Best of the Decade – Number 6: 2016

All right, 2016 time! Let’s jump right in with what I missed this year:

• Abzu
• Street Fighter V
• Fire Emblem Fates
• Watch Dogs 2
• Total War: Warhammer
• Ratchet and Clank
• Gears of War 4
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• The Last Guardian
• Dishonored 2
• Titanfall 2
• Dark Souls 3
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

A few of these I do mean to get around to at some point, namely Abzu and The Last Guardian. I also want to play Uncharted 4 despite the fact that I haven’t actually liked an Uncharted game up until now. What can I say? I’ve played three of the damn things at this point, so I guess I feel compelled to give it one last shot for the “final” chapter.

 

Next, the partial plays and the ones that fell flat.

No Man’s Sky – So this one is in a bit of a weird place for me. As most know, No Man’s Sky didn’t exactly release to much fanfare, and I didn’t play it at launch as a result. But over the years the team has patched and updated the game to a point where a lot of people like it now. And I had a chance to try it recently and it was solid, but there are a few issues. Firstly, this list is for 2016, and in 2016 this game was a hot mess. Secondly, I still haven’t played much of it. And thirdly, I feel like I’d just enjoy playing minecraft more. Maybe this would be fine with friend? Eh, either way, just going to leave this here.

Hitman – Played the first level, never got back to it. Pretty solid from what I played though.

Final Fantasy XV – I got into this recently, but didn’t get more than a few hours into it before I got distracted by something else. I liked what I played of it though, so I’ll definitely get back to it one of these days.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst – Now this one looked like it would at least manage a good game. Alas, it didn’t turn out so hot. I actually really, REALLY liked the original Mirror’s Edge. It was fast-paced freerunning action and it was just fun in spite of a very lame story. Frankly, I thought there was no way EA would give this series another crack, but clearly I was wrong. This game did send up some early warning flags though, since it’s a reboot. A game being rebooted after just a single game is never a great sign. But I thought it would manage to make the story good this time. They did not. But now it’s open world, and the free running would be great an in open world, right? Well, turns out that their all-white level design, minimalist HUD, and first person perspective makes it difficult to traverse the environment unless it’s VERY clear where you’re supposed to go. And here it is not. The game just ended up being dull. Kudos to EA for giving this one another shot, but now it’s probably time to lay Faith to bed for good.

 

Good stuff time!

Overwatch – I’m kind of reluctantly putting this here. I played a fair amount of it and it was decently fun, but I’m not much of a competitive shooter guy. Also I’m not a fan of Activision Blizzard’s monetization of the game, the shit they’re pulling with Overwatch 2, and the structure of the game in general. But it is a legitimately solid game at its core, and I have to give some credit for that.

The Banner Saga 2 – Man, I really need to get around to playing the third one at some point… anyways, this is a really solid indie title and the second part of a trilogy of games. Fun turn based combat, interesting characters and conflicts, and a somewhat impenetrable story.

Pony Island – Don’t sleep on this one. While it looks like a generic auto-running game featuring a pony at a glance, this game hides a really, really cool premise, interesting mechanics, and a trippy as hell story. Without wishing to spoil anything, Doki Doki Literature Club fans will definitely get a kick out of this one.

Pokemon Sun and Moon – I liked this one, which is evidently a controversial statement among Pokemon fans, but to hell with it. The community loves to shit on Gens 6 and 7, but I think they had some great mechanics involved in them. And while parts of the campaign can be a bit grating, this game bucked a lot of the norms for the series and was stronger for it. Doing away with traditional gyms and putting an interesting twist on the Champion Battle. And Alola is a really visually striking region with some great music.

Sorcery! 4: The Crown of Kings – After drooling all over the first two, I couldn’t let the bombastic finale for this series get away from me. While in ways I wish the game was a little deeper (at least in certain sections; the game itself is incredibly deep and complex with tons of different interactions, many of which depend on what you did in former parts), the game still did an excellent job wrapping up this tiny, epic series.

INSIDE – I’m a huge fan of LIMBO, so I had very high hopes for INSIDE. And in general, yeah, INSIDE is pretty good. A really dark and atmospheric game that tells its whole story with basically no words at all is about what I’d expect for a LIMBO spiritual successor, and that’s about what I got. But I do still feel like LIMBO still looked and played better, which sours my opinion of INSIDE a little bit. But I still can’t deny that INSIDE is a fine game in its own right.

