Eric S! Johnson's Top 10 Games of 2016

Greetings and salutations one and all. Calendar year 2016 has certainly had its share of ups and downs but I believe it can be argued that this is one of the finest years in gaming in some time. It was very, very hard to whittle this list down to 10 games, especially with so many contenders coming into my possession in the eleventh hour. A lot of games I wanted on the list got cut in the last two weeks (sorry, DOOM). This may be unfair to the games that I dropped since some of the titles I am replacing them with are fresh in my memory but that's the breaks I guess. Enough babbling out of me, let's get right into it.

HONORABLE MENTION: SUPERHOT

I know honorable mentions are a bit of a cop out excuse to post an eleventh favorite game but this one is a standout. The only reason it did not steal the 10th spot was the length of the game. All I will say is that it is the most innovative shooter ever made and that you should play SUPERHOT. Share SUPERHOT with your friends. Do not say too much.

Number 10: Mirror's Edge Catalyst

I have a strange connection with title character Faith. I was a big fan of the original Mirror's Edge and chances are this game was going to make my list simply by existing. The hardest pill to swallow with Mirror's Edge was that if you failed, it usually resulted in the parkour master tumbling from a rooftop and tumbling to her untimely death. The point of failure didn't come from design flaws in the game. The failure came was because you just weren't good at it. That made me feel responsible for Faith's well being and out of some sort of odd form of chivalry I felt it was my responsibility to navigate Faith safely to the game's end. That all gets turned up in this entry which added gorgeous visuals to an already dreamy design scheme but an open world that, for me, was never not fun to explore. The story fell a bit flat though and that prevented the game from moving higher up the list.

Number 9: Megadimension Neptunia VII

The game that got me back into JRPG's for a minute. As a kid, I loved a good RPG. I'd lose days of my life working my way through every nook and cranny of the world trying to find all of the secrets. In my adult life, I've become very busy. Too busy to properly enjoy longer games. I usually have 8-10 hours to invest in a game before I move on. Imagine my surprise when I plugged a good 30-40 into this and did multiple playthroughs. It led to a nostalgic resurgence of the genre in my life and I ended up trying about 5-6 more JRPGs at the same time. That was a mistake... But playing Megadimension was not. The characters are fun, and are fully aware that they are part of a video game. The result is a good grindy RPG with a ton of 4th wall breaking humor. Unique combat and 2 power up transformations add a lot to an already great series.

Number 8: Attack on Titan

If you're familiar with the anime then you know what to expect from this game. You murder giant naked men while flying around with leg-rockets. It's running on the Dynasty Warriors engine and I am a hack n' slash fan. The game was a shoe-in.

Number 7: Rise of the Tomb Raider

When I was deciding what counted as a 2016 game, I settled in anything that had some sort of release date in 2016 on some console. I played Rise on PC which wasn't available until January even though it was out on Xbox in 2015. The game is great and the reimagined Lara Croft is cool. This is a great followup to the 2013 reboot of the franchise and has all of the climbing, exploring, shooting and horrible deaths you would expect. Additional content released as part of the anniversary collection adds a new mission and a nice bit of completion to the already great story.

Number 6: Watch_Dogs 2

Government corruption? Corporations controlling government interests? Secret underground organizations opposing hypocrisy? Yes, please. I think the theme of Watch_Dogs 2 appealed to me more than the game. They managed to move a bit more toward what the original Watch_Dogs promised in that there would be multiple ways to approach missions and using a combination of hacking, environment and good old combat to accomplish a mission. It's not perfect as I often found myself relying on calling in fake police reports or gang wars more than cunning. I wanted a bit more freedom in mission navigation but I feel the story was good enough to make up for some gameplay hitches.

Number 5: Gears of War 4

I'm surprised Gears of War 4 is here. I thought DOOM would be the gritty shooter to break my top 10. Where DOOM got boring, I found the campaign in Gears to never let up. It was fun and nonstop action plus offered gameplay alternatives like motorcycle chases or slingshotting up an elevator shaft. This coupled with a serviceable multiplayer allowed Gears to leapfrog past a lot of competition. The overall narrative was good as well. The story resonated and I liked the banter between Marcus and JD.

Number 4: Stardew Valley

Who hasn't dreamed of quitting their job and moving off-grid and learning to live off the land? I haven't, actually. Which makes it all the more puzzling to me that Stardew Valley ended up so high on my list. No game absorbed more hours of my life than this one as I would often set out to play one or two days worth, sell a few jellies and then go to bed. The next thing I would know it was 3 A.M. and work was going to be hell the next day. There is so much to do here. There's farming, resource gathering, friend making/dating, a rec center that needs rebuilt and dungeons in which to kill monsters. All the while you can learn to make a perfect cheeseburger.

Number 3: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Government corruption? Corporations controlling government interests? Secret underground organizations opposing hypocrisy? Yes, please. Why yes I do sound like a broken record. Deus Ex is a world where cybernetic augmentation is rampant and pretty much every conspiracy theory is true. They even have their own version of Infowars. I don't need much more to get sucked into a story. It didn't hurt that the game was fun to play and multiple approaches to missions worked. Also Adam Jensen is cool. I don't care if he's a shitty Keanu Reeves. He's cool, damn it.

Number 2: Titanfall 2

I like giant robots... a lot. As a kid Voltron and Transformers were my favorite cartoons. Later heady things like Exosquad, Gundam and Evangelion came along and pushed the limits of what can happen with human/robot interaction. The interaction between BT and Cooper is so much fun. I want BT's voice on navigation apps, my cell phone... hell, I want that voice to be the alarm that wakes me up every morning. His frank, emotionless delivery is wonderful. So many element of Titanfall 2 just work. The look, the control, the story, the pace... everything just came together so well.

Number 1: HITMAN

I love HITMAN. It is as fun to play as it is to watch someone else. There are ENDLESS ways to complete any mission. It looks so good and plays even better. I've spent so much time scouring maps, learning the AI patterns, studying their every move, learning what reactions are caused by actions. I am by no means an expert player but one day, damn it, I will be. I'm out there, scouting all six maps, taking contracts and mastering the escalations. I will never get sick of Agent 47 and his and his insane ability to blend into any environment.

If HITMAN has taught me anything it is to be patient. Opportunities will open up if you give them time to develop. If they don't, don't be afraid to abandon one strategy in favor of another. Or just throw a fire extinguisher at someone's head. To Hell with patience.