Top Fifteen Games I Played in 2016

My Top Games of 2016

This is a list of my favorite games that I played for the first time in 2016, with system played on, hours spent playing, and a rating on a 1-10 scale:

1) Dark Souls 3, PS4, 120 hrs, 9.25/10: Played this games fairly extensively to get all the achievements. It's a really good entry in the Soulsborne series, probably only behind the original Dark Souls in terms of being my favorite. Combat is likely the best of the Dark Souls series, and level design is good overall, but the game is a bit shorter than the others. The lore is also fairly derivative, but better than Dark Souls 2. Doesn't come close to the world of the original, as it's closer to Dark Souls 2 in terms of how the world is presented.

2) Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC, 27 hrs, 8.75/10: Definitely a great game overall, and an excellent addition to the Deus Ex series. By the time the game was done I felt it was dragging a bit, though. Nonlinear/semi-open world level design with a multitude of ways to finish a mission.

3) Super Mario 3D World, Wii U, 14 hrs, 8.75/10: Really good game, but essentially a by-the-books mario game.

4) Bloodborne, PS4, 60 hrs, 8.5/10: Had a lot of fun, but by far my most disappointing game I played this year. the levels all seemed kind of drab and similar, and the decision to make blood vials an item that does not replenish upon resting (like as estus flasks do in Dark Souls) means that everytime you die to a boss you need to either farm or buy vials. Horrible way to do the system and makes the game extremely tedious at points. Additionally, the latter levels of the game are markedly worse than the first half.

5) Dragon Age: Inquisition, PC, 110 hrs, 8.25/10: Very good looking game with a ton of content, and typical Bioware characters, etc, but the combat was a let down. Clearly they were trying to appeal both to the "casual" audience as well as those who were fans of the original Dragon Age, and as a result came up with a very average system. Also, side quests were horrible. Fetch quests galore, and npcs that were MMO type quest dispensers.

6) Borderlands the Presequel - PC, 48 hrs, 8/10 - It's Borderlands, just not as good as BL2. Probably about on par w/the original. Shorter main story as well as significantly less side missions means a lot less replay value.

7) Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - PC, 5 hrs, 7.75/10 - Fun, short shooter. A rare western FPS.

8) Doom 2 - PC, 8 hrs, 7.5/10 - It's doom. Fun, old school shooter.

9) Alien Isolation - PC, 17 hrs, 7.5/10 - The game starts off fantastic, but the middle part drags on and is pretty mediocre. The game could've stood to be about 6 hours shorter. Still, a very tense horror game, worth playing.

10) Broforce - PC, 8 hrs, 7.5/10 - Funny, fun side scrolling shooter with tons of unlockable characters with vastly different playstyles. A very unique system that keeps the game fresh, in which every time you die or "rescue" a prisoner, you rotate to a different character.

11) Rise of the Tomb Raider - PC, 26 hrs, 7.5/10 - Gets a lot more right than the original, in that there aren't nearly as many annoying interruptions w/cutscenes every two minutes. Just a solid action adventure game.

12) Hotline Miami 2 - PC, 12 hrs, 7.5/10 - Adds a lot of lenght, probably over twice as long as the original. Very difficult at times, sometimes tediously so. Still, good fun overall.

13) Chroma Squad - PC, 15 hrs, 7.5/10 - A surprisingly fun rpg. Has an addicting upgrade system, as well as a battle system w/optional goals that helps keep the combat interesting. OVerall the game is extremely easy, though.

14) Telltale's Game of Thrones - PC, 12 hrs, 7.25/10 - Not really a great adaptation of GoT, but if you like the source material as well as Telltale's Walking Dead era episodic games, you'll like this.

15) Valdi's Story - PC, 15 hrs, 7.25/10 - A solid Metroidvania w/decent combat. Fairly challenging overall.