The Witness – Speaking of early Indie hits, this one is made by Jonathan Blow, creator of the landmark indie title: Braid. The Witness is a very different kind of beast though. A first person puzzle game that requires you to look at puzzles from all different kinds of angles to solve them. It’s of a very rare breed, being a sort of “Open World Puzzle Game.” Clearly taking heavy inspiration from Myst, but at the same time doing its own thing. And what it does is damn good. It’s actually pretty impressive how much mileage the game can get out of what is effectively different spins on the same puzzle. How the game manages to teach you new mechanics and how each puzzle is laid out in front of you is frankly brilliant and goes to show how creative and open minded a developer Blow is. Again, what’s important to note is that all of the puzzles are technically all variations of the same thing, and yet hours in I was still saying “Oh, THAT’S cool!” which is a testament to how well this game was made. While some solutions can definitely be a bit obtuse, the game takes a very clever route in how it teaches the player mechanics and how it lets players figure out solutions. I haven’t yet finished it, but I’d definitely like to get back into it one of these days. But I swear to god if I ever see that Elevator puzzle again I’m going to fuc-

Civilization VI – I’m a simple man. I see Civilization, I play Civilization. V was definitely the game that hooked me on it (specifically the Gods and Kings expansion, and especially later with the Brave New World expansion), but I was hungry for more. Beyond Earth did little to quench that thirst, but VI was definitely a return to form. While I still think I prefer V, VI is a worthy successor and a fine game in its own right.

Enter the Gungeon – A roguelike bullet hell made by Devolver Digital. What’s not to like I In particular, I love the game’s heavy gun aesthetic. Practically everything in this game is a gun in some way, and I absolutely love that. And the weapon variety is simply staggering. I only wish they could let you use more of those guns a little more frequently. The game is maybe also a touch too difficult, but I bet I’d be singing a different tune if I played this a bit more.

Firewatch – My walking simulator of the year. This was a hell of a ride in character exploration and mystery, even with some light horror elements thrown in. Though its biggest weakness is that it lacks much of a real climax, both action and story-wise, and the big reveal at the end falls pretty flat. But the ride up to that point was damn fine for sure.

 

And now for the cream of the crop.

Darkest Dungeon – I spent a lot of time with this one. A very difficult and brutally unforgiving game, but a damn fine turn-based adventure game with a good sense of progression. The game can get pretty samey by the end though; mowing through mostly the same enemies just with bigger numbers. The final act in the Darkest Dungeon is definitely a wild ride, but it took far too long to get there along too samey of a path. Hopefully we get more variety and a more involved story in the upcoming sequel.

DOOM – The triumphant return of one of the grandaddies of the first person shooter. There was a lot of talk before this game came out that because of issues with development that this reboot would suck. But it did not. This is one of the most exciting FPS games that I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. It’s just full throttle action from start to finish. And what makes it better is the protagonist: The Doom Slayer. This man does not give a single fuck about anything that doesn’t involve killing demons. And despite not having a voice, his actions speak plenty loud. The way he roughly smashes comm links between him and the CEO who started this mess and is desperately trying to manipulate Doom Slayer for his own advantage. There is deeper lore here if you want it, but Doom Slayer knows what were’t here for. And what we’re here for is to kill demons. I’ve heard modern DOOM called a “Ballet of Bullets” before, and while there are other games that may technically fit that description a little better (such as Bayonetta), it’s an apt comparison. The devs smartly designed the game with high mobility in mind. No sitting behind a chest-high wall waiting for your health to regenerate. If you want your health back, you need to go out there and earn it, dammit! And at the heart of that is the new glory kill system. While it may seem like one of those things that gets old after a while, seeing demons get a pre-animated takedown animation to the face, it really doesn’t. Smartly, the animations for the cannon fodder enemies go by at a breakneck pace, and the only ones that really drag on are glory kills for the boss enemies, which you definitely feel like you need to earn and are a satisfying payout. It keeps the pace of the game going and gives you plenty of gory goodness to accent the rest of the game. And on top of that the return to old shoot mechanics, the gun variety, the puzzles in the levels… about the only negative thing I have to say about this game is that at time the aesthetics can get a little repetitive. Mars and hell don’t have many terribly interesting vistas, as it turns out. But otherwise the new benchmark that other reboots will be judged by.

