15 Most Criminally Underrated Video Games Of 2016 (So Far)

3. The Witness

The Witness is hands-down the best pure puzzle game in years, especially on console. Braid's Jonathan Blow once again proves he and his teams' minds are operating on another level entirely, crafting a 'simple' premise of piloting a line across a grid, only for several brain-breaking modifiers to factor in.

Figuring out precisely what the different symbols you come across actually mean is part of the fun, but it also forms the basis of why the game is so outstanding. See, by the time you're done, you'll have learned an entire language of puzzle pieces and symbols, able to look at huge complex grids of icons that would be otherwise-mystifying, before immediately figuring out what needs to be done.

It's this exploration of how we learn, how we process, interpret and reinterpret information that is at the heart of everything The Witness is about. It's conceptual and existential as hell if you start seeking out the audio diaries that litter the island you're walking around on, but as a base puzzle game, The Witness still beats everything else on the market.