VIDEO Game of the Year 2017

Another year has come and gone, and with it a plethora of great video games that no single human being could've possibly experienced the full breadth of without some sort of time travel capability. Whether you found joy in experiencing fresh new games like For Honor, Nioh, and Arms, or found comfort in new entries in long established franchises like Zelda, Mario, and Resident Evil, or a spontaneous combination of the two (Mario and Rabbids??), this is the place to celebrate all the greatness that 2017 gave us (and some of the not so great). To help you get started...

The Categories

• Game of the Year
• Honorable Mention(s)
• Best Story
• Best Gameplay
• Best Graphics
• Best Soundtrack
• Best Online Experience
• Best Surprise
• Best Downloadable Content
• Most Disappointing
• Best Old Game (or pre-2017 game you played this year)
• Most Anticipated 2018 Game

And as always, feel free to add and subtract where you wish. For your convenience, here is a list of all the video games released in 2017. Happy ranking!

 

GOTY: Horizon Zero Dawn

 

I haven’t actually played a lot of 2017 games, but I’ve played enough to make some accurate decisions.

Game of the Year
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Honorable Mention(s)
Horizon Zero Dawn
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series

Best Story
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Best Gameplay
Horizon Zero Dawn

Best Graphics
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Best Original Soundtrack
Assassin’s Creed: Origins

Best Online Experience
Fortnite

Best Surprise
Fortnite

Most Disappointing
Star Wars: Battlefront 2

Best Old Game (or pre-2017 game you played this year)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Most Anticipated 2018 Game
Red Dead Redemption 2

Added categories

Best Performance
Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer (Uncharted: The Lost Legacy)

Best Character
Chloe Frazer (Uncharted: The Lost Legacy)

 

As usual, I haven't played any games released this year, but the best old game I finished this year is a toss up between Burnout 3: Takedown and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. For reference, here are what I wrote about both of them. I chose these two for the massive amounts of content and replayability they offer, which I reckon has to count for something. Otherwise, among the games I've finished this year, I probably would have gone with Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (haven't played TTP).

 

Destiny 2 is the Most Disappointing, not just of 2017, but of all time.

 

The Eververse has emptied your bank account, yes?

 

I refuse to spend any cash on Eververse.

 

Good, good...

 

Game of the Year: Puyo Puyo Tetris. This started out a few months ago as a kind of joke compromise pick - oh, 2017 is just too full of great games, I'll go with this goofball puzzle game - but as I kept making that joke I came to two key insights: 1. Everyone takes Game of the Year crap entirely too seriously and 2. "Video game culture" (such as it is [terrible. It's terrible.]) tends to overemphasize specific experiences which almost always involve either guns or what passes for a quality story. You will, paradoxically, be able to get a tremendous number of people who think entirely too much about much matters to concede Tetris is a perfect game but get none of them to call it their favorite.

Well **** them and **** you, Puyo Puyo Tetris was the most engrossing, never exhausted game I've played in years. Tetris and Puyo Puyo are astonishing puzzle games, and fusion mode is madcap brilliance that shouldn't work but does. A multitude of versus modes (including Tetris vs Puyo which is basically the weird puzzle game equivalent of betting your friend you're better at baseball than they are at football, or something) keep things interesting. Everything else is fronting. And no, no one cares that story mode is dumb - it's the story mode in a game called Puyo Puyo Tetris.

Honorable Mention: Nier: Automata is the only game that makes me maybe, maybe regret seriously committing to the bit. Sure, a lot of its best beats are kind of similar to the original Nier (hell the entire game is Yoko Taro's Greatest Hits), but you know what's a terrific but pain-in-the-ass game to play that deserves a more user friendly update? Nier. So it's all good.

Best Story: Nier: Automata. Become as gods.

Best Gameplay: Yakuza Kiwami. Since I already extolled the praises of PPT I might as well highlight a Yakuza game here. A lot of the focus in Yakuza titles goes (rightly) on the plots of the main and side quests, characterization, the usual, but I've always been impressed by the deft blending of entertaining brawler with a slew of well-crafted minigames. Why Kiwami specifically? Eh, I played a lot of pool in that one. I'm a sucker for video game pool.

