Overboard!

80 Days and Heaven’s Vault developer Inkle took on the time loop — a staple genre of 2021 — in a way that’s challenging without being obtuse. It helps that Overboard! is also hilarious in a way that makes me eager to replay these past few days at sea, the ones in which I, uh, murdered my husband? Overboard! is a relatively short game, which is why the time loop works. It’s not a huge pain in the ass to slog through what you’ve replayed, to tweak small interactions or conversations to get closer to concealing your role in said murder. There were a lot of time loop games in 2021; it’s a genre that’s hard to make work. Overboard! not only worked, but excelled, standing out not only within its genre, but as one of the best games of the year.