Fergus Halliday's Top 10 Games of 2016
Due to some super-old past mistakes catching up with my super-old Giant Bomb account, I actually can’t post my GOTY 2016 picks on the site…
Due to some super-old past mistakes catching up with my super-old Giant Bomb account, I actually can’t post my GOTY 2016 picks on the site this year.
For those unfamiliar with “the rules”, it’s less about picking the “best” games of the year and more about looking back at the games that mattered to you the most (whether they released this year or not).
So anyway, see this year’s list below.
Honorable Mentions: Dragon Age: Origins + Dragon Age 2 + Dragon Age: Inquisition (which I played a lot of as research for a pen & paper RPG session I GM’d over the course of the year set in the Dragon Age universe), Heroes of the Storm (which continues to be my MOBA of choice)
10. Assassin’s Creed: Unity
Now this is probably the biggest surprise pick on my list. Sure, this game has a pretty bad wrap but given I hadn’t played an Assassins Creed game since III, I decided to let my passion for the history of The French Revolution guide me to Unity and chance it. After all, a good Assassins Creed game is for like a holiday. I’m not really in it for the assassins or the templars — I’m not even really in it for the “game” part.
I just adore exploring the different historical periods the series tries to depict, and on those fronts, Unity delivers. Paris is a delight to explore and traverse, even if Unity is probably the “safest” game in the series to date. Likewise, Arno might be Ubisoft’s most forgettable protagonist yet but when the setting around him comes across as so vivid, it’s something I’m willing to overlook. There’s a lot of busywork, but sometimes busywork is what I expect and want out of a massive open world game like Unity*.
9. Darkest Dungeon
I still have not beaten Darkest Dungeon. In fact, I haven’t even attempted the titular final level. My party, fully leveled and fully-equipped for the occasion, is still sitting in town. The thought of sending my heroes into battle has literally petrified me out or playing it for months. I might well never beat Darkest Dungeon, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve recognition for being one of the most memorable and distinctive turn-based dungeon crawler roguelikes I’ve played in years
8. Mad Max
Sneaking in as one of the first games I played this year, Mad Max might not be the best open world game (or even the best post-apocalyptic open world game) but it hit all the right boxes for me. For fifty-odd hours I trawled the wastelands, gathering scraps, fought off raiders and intercepted convoys carrying fuel, water and parts for my Magnum Opus (all while blasting the soundtrack for Fury Road). I 100%ed the map in this game — and that doesn’t happen very often these days.
7. Hyper Light Drifter
Even beyond its own considerable qualities, Hyper Light Drifter stands out to me as the game that broke me out of a month-long slump where I grew really disillusioned with video games. It’s old school Metroidvania at its best. Gorgeous to behold and awesome to experience.
6. Zero Time Dilemma
The last few years have seen me spent a lot of time with visual novels and the final installment of the Zero Escape series was this year’s standout. Zero Time Dilemma is every bit as mind-bending and un-putdownable as its predecessor and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a feverish blast of terrifying puzzles and a garden of branching paths that brings everything the series has been working towards together in incredible fashion.
5. The Banner Saga 2
When it comes to RPG sequels building on their predecessors, The Banner Saga 2 hangs with the best of them. It’s a flawless continuation of the apocalyptic Nordic fantasy of the first, with a story just as compelling and gameplay that’s smartly improved where it matters. The first game kicked off an epic trilogy closer in form to that of epic fantasy books than most games, and The Banner Saga 2 brought the series to even greater heights. It’s one of those games I can’t wait to revisit in the years to come, and one that I can’t wait to see more people discover.
4. DOOM
This was one of those big major releases I only really caught up to a few weeks ago courtesy of holiday gaming time but what a game. If not for Titanfall 2, it easily earn my pick for best FPS. DOOM has got great music, solid design and oozes with style every step of the way. In the my books, It’s probably the smartest ‘revival’ game since Starcraft 2.
3. Overwatch
Overwatch is one of those games that was always gonna end up on the list, it was just a matter of when and where. While I like the brand of shooter that Titanfall 2 is selling a lot more than Overwatch, I spent a lot more time with Blizzard’s shooter primarily because that’s where my friends were. In Overwatch, even bad matches are over in a flash and good ones always come down the wire, no matter which character I choose to play. I don’t really want or need to harp on too much about this one but it’s a game I enjoyed the heck out of this year and will likely continue to do so in 2017.
2 - Titanfall 2
The original Titanfall was everything I wanted out of the debut game from Respawn. It had tight gunplay, an exciting new science fiction aesthetic and an incredible balance between pilots and their mechanical counterparts. However, the lack of a single player and a fractured multiplayer scene made it a hard sell to my friends.
Titanfall 2 may well suffer the same fate as the first but it can’t be said that Respawn didnt try their best. Titanfall features maybe one of the best single player campaigns in years. From level to level, it’s constantly reinventing and inverting it’s own mechanics, it’s a showcase for great design and maybe the best campaign the team have ever done. Meanwhile, the multi-player is every bit as engaging as the first game, albeit with a number of major balance changes shifting up the flow and progression/customization systems of the affair. It’s a brilliant game seemingly-destinated to go underplayed on its way to an early grave. Pick it up while you can.
1 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
I’ve always had a fondness for The Witcher series and not being able to play the third game when it released last year due to an underpowered PC was a major disappointment. Having finally bit the bullet and being able to build a new PC this year meant I could address that shortcoming. Looking back, it’s honestly hard not to justify the cost on the quality of The Witcher 3 alone. It’s the rare game that excels on every front and looms tall as not just my favorite game of the year but maybe a contender for knocking Mass Effect 2 off its pedestal as my favorite RPG of all time.
With Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine and still so many side quests still to be experienced, how could The Witcher 3 not emerge at the top of this list?
Looking for more recommendations? You can find my previous end of year round-ups below:
