Now that 2017 is in the past, I managed to take sometime to reflect back on the games I’ve played this year and decided to share my top 5 games of the year. If you follow me on Twitter, you can pretty much guess what my number 1 game is, but you surely won’t guess my other four. 2017 was peppered with new entries in long running franchise and also new hits that seemingly came out of nowhere. While most people praised Resident Evil 7 (which was trash in my opinion), Persona 5 (I completely disconnected from the game after 10 hours; this coming from someone who spent over 200 hours in Persona 3 and Persona 4 each), Nier Automata (I was bored by the demo; grabbed it on sale so it’s in my backlog) or Horizon: Zero Dawn (in my backlog), I went with games I enjoyed and that I actually want to replay. Every year I’ve wanted to do this and now I’m taking the time to do so! So without further ado, here are the five games that I’ve the enjoyed the most last year.
5-) Agents of Mayhem
While I’ve been waiting for a new Saints Row game since SRIV (while was quite underwhelming), when Volition announced Agents of Mayhem, I was excited; it quickly became one of my most anticipated game of the year. While running and driving around the fictional rendition of Seoul felt a bit tedious due to the lack of life in the virtual city, the mission variety was actually quite fun and entertaining; whether it be the mission driven ones or side quests. The possibility of creating your own trio of heroes by choosing among the game’s 12 characters, ensured a different gameplay experience for everyone. It’s just unfortunate that the game underperformed as I would’ve loved to see a sequel. Guess this joins my shattered dreams of a sequel for The Suffering, Psi-Ops and Shadow Hearts.
4-) Late Shift
Late Shift was quite a surprise for me. In the past, I’ve enjoyed the more cinematic take of games. I loved Heavy Rain and enjoyed what I had play of Indigo Prophecy (a.k.a. Farenheit) way back in the day. So when I had the opportunity to review Late Shift, I didn’t hesitate. But it takes things a bit further by being an interactive movie. Obviously based on the decisions taken, players are guided to one of the game’s seven endings. It can be hit or miss, however, as a single playthrough runs about 1hr and 30 minutes so if you don’t enjoy the experience, it feels shallow. On the flipside, trying to attain all seven endings can be challenging and provide hours of gameplay. And it’s also the perfect “game” for non-gamers. I had my best friend play it and she enjoyed it from start to finish.
3-) Tekken 7
As a long running fighting games fan, I never really got into the Tekken series. I first played Tekken with Tag Tournament on PS2 and was a bit disappointed. Later, I went on to grab Tekken 4 on PS2; I managed to get a grasp of the game’s controls (I had been mostly playing 2D fighters) and spend a decent amount of time with it. Fast forward to 2017 when we learned that Akuma would make his way to Tekken 7. Without thinking, I pre-ordered it and got it on Day 1. Akuma was the reason I purchased T7 and I spent a lot of time playing this game. Bandai Namco managed (in my opinion) to include a much more badass version of Akuma than Capcom did in SFV. Implementing a 2D fighter in a 3D playfield was seemless and makes me hopeful for one day to play Tekken X Street Fighter. To be honest, it was a toss up between this and Injustice 2.
2-) Sniper Elite 4
This is another surprise for me. While I had thoroughly enjoyed Sniper Elite 3 a few years ago when I reviewed it, I wasn’t too sure that Rebellion would grace us with a new sequel. Once SE4 was announced, it quickly shot up as one of my most anticipated games of 2017 and boy it didn’t disappoint. While the story does the job pretty well to keep people entertained, the Kill Cam is (once again) the game’s star. Additionally, the game allows players to tackle various objectives in different ways; either go in guns blazing or stealth your way to the target. I’m actually waiting to see if Rebellion will release a GOTY edition so I can buy it!
1-) Friday the 13th
Well this was a no brainer for me. The irony of it all is that I hate multiplayer only experiences; I really don’t have fun with those because unlike some players, I can’t spend 20-30 hours a week dedicated to a single game. So while I could enjoy those for a while, once I return after a break, I’ll be far behind the regular players. In Friday the 13th, while each player “level up”, they all remain on the same playfield so to speak and the game also requires teamwork to either take down Jason or escape. I won’t hide the fact that I’m a huge Friday the 13th fan or that I backed the Kickstarter campaign (I actually bought 6 copies… 8 if you count the ones I bought at retail) and while the multiplayer centric experience made me uneasy, either as a counselor or Jason, Gun Media and Illfonic has successfully replicated the experience of a Friday the 13th movie. And now that Offline bots have been introduced, players can now play as Jason non-stop. The developers are also working into implementing a story mode in the future.
