The 6 Best Gaming Surprises Of 2016 (So Far)

The Witness

First teased during the PlayStation 4 reveal event all the way back in February of 2013, it’s fair to say that The Witness had been a long time coming. In fact, esteemed Game Designer Jonathan Blow first drew up the concept for the idyllic puzzler soon after Braid shipped in 2008 and in spite of the odds stacked against Blow’s sophomore effort, The Witness ostensibly delivered on all fronts.

Taking place on a remote, abandoned and strikingly beautiful island, few puzzle games bestow a sense of empowerment and satisfaction in the player as The Witness, only to make you feel like a complete goon five minutes later. Featuring a minimalist HUD and practically zero hand-holding, Blow’s esoteric puzzler essentially tasks players with learning a language from scratch – and I probably have more pictures of The Witness puzzles saved on my phone than I do of my friends and family.

Upon booting up The Witness, emerging from the underground and blinking into the sunlight, you’re free to go wherever you please. Granted, there’s an underlying path designed to educate you on the game’s core systems but generally speaking, you can plot course for one of the beautiful and varied environments from the get-go – be it the sun-kissed plains of the desert or a lush forest.

What begins as a simple case of guiding a line from one point to another soon unfolds into a complex, head-scratching series of puzzles, as you scan various parts of the environment for clues and any semblance of hope. Make no mistake, you will hit a wall – perhaps ten, twenty or a hundred times – but avert your eyes from any guides and, once you eventually do solve said riddle, you’ll feel a sense of reward that few games can match. And for that reason, The Witness stands as a special, special game.

For more on what we thought, be sure to check out our full review.

With E3 looming large, tell us, which games have taken you by surprise in 2016? And perhaps more excitingly, what are you looking forward to over the next six months? Drop your thoughts below.