Since the Steam Winter Sale is going on, now’s probably a good time to talk about the games that really had an impact on me this year. 2016 was pretty incredible, in terms of quality, unique games that came out.
This year, I more heavily gravitated towards games with a story and narrative focus, so a lot of my recommendations fall into that bracket.
VA-11 Hall-A #
VA-11 Hall-A is a visual novel that explores a cyberpunk universe through the lens of a bartender in a tiny dive bar. This game grabbed me way more than I thought it would. There’s a bit of a jokey exterior to some of it, but past that, it has a diverse cast of characters (in personality, sexuality, and identity) and handles a lot of touchy subjects with a great deal of maturity. The art, the music, and the character writing is all superb. Building a rich world with interesting characters mostly from inside the confines of a bar is a huge feat.
I feel like this one got overlooked (I almost did since the game’s domain is waifubartending.com and their marketing focuses on dumb anime memes) but this is really worth giving a go if cyberpunk themes are your fancy.
Event[0] #
This one came out of nowhere. In Event[0], you are trapped on a spaceship orbiting Jupiter, and on the ship is only you and a smarmy AI named Kaizen. You have to convince Kaizen to take you back to Earth.
This game is pretty remarkable, as you talk to Kaizen by typing to it like any chat bot at various old 80’s-esque computer terminals around the ship. Half the time, the response you get back rides the line of not knowing if it understood you or is just screwing with you. The only other game I can remember that employs natural language parsing for its character interaction is Façade.
Firewatch #
This was such a well-done first-person narrative experience about the (fictional) lives of people who run away into the woods to be fire lookouts in Shoshone National Forest. It’s a really different kind of story than you normally see presented in a game, and that was so refreshing. It also doubles as an experience that lets you hike around a large, beautiful wilderness and take nature polaroids.
Take note, game developers: the newly added audio commentary is top-notch. It’s worth returning to this if you haven’t heard the commentary.
Virginia #
I really loved Virginia. It felt like a short film (with strong Twin Peaks and Silence of the Lambs vibes) that you play and influence scene-to-scene, shot by shot. And what’s also great is it tells a pretty intriguing mystery story without any spoken or written dialogue. It’s short (2-3 hours) and demands to be played in a single sitting. I recommend you do.
OXENFREE #
OXENFREE started the year out strong. A paranormal thriller game with great writing, strong actor performances, and a really cool, free-flowing dialog system. Because you use only one button for interacting with things, the other three face buttons are used for dialog choices, so you can be walking about and interacting with things while participating in conversations. A really simple concept that I’m surprised nobody else has done.
Picross 3D: Round 2 #
I’m not much of a puzzle fan, but Picross 3D (3DS) has been my morning/evening bed routine for over 6 months now. Such a great game for unwinding with. The challenges never feel intimidating, but it still feels great when I manage to get past a tough spot in a puzzle. And, uh, it has over 300 separate puzzles, and I just started going through all of them on hard since that will unlock even more. It’s bonkers. It’s worth the $30.
(I can’t provide a link because it’s on the 3DS eShop, and I guess that’s how Nintendo rolls)
Hyper Light Drifter #
This has to be one of the most gorgeous, unique-looking games to come out this year. It puts finely-tuned combat and a cryptic overgrown world in center focus. It’s a short adventure that gives a pretty steep difficulty curve in the beginning, but once you get attuned to that, every win feels like a big victory.
Also the soundtrack by Disasterpeace is a phenomenal ambient soundscape. I still put this on while working every now and then. (Full Disclosure: I helped out on level design briefly in 2015. However, I take 0% of the credit for the final product. The Heart Machine team is super talented and did an amazing job.)
Owlboy #
I was excited for this game when it was announced while I was in college. And holy crap it FINALLY CAME OUT after a 9 year development period. And it’s everything I hoped it would be! The amount of attention to detail and polish on this game is absurd, and they get a ton of mileage out of each mechanic they introduce. Pretty light on the difficulty and game length, but I don’t consider those drawbacks. I felt like my time playing this was well spent.
INSIDE #
INSIDE is a lot like LIMBO before it: a dark, dangerous platformer where the goal is to progress forward in a seamless environment where everything was designed or born to kill you. It’s a design and technical masterpiece. Every design decision they made solves multiple problems, and they explore every permutation of those mechanics before moving on. They also use the stark, high-contrast visual style to draw attention to important elements in a very smart way, so I was never stumped for long.
The game also just feels so solidly built; like moving the boy around is super responsive, runs at really high frame rates, never noticed any hitches or bugs no matter what’s on screen, just…solidly engineered. I dunno, maybe that’s a weird thing to focus on? I noticed it.
DOOM (2016) #
Being a reboot, and a gritty-looking ultra-violent manbro shooter, I was pretty much ready to pass on this since the awkward and uncomfortable E3 reveal. Just not my kind of thing anymore. But after all the constant buzz about how darned excellent people found it, I finally caved and tried it.
I’m so glad I did.
For this revisit, the development team clearly took inspiration from the very first game, which was a high-speed, no nonsense shooter focused on killing fucking demons. They even broke some common, modern-day conventions if they in any way inhibited the player from doing just that. The smartest design decision they made was giving the player ammo and health when the player does close-up take-downs. This kept the action from halting as the player hunts for item pickups, and instead encourages them to keep in the fight and keep a steady flow of action. Really good stuff.
SUPERHOT #
There’s a…lot of game names in all caps this year.
I can’t really talk about first-person shooters breaking genre conventions without bringing up SUPERHOT. The core mechanic where time only moves when you move is used to its fullest, and leads to so many moments that feel bad-ass. Shoot one guy, turn around, see a bullet is flying towards you, move out of the way, that bullet hits another guy, slice a bullet in half with a katana, etc. etc. etc. Another bonus to this mechanic is you can get into chaotic situations, with enemies on all sides, and it doesn’t feel overwhelming. In fact, you can try to plan your moves to get out.
There’s a VR version that just came out, and I can’t wait to have the chance to try it.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End #
Uncharted 4 is the best of the Uncharted games and a perfect example of how to end (?) a series on a high note. This is also probably the most visually and technically stunning game I’ve ever played. It’s just maddening some of the scenes and systems they managed to get the PlayStation 4 to do and not completely melt down. Naughty Dog is one of the best in the business, and it shows. I really don’t know what else to say.
If you have a PlayStation 4, you should play this. Even if you haven’t played any of the previous games. It stands on its own.
Overwatch #
I’m pretty sure 90% of you either know of this game or are already playing it, so I’m guessing you’re like ‘yeah, duh.’ But Overwatch kind of surprised me.
On its surface, it’s a team-based first-person shooter with diverse, mechanically-different characters where you play in various point-capture or elimination games. Which sounds like Team Fortress 2, so yay?
But where I was surprised was how different each character really was. Where Team Fortress 2 has different characters designed to fill different roles on a balanced team, it felt like Overwatch has different character designed to fit different players’ preferred play styles. And it makes the game so much more approachable and enjoyable, in my opinion. Also, at this point, jumping into Team Fortress 2 feels intimidating with all the customization and crafting mechanics, so Overwatch feels refreshing in its more focused state. It’s also been great seeing all the new game modes introduced around various holidays, giving reason to keep coming back in.
I hope you enjoyed this list, and that there’s something on here you either haven’t heard of forgot about and I just reminded you. Certainly there are a lot of other games that hit big this year, but these were the ones that I thought were really special. Happy holidays, and let’s look forward to a positive, prosperous 2017.