After the exceptional gaming year that was 2017, which had numerous masterful games that told their stories and implemented their game mechanics in entirely unique ways, it's kind of disappointing to me to see this year dominated by a few mostly cinematic games being hailed as "genre-defining" and "the best of the generation". But you know what, there were still some goodies.
Honorable Mentions: Shadow of the Colossus PS4 remake, Yakuza Kiwami 2, God of War (wasn't as taken with it as everyone else, outside of the terrific hype of the first boss fight and the mid-game equipment twist), Vampyr (incredible highs in the vein of classic Western RPGs like KOTOR and Vampire: The Masquerade, marred by unbelievable lows)
Oh, also I got Dark Souls Remastered this year after years of skepticism fading into interest. It's awesome, but it's just a remaster of an older game and doesn't even have Shadow of the Colossus's graphical overhaul and minor mechanical / UI improvements, so it doesn't really count for me.
I also want to recognize Return of the Obra Dinn even though I have no capacity to play it for myself yet, just 'cause it's fucking cool.
5. A Way Out
A Way Out can be a little clunky, a little janky, and a little ridiculous. The story is fairly outlandish, and the voice acting is most often cheesy as hell. But if you get a friend online to play it (and only one of you needs to have the game to do so), it's an incredible experience. Carefully cooperating to complete puzzles and stealth sequences in order to escape from prison, evade the cops, and get revenge on the crime lord who wronged you both is a fantastic journey, whether you're just taking time to play various side games with your buddy or deliberating over which character's plan to go with. Everything winds up and up from the prison break to a marvelous hospital sequence to an explosive jungle raid, eventually leading to a suitably epic and emotional conclusion befitting the devs who brought us the notoriously sad Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It's genuinely one of the best multiplayer experiences I've ever seen.
4. Hitman 2
I got into the 2016 Hitman too late, but I was just in time for its long-awaited continuation, and as much as some may complain about it being functionally the same game with more levels and some gameplay upgrades, I'm having a blast with it. Navigating the dauntingly huge and dense levels in search of the best possible way to take out your target unnoticed, even when that seems like an impossible task, is more thrilling than ever -- the racetrack level in particular is so sprawling and complex that even after multiple wildly different replays, I'm still not convinced I've seen the majority of it. The story's messy and weirdly told and doesn't quite live up to the promise of the first part, but who cares? Murder!
3. Spider-Man
All right, I'm a big hypocrite in regards to my opening statement. Spider-Man is at its core a mostly cinematic "map game" the likes of which I've played dozens of times before, and a huge part of the reason I love it is its surprisingly nuanced story and characters (especially the slow, tragic development of the main villain). All the same, the web swinging is mechanical perfection to a level where I'd recommend it even if its plot were completely barebones; just whipping around the city at lightning speed, swinging low over crowds and bouncing off rooftops stays exhilarating from the first jump to the final fight. These key ways Spidey feels to control and how doing so slowly slips you into the character's mindset are enough to make up for the mostly lackluster boss fights and tedious street crimes, and with how much cool shit the game teases for its sequel, I'll be there on day one.
Shame the DLC trilogy kind of sucks, though.
2. Deltarune: Chapter 1
The only reason this isn't my GOTY is that it's technically not a complete game, even though it delivers a very satisfying standalone experience. The long-anticipated sequel / prequel / ambiguous side-universe thing to Undertale, Deltarune's first chapter dropped without warning on Halloween and blew me away. Over the course of its roughly 3-4 hours, this little prologue for the full game told a nearly complete story that nevertheless opens up exciting windows for the future, introduced a new cast of lovable characters, took its predecessor's battle system to its next logical evolution, and generally proved Toby Fox wasn't a one-trick pony. It's a rare piece of media that can make me feel intense nostalgia, dread, joy, and confusion in equal measure, and if/when the full game ever comes out, it'll take a strong contender to beat it out for my GOTY.
1. The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories]
The Missing is an LGBT-positive atmospheric puzzle platformer in the vein of Limbo or Inside, made by the infamously weird cult classic creator Swery (of Deadly Premonition and D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die "fame"), where the central game mechanic requires you to painfully dismember yourself to solve problems on the way to completing a dark, metaphor-filled emotional rollercoaster of a story. Yes, I had difficulty believing it even existed, too. But it's real, and that description's accurate, and it's absolutely gorgeous, and I'd recommend it to anyone. I will say nothing more, because it's one of those things you just have to see for yourself.
And because positivity is boring...
Worst Game: Fallout 76
This year's been so long and arduous that I genuinely forgot things like Metal Gear Survive, Radical Heights, and Agony didn't come out in 2017. But even for how unplayably garbage those games were, how could I give this title to anything other than Fallout 76? Sure, you may be able to make your own fun in it on the rare occasion when it works, but beyond all of the well documented crippling gameplay flaws, inexcusably common game-breaking glitches, and ceaseless shitstorm of ludicrous controversies and mismanagement from Bethesda, FO76 is the worst game of the year because of what it represents. It is the death knell of a once-beloved franchise, the curbstomp that followed Fallout 4's crippling knee to the crotch (luckily, the original Fallout devs seem to be recapturing the magic with The Outer Worlds). It is a window into the culture of corruption, laziness, and willful incompetence that seems to permeate Bethesda Game Studios these days (Bethesda Softworks, the publisher side, is still great though). And it's a mirror held up to the state of the triple-A games industry, the state where releasing something so atrocious, so clearly unfinished, and subsequently having possibly the worst PR nightmare in gaming history (entirely as a result of disrespecting and disregarding consumers at literally every turn) was even allowed to happen in the first place.
TL;DR: Fuck Fallout 76. Everyone who hated it from the announcement was right.