#goty2016

[kingoffools]

Can't stress how worth it this is. The prologue (already free) and the first level now totally free for Xmas. So much game in this chunk alone but the whole thing is worth getting. #hitman #goty2016 #xmas #free

[awolf]

Игры года 2016

Небольшое подведение итогов года

Год был довольно насыщенным в игровом плане, и игр заслуживающих высокой оценки предостаточно.

1. Uncharted 4 - студия Ноти догс снова смогла выдать замечательную игру, красиво завершив историю Дрейка увлекательно рассказав историю про пиратскую республику при этом добавив глубины сценарию. Ну и конечно по графике это просто превосходная демонстрация возможностей пс4.

2. Total War: Warhammer - я долго думал что поставить на второе место, но понял что это ��аха. Пускай игра не является самой продвинутой или сложной в серии, но уж точно самой разнообразной. Расы абсолютно не похожи друг на друга, добавление “авиации” и магии сильно разнообразило игровой процесс, но главное, Креатив Ассембл удалось филигранно перенести Вархаммер с настольных сражений на экран, сохранив при этом оригинальный стиль и ключевые особенности и преимущества рас.

3. Forza Horizon 3 - одна из лучших гонок, в замечательной гоночной подсерии. Я боялся что будет уже неинтересно играть в третий раз по схожей схеме, однако Плейграуд геймс переплюнули сами себя. Не нравится катать багги? - измени чемпионат под себя. Нравится ретро? что мешает пройти всю игру на DB5 - и это здорово. Плюс вышедший зимний аддон сильно разнообразил игру. Так что почетное третье место.

4. Titanfall 2 - в первый Титан я играл от силы 20 часов, мультиплеер быстро приелся, да и друзья отказались гонять в него, так что от сиквела я ждал мало, и купил на распродаже на пару с другом. И внезапно лучший шутерный сингл года. Одни из самых запоминающихся геймплейных моментов связаны именно с ним. Плюс красиво рассказанная история о пилоте и роботе.

5. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - очень спорная игра пострадавшая от распила на две части (и не факт что мы увидим вторую часть) обрубленная на самом интересном месте. Кроме того беготня в последней трети игры утомляет, да и в целом в игре не так много контента и она спокойно проходится быстрей даже чем аддон к Ведьмаку. НО это Деус, со своим стилем, квестами, Дженсеном, красиво рассказанной историей и вниманием к миру и деталям.

Пока не прошел но точно попадут в топ Last Guardian и DIshonored 2

Но тем не менее на мой взгляд лучшей игрой года за пределами вышеупомянутых является дополнение Кровь и вино, изумительно завершающее многолетние приключения Геральта. Ибо душевно и захватывающе нетипично для серии. И к тому же огромное по количеству контента (не менее 30 часов). Но так как это длс, не запускающееся даже без оригинальной игры, то оно не может быть GotY.

Если расширить топ до отдельных номинаций то выйдет:

Лучший сюжет года - Witcher 3: Blood and Wine - очень душевное окончание истории Геральта, знакомые по книгам места и персонажи, особенный колорит Туссента в корне отличающийся от оригинальной игры на втором месте Uncharted 4 - ничего сверхординарного нет, добротно рассказанная история, которая хороша больше подачей, чем содержанием, но в целом, очень давит на ностальгию - как финал 5 игр про Дрейка, душевное завершение истории длинной в 10 лет от любимой студии. Графон года - Battlefield 1 выдает лучшую картинку как на пк так и на консолях. Отличия между версиями конечно значительны, но БФ умудряется выдавать при 1080р 50 кадров в секунду на пс4, при такой отменной графике и сравнительно больших локациях. Лучший арт - Deus Ex: Human Mankind  пусть и получился урезанным и обрубленной концовкой, но тем не менее великолепен стилистически, и создан мир будущего в Праге просто с изумительным вниманием к деталям. Лучший оригинальный саундтрек года - Witcher 3: Blood and Wine Лучший лицензированный саундтрек года - Mafia 3, очень крутая подборка хитов конца 60х. Лучший мультиплеер года - Battlefield 1, старый добрый Баттлфилд вернувшийся к корням, но главное нововведение операции и гиганты пришлись очень к месту и освежили знакомый геймплей. Главное разочарование года - Quantum Break, не могу сказать что игра плохая, но в тоже время совершенно не то чего ждал. Главный нежданчик года - Titanfall 2 - внезапно лучший шутер года, с ураганным геймплеем, отличным сюжетом и очень интересными геймплейными решениями.