Stardew Valley – Basically the best Harvest Moon game ever made. Ignoring the fact that it is absolutely not a Harvest Moon game. This game is clearly a passion project made with a lot of love, and it shows. This game is stuffed to the gills with content, and the best part of it is how much freedom it gives you in customizing your experience. There are different farms to pick from, tons of buildings, all of which you can place wherever you want, you have different costume options and color options, you have tons of romance options and can obviously pick to be in a same-sex marriage as well, you can have a kid, you can renovate and customize your house… just everything about this game is a Harvest Moon fan’s wet dream. And it even managed a free multiplayer expansion! This was the gift that kept on giving, which is why Stardew Valley makes it so high for me this year.

 

So before I go to the actual GotY, know that this year was VERY close. I can see very strong arguments for several other games this year taking GotY (especially DOOM and Stardew Valley), but I’m sticking to my guns on this one. And my guns are telling me that this year’s Game of the Year is…

XCOM 2 – Definitely interesting that XCOM lost to FTL last time, but I’ve rated XCOM 2 above FTL now. To be fair, it’s close between those two, and they’re very different games. Depending on when you ask me, I’d probably point to a different one being the best. But XCOM 2 does so much right and pushes the series so far forward that I just can’t resist giving it the win. An expanded story, tons of new aliens, a great premise, new guns, new skills, tons of new maps, excellent character customization, mission variety, strong mod support… I just love everything they added to the game. It’s one of the most satisfying tactical experiences of my life and does so much to upgrade the experience from that first game that I still go back to it occasionally to play through again. It definitely has problems though. Stealth is a bit pointless, timers tend to be a little too strict (and the second wave option to double the timers makes them too lax), there are some weird balancing issues with some classes being strictly better than others and some equipment being laughably busted (looking at you, mimic beacon), and some of their early DLC was pretty insulting. But it also got a really great expansion (similar to Enemy Within for the first game) with War of the Chosen. But I should be counting that here, should I? Either way, XCOM 2 was a top notch sequel. We’ve already gotten a taste of what’s to come from this series after Chimera Squad dropped this year, and I’m excited to see what comes next from Firaxis.

Best of the Decade – Number 7: 2012

2012 wasn’t a year that saw a ton of games come out, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a strong year. What we got was definitely quality, mixed with a bit of controversy. We’ll get to that, but first we need to tick off the noteworthy games that I didn’t get around to.

• Fire Emblem: Awakening
• Max Payne 3
• Dear Esther
• Sleeping Dogs
• Halo 4
• Darksiders 2
• Crusader Kings 2
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
• Hitman: Absolution
• Trials Evolution
• Black Mesa

Fire Emblem: Awakening, and Dear Ester definitely have my attention to be played later, and I’ve had Crusader Kings 2 recommended on more than one occasion. A few others are on my radar, but on a whole I’m not terribly concerned with the games I didn’t play this year.

 

Next is going to be nice and short. Only a couple of games that I either didn’t like or played a little bit.

Fez – I barely played any of this. I did like what I played, but it just fell off my plate. I’ll have to get back to it at some point, though there’s really no rush since the developer ragequit the industry and canceled the sequel. Yikes.

Planetside 2 – A really cool idea of a massive, constantly ongoing war between three factions. I wanted to get into this with friends, but unfortunately it just never happened. I played it a bit on my own, but just never got into it.

Assassin’s Creed 3 – In my opinion, the first bad mainline Assassin’s Creed game. Not truly awful, but this is where the series started to slip. The freerunning wasn’t as fun, the story was dull (turns out the American Revolution isn’t a great setting for an assassin adventure) and the characters were all lifeless husks, especially protagonist Connor Kenway.

 

All right, now onto the good games.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair – Ah yes, high school kids kill each other in Battle Royale/SAW style: the game. From the makers of Wii Play Motion and the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. No, I’m not kidding. I initially fell in love with these visual novels about a year or two ago and played through all of them. Originally I loved them all, but my jaded reviewer half has since really picked these games apart. While they have interesting mysteries and really well written characters, their problem lies with the overarching story, which is obtuse and absolutely impenetrable, to the degree that in the third game they basically just threw up their arms and said “Fuck it!” And basically threw everything into the trash. Incidentally, Goodbye Despair is probably the best game in the series and is still pretty good, but not good enough to even make the finalists. Still check out the series and play more visual novels! They’re fun. I promise.

Spec Ops: The Line – One of the most noteworthy military shooters of the last decade for sure. While it starts out pretty generic, things take a turn fast, and you soon find yourself in a monster clusterfuck of a situation, all while the protagonist’s mental health is slowly draining away. Fans of Apocalypse Now will definitely notice some similarities, but Spec Ops definitely has its own identity. The shooting isn’t anything special, but it’s the characters arcs and the story that sets this one apart, along with a real mindfuck of an ending.

