Dec 28, 2016 7:00 AM

Multiplayer Mayhem, Solitary Puzzlers, and the Other Best Games of 2016

From Firewatch to Overwatch, the ten games that blazed new trails, captivated millions, and stood out this year.

2016 was pretty messed up, but at least the videogames were good. And we played a whole heck of a lot of them. Now we present you our top ten—from indie games that provided new experimental twists on game design to incredibly polished, long-in-the works blockbusters. Some of these games might not have received universal praise (even from us!) but in the end, we think these are the games that will define 2016 and still be talked about in 2026.

Equal parts *Gone Home* and Telltale's *Walking Dead*, the debut title from Campo Santo was another step forward for the narrative-driven, solitary-exploration genre. Poking your way through a mostly uninhabited national park, your only companion a voice on the radio, is an entrancing experience; the places are so pretty and the plot is so immediately arresting that in no time at all you're deep in [*Firewatch*](https://www.wired.com/2016/02/firewatch-review/)'s thrall. The profound sadness that pervades the whole experience, the isolation, the reasons you went out into the forest in the first place... it's an experience not to be missed.
[*Doom*](https://www.wired.com/2016/05/doom-review/) is a paean to a type of game that doesn’t get made anymore: A love letter to grindhouse mayhem, the blend of science fiction and heavy-metal album cover pastiche that made the original *Doom* feel so singular and entertaining in 1993. Like the original, id Software’s revival is also deeper than it appears, with a vein of intelligence running deep through its design and its quietly campy wit. *Doom* is brilliant not because it references one of the all-time classics but because it manages to rebuild the experience of that classic using modern parts. It's a quintessentially modern first-person shooter that manages to capture the intense, fast-paced energy of the original in a way that exceeded just about everyone’s expectations.

Respawn Entertainment has managed to produce one of the most original and entertaining first-person shooter campaigns in years. An episodic romp through a series of creative obstacle courses including a time-travelling superweapon bunker and a giant factory building pre-fabricated houses, [*Titanfall 2*’s campaign](https://www.wired.com/2016/10/titanfall-2-campaign-review/) is powerfully rhythmic and supremely fun. You are a pilot, marooned on an enemy planet, equipped with a supersuit that lets you run on walls, powerslide across entire rooms, and call a giant mecha buddy to help you in a pinch. Part buddy cop comedy, part acrobatic platforming showcase and part giant robot brawler, *Titanfall 2* relentlessly dazzles the player with its confident design.
The tropical world of Karnaca is collapsing into ruin at the hands of a usurping witch and a corrupt duke. Disaster happens quickly in a situation like that, but victory requires patience. The patience to watch, and plan, and act with a full awareness of everything you’re capable of. As the usurped empress or her aging warrior father, you must retake the throne and set right what once went wrong—or just let it all burn. Arkane Studios have crafted, in [*Dishonored 2*](https://www.wired.com/2016/11/dishonored-2-review/), one of the most rewarding game spaces ever made. Every inch of Karnaca hums with story and possibility, places where you can watch or intervene, sneak or kill, help or hurt. Sixteen years ago, Ion Storm released *Deus Ex* as a hoped-for herald of a generation of games that offered genuinely creative play within compelling, narratively rich spaces. Only a handful of games have even tried to deliver on that promise; *Dishonored 2* is one of the best of the lot.

Taking the structure of a 2-D jumping game like *Super Mario Bros* and deconstructing it, turning it serious, has been an ongoing preoccupation of a number of indie creators to the point where it could easily begin feeling like a bit of a joke. Playdead’s latest is the achievement that justifies all of that effort. Dense with detail, creative in narrative, and absolutely perfect in sound design and movement, it is a shocking achievement on every level. It’s a simple story, told in minimalist detail and chiaroscuro colors, of a boy breaking into a strange post-industrial facility, but it becomes something infinitely more shocking and memorable than its humble beginnings would have you imagine. [*Inside*](https://www.wired.com/2016/06/inside-review/) is the pinnacle of its form.
Blending the puzzle-solving exploration of *Ico* with the fantastic beasts of *Shadow of the Colossus*, [this entry](https://www.wired.com/2016/12/the-last-guardian-review/) closing out the trilogy of Sony Japan's beautiful, experimental games was long in the works, but emerged from development hell with its vision intact. Your monstrous friend Trico might be as stubborn as a new puppy when you try to get him to help you solve the game's puzzles (which are crafted with deceptively simple pieces)—but that only makes him feel more real in the end. A beautiful, emotional journey.

Breaking free of the stilted line-by-line dialogue progression that riddles so many games, [*Oxenfree*](https://www.wired.com/2016/01/oxenfree-review/) maintains witty, lively banter among its teenaged characters for its duration. A lighthearted, jokey beginning quickly leads into a dark sci-fi horror plot, and as relations between the characters grow more tense, so too does the dialogue escalate in its intensity. Multiple endings (including a new, post-launch option to continue the story) mean that your choices matter, so think before you speak.
Jonathan Blow's epic, intricate celebration of line-drawing puzzles might have driven at least one of us insane, but *[The Witness](https://www.wired.com/2016/02/the-witness/)* was such a unique experience that we put it on this list anyway. What begins as a simple set of puzzles quickly becomes something far more intriguing, maddeningly difficult, and adamant in its refusal to coddle players or put any carrots at the end of its sticks; what follows one puzzle is an opportunity to do another puzzle. And then sometimes you discover something amazing written into the abandoned island you're exploring, something that feels like you found it all on your own, and you're hooked all over again.

*Finally*, right? The *Pokémon* game series was dying for a title that actually let you venture outside and find its bizarre array of fighting monsters out there in the real-life world, and while [*Go*](https://www.wired.com/2016/07/weekend-pokemon-go-took-america/) didn't have most of the gameplay bells and whistles of the main game series, it was infinitely more popular when it launched this year, sending millions of would-be *Pokémon* masters out into the world to build their tiny armies of critters. A perfect blend of a winning franchise and unique technology has created a national---no, worldwide---obsession.
*Overwatch* isn’t the Game of the Year just because it’s one of the best multiplayer shooters of at least the past several years, though it is that. It’s not Game of the Year because of its vibrant, diverse character base, either, though it has an incredible one that continues to grow in surprising and fun directions. No, [*Overwatch*](https://www.wired.com/2016/09/overwatch-four-months-later/) is the best game of 2016 because, despite how excellent each individual part of it is, it somehow manages to add up to something even more than the sum of each of them. It is a veritable cultural sensation, a juggernaut of fan obsession, brimming with a personality that has in a matter of months infected every corner of the gaming space. Few games are as good as *Overwatch*, as fun or smart or friendly, and even fewer have such a broad impact on the medium. And it’s not even been out for a full year yet.

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Chris Kohler started writing for WIRED in 2002, and founded WIRED.com's Game|Life channel in 2005. He is the author of the books Power-Up and Retro Gaming Hacks, and co-hosts the Stitcher Award-winning podcast Good Job, Brain! ... Read More

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Julie Muncy is a WIRED contributor covering videogames. ... Read More

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