2016 Game of the Year: Day 5
By GameSmashing 0 Comments
It's finally here. After what seems like the longest, most drawn out year in recent memory, it is finally time to rundown the best games of the year. But first, we take a trip back to 2015.
2015 retrospective:
Life is Strange: Earlier this year, I picked up a local beat magazine that had this story reprinted in it. As I read the story, I couldn't help but think of 2015's Game of the Year, Life is Strange. Life is Strange is a game about rape culture and the situation of the girl in the story reminded me of Kate Marsh's situation in episode 2 of the game. I highly recommend reading the whole story I linked, but the reminder of Life is Strange made me want to play the game again. As I played through each episode on the dates the game takes place, I was instantly reminded of what makes this one of the most important games of all time. As I mentioned, this game is about rape culture and it looks at sexual assault and rape from the point of view of the victim, attacker, friends and family of the victim, and even the victim blamers. What still stands out about this game is just how well they handle these sensitive topics. This game is important not only because of how well it handles these topics, but because of the backing it had from Square Enix. In the image above, Max is sitting in between two of the most iconic game characters in history in Agent 47 and the quintessential female video game character Lara Croft on stage during Square's E3 press conference. This game is the first game with this big of a platform to take on issues like this, and the fact that it didn't fail is an achievement on its own. Putting care into these issues has also cultivated one of the most accepting and supportive fanbases I've ever seen. This game hits many people on such a personal level and seeing things like this Reddit thread is always an amazing experience. On my own personal level, Chloe Price is still my favorite video game character ever because of how much I relate to her and this game is still one of the most brutally affecting experiences I've ever played. It is now the only game that I will play once a year, every year for a long time. My wish for the future of gaming is that bigger budget games take similar risks to the ones this game took.
Rocket League: I've put more hours int Rocket League this year than I put into my top 15 games combined. The continued support for this game will give it legs for a long time to come and following the RLCS got me into e-sports in a way I never expected. Next year, I will probably put just as much time into it as I did this year.
Fallout 4: The main reason I got back into this game was the survival mode and waiting for console mods. I wrote about survival mode and mods were exactly what I wanted out of them, but the more I play this game the more I enjoy it and the more I’m disappointed by it. The fact that I waited for almost a year for mods and then played with them for about 25 minutes, says more than I possibly could.
Splatoon: I love the entire aesthetic Splatoon. The Nickelodeon meets punk look and sound of this game is one of my favorite things I've ever seen in a game. I would consider Splatoon to be one of the best multiplayer shooters of the past five years
2016 GOTY
Weirdest game:
Let it Die/ Giraffes Championship volleyball 2016: These games are both weird as hell, but they are also both free. I highly recommend trying both of them.
Dishonorable Mention
Doom: As the writer of the only negative review of this game on the internet, I have the authority to say that Doom is the second worst game I played all year.
Honorable Mentions
Titanfall 2: I could not care any less about Titanfall 2's multiplayer, but the single-player campaign is worth experiencing. The amount of insane ideas they put into each mission really pushed it above any FPS since Call of Duty: Black Ops. From titan on titan combat to time travel and almost anything in between, Titanfall 2 is worthy of at least a mention for its great single-player mode.
Inside: The first 2/3's of Inside are memorable in just how striking some of the set pieces are. The sound wave room especially stands out as the high point of the game. The last third however, almost ruined the game for me. The blob thing is cool and all, but the way that moment comes out of nowhere and undercuts the first parts of the game left me disappointed with how Inside ended. But those first two-thirds are very much worth seeing.
The Witness: This is a game about line puzzles. You're reward for completing those puzzles... more line puzzles. This may not sit well with everyone, but The Witness has some incredible small elements that make it a fantastic experience to beat using a walkthrough.
The Top 10:
After a long year of pyro, ballyhoo, and bad PC ports, we have finally arrived at the 10 best games of the year, ranked, in order from the 10th best to first best.
10.
Overwatch: Starting off the list is one of the most fun multiplayer shooters since 2015's Splatoon. I may not be the biggest fan of this game, but the way Blizzard combines traditional MOBA tropes into an accessible, stylish as hell package is something worthy of praise. Another thing worthy of praise is that Overwatch is one of the most diverse games out there. As a white, straight, cis, male who wants to see all people represented the way I have been, a game with the backing and commercial availability that Overwatch has is a fantastic way to show other companies that diversity and representation are important and can sell just as well, if not better than a game featuring more lame-ass white dudes. Although it may not give me the lawlessness of some of the more... "Eccentric" Team Fortress 2 servers, I got more enjoyment out of Overwatch than any other first person shooter this year.
9.
Oxenfree: Much like 2015's Game of the Year, Life is Strange, Oxenfree is a game about friendship with some supernatural stuff going on as well. The game features some of fantastic character development, a great story, really clever uses of multiplayer (according to this Errant Signal video), and some rather cool ways of messing with the player. I wish it hadn't had gone as far in the supernatural direction as it did, but despite that, Oxenfree is one of the coolest games of the year.
8.
Mafia III: Mafia 3's unflinching look at racism in the 1960's southern United States did what I want more games to do. Give me an experience that I will almost certainly never experience. Not only does the game explore racism by liberally throwing around all sorts of racial slurs, but by representing systemic racism through mechanics. Police will respond immediately in the well to do, white neighborhoods, but will take a while or not even show up at all in poorer, black neighborhoods. On top of that, entering a whites-only business will be met with open hostility and possible police action. Even when walking down the street, police officers will stop and watch your every move and throw accusations and insults your way should you stop long enough to hear them. At the risk of epitomizing white privilege, giving someone who has never experienced discrimination directed toward me the experience of discrimination (even if by proxy) was eye-opening to say the least and I would like to see more games do similar things. I never thought that a game would task me with invading a literal Klan rally, but Mafia 3 does this and damn was it enjoyable to murder a bunch racist white dudes. The game even delves a little into the effect of PTSD at times and goes deeper than expected given all the racial themes. Pulling all of this off is incredible, but Mafia 3 suffers from being an open world game. You will often be performing repetitive tasks for hours just to get a snippet of story. I can't help but fantasize Mafia 3 designed like its predecessors. Despite this, the game did a fantastic job of exploring its themes and is still one of the best open world games in years.
