As with my post last year, I will be taking the wild and crazy decision to rank my 10 favourite games played in 2016. For those not aware of the rules, this list will include games released before 01/01/16 - trust me, it'll be more interesting this way. This is based simply on my own sense of appreciation for a game, regardless of how in particular it impressed me - perhaps it was the writing, maybe it has great music, maybe it just played and felt spectacular. What matters is that I think all of these games are worth your time and certainly deserve plenty of accolades.
10. Abzû
I played this game shortly after watching the "Ocean Deep" episode of Planet Earth, and it compares favourably; that is how highly I think of Abzû. Unabashedly inspired by Journey, this is a linear game with a scuba diver, a wordless narrative and a whole lot of fish and other forms of marine life. Can it be a good thing to say that a game almost lulls you to sleep? Normally not, but Abzû found a way - it relaxed every muscle in my body with a graceful swimming experience and lovely visuals combined with beautiful music. I swam with sharks, whales, dolphins, manatees, turtles, taking in all the sights of the deep. It's short, but like its mentor Journey it's as long as it needs to be, a wonderful 2-3 hour dalliance with the fishes. Go play it now.
9. Paint It Back
This year I discovered "picross" puzzle games, which you may know alternatively as "nonograms". Describing it in a text format such as this article and getting the magic of it across might be tough, but I'll try. You have a grid of empty squares, similar to a sudoku puzzle. Each square could be either filled in, like a black square in a crossword, or empty, not filled in. The numbers to the left and top of the grid provide clues as to which squares should filled in - they indicate separated, contiguous rows or columns, i.e. the "7 1" top row in the above puzzle suggests 7 filled in blocks, followed by at least one empty space, followed by 3 more black squares. By working out which squares must be filled in, you can gradually fill in the rest of the grid.
God, that sounds tedious? It is glorious. And quite addictive. The key thing is that guessing should never be required: every puzzle is solved through a pure but increasingly complex logic, and the ultimate reward is feeling very smug about how clever you are - until the next puzzle floors you and you feel ever so dense. Paint It Back is one of many, many iOS/Android picross games, and it's a brilliant one. There are a lot of puzzles, and each one forms a cool mural once you've completed it - the more difficult the puzzle, the more detailed and awesome-looking the finished product. Go play it now - it has a free demo and a very reasonable price for the rest of the game.
8.Ys II
We're going well back in time for this one. Read my review for the full rundown, but here are the basics: this is a remastering of a PC remake of a really old PC game(that is, it's originally from the 80s, when "windows" were just what kept the birds out of your house). I love Ys II because there's pretty much nothing like it - an action-JRPG where you charge into enemies with the optimistic belief that any problem can be solved by headbutting it to death. Actually, I think technically you're flying directly at them with a sword... it's a form of gameplay that feels a lot more fluid and natural than it really should, given how bizarre it looks in motion. Ys II also chucks a lot of the more time-consuming elements of your standard JRPG straight out of the window, with grinding for levels rarely required and even then, a task that takes mere minutes and is intrinsically fun to boot.
Throw in some stunning pixel art, a serviceable, often amusing story and just truly fantastic music (click through to my review and play the embedded videos right now), and you've got a weird 90s game that I am very happy to say is a brilliant game in 2016. Go play it now - and the first one too (actually they're bundled as "Ys Chronicles" on Steam).
7. INSIDE
Now... this is tricky. Most of what I love about INSIDE would be ruined if I wrote it down here.
It's by the team who did Limbo - that's enough, right?
Ok, fine. It's a good-looking, creepy, atmospheric game, that you'll finish in 3-4 hours but will be thinking about for a good long time. The last half an hour in particular is one of the most disturbing sequences I think I've seen in any visual medium. The term "mindfuck" was unwittingly created with INSIDE in mind, probably. Play it.
6. Bravely Default
How can a JRPG that harks back to the 90s be innovative? By cherry-picking elements of classic JRPGs and then breaking a lot of the genre's rules. So you start with the class system of Final Fantasy V... what's with the blank look? FFV had a system where characters learned a "job", e.g. white mage, black mage, knight, monk etc, and after they had mastered that role they could start on a second while still using the abilities of the first. Trust me, it was and still is a good levelling system for a JRPG. Bravely Default, which you'll note does not carry the Final Fantasy name, is both shameless in its copying of the job system and brilliant in its evolution of it. Along with combining two jobs, such as white mage/summoner or knight/ninja, characters learn perk-style skills that could be from any number of various classes, resulting in endless possible combinations of abilities that also tell a story about the development of that character: take my version of the protagonist Tiz, who by the game's finale is a templar/ranger and can boost evasion due to his ninja past, counter attacks thanks to his samurai period, and wield one-handed weapons with both hands for extra damage because he used to be a knight.