Far Cry 3 – I’ve played three Far Cry games in my life (2 through 4), and 3 is the only one I’ve actually liked. While at a glance it’s really similar to Far Cry 4, 3’s greatest strength is definitely its story. Protagonist Jason Brody’s arc from a spoiled rich boy to a hardened warrior is really compelling, and juxtaposed against the villain Vaas makes for some really incredible story moments (though that’s definitely hurt when Vaas is replace two thirds of the way through the story with an infinitely worse villain). The combat and exploration also felt just right with this game. It’s hard to explain, but world design and level design just seemed like it was at its best with this game. It does have some issues, such as some really atrocious QTE boss fights, some moments when the game can’t decide on what tone it wants to be, and a really, REALLY shitty ending, but otherwise, there’s a reason Ubisoft has been trying to copy this formula for the better part of a decade.

Gravity Rush – This is one I played just recently. Technically what I played was the 2015/16 remaster for the PS4, but it’s more or less the same game. Gravity Rush has been on my radar for a while now, but during Quarantine I finally sat down and played it, and it’s definitely worth the hype. The gravity controlling mechanics are just a blast to use, and the game’s movement really gives you a lot of control. It’s not unlike a good Spiderman game where moving around the world can be the most fun part. Granted, the combat can be somewhat lame, especially when they give you a bunch of tools to fight enemies, but one attack (the Gravity Kick) is so much more effective than anything else. The story is all right, but feels like it’s a little too big for its britches and left too many questions unanswered (though there is a sequel I’m currently playing through). I will say that its cell-shaded aesthetic and comic-book style really made it not just fun to play, but a joy to look at. While it’s not the most technically impressive game (even remastered), it’s proof that art style trumps technical specs.

Dishonored – So I typically don’t play stealth games so much, but I decided to give Dishonored a shot and was pleasantly surprised at what I found. Very steampunk, very stylish, and very fast. Frankly, I don’t think first person stealth works too well most of the time as it can be very frustrating to keep a track of guards, and it seems far too easy to be spotted, but fortunately Dishonored doesn’t really mind if you just take the meat-headed approach of murdering everyone in your path. It also packs in a moderately interesting story, and a lot of great exploration. I’ll keep it out of the top due to my bias against stealth, but it says something that I like it in spite of that. Now I just need to try out the sequel one of these days…

Journey – This is one that I heard so much about for so long and finally got around to playing. Journey is an exploration based platformer co-developed by Thatgamecompany (who also made Flower and Flow) and Santa Monica Studios (of God of War fame). It’s an interesting little adventure told without any words as you journey across a desert and up a mountain to reach whatever lies at the top. Despite having technically no real motivation, the game’s world and scenery are what drive you to keep moving. With simple controls, vibrant visuals, and a really stellar soundtrack, Journey is just a joy to play through, especially when you end up teaming up with a partner, be it AI or human (though it’s often hard to tell, to the benefit of the game). It’s pretty short, but I think it’s exactly the length it needs to be. Really good game, but didn’t grab me like so many other games this year.

Mark of the Ninja – I mentioned before that I don’t really like stealth games, but that’s not entirely true. There are some stealth games I do really enjoy, particularly 2D adventure games like Mark of the Ninja. This game is really just a blast and a half. With gorgeous hand-drawn animation fueling the adventure and a dark gothic theme to it, as well as the draw of being a ninja in the modern world, Mark of the Ninja gets everything right you want to see in this type of game. Really just misses out on the top of the mountain.

 

And now, my favorites from this year.

Borderlands 2 – A really excellent sequel that all sequels should be held to. It went ahead and fixed nearly every problem that the original had, especially the lackluster and disappointing story. It also made the characters far more fun to play with far wackier abilities to play around with. More guns, more enemies, more crazy environments, and one of my all time favorite video game villains: Handsome Jack. Just an all-around excellent sequel.