Как итог году: Прошел игры 2016 года:

Xcom 2, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, Division, Quantum Break, Uncharted 4, Total War: Warhammer, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Forza Horizon 3, Mafia III, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Titanfall 2, Gears of War 4

Перепрошел игры прошлых лет: Uncharted 1, Mafia City of Lost Heaven, Mafia 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War Remastered Продолжаю играть в  Forza Horizon 3, Battlefield 1, Total War: Warhammer, Last Guardian, Dishonored 2.

[jackleveledup]

Game of the Year 2016: My Top Three

It's been a long road for Game of the Year and 2016 in general, but we finally made it to the top three! In case you missed it, there were a ton of other games I loved this year that I wrote about in a post I called "Very Good Games".

And one last thing before we close this out: thanks for reading!

#3. Hyper Light Drifter

This year, no single moment compared to the rush I got from my first chain-dash in Hyper Light Drifter. There's a primal satisfaction to the accelerating timing it demands, as each flash of pink and teal raises the pressure of the impending button press. Eventually I learned that it's not that good in combat and it's only one of many means of survival, yet it was at that precise moment that the game won me over.

I say this without exaggeration: Hyper Light Drifter is a visual masterpiece. Fans and Kickstarter backers have been drooling over screens for years now, and the reality seems to have even exceeded expectations. Environments overflow with lightly muted colors and all kinds of mystery, like enormous Evangelion-inspired beasts, esoteric symbols, and ruins of a civilization long since past. Animation is beautifully handled frame-by-frame, highlighting the tension in each action and closing off with a shimmer of vibrant neon.

It's not an easy game by any means, but success becomes its own reward. Every battle is a fury of bullets and blades with far more dead bodies than dead air. I found myself often getting lost in the chaos, only realizing a room was clear when my darting eyes couldn't find anything new to shoot at. What's unusual, though, is that I didn't find the boss fights to deliver the same sense of exhilaration as the average encounter along the way, but as a capstone to a difficult journey, they work well enough. Maybe I should just be grateful I was never tempted to chuck a controller.

Hyper Light Drifter is enthralling, both in its hectic gameplay and its unwordly atmosphere. I know without a doubt that I'll be back for another shot at deciphering what the hell happened to this world.

#2. Kirby: Planet Robobot

If you've ever daydreamed about what you'd do with your own giant super robot, Kirby: Planet Robobot is a game you need to play. I mean this in the best way possible: it seems like the game was designed by a 6 year old with complete creative authority.

"Give it a giant drill! No, saw blades! Give it flamethrowers! Make it transform into a car! AND a jet!"

Yep, those are all things you can do, and it owns!

The heart of Kirby games has always lied in their diverse power-ups: fire, ice, spark, hammer, bomb, and dozens of others. This time, the sizable set of abilities is doubled by applying not just to Kirby, but his huge, face-shaped armor suit. If Kirby gets a sword, his mech gets two massive beam-sabers. If Kirby gets a jetpack, his mech transforms into a jet! Discovering all of the ways these forms could be used was a joy that lasted me the entire length of the game.

With so many power-ups there's a staggering number of game mechanics at play, which HAL Laboratories take full advantage of in the level design. Whether its a puzzle requiring a certain power-up, a rare boss or ability, or simple visual flair, each stage has some kind of "gimmick" to separate it from the last. Ideas reappear only seldomly, and not without being somehow altered and built upon. Sometimes the game even pretends to be something else entirely, like the shmup style stages that utilize the "Jet" version of the robot armor, or the auto-scrolling stages in the "Wheel" armor. All of this leads to a collection of stages that feel memorable and worth revisiting.

Between its game design and its vast possibility-space, Planet Robobot executes on its concept almost as perfectly as I can imagine. I know Kirby isn't the top Nintendo franchise for most people, but given the run the series is having right now, I'm starting to seriously question how long my little pink creampuff will go underappreciated!

