If you knew exactly what to do and where to go, you could finish Outer Wilds in 22 minutes.Īnd yet it will probably take you upwards of 10 hours, making progress one crucial piece of information (and one death) at a time until it all clicks into place. The only element that improves is you-your knowledge of the various planets and how they connect, your control over your ship, your understanding of the underlying mystery. A galaxy in miniature, trapped in a time loop, where every event plays out over 22 minutes like clockwork. Outer Wilds is a fantastic detective story. It’s a marvel of design. I went back and forth, back and forth multiple times in creating this list, and while all the games are ostensibly tied for number two on this list, some came closer to the top than others.

It almost took home the prize here as well. Outer Wilds ($25 on Epic Games Store) was our favorite Game of the Year when we did our work-in-progress list in June. It felt real to me though, and months later I still find myself humming the “Gray’s Peak” theme, a jingle for a product that never actually existed. Is Hypnospace Outlaw of any interest to people who didn’t live through the era? I’m not sure. But the real joy is in exploring this weird time capsule, where soda is advertised with terrible dad-rock jingles, where every website features at least one spinning GIF and one flashing piece of text, where hit counters are still an integral part of the decor, and where neighborhood spats play out for the entire world to see. You’re supposed to patrol for copyright infringement, harassment, and other cyber crimes. Ostensibly you’re a moderator for HypnOS, an AOL clone people use while asleep. Hypnospace Outlaw ($20 on Steam) is like a small slice of Internet-that-was nostalgia. It’s hard for me to remember that internet, the way it worked before social media came along and centralized everything. I grew up with the early Internet, with AOL and GeoCities and Netscape and Napster.

My favorites are the bears, which will climb pretty much any tree you give them, perching a hundred feet in the air and staring curiously at your guests.Įnd of the day, Planet Zoo’s the game I’m most looking forward to returning to-and with a steady supply of Steam Workshop items from enterprising modders? I’ve got plenty of reason.

I never cared much for the “ride the rides” feature in Planet Coaster, but Planet Zoo’s animals are a joy to build for, exploring the spaces you’ve crafted for them and taking advantage of cliffs, lakes, and so forth. Frontier’s Zoo Tycoon successor uses the same creation tools as 2016’s Planet Coaster, and I’ve spent dozens and dozens of hours building everything from enormous reptile houses to fake cave dens and sprawling savannahs, placing every tree and rock just so.Īnd it’s worth it because of the animals. If “fun” were the only metric that mattered in Game of the Year discussions, Planet Zoo ($45 on Steam) would take home the prize.

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