. My favourite sequence was spending time in your home with your family, viewing live-action photos, arguing with family members about this political situation, rummaging through items, and coming across this giant stack of home video tapes. The photos and home videos are all live-action which made me wonder if this was autobiographical in a way, and that kind of intimacy was exciting. I wanted to spend more time with these characters and this world, which is why I felt unsatisfied with the ending as I just wanted more. That is probably a good thing.
14.
Oxenfree ; Did you like
Life Is Strange or
Stranger Things for its cast of young characters and slice of life narrative blended into a time-bender of a framing? Do you like John Hughes or Richard Linklater films that nail the teenager life? Do you like good writing? Play this. Also, play it a second time to cement its actually quite tragic story.
15.
Firewatch ; Superb voice acting really sell this emotionally resonant tale of a man escaping reality and his marriage to a place with no responsibilities but eventually realising his mistakes. Unlike other people, I wasn't as taken aback by the mystery being surprisingly mundane and grounded, as I felt it was foreshadowed if you dig through the notes and environments. The game's pacing suffers a bit when you have the open world with nothing to discover or find in the nooks and crannies except for a turtle at one point, but the second half recovers with all the jump cuts much like
Virginia where it speeds up in thrills thanks to Chris Remo's incredible
soundtrack.
Most Anticipated
1.
Absolver ; Hopefully this fulfills my 3D brawler itch since
Zeno Clash 2.
2.
Night In The Woods ; Following the footsteps of
Kentucky Route Zero of displaying economic hard times in modern America with a colourful bunch of characters. Of course I'm into it.
3.
Rain World ; Creepy creature behaviour and AI makes me want to get through this oppressive world.
4.
Tangiers ; Firstperson surreal stealth immersive sim inspired by William S Burroughs? Yes, please!
5.
Miegakure ; Yeah, I can bet this is going to blow my mind.