Net_Wrecker
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1. Gravity Rush Remastered ; I actually found this list pretty hard to organize. I haven't felt compelled to make a GOTY list since 2013, and even then I only made a top 5, and that says something about how I feel about most of my top 10 this year. So here we are, and here is my list, and here is my top pick of 2016- a PS4 remaster of a Vita game from 2012. WELP. Yeah, I know. I can feel you looking at me right now. "All the great new games and this is what you chose, breh?" The heart wants what it wants. See, I'm a simple man, and with Gravity Rush it's simple: This game is the Japanese developed, French comic art inspired, kawaii female superhero power fantasy I've always wanted my life to be. Wait what, hold on, let me start over: It's all about the gravity mechanics. Now having said that, of course the game is also charming as hell, and has a whimsical energy to it. Kat's a fun character, the world design and lore are interesting, the music is fantastic, and the character design is unique. But man, ultimately the gravity manipulation mechanic is the star of the show. When Kat's spirited animations combine with your spur of the moment traversal decisions, this all comes together to create scenes seemingly pulled out of a Studio Ghibli film. "Gravity Rush" is an apt title. The sensation of
2. Stardew Valley ; Just to be clear, I consider this and the next spot to be 10/10 games. The only two games I played in 2016 that I think deserve such a score, actually. So in the end what put Stardew Valley ahead is the sheer amount of stuff happening in this game. We all love that classic line, "Quality over quantity", but when you're dealing with 2 titles of such high quality, such high execution, sometimes the game with more stuff wins out. And Stardew Valley has all the stuff. The best stuff, and the best things. Farming, animal upkeep, mining, crafting, relationships, fishing, seasonal events, magic, atmosphere, life lessons, garage can diving, and a stream of unique content and player/farm progression to keep you playing for dozens of hours. All of this housed in an incredibly charming pixel-art visual style, set to the tunes of a relaxing, boopin' ass soundtrack that makes the game feel like a warm blanket on a cold winter day after lying to your parents and skipping school. A sneaky little dose of nostalgia that carves its own path. On the surface you'll see a throwback 2D farming sim, but all it takes is a few hours of playtime to realize that you're in for one hell of a deceptively deep ride. A ride that wears its inspiration on its sleeve, but throws in a metric ton of quality-of-life improvements and details, then packages it up nice and tight for 2016. Hard to believe that one guy made and continues to work on this. And looka dat, I made an entire paragraph about Stardew without mentioning Harvest Moon or Animal Crossi- fffffffffffff
3. Inside ; And here's the other 10/10 of the year. One of the most polished, most cohesive, most focused experiences I've ever had the pleasure of playing. You go down the list of indie game clichés and Inside hits em all: Minimalist and monochrome visual style, minimalist and ambiguous storytelling, 2D platformer with an unnerving atmosphere. It's basically The Indie Cinematic Platformer, sure. But on the other hand, this is THE Indie Cinematic Platformer. The artstyle isn't simply minimal and monochrome, it's a striking screenshot factory of meticulously placed dark tones, light shafts, shadows, and shapes across a fluidly shifting number of 2.5D visual planes. It's not simply minimal and ambiguous storytelling, it's a laser focused adventure that ramps, and ramps, and ramps to one of the most thrilling and strange game climaxes you'll ever see. It's not just an unnerving cinematic platformer, it's a cavernous, brooding, industrial mystery box that unfolds around you with a level of assuredness and polish we see once or twice a generation. Inside is not just one thing, it's the sum of all of these extraordinarily executed parts. No the platforming isn't ball breaking and precise like a Super Meat Boy, or rhythmic and hyperactive like a Rayman Legends, but it's some of the most satisfyingly weighty looking and feeling animations you can get your hands on, and that sensation is one which permeates Inside. This is a tactile game. Every jump, every step, every stumble, every grab, every death, every push, every roll, every splash, every stretch, every squash, every bass blasting shockwave- you can feel it. The animations, the sound design, and the perfectly timed adrenaline pumping moments create a physicality that grounds, supports, and enhances every strange turn the game's lightly sketched but finely detailed narrative takes. A gritty and grotesque adventure that handles everything it does with an almost ironic grace. It took 6 years for Playdead to return after Limbo, and every minute of this weird short story is dripping with the craftsmanship that time afforded them.
