Best & Worst in Videogames — 2016

Part 2: Best Game and Positive Experiences

6 min readJan 10, 2017

Part 1: Games Related Highlights of the Year — Check out the first part with highlights of the last year.

Part 3: Biggest Disappointment and Negative Experiences — Check out the final part where I get mildly melodramatic about games that should have been great and weren’t.

Game of the Year

The Witness

Best part about The Witness? It reminds you how the world around is one big puzzle and all you have to do is look at it from the right perspective and see the patterns.

Jonathan Blow. That guy is a powerhouse of creativity and perfectionism. The Witness is from the same dough. It’s incredibly polished, best designed video game of the year by far. Every little thing comes together on this little Pompeii like Island. There’s no music, almost no sound but your footsteps and Nature’s ambiance. Visually the game looks gorgeous and being it Blow joint, the aesthetics are not just for the looks. Everything serves the gameplay and fulfills overall experience. That in my book is a great design.

Nothing, but your knowledge and intelligence blocks your progress. Where so many open world experiences try to put in a story, some special abilities or fake walls, The Witness opens up by telling you how to solve the puzzle. The one puzzle you’ll happily solve hundreds times more, because you feel smarter for it and slowly realize how it’s an ingenious commentary on our existence.

Other Positive Experiences

Owlboy

Owlboy reeks of character and personal passion, neither of is never enough. And the score…

Steam Review
One of those games, which reek of passion, life lessons and strong story. Orchestrated music outshines even the gorgeous art and character ensemble, reminding you of Chrono Trigger. Owlboy is a gem. There’s a few dents here and there, but you’ll see beyond those, because imperfections are what make it so special.

Hitman

There was a lot of confusion, what will this become. It became a lot of fun to great many players.

With Season 1 coming to a close, this was the year I pulled the trigger on Hitman. More than anything this game shows how episodic content can be done really well, even when you are not making an adventure game. Number 47 finally found its voice in this new age of gaming. Here’s to even crazier Season 2 and probably controversial Hitman VR thing in 2017.

X-Com 2

When you re-imagine a classic, pull it off and then decide to turn it up to 200%.

I’m still fairly certain that the success of new X-Com brought back the turn-based tactical strategy genre. The sequel brought in more of everything, but made me wish Firaxis would have invested more time and care into polishing and making the game fucking amazing, instead of just really good.

Doom

Anyone who ever tried reinventing the wheel, knows how hard it is. iD realized the same and instead of making a whole new wheel, they made it the best fucking wheel out there.

Doom is an incredibly tight shooter, that has great flow, old-school story and old-school music. The whole thing feels and plays old-school in the best possible way, while looking like a hot date. There isn’t really moment in the game, where you would stop and say — “Well this game has some flaws.” Then you connect to multiplayer and take that back… but that’s why we got four Big Bucks Multiplayer Shooters in 2016.

Uncharted 4

Unique experience that’s hard to get anywhere else… except for, you know, movies. Which says a lot about what games can achieve!

Untouched by previous entries I had the best seat not to give in to nostalgia. I blazed through the jungles and various solid objects as Indy Jones like character over weekend and got my fill. Where the new Tomb Raider felt flat with the dumbest scripted lines, Uncharted utilizes the best voice actors to their best abilities. It has the best combination of art style and technological marvels and tops it of with an OK story.

Prison Architect

Made me think heavily about the actual problems of having to run a prison in real world. That is the power of games beyond the blockbuster junk we get to enjoy, but are no wiser for.

The UK studio that pioneered the Early Access concept, finally decided the game is done. While Prison Architect could use more content, it’s a valuable experience. Introversion’s experiments and prototypes are always interesting and I recommend keeping an eye on anything they do.

Enter the Gungeon

Times of rogue-likes-lite-likes has seemed to have culminated in 2015, but this little gem managed to squeeze out into this year.

Steam Review
Great game. Looks great, many little details. Sound design is quite mild and could have been stronger. Fine tuned and tight gameplay. Lots of randomness involved, which makes some runs harder than others. Bosses are not an easy task. Great deal of original guns. Makes you chuckle here and there. Gives out Spelunky or Binding of Isaac vibe, with its mysteries — not knowing what to do here and there, but feeling it would be awesome to crack it. Progressively games do get longer (first runs 10 mins, later 40+ mins) and shortcuts are not simple to get, but are in place. With all that said, it does feel one step from being a perfect game.
Definitely recommend playing if you enjoy Nuclear Throne (feel very different actually, but in the same genre), Binding of Isaac (for the mysteries, things you find and how it changes the gameplay each session) or even Hotline Miami (for the fast-paced gameplay).

Factorio

Automation is fun! Bring in survival genre and suddenly your OCD is kicking in and Sun rises behind a window.

It’s a very different game than anything out there. The meticulousness of building out crazy automated factory, while you have to fight for survival and your economic liberties against the alien environment, is really catchy.

Don’t Starve Together

This time around you can invite your friends to be hunted by a killing evil ent, while you are dying of hunger and cold. Fun.

Klei Studios seem to release hit after hit, every year. Whether it’s their great art and sound team coming up with new style for each project, or whether it’s their extremely innovative game designers, they release only very polished games. For Don’t Starve Together they utilized the Early Access to really craft a better game with the community, probably fearing it has to be done that way, since the survival game genre is just too vast to get explored on your own. Just like in the original the psychological effect on your character and Tim Burton-esque world is the main draw of the game.

Darkest Dungeon

The most grueling experience, giving you burdens no one really wants to carry. Yet, it’s weirdly enjoyable.

On the wave of games bringing psychology into the mix, came in this turn-based RPG. Cthulian theme, melodramatic narrator and team of heroes and vanguards with their addictions set the mood dark as moonless night.

Super Hot

Everything around this is treated with respect and creativity. It’s crazy that so much style can be coming out of Poland.

Agree, disagree? That’s why some sites still have comments!