My favorite game last year was Battle Brothers. For me, it is almost the perfect game. If it had mod support and if you could lvl your leader, like in the HoMM series, it would be perfect. Open world games are my favorite and stories tend to bore me after awhile because how many computer games measure up to a good book?
Elex beat out Original Sin 2 for 2nd place. I was not a huge fan of the first OS but OS2 was way more enjoyable for me. The story did not bore me and they kept the corny humor down somewhat.
BTW I have 850 hours played in Battle Brothers which kinda scares me.
I will have to check out Prey.