Celeste believes in your ability to keep fighting, to keep trying even when the world seems arrayed against you or when you fall down further than youвЂ™ve ever been before. ThatвЂ™s the вЂњreveal.вЂќ ItвЂ™s not particularly subtle or unique, the mountain-as-metaphor-for-struggle, but Celeste perfectly weds its mechanics with its themes. Celeste вЂ“ Game of the YearД¬eleste Mountain is a metaphor-for depression, for anxiety, for self-loathing, for all the various demons people fight day-to-day, often behind the scenes. Lucas Pope has a knack for spinning magic out of mundane premises, and while Return of the Obra Dinn didnвЂ™t quite capture me the same way as his previous game (and our 2013 Game of the Year winner) Papers Please, itвЂ™s an incredible experience that completely redefines what constitutes a good detective game. But who is the captain shooting? And why? The answers might take you 15 or 20 more scenes worth of context to figure out, assembling scraps of information like вЂњThis man works in the riggingвЂќ and вЂњHe has an accentвЂќ and вЂњHe seems to be friends with this other crew memberвЂќ to finally draw a conclusion. The guy with the big hat and mustache who people call вЂњCaptainвЂќ? HeвЂ™sвЂ¦probably the captain. And some of the identities are easily discerned as well. Cause of death? Those are usually pretty obvious.

Through these piecemeal conversations and context clues, you must determine three pieces of information for each member of the crew: Their name, how they died, and who (if anyone) killed them. Each is frozen in time, a still-life that you can walk around-and usually a few snippets of dialogue to go with it. An entire new ecosystem awaits, this one slightly more threatening, the supplies scarcer, the oceanвЂ™s depths darker and more treacherous.ДЄnd thatвЂ™s before you even stumble upon the actual secrets hidden beneath SubnauticaвЂ™s sea. You roam further afield, swim out away from your base or maybe a bit deeper under the waves-and then it all starts to look alien again. You start to recognize the alien fish on-sight, even stockpiling a healthy supply in case of disaster. Soon you start to feel comfortable though, and the ocean feels less foreign. Like any survival game, your first order of business is collecting enough food and water to live. You crash-land on an alien planet, adrift in what seems like a world-encompassing ocean. The early hours are pure frantic survivalism.

ItвЂ™s one of the few games to properly balance between guided experience and sandbox, between story and survival. ThatвЂ™s ultimately what lands it on our best-of list. Subnautica ($25 on Humble) understands the allure of the unknown.

Best indie games of 2018