My Top 10 Video Games Of 2017

By Cole Henry

2017 has been an awful year for the world as a collective whole, but the creative arts have had one of the best years in recent memory. Vidoe games, as a medium, excelled this year with incredible release after incredible release. So many great games came out that it became hard to keep up when life and academia would get in the way. This list is by no means comprehensive and speaks only for my personal tastes. That being said, let’s rank my favorite video games (that I actually find the time to play and beat) that released during this distressing year.

10. Warhammer 40,000: Regicide by Hammerfall Publishing

If someone had told me that I would have Warhammer licensed games on my “best of” list for the year, I’d call them crazy. Yet, here we are. I guess when Warhammer games are a dime a dozen these days, some are bound to rise above the rest. Warhammer 40,000: Regicide is one such game and I cannot stop playing it. Yes, it came out in 2015 so do with that information what you will. It makes this list because it is the game I have sunk the most amount of time into this year, and I am still finding enjoyment in its simple yet complex battle chess gameplay system after 150 or so hours of playtime (between the iOS and PC version). Plus, the kill animations are pure 40K fanfare with enough gore and spent bolter shells to go around.

9. Steel Division: Normandy ’44 by Eugen Systems A dense, stats and menu heavy real-time strategy game set during the allied invasion of France during and after the beach landings in Normandy on the 6th of June, 1944? Count me in! This game pretty much screams my name as it is everything I want in a real-time strategy game and it is set during one of the most pivotal moments in human history. On top of the setting and strategic density, Eugen Systems have developed a game with quite the unique take on the RTS genre. Every mission/match is divided into three different phases and certain units only become usable after a certain phase. This system adds yet another tactical layer to an already supremely tactical (almost to a fault) game. Plus, it is a rather pretty piece of software. History buffs will get an extra kick out of it, that is for sure.

8. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus by Machine Games Catharsis, pure catharsis. That is the first word that games to mind when I think of Machine Games’ Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. In a year rife with hate and Nazis becoming a part of daily American life, (our “president” won’t even condemn them and is one step away from becoming one) a game like this takes on a whole new meaning and importance, regardless of the vacuum that the developers made the game in. It has a political message underneath all of the shocking violence, insanely abrupt tonal shifts, and utterly heartfelt character moments. That political message is simple, fuck Nazis and everyone who supports them. It may shift tones so much to the point of detriment and its gameplay borders on just not being fun, but damn, it sure does feel good to cleave a Nazi’s head in with a tomahawk.

7. Man O’ War: Corsair by Evil Twin Artworks

Technically, Man O’ War: Corsair did come out in 2017, or more precisely it left Steam Early Access in 2017. Technically, Man O’ War: Corsair isn’t a very good video game. But I enjoy it, flaws and all. I mean, the crux of the game, Sid Meier’s Pirates with a Warhammer Fantasy skin, is a dream I definitely had when I was seven or eight, having just been introduced to both Warhammer and Sid Meier’s games. Yet, Man O’ War: Corsair puts you in direct third-person control of a ship captain during the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy (before they transitioned to End Times and Age of Sigmar), and from there it becomes an open-world story driven swashbuckling adventure. You fend off filthy orcs and Chaos spawn alike whilst you discover, raid, and plunder your way across the Great Western Ocean. Combat ranges from classic naval combat, sword fighting, and minimal gunplay. The game was, and is still broken in more ways than one: it crashes all too often, the framerate chugs from time to time, and the game is about as pretty as the Warhammer miniatures I painted when I was eight years old. Despite the numerous flaws, it still works for me. It melds my love of Warhammer, pirate fiction, and naval exploration into decent enough experience that I just so happen to adore. Plus, you’ll never know what beasts you’ll encounter next above or below the ocean’s surface.

6. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen by Firaxis Games XCOM 2 came to consoles in 2016, and the expansion, War of the Chosen, released for consoles on August 29th, 2017. It is more of a new game than just a mere expansion, and thus I have humbly tossed it onto my list. XCOM 2: War of the Chosen shakes the core game up in some truly interesting and infuriating ways. First, it adds the threat of the Chosen: super strong aliens with unique characteristics (think Middle Earth’s Nemesis System) that randomly hop into your battles with the intention of royally fucking you over. These things are no joke! The expansion itself is no joke as a set timer and difficulty spike means you’ll probably see a game over screen rather quickly unless you save scum your way through it all (which is what I did). To counter the new threats, new allied factions were added and these character classes give you more tactical options, a slight upper hand in many combat encounters, and they raise the cool factor of your squad by a million percent. If you like strategy games and are slightly masochistic, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen will satisfy your every desire, and then rake you over the coals.

5. Night in the Woods by Infinite Fall

Stories, we all have one, or a few, or many. Night in the Woods tells a very personal, human story through the guise of anthropomorphic animals that resonated with me to my very core. It left me shaken with emotion, both happy and sad. A cold melancholy hangs over the whole experience that is only ever warmed with well written and witty humor that never falls flat. So many games try and tell great stories but they rarely ever understand what makes a story interesting. No, it isn’t realistic cutscenes or jaw-dropping spectacle, it is the humanity that is found in pure silence, reveling in existential dread with those you hold dearest, and learning how to cope with the struggles of growing up. No game has resonated with me in the way that Night in the Woods has, and honestly, none probably will. It caught lightning in a bottle for me because I played it at just the right time in my life. Play it. Also, follow the lead animator/illustrator, Scott Benson, on Twitter. He’s hilarious, humble, and insightful.

4. Tacoma by Fullbright Tacoma is far more than Gone Home in space. It is a cosmic tale of loneliness, love, loss, grief, and hypo-corporate malpractice in space. Its story is far broader in its scope and yet it retains the simple and transfixing humility that made Gone Home so special. More importantly, the way with which the player interacts with the story is incredibly intriguing. The game’s many micro-narratives are told as audio-logs given digital, three-dimensional life as holograms that are stuck in task loops throughout the whole space station. It is at once a wholly isolating experience and a piece of art that shows us all why human interaction, love, and the warmth of the other is so, so important. It is also jaw-droppingly beautiful.

3. Prey by Arkane Studios I played through Prey while in the middle of a losing battle against some winter-induced illness. Being in a state of sickness in which I had a high fever and spells of dizziness just made the gameplay experience of Prey all the more unsettling. It is an immersive ass immersive-sim. Like there are no ifs, ands or buts about it. You either go along for the ride or realize it isn’t for you. After 35 hours the credits finally rolled and I realized this game isn’t for me. Immersive-sims are NOT my cup of tea yet Prey’s various themes, story beats, worldbuilding, and environmental storytelling will not leave my mind. It is one of the most original and free form game experiences I have ever had. (Minor Spoilers) That audio-log pertaining to certain characters, tabletop roleplaying, and then finding a character sheet tore my heart to shreds in the best way possible. Talos 1 is a beautiful game world that I will equally always love and never want to return to.

2. Super Mario Odyssey by Nintendo Kind reader(s), please humor me for a second as I am about to make the most uppity comparison ever. Super Mario Odyssey is to games as jazz is to music. As a game, it rewards the player for free-from thinking, exploring every nook and cranny of the world, and just trying any and everything to see if there will be some reward to be had in it at all. It is “freestyle platforming.” It remains impossible to be stuck on a puzzle or challenge for long as there are many ways to exploit or break almost every system in the game for the benefit of the player, and yet, Super Mario Odyssey caters brilliantly to every playstyle and every player, young to old. If previous Mario games were undergraduate studies, then Odyssey is Nintendo’s Master’s thesis in designing a Mario game. Well, maybe except for those shitty rabbit bosses on their dumb little mini floating ship.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by Nintendo Two words: EVENTIDE ISLAND!