Honorable Mention: The Witness
It’s award season here at Twinfinite! Starting with a few runner ups, let’s look back at the best new IPs from this year and our 2016 winner!
Like Braid before it, The Witness emerged quietly back in January and dazzled everyone with its difficult puzzles tempered by the game’s very zen setting. While appearing simple on the surface, the game’s challenges forced you to think outside the box. But if at any time things got too tough, the game’s free form nature allowed you to go somewhere, free your mind in its beautiful scenery or through a listen of one of the thought provoking audio tapes found throughout the game, and try again later.
Jonathan Blow’s latest effort is yet another genre leading title. While given Blow’s track record, it’s unlikely we’ll see a direct sequel to The Witness (although who knows), the mechanics that make this game great could work their way into a future game that Blow develops, or inspire other puzzle games; making The Witness quite the impacful new IP indeed.
Second Runner Up: Oxenfree
Oxenfree impressed so many of us here on staff at Twinfinite with its amazing writing, convincing voice acting, unique gameplay centered around picking up white noise on radio, and its split second decision making.
The idea of ripping apart time and space, and living through time loops and alternate realities, is one that has potential to be easily revisited without growing stale, if done right. And maybe Night School Studios didn’t want to go over the top with radio frequency-based puzzles in a primarily narrative driven game, but there’s a lot of room to get creative in that respect too.
Ultimately though, Oxenfree was made great because of its likable and relatable characters. If Night School Studios wanted to put Alex and crew through the wringer one more time, we wouldn’t mind it, nor would we mind a new cast of characters going through a similarly eerie situation. Either way, more Oxenfree please!
First Runner Up: The Division
The Division had high expectations, and for the most part, it delivered. Endgame aside for now, The Division had a highly entertaining co-op driven campaign that is arguably one of the best takes on New York City to date. The combat was satisfying and there was a ton to see and do in its open world.
Unlike Destiny though  (another game with long term aspirations) which struggled with its campaign, but quickly sorted out its endgame content to sustain lasting success, The Division took a little longer to fix its issues. Bugs, exploits, and an extremely steep difficulty curve for its dark zone areas and incursions ran rampant for too long for non-hardcore fans.
That said, The Division, as a franchise, has a ton of potential. Recent updates have fixed many of the early complaints, and the game is in a lot better shape now. Either an aggressive re-launch through a collection including all the DLC, or a quick turn around into a highly refined sequel, could elevate the fledgling series into a powerhouse.
Winner: Overwatch
It’s easy to forget that Overwatch is still a very new IP. It’s done more in a little over half a year than some franchises have accomplished in years or even decades. It effortlessly sold millions of copies, it has a cast of characters loved by people all around the world, an established esports scene, and a development infrastructure in place to keep it relevant for years to come.
There’s not much else you can say. Overwatch is as set as a game could be. It not only is overwhelmingly the most significant new IP that released in 2016, it’s arguably the most impactful game that released this year overall, and is bound to show up on many GOTY lists, including ours. So congrats Overwatch! We’re pretty sure we’ll be seeing a lot of you over the next lifetime.
Published: Dec 22, 2016 01:17 pm