Next on the chopping block: grinding forever for levels. Battles can be sped up or, if you know the enemies in your current area are pushovers, put on autopilot. Random encounters can be increased so that a battle triggers every two seconds, or turned off so you can run through a dungeon to get to the boss at full health. In other games, spending ages slaying creatures mindlessly might be hypnotically pleasant, but it's just not a good use of your time. Bravely Default lets you choose how to spend that time.
And perhaps most impressively: it has consistently good and interesting writing. I love SNES and PlayStation era Final Fantasy, but let's face it, I wasn't there for the strangely-translated Japanese dialogue, charming as it could be at times. Bravely Default's characters are funny, nuanced characters with surprising depth. What's more, almost all of the dialogue is voiced and the acting is excellent. Aside from the Persona series, I can't ever remember being wowed by the voice acting in this genre.
Bravely Default is a truly innovative, substantial JRPG. If you like the genre and have a 3DS, go play it.
5. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
This one's hard to describe... it's like a point-and-click Legend of Zelda, with writing reminiscent of Adventure Time and visuals on par with Fez and other pretty pixel art games. The story revolves around a cocky protagonist known only as the Scythian and her dog who are trying to acquire the Trigon Trifecta, which is essentially a Triforce that inhabits a vinyl record? It's a wonderful, nonsensical romp.
Gameplay involves exploring 2D landscapes, meeting a few enigmatic characters, solving simple environmental/musical puzzles and engaging in some slightly rhythm-based combat. The boss battles are particularly memorable, not least for the intense atmosphere imposed by some really marvellous music, especially each time you are victorious and obtain a piece of the Trigon Trifecta. I strongly suggest you click the below to see what I mean - for extra fun put on some headphones and turn up the volume!
And lastly, what really sets this game apart for me is a feature I actually found upsettingly frustrating. As I said, the narrative involves pursuing the Trigon Trifecta, which is composed of three triangles. You can acquire the first part within an hour of starting the game, but for the other two, you might be unlucky and have to wait weeks. You see, Sword & Sworcery has a lunar cycle, and the second and third triangles are only available during the Bright and Dark Moon phases, as they are called. Problem is, these phases run in sync with the actual Moon. When I discovered this, I was so pissed off I was in denial! The rest of the game was being kept from me because the fucking real-life Moon had only just finished waning. With time to reflect on it though, I think it's such a bold and ridiculous move by the creators, and it makes an already excellent game that much more intriguing. Go play it now, and finish it at some point (and maybe cheat like I did, by changing the date on your device...)
4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
I'll get the controversial statement out of the way now: this Zelda game, a tribute and sort-of-remake of A Link to the Past, is a better game than A Link to the Past. At least, I think so. It's also utterly indebted to its SNES predecessor, of course. It's a top down 2D Zelda game with a world based on but cunningly distinct from LttP, featuring familiar items but also new additions as one would expect. And as one would also expect, the gameplay experience is exceptional because the Zelda series exists on a higher plane of existence. The world is fascinating to explore, the dungeons are engrossing, the boss fights are stellar combat puzzles and just about everything is fun. It's a great Zelda game.
The number one reason it stands out to me, and that I blasphemously prefer it to LttP, is the Dark World, which itself was an extraordinary reveal in the SNES original. The Dark World is a dystopian alternate dimension with more grotesque enemies and a gloomier tone, yet with a nonetheless whimsical feel, as is good and proper in a Zelda game. In LttP, this was a welcome surprise. In A Link Between Worlds, it's absolutely bloody mental in a phenomenal way. I don't want to spoil too much, but the basic premise is that the Dark World is known as the Kingdom of Lorule, ruled by Princess Hilda - pick your monocles out of your champagne flutes, Zelda fans! Somehow that's the plot of a canonical Zelda game, not a bit of fan fiction from one of the weirder corners of the internet, and it eventually leads to an ending that I feel raises the bar on storytelling in the Zelda series. This game is a masterpiece and if you have a 3DS you damn well better play it.
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
All that high praise and then I say another Zelda game is better? Wind Waker is, in my opinion, the best Zelda game of all - I haven't played every one, but boy will it take something special to best it. Special is absolutely the word for this game - it's far from unique, but every facet of the game stands out as a crowning achievement in game design. The visuals are mindblowing, not down to graphical horsepower but to artistic vision. All the expected features of a Zelda game - exploration, the gradual release of abilities, cutesy and humourous dialogue - without exception they are executed with a level of polish rarely seen in games. And it is certainly the best sailing game I've ever played! Swapping the landlocked open worlds of Ocarina and Majora's Mask for an archipelago was certainly a bold move, and one that I felt the game benefitted from, because the actions of voyaging from island to island and constantly making new discoveries was minute to minute fun for me.