#1. VA-11 HALL-A

VA-11 HALL-A is a visual novel that sounds extremely good in theory - just read its tagline: "cyberpunk bartender action." You play as Jill, who works at a bar called Valhalla in a futuristic city of perpetual darkness, poor people, robots, androids, and most of all, strife. It operates pretty differently as a video game, though. It's often assumed that gameplay exists for the sole purpose of fun, but even for a visual novel, VA-11 HALL-A's simple mechanics took me more than a few drinks to warm up to. Kinda' like in real life, the process of mixing "Brandtinis" and "Bleeding Janes" isn't especially exciting after the first few times, and almost everyone visiting the bar seems to have way more going on in life than you. I just wasn't seeing how it came together. It took some time and careful thought, but by the end of the game it had shaped into something incredible.

It's all thanks to the bar's atmosphere that I stuck around at all, and man, did they nail it. First and foremost, this soundtrack is phenomenal. What woud otherwise be your average cyberpunk setting becomes a wondrous dystopia thanks to Garoad's deft, moody composition. Its implementation is sharp, too. Instead of having music set to match each scene, you're handed complete control over the playlist while on duty. There's a palpable realism to incidentally having serious talks over loud, upbeat music, or joking during an ominous buildup. It helps to give Jill some believable agency as a bartender, too. You can always decide what drink to serve, how strong to mix it, or what music you want to play, but not who comes in that night or what to talk about. Details matter, and the developers at Sukeban Games were paying careful attention.

While Jill herself doesn't seem to bring much nuance to the story (...at first), the rest of the cast handily pick up the slack. The pixel-based character portraits are surprisingly expressive and go a long way in realizing the game's zany, reference-loaded dialog. Dorothy is a definitive fan favorite - she's an android that was specifically engineered to have weaker emotional responses to things that humans often find traumatizing. This trait colors every one of her conversations with typical humans, especially once you figure out that she's a sex-worker. Her career is almost completely inconsequential to her and she LOVES to tease people about it, so the scenes that ensue whenever she meets someone new at Valhalla are pretty entertaining, to say the least. In general, though, Sukeban Games have a firm grasp on how to both play into tropes and subvert them, which allows them to hit their punchlines without compromising any drama during more serious scenes.

My favorite part about VA-11 HALL-A is how much of the narrative the player is trusted to piece together. For a visual novel there's suprisingly little exposition - almost none, actually! It's basically all conversations, and not even ones explicitly about current events. Your only glimpse at what's happening outside of the bar is limited to what you happen to hear, what you choose to read in the news or on shitty forums, and most importantly, what connections you can draw between them. It's amusing to talk to some of the bar's customers, for sure, but your impression might completely change when you realize what they're up to before they stop in or finish their last drink.

The way in which VA-11 HALL-A dismantled my first impression continues to impress me. As the credits rolled it made perfect sense that the bartender would feel less interesting than the guests she serviced. Maybe it shouldn't feel "fun" to Jill when she mixes a drink for a grumpy customer. Maybe it makes sense that a struggling bartender wouldn't have the clearest picture of the "what's" and "why's" of her city's politics. None of that is crucial to finding happiness anyway. VA-11 HALL-A highlighted aspects of life that I don't usually give a second thought to, in a way that feels uncommonly literary for a video game. It's probably not going to be a game for everyone, but to those that seek it out, the narrative at work is nothing short of intoxicating.

[t-prime85]

[ericmwatson-blog]

Games of the Year, pt. 2

Sethian

Sethian is a small game ($5 on Steam) and one that I almost missed, but I’m glad I didn’t. A short experience, Sethian presents the player with the interface of an alien computer and a modicum of backstory, leaving you to piece together what the computer is for and what happened to the inhabitants of the planet Sethian. You do this by asking the computer questions, although there’s a slight problem: the computer only communicates in the language of Sethian. Fortunately, there is a journal to help you get to grips with the language, which feels suitably alien in grammar, consisting of abstract symbols representing nouns and verbs and a complicated punctuation system used to denote sentence structure.

The game’s main ending is relatively easy to reach with some help from the journal, but finding the hidden ending takes a true mastery of the language, something I am still working on. The computer is pretty limited in what it will respond to, but simulating an AI isn’t the goal of Sethian. Instead, it aims to make the player feel like an archaeologist, piecing together the story of a people with only a very basic understanding of their language. Moments where the computer returns a long string of symbols and you can actually cobble together some meaning from them after only an hour of study feel truly triumphant in a way few games this year felt.

