Before we get on to the list, don’t miss this year’s Ars Technica Charity Drive sweepstakes . You can win one of nearly 100 prizes, including limited-edition gaming collectibles, all while helping out a good cause. Entries are due by January 3. Thanks in advance for your donation!

Much like 2015 before it, 2016 was jam-packed with enough quality titles to make narrowing down a top 20 list quite a chore. But the Ars gaming brain trust was up to the task, arguing late into the night here on the Orbiting HQ about which games should make the cut and which (ahem) should not. In the end, after multiple bouts of arm-wrestling, we all agreed that total gaming domination in 2016 belonged to...

20. Abzû

Platforms: Windows, PS4

Release Date: August 2

Developer: Giant Squid

At launch, we heard comparisons between underwater adventure Abzû and thatgamecompany's Journey and Flower. And sure, these are all games that value exploration and atmosphere over skill-based challenges and bloody death screens. But Abzû exists in its own beautiful underwater realm and is all the better for it.

This is a game that skillfully captures the mystery and wonder of exploring the world's oceans, from the technicolor splendor of a bustling coral reef to the terrifying blackness of a deep abyss. There's no health bar to worry about or complex button combinations to master—in fact, there's just a single button used to interact with ocean inhabitants. While there are a few puzzles to solve, they're simple enough as to not interfere with the journey.

Abzû's best moments are to be found in its aesthetic accomplishments: oceanic whitetip sharks, eagle rays, lionfish, great pulsing jellyfish, and thousands of other species that swirl through the water. Or the hieroglyph-hewn underwater temples and futuristic props that bring a mechanical balance to the undisturbed pockets of nature.

Abzû offers the chance to explore the unknown, a beautiful audio-visual treat that's light on challenge but big on wonder.

-Mark Walton

19. Atlas Reactor

Platform: Windows

Release Date: October 6

Developer: Trion Worlds

In spite of countless attempts to play and watch the industry’s big MOBA offerings, I have always failed to get hooked. I’m too old for this, I find myself thinking, and I can’t keep up with so much frantic mouse-over-the-map strategy action. But I love many of the games' concepts: team-based map control with gameplay twists offered by wildly different heroes. I’ve waited for a MOBA-like game to show up and sweep me off my skeptical feet.

This year’s Atlas Reactor has done exactly that. This free-to-play, turn-based tactical combat game finishes what games like Frozen Synapse started.

Players in Atlas Reactor's four-on-four team battles get 20 seconds per round to plot out actions (move, dodge, buff, attack, heal, and more), all clicked onto the map, XCOM-style. Then, all eight characters execute their command lists simultaneously, with certain actions always happening before others (green, then yellow, then red). The trick, then, is to coordinate each round’s actions with teammates and predict what opposing forces might do.

Will the opposing brute hoist up a giant shield this round? Can we take advantage of certain characters’ super moves recharging? The game’s still pretty fresh, and it clearly has room for a bigger roster of heroes, but each of its matches is already rich with out-of-nowhere comeback potential.

-Sam Machkovech

18. Really Bad Chess

Platform: iOS

Release Date: October 13

Developer: stfj

Like any good fan of strategy games, I went through a chess phase in grade school. I got pretty good for a novice but stopped right around the point where getting better would require memorizing the "best" sequence of play in countless common opening and closing situations. Seeing the same basic sequences of moves over and over again at the start of a game was kind of the opposite of the free-wheeling, exploratory learning process that got me into chess in the first place.

Really Bad Chess brings that early feeling back with one simple rule change: randomizing the pieces (both type and location) at the start of each game. Suddenly, that simple opening king's pawn move isn't an option anymore, because there isn't a king's pawn anymore. Instead, you have to study the board intently before you touch a single piece, figuring out how best to break through the unfamiliar defenses on the other side of the board while still keeping your own king safe. The constant need to develop new strategies and see new openings brings new life to what had been a ridiculously staid game.

Through a simple ranking system, Really Bad Chess takes you through computer opponents that start off at a tremendous disadvantage but end up with much better pieces than you as you rise through the ranks. These higher levels can feel ridiculously unbalanced, but it's incredibly satisfying when you somehow find a way to push a positional advantage against a much better-equipped opponent. And if you lose those matches—well, it's not called Really Fair Chess, after all. Despite some occasional issues with the AI (both in terms of move choice and speed), Really Bad Chess awakened the latent chess player within me after decades of dormancy.

-Kyle Orland

17. Hitman

Platform: Windows, PS4, Xbox One

Release Date: March 11

Developer: IO Interactive

Only Hitman allows you to dress up like a supermodel, walk the runway, and then use that disguise to poison a despicable socialite. Only Hitman features a button prompt that reads "Press X to Give Massage" as a prelude to snapping a corrupt banker's neck. Only Hitman would give you an exploding golf ball intended for a tee time surprise, then practically force you to chuck it at the target's face in a blind panic, and then have that work flawlessly.

This year's always-surprising Hitman game (simply titled Hitman) made the most of its ridiculous scripted encounters and provided the tools for players to make their own murderous hijinks. Challenges like Elusive Targets—which appear for a set amount of real-world time, then disappear forever—and level-specific upgrades help keep players coming back to the episodic game.

The incredible depth and breadth of content aside, every single level in the new Hitman is packed with its own secrets to twist up in knots and weaponize. The clockwork paths of the assassination targets can be diverted, paused, and cut off by the player to create the perfect chance to strike. Just make sure you don't alert security. Agent 47 works much better in secrecy than under fire.

-Steven Strom

16. Civilization VI

Platform: Windows, Mac

Release Date: October 21

Developer: Firaxis

It's hard to talk about a Civilization game so soon after release. Updates and expansions will surely make Civilization VI into something even greater than what it currently is—just as they've done for the last decade of the series.

Even so, this is one hell of a start. The newest Civilization is probably as mechanically dense a starting point as the series has yet seen. This makes sense, since it weaves together ideas cultivated throughout the franchise's lifespan. The total effect is something that feels both like a launch pad for new content, ideas, and systems, as well as the most complete Civilization release ever.

- Steven Strom

15. Inside

Platform: Windows, Xbox One

Release Date: June 29

Developer: Playdead

You may see Inside as a return to the mid-'00s era of puzzle-platformer games. If so, you’re very, very wrong. Its predecessor, Limbo, got lumped into the same category in 2010, but while that game had a few clever puzzles, it was more successful as an interactive, mood-filled story.

Inside lands on this list because it focuses much more on captivating players with mood and aesthetics than with mechanics and puzzles. The game does require more thinking and effort than some smartphone crapware, but it may not satisfy anyone looking for a traditional game experience. (Quick tip: those players should hightail it to 2016’s most clever offering in the genre, Four-Sided Fantasy).

Playdead's switch in game-design focus was absolutely the right design call, because Inside is a masterwork of interactive storytelling—and of tying players into its narrative via simple, clean controls. You might not let a film or book get away with being this vague and confusing, but Inside’s journey is absolutely more enthralling than its destination. (And I say that knowing how memorable its near-final twist will be among gamers for years to come.)

-Sam Machkovech