Preemptive Retaliation

1.       The Witcher 3 – 76 hours (started 2015). An incredible game, and what a way to start the year. I thought I was almost done with it in 2015, but there was still so much to offer that I played for hours and hours and hours. A truly epic story that was masterfully done, with decisions that hefted with real weight. I especially loved that the ending was based on some of these decisions, decisions that I thought were so simple and inconsequential (and not the simple; kill this man get the bad ending). I loved this game. Despite its intimidating play time, it’s one that I’m eager to replay in future.

2.       Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – 2 hours (replay). The last time I played this I was drunk off my ass, which both helped and hindered its impact, so I replayed it to fully experience it. I still enjoyed it, appreciating the puzzles and world, and the solid ending. An absolute classic.

3.       Pony Island – 2 hours. Short and entertaining. The mechanics were a little repetitive, sometimes to the point of frustration, but it made up for it through its genius fourth-wall-breaking moments. It was the only game that’s chastised me for not paying proper attention and had me scrambling for my mouse to find out what had happened.

4.       Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – 1 hour. Cute and charming with clever puzzles and challenging platforming but… I just couldn’t get into it.

5.       Life is Strange – 2 hours (first chapter). I can see why this game is so well regarded. I can understand how so many people can identify with the time and story, but I couldn’t. That age of uncertainty and trying to find yourself is something I’ve lived through, and isn’t something I want to experience again. Maybe I’m being unfair, maybe this game hit too close to home, but I didn’t want to continue.

6.       XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Within – 33 hours. I was obsessed with this game. Its just-one-more-turn style kept me hooked for long sessions, leaving my eyes red and my head fuzzy. I was determined to keep my soldiers (who I had named after friends and family) safe, and so every time one of them died I couldn’t help but reload the whole level. That’s not in the spirit of the game, sure, but I got them all through to the end. One of my favourite games I’ve played this year.

7.       Firewatch – 4 hours. Coming off the stress of XCOM, this game was – literally – a refreshing walk in the park. I took my tame drinking in the scenery and conversing through the story. The internet has already said enough about the fizzled ending, but my main gripe was how the game didn’t take my opinion into account. It veered away from my decisions, forcing me to witness an ending that I didn’t telegraph throughout the whole game… but maybe that was the point. I look forward to replaying this in future.

8.       Braid – 3 hours (replay). Still holds up as a classic. Even replaying it I still had these “Aha!” moments which made it all worth it.

9.       SuperHot – 4 hours. This game. I found it more to be a puzzle game than a shooter, with a strange meta-story that actually resonated with me. Going through the levels, figuring out the best route, then completing it to perfection. A really satisfying game.

10.   Fez – 10 hours (100% completion). I was playing this the same time I was playing The Witness to get a puzzle fix when Mike wasn’t around. I’ve played it before, but just to main completion. This was the first time I went beyond that and tried to get everything. I won’t lie, I got a little help here and there, but I was filled with immense achievement whenever I managed to figure out a particular puzzle or place.

11.   The Witness – 31 hours (100% complete, with Mike). There was something special about this game. I didn’t know much about it, and when I went in I found this huge beautiful world to explore. The puzzles were expertly communicated, and by the end of the game I was astounded by the complex puzzles I was completing compared to their humble beginnings. I played this along with Mike, who either sat with me on the couch or screen shared online, and together we pointed out clues and solutions, and shared in triumph when we finished the hardest challenge. If I had tried the game myself I probably would’ve gotten bored of it or completed it to its first ending, but with its unintentional multiplayer it became one of my favourite games – not just of the year, but for all time.

12.   Shadow of the Colossus – 9 hours. I’m glad I finally got to play this game. It’s been recommended not really as a game, but more of an experience. The colossi were fantastic puzzles and the sparse empty world had so much life to it.

13.   Oulast – 30 minutes. Shat myself and remembered why I don’t do horror games.

14.   Homeworld 2 – 10 hours. I loved the first one so much last year and I was excited to go into the second. It was much more polished, and had a lot going for it, but it didn’t quite grab me as much. Still, 10 hours is a decent playthrough for that.

15.   Game Dev Tycoon – 9 hours (replay). I like this game. Its rules are very obfuscated, but it’s relaxing. I like the sound of cascading bubbles as my team develops a new game, and then the tickers of the reviews counting up. I still haven’t created the “perfect” game, but I’m happy with my success.

16.   Banner Saga 2 – 12 hours. What a sequel. Picking up exactly where the first one left off with you having to consider the consequences of your decisions earlier in the game. I was again immediately invested in each of the characters, old and new, and fell in love with the world as the story progressed and each of these people faced the end of the world. I’m very excited for the next instalment, to see if it will continue to rip the heart from me.

17.   Final Fantasy IX – 29 hours (replay). A smack of nostalgia from my teenage years. I remember staying up half the night getting a golden chocobo. The story is trite, the gameplay is repetitive, the graphics or subpar and it makes no sense… but it’s Final Fantasy.

18.   Tomb Raider – 13 hours (replay, hard). I tried replaying the Tomb Raiders from the very beginning, but I couldn’t get past the tank controls. I returned to the reboot and, again, I was seriously impressed with it. Great mechanics and epic story. Lara felt like a badass, going from victim to legendary menace.

19.   The Witcher 3: Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine – 41 hours (117 hours total). An incredible addition and a fitting end. When the main story of the Witcher 3 ended, I wanted to continue roaming the countryside having adventures which Heart of Stone gave me. When I finished Blood and Wine, I was with Geralt when he wanted to hang up his swords and relax. This is an incredible game overall and I’m glad I played it.