4. DOOM ; I think this is the clear consensus surprise of the year, and for good reason. Who saw this coming? No dear reader, you did not. Don't lie to yourself, don't lie to me. This thing should not exist. Not in 2016 anyway. Not with this level design, not with this music, not with these boss battles. DOOM is a straight Tony Montana snort of nose candy in a heavy metal bar bathroom right before you clean yourself off in the mirror, grab your metal side chick, and mosh pit until you wake up in the emergency room. Then you do it again, but this time you don't black out. And again, but with more coke and more people in the audience. And again, while setting the bar on fire. Eventually, you're so coked out of your mind, with so many satanic symbols swirling around you, with so many bodies strewn about your immediate area that the band on stage stops playing, and YOU become the star. You're conducting the show. Not the demons, not the scientists, not even the game devs. You are the lead singer, Mick Gordon is your entire band, running furiously from synth machine to synth machine mashing buttons while juggling 6 guitars. DOOM is a concert of brutality. Hellish, self aware, high-speed brutality. But focusing on the combat alone does a disservice to how well the rest of this event is put together. Level design is detailed and winding, provide lots of little pieces of lore and easter egg gags around almost every corner. The plot is thin, but executed with a sense of energy, spearheaded by Doombro's utter dismissal of anything resembling exposition, and the game's clever willingness to feed his (and your) need to kill demons. On top of ALL of this, id Tech 6 is honestly kind of a miracle. 60fps on consoles with big levels, and lots of high quality effects and post processing happening constantly, while bunny hopping around equally dynamic and highly detailed enemies. This game has no right to look as good as it does while also performing as well as it does. If I had to nitpick, I feel like the game hit a ceiling in terms of scenario design early on, and instead of risking a misstep, id Software chose to hold steady with the closed-off combat bowls, sort of like a character action take on shooters. Ultimately it means that DOOM only really attacks what it does at one speed, and sticks to it all the way. Not a bad quality, maybe even commendable, but I think they can stretch their legs in a sequel. In any case, if you're looking for concentrated sensory overload, play DOOM. Just be prepared to use your entire country's bandwidth for dem patches.
5. Titanfall 2 ; Where do I even begin with Titanfall 2? Talk about a strange hype/release cycle. Let's just get it out of the way now: Map design hurts the MP in this game. There. I said it, we all know it, everything's out in the open now. At best you can hope to get one of the 2 good maps currently in the game, a handful of nondescript/inoffensive maps, or roll the dice with 3 absolutely terrible ones that the game KEEPS PUTTING YOU ON OVER AND OVER RESPAWN WHY. But then there are the mechanics. Oh mah gawd these mechanics. Titanfall 2 might be the best feeling FPS on a controller ever. EVER. Aiming, parkour, shooting feedback, SLIDING, momentum, one handed sprinting Alternator kills, the grappling hook, the Titans, on, and on, and on, and on. Absolute butter. I've frequently gone into a trance while playing the MP modes in this game just because the controls feel like a natural extension of my brain. I never have to fight with button inputs or awkward feeling/looking movements. Lastly, in a shocking turn of events, we have the campaign. A campaign which feels slightly, kinda, maybe like the Half Life 3 we'll never get because Valve doesn't make games anymore yes I said it fight me. A campaign that makes full use of all of your Titan abilities and player agility. A campaign that manages to forge a bond between protagonists Vanilla McBlankslate and your Titan, BT-7274, all while creating this weird James Cameron gone Mega Man militaristic anime universe around you. A campaign that throws in some of the more impressive level design and level gimmicks in recent shooter history with such a deft hand that those sections are over well before any monotony can set in. A campaign that genuinely leaves you wanting more. Titanfall 2 makes some mistakes, mostly on the MP side, but as a package it's still a very fun, very energetic game that guarantees some kind of highlight every time you play it.
6. Watch_Dogs 2 ; A Ubisoft open world game on my top 10, whoa. Well truthfully, I'm not a Ubisoft hater. I've probably put more time into Ubisoft games this gen than any other dev. They don't always get it right, but I like open world games, they have great animations, and they're actually pushing some really interesting niche games on the multiplayer front. They're ok with me, I hope they don't get bought out and gutted. Anyway, back to Watch_Dogs 2. Yep, this game's great. Well, not the driving, and not the shooting, and not really the stealth AI either. Why I love this game, and why I poured in the quickest 80 hours of any game this year, is the open world. I truly think that the San Franciso Ubisoft created in Watch_Dogs 2 is a step up for the genre. It feels like the culmination of years of iteration mostly because it is. As you walk around and see the incredible number of scripted pedestrian interactions, or watch the game's dynamic AI and faction systems bounce off of each other, or see how much detail is put into every single area of the map, you start to get this mental image of all these Ubisoft open world games forming a staircase on which Watch_Dogs 2 climbs, to sit atop a mountain of shared and evolving tech. Everything they've done since Assassin's Creed 1 coalescing here, 9 years later. It's an interesting, highly active world to walk around in, and the game that made me laugh the most this year from outright random nonsense. On the mechanics side, your hacking abilities have also grown and become more granular- special shout out to the Police Arrest and Gang Hit abilities, which are basically hotkeys for an instant urban warzone. The world's great, the characters are actually pretty ok most of the time, the game is much more self aware, there's a legitimately well done "Black guys in Silicon Valley" mission, and the seamless online features are spontaneous comedy. Probably the most flawed game on my list (the narrative occasionally falls back to Ubi's worst tendencies), but one I had a blast with, and an open world I will use alongside GTAV's Los Santos as the bar for the genre.