Titanfall 2

In an age where multiplayer seems to be the first-person shooter’s bread and butter, it’s surprising to get so many shooters with good single-player campaigns. Titanfall 2 is one of these. Confident, stylish, and fun, Titanfall 2’s campaign is perhaps more interested in providing the player with interesting moments than presenting a cohesive whole, but damn if those moments aren’t stellar. It threads a tricky line of being challenging while still making the player feel powerful and perhaps more importantly, cool as they wallrun and slide through the game’s environments, which are akin to bespoke playgrounds for the pilot’s movement abilities.

It’s perhaps surprising then, that I actually consider the multiplayer to be the stronger component of the package. I’ve prestiged twice already and fully intend to go back for more. It’s amazing how well Respawn has managed to balance the vulnerable but nimble pilots with the powerful but plodding titans. Like Halo 5, all multiplayer post-release content for Titanfall 2 is planned to be free, so I fully intend to return to the game over the next few months.

[jeffsoulliere]

Click through for my GOTY 2016!

[surnativa]

The Game Awards 2016 - Watch The Full Show in 4K Watch The Game Awards 2016, the comple... #surnativa #deathstranding #doom #doomsoundtracklive #gameawards #gameawards2016 #gameawardsnominees #gameoftheyear #gameoftheyear2016 #gameplay #gamingawards #geoffkeighley #goty #goty2016 #inside #masseffectandromedagameplay #mickgordonlive #nolannorth #overwatch #runthejewels #tga #tga2016 #thegameawards #thegameawards2016 #thegameawards2016nominees #titanfall2 #uncharted4 #videogameawards #videogameawards Source: https://surnativa.com/the-game-awards-2016-watch-the-full-show-in-4k/?feed_id=31804&_unique_id=5f5c640dd6ef8

[snowtale05]

私的Goty2016

2016年にプレイしたゲームをまとめてみた。年末はバタバタしてたせいで紹介文は書けてない。

PC

Back in 1995

DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours

Dishonored

Don't Starve Together

HaloclineSystems

INSIDE

Momodora Ⅲ

The Siver Case

Undertale

The Witness

四季の狂剣

凍京NECRO

PS4

Dishonored2

Fallout4

FF15

Furi

INVERSUS

Overwatch

Pixel Junk Shooter Ultimate

Rocket League

Super Time Force ULTRA

The Tomorrow Children

Watch_Dogs2

アイドルマスター プラチナスターズ

アンチャーテッド4

ストリートファイターV

テイルズオブベルセリア

バウンド

ペルソナ5

ルートレター

人食いの大鷲トリコ

PSVR

Eagle Flight

Rez Infinite

Rigs

Thumper

サマーレッスン

デレステVR

つみきVLOQ VR

iOS

Ghostpia

Mario Run

Mini Metro

Pause

PlayGround

Pokemon Go

TouchTone

Verreciel

スバラシティ

デレステ

ローグHEX

Arcade

CHUNITHM AIR

THE IDOLM@STER

電車でGO!

GOTY

RezInfinite(Area X)

[caiminds-blog]

Caiminds' first ever #GameOfTheYear Awards are live. Did yours make the list? #GOTY2016 #goty

[yabaiantena-blog]

【GOTY2016】アンチャーテッド4が独走へ　次にオーバーウォッチが続く

【GOTY2016】アンチャーテッド4が独走へ　次にオーバーウォッチが続く – ゲーム感想・評価まとめ＠2ｃｈ Source: つくるよあんてな

[redtoothgaming-blog]

Matthew Field's Top 10 Games of 2016

My Top 10 of 2016 #GOTY2016

10. & 9. Deus Ex Mankind Divided & Dishonored 2 Mankind Divided doesn’t seem like a game that took five years to make. Its gameplay doesn’t differ greatly from its direct predecessor, Human Revolution, its scope is narrower, and its story feels like it was once going to be something much larger than it is. However, the refinements made to the mechanics and progression system allow for far more…

[kingoffools]

New content for HITMAN makes me very happy. #hitman #goty2016 #baldmen

[terasokunet-blog]

【GOTY2016】アンチャーテッド4が独走へ　次にオーバーウォッチが続く

1: 名無しさん必死だな＠＼(^o^)／ 2017/01/01(日) 19:17:32.98 ID:NzC/syN/0.net 2016年　GOTY http://gotypicks.blogspot.jp/2016/09/2016-game-of-year.html?m=1 【86】Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End 【73】Overwatch 【14】DOOM 【12】INSIDE 【11】The Last Guardian 【09】Dark Souls III 【08】Battlefield 1 【06】Dishonored 2 【05】The Witness 【03】Titanfall 2 【03】XCOM 2 【02】The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine 【02】Hitman 【01】Thumper…

[jackleveledup]

Game of the Year 2016: The Very Good Games

Don't call it a top ten! Well...you can think of this as basically the bottom part of my top ten, except without the numbers, the ordering, or the hard limit on how many games I can talk about. I guess I don't care much about the difference between what's #6 and what's #7. I do care about ranking the very best, though, so if you are into lists my top three is coming soon!

