Chris’ Games of the Year – 2017

Game of the Year

An absolutely astounding game which has the only fault of being too damn short. Awesome atmosphere, purely dripping with raw cyberpunk at every bit of its being. It’s got a soundtrack that easily rivals any of my other favorites, with visuals that hit every note with perfection. The gameplay is fast and tense, and I was hooked from the moment I started it to the moment I completed it – in about 16 hours. Absolutely worth every bit of its time, and with DLC planned for the future, and NG+ already added, I plan to sink some more time into this in the future. Robert’s Review

Platform: Microsoft Xbox One	Genre(s): Action
Developer(s): Reikon Games	Mode(s): Single Player
Publisher(s): Devolver Digital	Other Platform(s): Sony PlayStation 4 PC

1st runner up

An obvious choice, to be sure, but a welcome one. The other side of the coin with Nintendo’s two powerhouse series, it updates on what 64 and Sunshine did flawlessly, and hat dives straight into the top. Movement is absolutely key in this game and able to be used for so many ‘exploits’ – that are almost always expected by Nintendo. I can’t tell you the amount of time I’ve spent attempting to jump up difficult walls because I’m JUST SO CLOSE. One day… Nick’s Review

Platforms: Nintendo Switch	Genre(s): Adventure
Developer(s): Nintendo	Mode(s): Single Player
Publisher(s): Nintendo	Other Platform(s): None

2nd runner up

And with Mario here, it seems only fair the Blur can slip in. I’ve never been a huge fan of the older sonic games personally – I’ve always adored their style, both visually and musically – but they’re difficult games to get into. Then I decided to buy Sonic Mania, and holy hell is it amazing. With a great mix of classic zones, reworked zones, and brand new zones, there’s always something to do with each new act, let alone each zone. And they blast through them, back to the 2 act system and with bosses for each act, every level feels great. Even the levels I disliked were something I’d more than willing play again. This is what you get when fans make the games, and it needs to happen again.

Platforms: Sony PlayStation 4 Microsoft Xbox One Nintendo Switch PC	Genre(s): Platforming
Developer(s): PagodaWest Games Headcannon	Mode(s): Single-player Multiplayer
Publisher(s): Sega

Surprise of the Year

This is a game I just happened upon while looking through the store. It looked awesome visually, and with the comparisons to the Souls games, how could I not try it? Now, I’ve had disappointment with other ‘soulslike’ games in the past many a time, so I went in with somewhat low expectations, expecting to refund it. But lo and behold, the game was astounding! It mixed powerful, quick platforming with tense, tactical combat. But the beauty is that this combat doesn’t need to be slow, and I tend to do better when I learn how to optimize movement and cooldowns against strong targets, giving an adrenaline rush throughout entire runs.

Platform: PC	Genre(s): Roguelike Metroidvania
Developer(s): Motion Twin	Mode(s): Single Player
Publisher(s): Motion Twin	Other Platform(s): None

Biggest Disappointment

A VR game that’s been in a terribly slow alpha for years now, around the inception of the Vive if I recall, that finally came out this year, I’ve always been hoping I could play it – cyberpunk ninja gunplay? That’s just amazing, no way about it. Unfortunately for me, it was difficult to play without having pretty heavy motion sickness due to the odd locomotion – teleporting was glitchy and movement was dizzying. Despite having played a ton of other quick paced action shooters on the device (Robo Recall’s amazing, by the way) this is the only one that I couldn’t last more than 30 minutes on – as opposed to hours elsewhere. And unfortunately hard to deal with glitches throughout gameplay made this something for me to refund and pass over.

Platform: PC	Genre(s): Action
Developer(s): Survios	Mode(s): Single and Multiplayer
Publisher(s): Survios	Other Platform(s): None

Guilty Pleasure

This is a game I love more the more I play it – but the problem is how short it was. Now that they’ve recently released a free DLC for it, I plan to get back into it, and even buy the proper DLC so that I can explore the rest of this world. It’s finally a horror game again, and the new perspective is stronger than ever before in conveying the feelings that the older games gave, and in my opinion is a much stronger form of gameplay than any past.

Platforms: Sony PlayStation 4 Microsoft Xbox One PC	Genre(s): Horror
Developer(s): Capcom	Mode(s): Single Player
Publisher(s): Capcom

 

Article by: Chris H.