7.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: Uncharted 4 has it all. A great story, great gameplay, and the most striking visuals I've seen in a game to date. But like every Naughty Dog game, the more I think about it, the less I enjoy it. Uncharted 4 falls into literally the exact same trappings that made The Last of Us one of the most overrated games ever made. That being said, I think it is still the best game Naughty Dog has made and that is still massive praise.
6.
Dishonored 2: Dishonored 2 is an amazing game that suffers from some really bad sequalitis. It changes just enough to step out of the shadow of the original, but not enough to completely eclipse it the way something like Mass Effect 2 did with the original Mass Effect. That being said, I would put this game on par with the original and the only reason it didn't win this award was because it faced some seriously stiff competition for Game of the Year.
5.
XCOM 2: It doesn't top the first game, but by being slightly below that one, XCOM 2 comes in pretty damn high on this list. The only truly negative thing I can say about it is that I hit a bug that caused the enemies to never move or attack allowing me to get a flawless ranking on the last 7 missions, including the final battle. As much as I loved XCOM 2, ironman mode should have been on by default.
4.
Firewatch: The running meme here on videogames.com about this game is what first put it on my radar. But what exactly is Firewatch? Firewatch is a game that explores mental illness while also exploring the appeal of escapism. The story follows Henry on his journey deep into the Wyoming wilderness, as he tries to escape from the crushing reality of his wife's worsening dementia. I went into detail about this game in the best story category, but the questions the game poses are some of the most brutally poignant and thought-provoking questions I've ever seen a game pose. Firewatch may not be a game for everyone, but to miss it would be to miss out on one of the best games of 2016.
3.
Stardew Valley: Stardew Valley drew me in like no other game this year. I fell in love with everything about this game and I felt like it loved me back. This game is so earnest in everything it does that it is hard not to love it. Each character is interesting, the systems are fantastic, Pelican Town is a joy to explore, and Leah is objectively the best wife in the game. In a medium where too many games rely on sarcasm and irreverence, Stardew Valley's earnestness sets it apart and makes it stand out among the many 2d, pixel art games that were made by one person. Now if I could get a rabbit's foot, I would be able to finish the community center and move on with my life. Until then I will keep coming back to this game for a long time to come.
2.
HITMAN: For those who will inevitably disagree with my #1, I will direct you to HITMAN. This game so perfectly nailed how episodic content should be delivered that I want to see more genres try it. Each episode features some of the most enjoyable stealth systems I can think of, and those only get more refined with each new map. This game plays so well and is filled to the brim with so much goofy nonsense (like killing Gary Busey) that it is outright my favorite game in years. Much like my #2 pick last year, Rocket League, I will almost certainly put dozens of hours into this game over the next year. But also like Rocket League last year, this is #2 because my #1 is truly one of the most special games I've ever played.
2016 Game of the Year
"Hitokui no Ōwashi Toriko 人喰いの大鷲トリコ, literally "The Great Man-Eating Eagle Toriko" is this game's badass Japanese title, but it is misleading. Trico eats you multiple times, but at least has the decency to throw you back up each time. The real reason this is my game of the year is because of how affecting the story of unspoken friendship between boy and bird-dog-cat thing is at times. Trico itself is one of the most amazing technical feats I've seen in a game. Its animations are so on point for a cat, its behaviors so on point for a dog, and its way of ignoring your commands is so on point for any animal that Trico actually develops a personality of its own. In a medium that struggles to give personality to human characters half the time, giving this much personality to an animal is downright incredible. The actual gameplay of this game may not be the best, but it didn't need to be. This isn't a game about solving puzzles, it's not a game about commanding Trico to swat away a ton of bad guys, it's a game about the unspoken bond between humans and animals. If you've ever had a pet that you've cared for, this game's story will hit you hard. Just hanging out with Trico is as simple as a joy in gaming can get. I can't tell you the amount of times I stopped even trying to get the damn thing to listen to me, and instead just wanted to pet it and feed it barrels. Every time Trico was in danger, there was a tension of losing a friend that other games don't give you. Every time I was in danger, Trico was there to save me. As we went back and forth helping each other out of dire situations, I began deeply caring about Trico. It is rare that a game can get me to care about a character let alone enough to actually worry about it when it gets hurt or needs help. As I said, the way this game plays might turn away some people, but the story and the majesty and companionship of Trico are worth it to the point that I didn't even care that I got stuck at one part for an hour because the movement controls didn't want to cooperate with me. The ways in which this game connected with me so far outshine the few negative parts of it, that those negative barely even register with me. I fell in love with The Last Guardian the same way I fell in love with Life is Strange. But unlike that game, The Last Guardian didn't betray my trust with a not so great ending, because my trust was put into the most incredible companion ever to exist in a game. The 15 hours I spent caring for a gigantic imaginary animal and loving every second of it is why The Last Guardian takes my 2016 Game of the Year award with almost no second thought.
If you enjoyed my 2016 game of the year list, I encourage you to go check out the rest of the days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4.
Before officially closing things down, I would like to point out some games hopefully coming out next year that I am looking forward to.
Most Anticipated Games for next year:
Thanks for reading and have a great 2017!