Titanfall 2

The existence of Titanfall 2 is miraculous: it's the smoothest first-person movement of all time alongside a painstaking single player campaign. The combination of flavors that fill its gameplay is like peanut butter and chocolate: you alternate from frantic sprinting, wallrunning, and double-jumping, into a massive robot with hefty movement, powerful weaponry, and cooldown-based decision making. It's designed throughout for tiny moments of bliss: flinging yourself from building to building, launching hundreds of rockets from your Titan, narrow escapes, and outplaying your enemies through planning and execution.

After my massive falling out with Halo, I didn't think I'd ever feel the same about a competitive FPS, but holy god was I ever wrong. I've already hit the level cap twice and have zero intention of slowing down. There's been talk that it's been underperforming in sales, which is tragic, because from where I'm sitting this is one of the best first person shooters ever.

Pokemon Sun / Moon

As a lifelong Pokemon fan, I think it's fair for me to say that it's been a long time since Pokemon has been this good. While it has its issues (hello reinforcements, hello new Pokemon being rare), the things that I loved about Sun and Moon are far more prevalent. The Alolan Pokemon designs are universally great, the characters are surprisingly well-expressed, and exploring Alola felt like a true escape from the tension and hatred rearing its head this year.

My favorite thing about Sun and Moon, though, is easily the villains. There's Gladion, the coolest rival in the whole series. There's Team Skull, the most hilarious villains to show up in a game since Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon. And then there's [pretend that a spoilery name is written here], the craziest anime-nonsense supervillain of 2016.

If you've been sleeping on Pokemon for a while, make this your road back in.

Mystic Messenger

Mystic Messenger is an otome dating sim that invades your life. From a mechanical perspective, there's not much going on - you sit in chat rooms, make dialog choices, and respond to text messages from a group of young, stylish anime guys (and one girl!). The twist to all of this is so obvious that it makes you wonder why it hasn't been attempted in the genre before: everything happens in real time. Certain characters are more active late at night, others early in the morning, and if you want to win them over, you'll have to find a way to make real-world time for them.

Getting fake texts from fake game characters honestly felt like magic. Mystic Messenger perfectly captures the sense of pleasant surprise I feel when I get text messages from real people. For a few weeks, it was almost like I had a brand new group of friends to hang out with online all day. It's especially exciting to see this kind of innovation come from a mobile game, too. Mystic Messenger is a non-conventional game made for an atypical video game audience, and developer Cheritz killed it.

Oxenfree

I'm kind of a sucker for supernatural thrillers, so Oxenfree had me hooked early on with its intriguing setting, soft visuals, and believable vocal performances. What ended up standing out to me, though, wasn't even the plot, it was just the game's many ordinary conversations. It's an adventure game about five teenagers going camping, so there's a good amount of chatter between characters of varying levels of friendship. You participate in conversations by making dialog choices, but Oxenfree differentiates itself by emphasizing when you push a button. Your character immediately starts talking after you make a choice, even if that forces you to cut someone else off. Sometimes when the pressure's on, you might not be able to decide what to say in the appropriate time, and other characters will react to your silence. Along with some exceptional writing, this highly flexible system props up each character and makes them feel authentic.

At around 5 or 6 hours it's not an especially long game, but it held my attention strongly enough that I nearly finished it in in a single night. Given how many games I tend to juggle, that has to count for something!

Salt & Sanctuary

Is it possible to screw up a combination of Dark Souls and Castlevania? I'm sure with time someone will find a way to prove me wrong, but with Salt & Sanctuary as my only evidence, it seems like the perfect recipe. I played the entire game alongside my brother, and I couldn't recommend the experience more to co-op players. Between platforming puzzles, vast 2D exploration, and Souls-style bosses, there's a wholesome variety to all of the game's challenges. And unlike the Souls series, I feel that S&S is short enough and provides enough build diversity that it's both practical and rewarding to play through more than once.

