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For the next installment of my 2016 Year-In-Review, here’s a look at my favorite video games of the year. How does it compare to your list?
A reassuring smile, a joke cracked at the right time, and she was golden. Their concerned glances turned to conspiring grins or rolled eyes, and she was home free. Lately though, it's been getting harder. She stares off into the distance for too long, freezes too noticeably, gets a look in her eyes that can't be explained away. It is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends head out to a party and unintentionally crack open more than a few cold drinks when they open a spectral rift in time. Hey, we’ve all had those kinds of parties. The chief protagonist in Oxenfree is Alex, who, along with her stepbrother Jonas, heads to a party on an island.
Dom’s Game of the Year
1. Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment, Activision Blizzard)
Blizzard’s expertly-made competitive hero shooter is probably the game I played the most in 2016, both with friends and solo, as it features an excellent blend of competitive gameplay hooks, positive reinforcement and casual appeal with some of the most well-crafted characters this generation; as is expected from the developer, who is known especially for its attention to detail.
2. DOOM (id Software, Bethesda Softworks)
Developer id Software successfully reinvigorated this classic action-packed series in 2016, which is much more than a standard popcorn blockbuster game with its smart level design, fast-paced gameplay, fluidity of movement and surprisingly deep narrative, making it my favorite single-player first-person shooter campaign in years since probably another id property: Wolfenstein: The New Order.
3. Pokémon Go (Niantic, Inc., The Pokémon Company, Nintendo Co Ltd)
Super blood hockey review. I’m not sure I can say much more than already has been said about 2016’s cultural phenomenon that was Pokémon Go: Niantic’s augmented reality mobile title took not just gamers but the world by storm after its summer release, and while admittedly it’s not the deepest game, it is severely addicting and caused millions to adventure to places they normally wouldn’t to collect all the cute creatures in the long-running franchise has to offer; including me, as I’ve sunk at least a hundred hours and still play to this day.
4. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog, Sony Computer Entertainment)
Naughty Dog’s epic conclusion to the Uncharted series is a technical marvel that expands on the swashbuckling, action-adventure gameplay by opening its level design and offering even more approaches to missions than its predecessors including a well-design stealth mechanic; Not to mention it’s the best-looking game I played in 2016, there were at least a half dozen times I stopped to take in the scenery, and it nails the landing on a story following its most-beloved characters that fans have known for years.
5. Watch Dogs 2 (Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft)
Ubi’s sequel to its 2014 open-world stealth-hacking game Watch Dogs is just lots of fun to play, in its much brighter setting of San Francisco plus more relatable main character Marcus Holloway, who is a parkour master with a variety of cool apps and drones at his disposal, allowing for creativity during mission approaches and clever puzzle-solving that results in an enjoyable main storyline with worthwhile side quests; even collectible hunting becomes unpredictable and more fun than usual, as many can’t be completed without creative approaches using Marcus’ drone hardware.
6. Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Insomniac’s modern rebuild of the cartoony 3D platformer is not only among my favorite games of 2016, but it’s the one that took me most by surprise since it wasn’t on my radar until after its release; and with that surprise came moments of pure joy, as playing through the beautiful, colorful planets alongside the humorous narrative as the Lombax/robot duo warmed my heart like few games can.
7. Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios, Bethesda Softworks)
Arkane’s follow-up to the original 2012 stealth title is exceptional in that it keeps the magic of the first Dishonored, with its wonderful level layouts and character designs plus dreary-yet-beautiful setting and art, while expanding upon its best elements since it now offers two playable characters both with unique talents, boasting a plethora of abilities and tools to ultimately allow the player to decide if she or he would be a silent ghost or a vengeful assassin.
8. The Witness (Thekla, Inc.)
Plain and simple, The Witness by designer Jonathan Blow is my favorite puzzle game of 2016 as it’s not only one of the most stunningly-beautiful minimalistic first person games I’ve played, its focus on mind-bending puzzles (some of its best are secretly hidden within the environment) and collectibles that reveal philosophical ruminations ranging from the nature of consciousness to the existence of God prove that there are layers upon layers to this modern day indie classic; if only its ending was more powerful, it would be higher on this list.
9. Titanfall 2 (Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts)
Yet another sequel, I know, but this time Respawn studio head Vince Zampella and his team injected a thrilling single-player story into its mech-shooter that originally debuted in 2014, and crafted a comfortable balance between fast-moving mechanics and narrative quality (especially in one much-discussed mission focused on the manipulation of time) not to mention reinforced the already strong multiplayer mode featured in the first game to shape what I think is the year’s second best shooter campaign behind DOOM.
10. Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
Rounding out my Top 10 is this weird, adventure-mystery game, made by a small team featuring folks previously from Telltale Games and Disney, which follows teens on a trip to a deserted island; Oxenfree plays on dialogue and choice like few other games have done to tell a unique coming-of-age story in a very cool, supernatural manner and truly allows the player to decide the outcome of various story elements.
Honorable Mentions:
Let It Die (Grasshopper Manufacture, GungHo Online Entertainment)
This 3rd person roguelike hack-and-slasher made by Japanese designer Goichi Suda (Suda51) and team at Grasshopper grabbed me randomly for a few weeks after its surprise announcement at the PlayStation Experience, and features some of the coolest characters this year along with challenging-yet-rewarding gameplay; but its free-to-play elements and difficulty spike are the reasons why it couldn’t crack my Top 10.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood & Wine (CD Projekt Red)
I’m including this excellent expansion for last year’s fantasy masterpiece The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the honorable mentions essentially on a technicality, since it’s not necessarily a brand new game; Though with that said, Blood & Wine rivals most standalone role-playing games in its quality, gorgeous setting and breadth of content plus it puts a bow on this legendary story in a way that most games seldom accomplish.
-Dom
Some indie games are built on the foundation of a big investment. Others grow organically from very little into cult popularity. Very few achieve huge success across multiple platforms simply on the strength of their story. Oxenfree is that type of game.
If you’ve ever wanted to walk through a world where darkness and mystery pursue you and your friends just to see if you can survive, Oxenfree might be the game for you. It is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends head out to a party and unintentionally crack open more than a few cold drinks when they open a spectral rift in time. Hey, we’ve all had those kinds of parties.
The chief protagonist in Oxenfree is Alex, who, along with her stepbrother Jonas, heads to a party on an island. What could go wrong? How about everything? It’s not just her stoner friend Ren who’s making Alex paranoid, as the characters come thick and fast in a forest environment that looks like it was painted in the 1900’s before being digitally remastered. The game’s artwork won an Independent Games Festival award in 2016 for Excellence in Visual Art.
Alex walks and talks her way through most problems, ably abetted by her friends, but there’s no right or wrong path through the ghostly woods. There are no cut scenes whatsoever, a pretty ground-breaking choice given the lack of action. Instead, the dialogue between characters is the gameplay, and you can change the contents of many speech bubbles throughout the game. You can even choose to limit your character’s conversation and seeing the resultant thought bubble appear over the person with whom you’ve been talking is a nice touch that real life could benefit from.
When Alex isn’t talking her and her friends out of trouble in Oxenfree, the overriding game mechanic is the radio Alex carries with her during the game, which you must tune into a certain frequency to get over obstacles or unlock segments of the game. I personally found this a little frustrating – in the same way, Alan Wake’s constant search for batteries became something of a chore in the game of his name – but the open-world concept certainly kept me guessing.
Whether it is solving puzzles, unlocking doors or even speaking with the ghosts in the game, Alex’s radio is her main weapon, but this is a game without a traditional ending. There’s also a chance to see what happens to the characters after you’ve finished controlling their interactions, and this game will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered exactly how far their own real-world interactions stretch to influencing their friends.
Adam Hines and Sean Krankel developed what was the first game ever published by Night School Studio. Clearly predisposed to classic 1980’s teen films and coming-of-age television shows such as the modern Netflix hit Stranger Things, Oxenfree is a beguiling look at how changeable the world of a teenage boy or girl can be, and how the path to adulthood has many roads. If there’s a lesson handed out by the game, it’s maybe that choosing the right direction in life isn’t necessarily possible, but forging a path you’re happy to have chosen has its own importance.
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The designers of Oxenfree clearly tried to make an adventure game where manipulating the story itself is the gameplay, and to the largest extent, they succeed. Sean Krankel stated at the time of release that the was built around the act of communication.
“At its core, we wanted to never have a cutscene in the game, where you could walk and move freely and communicate with your friends, and even communicate with other beings and other kinds of strange things.”
In building such a widely-acclaimed single-player graphic adventure, Krankel and Hines arguably shaped future game development for the better. Oxenfree was released on Windows, OS X and Xbox One on January 2016, while PS4 and Linux versions were released later that year. Last year saw iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch all jump on the bandwagon.
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You can watch the trailer here and if you enjoy it as much as we did playing the full version, go straight to the official website to read more about Oxenfree before downloading.