Honorable Mentions

Gwent (Written by Michael Harrison)

In terms of UX, Gwent picks up where the Witcher 3 left off, CD Project Red have always been experts at blending modern UI styles with the aesthetic and charm of their Role-Playing Universe and Gwent is no exception.

The art of Gwent is overwhelming beautiful, and the game makes sure to show this off at every opportunity. Almost every button, notification, portrait, load screen and menu background display a gorgeous, high resolution piece of art, not to mention the seemingly endless sets of cards and their rarer animated counterparts. The effect this has on the player is to fully immerse and engage them in the universe before they even queue for a match. But that’s not all Gwent does well, they’ve put a lot of thought and effort into the usability of the menus and user interface, often iterating and scrapping entire menus to be replaced with an improved version.

I struggle with the complexities of building a deck in card games, but Gwent had me spending hours fiddling and tinkering to find the ideal combination of cards without it ever feeling like a chore. Combining all these aspects with the fantastic audio, smooth animations and simple controls creates a game that I’ll take any excuse to spend some time in.

Pyre

Much like Tooth and Tail, Pyre’s visual aesthetic and user experience are intrinsically connected. I loved the visual style of Pyre, and the aesthetic of the menus and dialogues served to keep me immersed at all times. I think there’s a small opportunity in how Pyre telegraphs abilities during ‘Rights’, but otherwise it’s an excellent experience.

Robo Recall

Even from a VR perspective, Robo Recall doesn’t necessarily do anything new. What it does do though is bring a very polished, fresh UI to a relatively oversaturated genre. Similar games, such as Space Pirate Trainer or Raw Date, tend to lean into a sci-fi aesthetic. Robo Recall goes very minimalist, but invokes old-school arcades with some flashy fonts and elements. I also love how Robo Recall uses the TV to show top score information to spectators, which can add a communal element to watching someone play the game.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Hellblade has almost no HUD or visual UI elements to speak of, and that’s actually why I wanted to give it a shoutout. Hellblade replaces the majority of traditional UI tropes with audio queues instead, which leans heavily into the games narrative and creates an amazing sense of immersion. It’s a great example of why you don’t have to always stick with tried and true solutions.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Probably the surprise omission to this list, Breath of the Wild did so much right with it’s UI. The game is filled with complex systems, but managing things like Stamina, Health, and abilities are all very easily accessible. The game does a great job of hinting at what’s interactible and what’s not, but also excells at simply staying out of the way sometimes and letting the player discover how to do something.

Where it falls apart for me, however, is the inventory management. Breath of the Wild is constantly asking the player to pick the right tool for the job, but doesn’t really let you do this effectively. I can’t equip a full item set with one click, instead I have to equip all four items individually. I can’t choose a fallback weapon for when the one I’m holding breaks, instead I have to stop what I’m doing and switch manually.

It’s a few small let downs for what is overall a phenomenal game.

For Honor

I was really suprised by For Honor. Early gameplay videos presented the game as a somewhat typical third person action game. It’s only after playing it that you realise it has far more in common with arcade fighters like Street Fighter.

For Honor’s UI does a great job of giving you just enough information to feel like you can win a fight, without giving you so much that it breaks you out of the moment. It’s a series of small, subtle queues throughout each moment of combat that makes you feel as though you are fighting, not just controlling a fighter.