World of Final Fantasy

If I had an award for "Best Localization," World of Final Fantasy would take it hand over fist. This game's writing is so well-done, its voice acting so well-delivered, that it managed to make me laugh out loud with the words "what the honk."

WoFF is an addictive, briskly paced RPG with more than just nods to classic Final Fantasy, but some strong characters of its own, too. Main leads Lann & Reynn are legitimately funny together - I don't make a habit of expecting much from Tetsuya Nomura Teenagers™, but their chemistry turns a solid monster collecting RPG into a great game all its own.

Doom

I didn't think I would be convinced to play an extremely violent, gorey game about demon massacre (I'm kinda' squeamish, to be honest), but Doom was just that good. It's been pretty much a decade since an FPS has been anything other than a gun-toting romp through set pieces, and while Doom is certainly romp-worthy, its gameplay is a different type of beast. The intentional balance of low HP and high movement speed forces you out from behind cover and into the fray. This "never stop moving, never stop shooting" ethos works incredibly well with the game's vast arsenal and numerous weapon mods. Doom takes all the right lessons from both classic shooters and modern shooters alike and turns them into a path forward for an often stagnant genre.

Ratchet & Clank

There's something pure in R&C that felt so noticeably absent from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Games were so overwhelmingly serious back then! Even games like Portal that focused on comedy had to work so hard in a narrative sense to make those ends meet. Ratchet, though, just is what it is. You run and you jump across platforms, and you feel satisfied. You shoot the guys, you club a box with your wrench, and an explosion of gears and screws pour out. That's all there is to it, and that's all I really needed.

If the Xbox 360 and PS3 era proved games could accomplish more than just fun, then Ratchet and Clank is a game that proves that plain and simple fun is a goal still worth pursuing.

[dashing-darlings]

"Hey there Gabby! What are you reading?"

"Luciana's book! I hear she's coming to live with us and I want to know all about her so she feels welcome. Look! Here she comes now!"

"Hi! My name's Luciana Vega and I want to be the first girl on Mars."

"hi! My name's Lea and this is Gabriella."

"we're so excited you're here! Will you tell us all about your story?"

"Of course. Oh wait! Who's that?"

"hello. My name's Nyla. I'm new here and want to see if I could join you..."

"of course!"

"I'm new too. It will be great to not be the only new one!"

"Thanks! I'm sure we'll all be great friends!"

[ericmwatson-blog]

Games of the Year, pt. 1

Halo 5

Ok, yes, Halo 5 came out in October of 2015, but it makes this list on the virtue of how much time I put into it this year. I’ve put almost exactly 200 hours into this game, 180 of which have been in the multiplayer component. I’m not sure why, but it seems that the talk around this game died down almost immediately, which is a shame because it’s absolutely the best multiplayer Halo has ever had, despite a number of changes to the player’s movement abilities. It feels like you remember previous Halo games feeling while simultaneously making those games feel slow and plodding in comparison.

Halo 5 was an excellent multiplayer shooter when it launched last year, but I feel safe in including it this year due to the sheer amount of new content that was added over 2016. I struggle to think of a game that has seen this amount of post-release content and every bit of it was free, with new weapons, maps, and modes added on a regular basis. This kept me coming back to the game just to see what was new. Additionally, 343 Industries built an amazingly powerful Forge mode for Halo 5 and fans are just starting to scratch the surface of what can be built with it. More so than perhaps any game on this list, I intend to continue playing Halo 5 into 2017.

The Witness

As a fan of Jonathan Blow’s Braid, I was eagerly anticipating The Witness, although I was a little unsure about all the puzzles being simple line mazes. Of course, as anyone who has played The Witness will tell you, “simple” really isn’t an accurate descriptor of the game’s puzzles. The early ones are solved easily, but new mechanics are quickly layered on, to the point where even puzzles from the mid-game would be inscrutable to a new player. It’s incredibly impressive then that these mechanics are communicated entirely through example, eschewing any sort of traditional tutorial.

What really elevates The Witness however, is the way in which the game’s puzzles are integrated into the environment. No spoilers, but The Witness constantly surprised me with panels that reflected the environment, and vice versa, culminating in a discovery that blew me away in a way I wasn’t sure games could any more. It helps that the game’s environment is one of the most pleasing and interesting locations to explore in 2016.