Hotline Miami – Just an adrenaline rush of a game. Really reminds me of old school flash shooters like Stick Arena. While the story is a little hard to follow and not really that interesting, what is interesting is the game’s style and pace. It’s static-filled VHS aesthetic screams 80s and really gives it a unique feel. And with its lightning-fast reloads after dying and bite-sized stages, it doesn’t fall into the trap of being too hard and frustrating the player. Because a successful run takes less than a minute and dying will hardly set you back at all. Really just a great bite-sized package of balls to the wall action.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 1 – The game that put Telltale on the map. While I’m not really a fan of what became of this series afterwards, Season 1 of The Walking Dead is a masterpiece of a point-and-click adventure game and something of a landmark title of the genre (at least of the modern era of the genre). While the puzzles aren’t anything special for this genre, it tells a gripping story about a father figure slowly growing attached to a girl he met in a post-apocolypic world (For the record, released BEFORE The Last of Us), and every beat of that story is really incredible. It stumbles in places for sure (especially the villain reveal at the end of Episode 5), but what it needs to get right it gets very right. It also has some of the best done choices in these types of games I’ve ever seen. While by the end you can see that some of them were definitely more of an illusion of choice than a real choice, enough permanent shit happens in this season to make the choices (Even the ones that end up basically being meaningless) feel like they have so much more weight than they actually do.

Mass Effect 3 – Oh boy was this one controversial. I actually remember what I posted on Facebook when I finished it which was something along the lines of “The ending is… mind blowing isn’t the right word, but it really makes you think.” And oh boy did that post not age well. In my defense, I still think the original ending of the game isn’t as bad as people made it out to be and it WAS an ending designed to make players think and let them interpret the ending how they wanted to. However, what this really meant is “making an ending to this epic trilogy is haaaaaaaaard, so we’re just going to make it vague and let the fans figure it out.” It also had some pretty disgusting Day 1 DLC, which is pretty hard to forgive. I know I’m giving this game a lot of shit up front, but let’s be clear that I do think this game is very, VERY good. Hence why it’s here. The combat is even tighter than in 2, the stakes have never been higher which gives a lot of weight and significance to every mission and every firefight in the game. All the characters are here and just as well written as they’ve always been, and the visuals and sounds are still iconic as hell. But I do non-ironically think that the story is also really good. Because while the main ending was lacking, I remember seeing one person online putting it into better words than I can: “Mass Effect 3 is a game full of endings, and most of them hit a bull’s eye.” And it’s true. Watching the end of so many story arcs (some of which have been going on since the first few hours of Mass Effect 1) is really satisfying, and most are tied up extremely well. It’s just a great package, which was a great send-off as basically Bioware’s last good game (though Inquisition was a decent enough game, I guess).

XCOM: Enemy Unknown – I really had a hard time picking this year’s GotY, and it came down to this and the winner, both of which happen to be Sci-Fi related. In the end, I decided XCOM had to step down, but with its head held high. While I’ve never played the original games in the franchise (except for briefly trying the first game and getting my ass handed to me because they are from the age of gaming where devs did not give a FUCK about your feelings or teaching you how to play), this is an excellent jumping on point. It’s hard, sure, and can feel unfair at times, but it’s a very accessible game and does so much to keep you going through each mission. Learning the story is one thing, but constantly upgrading your gear, troops, and base is satisfying as all hell. As is discovering the next crazy monstrosity that the aliens will throw your way. This is how you revive a classic franchise and do it with style.

 

And now, the best of the year. Some of you might have been able to see this one coming, but at the end of the day I can’t see myself giving this to anything other than…

FTL: Faster Than Light – Though I did have a hard time with this decision, if you know me then you knew this was inevitable. I fucking love FTL. I’ve probably put 100+ hours into it and loved every second of it. Even now I’ll go back to it once in a while and play a few runs just for the hell of it. Honestly, it’s probably the best Roguelike I’ve ever played, which is not a statement I make lightly. The game is just packed to the gills with content, upgrading your ship is fun, it has a really appealing art style, and the game radically changes with each playthrough. While the story is technically pretty generic, it’s the story within the story that really pulls you in. Watching your crew scrape by a fight by the skin of their teeth, having to sacrifice a crew member to fight off a boarding party, all the crazy random events you find out in space… you’ll soon craft your own story of your ragtag group of misfits, which really becomes a huge driving point to get you to the end of each run, as is unlocking one of the NINE starting ships in the game (each with an additional layout to unlock, radically changing how the ship plays). And while I’m not counting it for this particular list (FTL does enough on its own to earn this spot), the game also received a free and very substantial update, adding a ton of new content, including a new race, sector, ship, a new layout for nearly every existing ship in the game, subsystems, rooms, and weapons. But what I really love about this game is its hybrid combat system. Ship-to-ship battles are frantic and exciting, and learning to counter each individual enemy ship is its own fascinating puzzle. What else can I say? It’s FTL, and if you know me then you’ve already heard me gush about it plenty, and it’s my favorite game of 2012.