7. Dishonored 2 ; Dishonored 2 is a great GOTY list role player. That sounds kind of dismissive, but I mean it in a good way. It's a game that tries really hard to be good at what it knows it's good at: Immersive sim stealth-action. The characters aren't great, the storytelling isn't great, the presentation/game structure isn't pushing boundaries, and the plot isn't anything new, but the gameplay systems, level design, and lore are exceedingly strong. Mechanics remain tight and punchy, and there are a million and a half ways to go about most objectives, aided in no small part by level design that's not only as strong as the first game, but maybe even stronger this time around, featuring at least 2 of the best levels in 2016. Art design is bursting at the seams as well, with every single street and room feeling not only lived in, but also modeled with an insane eye for lavish details and lighting setups. Moving through this game feels like moving through a film you know is going to win Best Production Design. Except, y'know, while hatching your diabolical supernatural assassination scheme. Or not. Because it's Dishonored and you don't have to kill anyone. I love the smell of player agency in the morning. This is a very high quality stealth game, I just wish it was pushing harder with its story presentation and structure so that I could bump it up a few spots.
8. Hitman ; And in the second part of the stealth sandbox back-to-back is the TRIUMPHANT return of Hitman. Seriously, what a comeback for this series after the highly questionable Hitman Absolution. This game is a fantastic clockwork puzzle of social stealth and assassination opportunities, where level exploration and toying with AI provides some of the most rewarding experimentation you can find in gaming this year, with level layouts and art that match or surpasses even the most complex of Blood Money maps. So why isn't this higher than #8? Well, two very personal reasons. First, I'm not acclimated to episodic release strategy. I will admit it works brilliantly with Hitman, especially with how dense the maps are and the contracts IO Interactive continually added, but strictly speaking for myself, it's hard to remain as excited for a singleplayer experience when it's delivered in episodic chunks. Those highs are more spread out and don't stick with me as much. Secondly, and more importantly, they didn't bring back Jesper Kyd for the soundtrack, again. I assure you that Hitman 2016 with a Jesper Kyd soundtrack would be in my top 5. There's just this nagging voice in the back of my head that pops up every time one of the music cues in Hitman plays telling me that it could be so much more. Is that petty? Y'know what, don't even answer. Anyway, Hitman's great and I'm looking forward to season 2.
9. Rise of The Tomb Raider ; Simply put: Rise of The Tomb Raider provided the third person action/adventure popcorn thrills I look for a few times each year. While this installment still doesn't get back to the core focus on tombs I'd like the series to, the game feigns puzzle solving a bit more this time out to the point that I wasn't actively annoyed by the tombs, and actually even enjoyed a few of them, at least for their scale and visual design. The strongest aspect of the first title remains intact here- a solid sense of progression to the way you acquire gear and how your tasks get a little more layered as the game moves along and you circle back to unearth new areas. Unfortunately, Lara's still a strangely annoying character, and the writing/performances aren't anywhere near the quality of that, uh, *ahem*, other third person action/adventure game, but at least Crystal Dynamics got Lara into Murderess Mode a lot faster, getting right to the "predator stealth" fairly early on in the campaign. So yeah, it's derivative, filled with awkward writing, and there's a bit of a pacing lull in the final stretch, but it satisfied my basic human need to action and/or adventure in the third person perspective while dispatching an army of faceless mercs in beautifully rendered locales.
10. Oxenfree ; I felt like I had to reserve a spot on my list for one of the 2 walk & talk narrative adventure games I really enjoyed this year, and Oxenfree won out ever so slightly, if only for the group conversations, and the clever use of New Game+ to deepen an already fascinating supernatural thriller. This is probably the new standard in games for the cadence of real time dialogue choices and balancing of multi-person conversations. It's the first time I felt the rhythm of dialogue and dialogue choices fit within the forward momentum of what was happening on screen. Interruptions and timed choices felt right. Wavering on an answer at the wrong moment and getting a poor outcome felt right. The game makes you an active participant, and the cast of 80s teen movie tropes around you respond quickly to your action or inaction. Great soundtrack too. I'm tip toeing around the plot details because that's literally the game and I don't want to give anything away. I went in nearly completely blind and had fun putting it together.
Honorable Mentions
x. Dirt Rally ; One of the most satisfying racing games I've ever played, and would've made my list had I not hit the limits of my skill without the motivation to push beyond that point. Great, great game, and I hope to see Codemasters blow it open with a sequel.
x. Firewatch ; The other walk & talk narrative adventure I liked. Great atmosphere, great dialogue, great performances, and a beautiful art style. Yeah the ending sort of deflates all that tension, and pulls the rug out from your expectations of where the game was going, but eventually you come to realize that was the point. Still can't decide if it's a ballsy ending, or just oddly flat and divisive. Either way, I liked it and I'm still thinking about it nearly a year later. Only reason it's an honorable mention is, like I said above, Oxenfree had a more interesting take on dialogue.
x. Ratchet and Clank ; Very, very, very rock solid reboot to a fun franchise, featuring some staggeringly great animations and visuals. I hope to see Insomniac one day take R&C back to the scale they were playing with in A Crack In Time, but until then this is a fun slice of comfort food.
Pretty good year. I was going to wait a few more weeks to try and squeeze in some last minute games I didn't get to, such as The Last Guardian, but I don't really feel like playing it right now, or rushing through it. I'll get to it sometime in the next decade before Ueda's next game. On to this glorious 2017 in vidyagames.
