It’s that time of the year! Looking back at the year ending, reflecting on what we have played during the previous months and awarding the game of the year 2017. And this is my first list and to be honest it wasn’t easy. This year I have played fewer games than usual, making the ones I played handpicked for quality compared to the time required.
There is a lot of games that launched in 2017 that I have yet to play. To name a few; Persona 5 (I have started Persona 4: Golden though), Yakuza, NieR: Automata, Night in the Woods, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Mass Effect: Andromeda (I own it but have not been in a rush to get started) and Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
The following is my top 5 games, that I have played at the time of writing that was released in 2017, starting with #5:
I have already written a recommendation about Tacoma, so if you haven’t hurry up and read that. Tacoma is made by the same studio that gave us the brilliant Gone Home and they do not disappoint. That is if you like walking simulators as much as I do. The story, atmosphere, graphics and sound design all help to make this moody and slow-paced story stand out.
It’s one of those games where you walk around trying to figure out what the hell has happened and where everybody has gone. All alone on an empty space station.
Tacoma is highly recommended and is my fifth best game of the year.
Resident Evil 7 is a bit of an oddity on my list as it’s the first Resident Evil game I have ever played. if you asked me a year ago if I would be playing this game I would probably have given you a confident ‘No!’. But here we are…
The plan was for my waifu and her sister to play a horror game over a weekend with me maybe looking over their shoulder on and off. Somehow it ended up being me playing 95% of the game while they were watching from inside their pillow fort. I don’t play many horror games as I tend to get too involved and hiding in the nearest corner. But Resident Evil 7 gave me an intriguing mystery to solve along with motivations to keep moving.
Great story and atmosphere along with excellent graphics made this the biggest personal surprise for me and my fourth game of the year.
The predecessor Shadow of Mordor was one of my top games of 2014. It came out of nothing, copying parts Assassin’s Creed and Batman: Arkham series. Somehow Monolith Productions made it work partly my inventing the genius Nemesis-system, giving the enemies a hierarchy, personality, AND memory giving you a unique experience during the game.
Shadow of War builds on that adding way more content and more options for creating your nemesis orcs. I have spent so much time on this game just killing the boring orcs and recruiting the cool ones to my army. I guess you can compare it to Animal Crossing with decapitated orcs and a bit more dragons.
The game has it flaws, where the most crucial one is the addition of microtransactions, loot boxes and grinding. However, I had enough fun with the game to ignore them and not purchasing anything in-game. That’s why Shadow of War is my third best game of 2017.
Yet another walking simulator on the list. What remains of Edith Finch is the second game from developer Giant Sparrow, the first one being The Unfinished Swan – Another game I really enjoyed. This time around they made a really interesting twist on storytelling with different chapters of the game having different game mechanics and visuals.
I will not spoil anything from the game as it is full of great surprises that I, at least, didn’t see coming. Besides that, it has a really touching story about a very special family over several generations.
When gameplay, visuals, emotions, and story is this well woven together into a game, I can’t help but give it the title of my second best game of the year.
Horizon: Zero Dawn might not end up as one of the most memorable games for me but thinking back on my many hours with the game it was the overall best experience of 2017 for me. I loved the incredible graphics, the art design, the gameplay, the main characters and the intimidating mech dinosaurs.
During my playthrough, everything came together giving me an all-around great experience that was borderline monotonous but never stepping over that line. The expansion also gave a great excuse to return to the world of Alloy about a month ago reminding me of the really enjoyable fighting system.
What is your game of the year 2017?