I'm going to specify that this was a particularly good year for games, but the answer is No Man's Sky. I really want to put into words why this game was so poor.
The gameplay "loop" seemed backwards: the motivation for progress being built around making that loop easier felt like they took the game structure and made it needlessly hamstrung, instead of making a satisfying one and then making it easier (or more expansive) as you progress. Even little things like having to hold down button presses instead of tapping for the interface gnawed at me. It was ugly. Like, this game represents the bottom rung of visual design in mainstream games to me.
The limited permutations of how the worlds could be built made exploration fruitless, because I rarely saw anything worth seeing. As a player, I do honestly take offense when a game maker's desire to create was so obviously pushed aside in an effort to make a framework to circumvent the thought it normally requires. An otherwise impressive result doesn't feel clever when the quality is so low. I had a friend look on in horror as I accidentally guessed the "ending" when I made a joke about the laziest, most hackneyed ending I could concieve.
