Ahead, EW’s picks for the 10 best games of the year.
Mysterious island, check.
Frustratingly difficult puzzles, check.
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Radical combination of cerebral ennui and sensual delight, check.
Rez has always been a transportive experience.
The story packs an emotional wallop because weve spent 10 years with these characters.
Respawn Entertainment takes more cues fromHalf-LifeandPortalthanCall of Dutyto deliver one of the most memorable campaigns of the year.
For a while, it looked as if it might never see the light of day.
Do I choose returning hero Corvo or grown-up daughter Emily?
Am I a nonlethal ghost who lurks in the shadows or a blade-wielding whirling dervish of destruction?
Your choices reverberate throughout the story with rats, bloodflies, and disease increasing with the chaos you create.
In the best game of the year, you control a little boy in a red shirt.
He wanders through a forest, a farm, a city.
Men chase him, if theyre men.
But nothings easy about Inside not the brain-tickling puzzles, not the paranoid imagery.
It became a common refrain: Can this year just end already?
There is a moment, very late in Inside, where you break through a final barrier.
Call it a wall, or call it Dec. 31.
Sony Computer Entertainment America
The final image of Inside is a tantalizing mystery.
At long last, youre outside, wherever that is.DF
Electronic Arts