Now would I be so ecstatic about Wind Waker had I played the Gamecube original? Possibly not: the Wii U version is not just a technical remaster, it made substantial changes to the structure and core gameplay. The sailing, which I just lauded, was apparently fairly tedious previously, but the addition of the Swift Sail makes it exceptionally fun. The original had a lengthy quest towards the end to gather fragments of the Triforce, which is again majorly altered to make it varied and interesting rather than repetitive and boring. Even routine animations like fishing treasure chests out of the sea have been sped up to keep the pace alive. I can't help that I didn't play Wind Waker in 2003 - I played it in 2016 and it was goddamn magnificent.
2. DOOM
2016's reboot of the legendary shooter Doom defies superlatives. Just thinking or talking about it evokes memories of the adrenaline and pure joy I felt while playing it. It would have been a nice surprise if Doom has merely been good, given the lengthy development and many years of delays it went through. What we got instead was one of, if not the best shooter single-player campaign ever, eclipsing even its originator. The monster design is incredible. The enemy AI is incredible. The map design is incredible. The weapons feel phenomenal! The storyline, something surely nobody is really interested in when it comes to a Doom game, was actually fascinating, granting a backstory and lore to the Doom universe that I didn't know I wanted!
Playing Doom is exhilarating. At the end of a session I felt like I'd exorcised a decade's worth of personal demons, not to mention a ton of literal ones. I somehow felt simulataneously exhausted from ceaseless rush of gore and excitement, and oddly relaxed, calmed by an uninterrupted mini-fugue state for a couple of hours as I bathed in the blood of Hell's minions. Is this game the gateway to some weird cult? Because that would actually make a bit of sense.
Surely I don't need to tell you to play this one. Rarely has a game been so unanimously adored... and yet I liked one game just a little more. It was a very tough decision - I was almost tempted to name two joint winners, but that would have been a cowardly decision. Sorry, Doom, my best game of 2016 is...
1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Where can I start on what I love about The Witcher 3? The simplest part to explain is plainly evident in the image above: it's a gloriously good-looking game, with stunning vistas, rolling landscapes and the most delicious sunsets. Looks aren't everything, but they help contribute to the enjoyment of every moment spent in that world.
And there are so many of those moments. The breadth, depth and just vastness of content in The Witcher 3 goes further than almost any other game can offer. Not only are there hundreds of hours worth of questing, fighting and exploring on hand, but the quality of every individual morsel of content is to die for. The smallest quests in the game, the most theoretically humdrum monster contracts that exist far, far from the main story threads, are injected with personality and brief but profound character development for what are otherwise throwaway NPCs. Not only that, but with no warning an ostensibly "run-of-the-mill" quest can take a left turn and evolve into a deeper, more impactful storyline involving main characters. The effort and craft that went into the dialogue, narrative and structure of the game are second to none as far as I'm aware, and if more games took cues from The Witcher 3 we wouldn't have much time for the real world.
On a more personal note, having played the previous two Witcher games this year I have a strong appreciation for the iterative improvements made in the third game. Combat was dated in the first and impenetrable in the second; here it's intuitive but still original, and even retains many of the core concepts of Witcher 1 and 2 without their drawbacks. The 70+ hours I spent in the first two games weren't entirely necessary to understand the narrative of this game, but they layered meaning and context onto the various places and characters of the world, most noticeably of course in the case of Geralt and his longtime companions. There are dozens of other changes to things like inventory management and alchemy/crafting that I won't go into; suffice to say it all comes together in a beautiful way in this game.
The Witcher 3 offers a world I could happily return to for a thousand hours, which I could probably rack up by playing it just two or three times. It's effectively the pinnacle of the Western RPG from my perspective, beating into a cocked hat the likes of Morrowind, Skyrim, KOTOR, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Fallout: New Vegas. It's almost within touching distance of Fallout 3, which ranks among my favourite games ever, but that's a conversation for a different time. In the year 2016, I delighted in playing no game more than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
...and as a final post-script, honourable mentions go to the following games that narrowly missed out on my Top 10: Enter the Gungeon, The Witness, Grow Home, Firewatch, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Banjo-Kazooie, Ori and the Blind Forest, Her Story, Desert Golfing and, last but not least, Rocket League. 2016 was, for me, a great year for gaming:
roll on 2017.
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