Welcome to the my personal list of games I enjoyed this year. That’s right it’s my list, feel free to disagree with me but it won’t change anything.
Anyway here are the rules;
1. These are games that I’ve played and reviewed this year.
2. There isn’t an order to this list, its not a top 10, these all feature because of how good they are.
3. The games don’t have to have been released this year.
Now lets get on with it!
Steamworld Heist
Turn based tactical combat with steam powered bots… IN SPACE! This game had me coming back for seconds and thirds. My only gripe is that there isn’t more of it.
DOOM (2016)
CLICK, CLICK BOOM! BOOM! Ah, this game was a real breath of fresh air for the Doom franchise and it was rather nice to be afforded the simple joy of mushing a demons face into the ground.
Spaceplan
A clicker game that actually has a story and an actual end game? What madness is this? Well this is Spaceplan a clicker game about Space, Time and Potatoes.
Mages of Mystralia
A hack and slash action RPG but with no hacking or slashing. But what makes this game truly interesting is the spell editing though. I never thought I’d be able to create a fireball that froze my enemy in place and then electrocuted them.
Prey (2017)
This game that made me nostalgic for System Shock 2. Except I think this game might actually be a bit better. I actually just bought the Mooncrash DLC and I can’t wait to give that a go!
The Stanley Parable
Calling this a walking simulator feels disingenuous, true you walk around in is but there is so much more to this than that. This is also one of the funniest games I’ve played, not just this year but ever.
Hand of Fate 2
A game so good that I ended up backing the Kickstarter for the board game (which is also great). I keep going back and playing this trying to tidy up my runs and slowly playing through the various DLC.
Axiom Verge
This game made me catch the metroidvania bug, I’ve bought so many because of my time playing through this. It’s actually great in its own right and extremely challenging (or I’m terrible one of the two).
Nier: Automata
God damn… this game. No game should be this good, smooth combat, amazing soundtrack, overly convoluted storyline that even now I’m not 100% sure I understand fully. Play this game, then do it again and again and again. You’ll get something new every time.
The Hex
From the creator of Pony Island, that alone should tell you something. This game spans multiple genres and yet keeps the same control scheme. All the while telling a pointed story about games design and development (among other things).
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This year… has been strange, and not just in the world of video games, although that too has had its fair share of oddities. Loot boxes have FINALLY caught the attention of the mainstream and calling for the industry to get its shit together (especially after EA’s pitiful performance to the UK parliament).
Anyway lets not focus on that, the important this to see here is that lots of new and interesting games have appeared and the indie scene is more active than ever!