20.   Hyper Light Drifter – 11 hours. I really liked this game. It was simple, and beautiful. It built itself up well, with a very steady difficulty climb. I was surprised it finished when it did, since it felt like it had much more to give. Still, it was great for the time I had with it.

21.   Inside – 3 hours. This is a game that I love to talk about. The slow revelation of the story as you understand what was going on, and the ending when you look at all the clues, and then the alternative ending shedding more light on it all. It’s a game I want to recommend to everyone, and sit there grinning until they finish it. It’s a great game, one that I think will stand for a long time.

22.   Cibele – 1 hour. Cibele isn’t much of a game than it is a way to tell a story; one that hit very close to home. It showed the life of an awkward teen who spent her formative years on the internet, making relationships and forming crushes and making decisions. It reminded me a lot of my childhood, including the acted out chat logs of not-subtle but horrendously awkward flirting. This isn’t amongst my top games, but it’s up there with my best experiences. It does a fantastic job of replicating life during the unchecked age of the internet. It was honest and brutal and I loved it.

23.   Hitman: Absolution – 18 hours. This satisfied my stealthy/nonleathal itch. Not the best game in the world but it worked for me. I haven’t played very many other Hitman games to compare it to.

24.   Bioshock – 15 hours (replay). Having played this in the past, the big reveal was lost on me… but it meant I could properly immerse myself in the world of Rapture. I had completely forgotten about Fort Frolic and the character of Sander Cohen, who was a mad delight in this otherwise simple shooter. I think that’s the biggest draw of this game; the interesting world with its colourful, madcap characters.

25.   Bioshock 2 – 12 hours. I’ve started this game a few times but never got further than the opening. It just seemed like a cash in on Bioshock’s world, with meddled mechanics that I didn’t like. I pushed through it this time and it actually turned out to be one of the highlights of the series. The way they expand the world isn’t frivolous, but done with a real love for the lore, weaving new stories into the old to give more context to them. The mechanics that I didn’t like to begin with led to really satisfying conflicts. Bit of a bum ending though.

26.   Bioshock Infinite – 18 hours (including DLC. Replay). I really like this game. There could have bene more to it, sure, and it feels very rushed towards the final act, but it’s good looking and plays well and I enjoyed the story. The game really comes together in the Burial at Sea section, and I felt as though I got a new appreciation for it all since I had finally played Bioshock 2. What I initially thought, again, was just a cash in on Rapture brought forward an expansion of the world and tied Elizabeth in to the greater narrative. I’m glad I played through them all.

27.   Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward – 26 hours (replay). Batshit crazy twisting story driven locked room puzzle visual novel. I replayed this to get a background on its sequel. Despite knowing all the twists and turns, it was still enjoyable because now I was part of an inside joke. The little throwaway references that I didn’t realise at first became obvious to me, like rewatching Fight Club.

28.   Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma – 20 hours. A fitting end I think. It was good to see all the characters from the other games meet up in the end, and to explore all the possible endings that could come about… but it was all a bit ridiculous. The ending that resulted in its sequel/prequel is so convoluted and ludicrous that it undermines the game (despite how strange that game was… maybe I’m taking it all too seriously?). Still, the game’s massive twist was cheap to say the least. I don’t know. I liked the puzzles, and the story was mental as I expected, but still…

29.   Orwell – 4 hours. Fun and though provoking. I found myself second guessing a lot of decisions and questioning the information I was feeding to higher-uppers. It was a bit heavy handed at time, but showed the power of information and how it could be misused. I enjoyed the experience, and immediately purchased a VPN afterwards.

30.   Broken Age – 9 hours. This was a really fun little point and click adventure, where I only had to look up the solution… Three times? I think? Some of the later puzzles were confusing, but that’s ok. The story was cute and charming and I had a lot of fun going through it all and trying to figure out how the characters were related. I think part of it was ruined by my insistence that I handled one story to completion before trying the other one, but it was still a grand time.

31.   Frog Fractions – 2 hours. Eh.

32.   Transistor – 8 hours. I tried playing this years ago, after I finished Bastion and didn’t get very far. It was confusing and I didn’t grasp the story. On replay, though… something clicked. It was still complicated – I spent the whole game wondering if I was cheesing it and playing it wrong – but something about the battles and the world and the soft spoken characters really struck a chord with me. It looks beautiful, it sounds beautiful and the story is a bittersweet balance of hopeful and heart-breaking. One of my games of the year.

33.   Event [0] – 2 hours. I liked the puzzle that unravelled with this game. There’s a story there, that’s eked out line by line by some faux AI which you’ve got to parse through by asking the right questions. Short, and sweet, with some lofty ideas in story, but still a good way to spend a few hours.

Honourable Mention: Virtual Reality

This isn’t really an honourable mention, and more an inclusion of something I’ve played hundreds of hours of this year but haven’t “completed”, so it won’t make the list. VR has been transformative in my gaming experience this year. A lot of what I’ve played can’t be seen as completed games, but I’ve had incredible fun running around Rec Room with Mike, or blasting robots in Raw Data. The game is short, but there is incredible, simple joy of rolling around space in House of the Dying Sun. My mum was blown away drawing in Tilt Brush and Anna still wants me to put on Audioshiled every once in a while – someone who just doesn’t play videogames.

VR is incredible, and I’m happy that I took the plunge with it. It’s great to experience this new way of gaming, this excitement of what could come next, like I was playing the NES for the first time. It’s still in its infancy, and there’s a few problems with it, but it’s got nowhere to go but up.