Best Style: Persona 5. I'm shamelessly stealing this nebulous but easy to grasp category from Giant Bomb, because I think total aesthetic package is more important these days than "graphics" per se. I think, framed in those terms, this year boils down to a fight between P5 and Cuphead based purely on your tastes. While the latter is a tremendous visual accomplishment... I don't actually go in for that old-school Fleischer/Ub Iwerks look, personally. Also, and I feel like I'm the only one who's noticed this, just because the gameplay is rock solid and the look is rock solid doesn't mean they actually complement each other. Why am I picking apart Cuphead rather than defending P5's look? Because I'm trying to convince myself this was the right call. Ugh. This year.

Best Soundtrack: UGH. THIS YEAR. My head says Cuphead, my ears say Persona 5, my heart says Nier: Automata. When my choice is literally boiling down to "Well I suppose I somewhat prefer acid jazz to bebop and Keiichi Okabe... usually... except..." you know what, I'm not making that choice.

Best Surprise: Torment: Tides of Numenara actually being a relatively worthy successor to the title... sort of... I dunno, for some reason I was really apprehensive about this one, Planescape: Torment is weird for me. I think I love it? But the uncertainty about that emotion is part of the charm??? TToN was up against impossible conflicted nostalgia and didn't completely blow it, even though it's using an underlying system designed from the ground up by Monte Cook! Impressive.

Best Downloadable Content: Preceded by the caveat that they're all obnoxiously overpriced, the various nostalgia costumes in Persona 5. Pretend you're playing a better SMT game just by equipping the Raidou Kuzunoha gear! Revel in that time before a system highly dependent on the core themes of P3 was deemed "essential" to the franchise with the Innocent Sin look! Remind yourself you need to play the main franchise you goddamn casual did you know that this all came from a weird mishmash of Drifting Classroom and an obscure Malcolm McDowell film I bet you didn't with the if... set (Disclaimer: if... has never received an English translation, and yet that's not an excuse)!

Most Disappointing: Valkyria Revolution


Best Old Game (or pre-2017 game you played this year): As great as 2017 was for games, 2016 was also terrific and I'm going to be playing catchup for years. I'll give a shoutout to Hitman for being as much fun to play as it was to watch people goof around with, but there's a lot that could go here (to say nothing of Dragon Age: Inquisition and Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, which I sank dozens of hours into in the last few months alone).

2017 Games I'd Like to Play But Didn't: Divinity Original Sin II, A lot of Switch games, Dream Daddy, Butterfly Soup, Cosmic Star Heroine, Trails in the Sky the 3rd, Night in the Woods, Pyre, Getting Over It, probably other stuff I'm forgetting.

Most Anticipated 2018 Game: Actually I'd love it if 2018 gave me a chance to catch up on the last two years of releases. Unfortunately Dragon Ball FighterZ comes out in a few weeks. ****.

 

• Game of the Year assassins creed origins- absolutely loved this game and a return to form by ubisoft
• Honorable Mention(s) lord of the rings shadow of war
• Best Story assassins creed origins
• Best Gameplay assassins creed origins
• Best Graphics star wars battlefront 2
• Best Soundtrack star wars battlefront 2
• Best Online Experience cod ww2
• Best Surprise yakuza 0
• Best Downloadable Content n/a
• Most Disappointing mass effect andromeda
• Best Old Game (or pre-2017 game you played this year) life is strange
• Most Anticipated 2018 Game red dead redemption2

 

@Ramza Your pick for GOTY has me totally rethinking my choice (just kidding, Zelda is god-tier, but that was a great read nonetheless). I also thought about replacing Best Graphics with Best Style, but figured people would interpret it the way they wanted to anyway. If it was just a technical category, you'd have to objectively give it to Uncharted or Forza every year.

(Also, boy were those Giant Bomb deliberations painful to listen to at times)

 

It was all worth it for the random point in Best Moment where Jason accused them all of being crazy for being so obsessed with PUBG.

 

Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I go pretty in-depth with my feelings on this game here, so I won't ramble on too much this time. Breath of the Wild singlehandedly restored my faith in video games at a time when I was feeling pretty jaded about the medium. Every single thing about it, from the meticulously crafted open world to the sometimes controversial gameplay elements that only served to enhance my experience, is just about as close to perfection as you can get. I've been removed from it for months, and the more time passes the more I realize that it's probably the best video game I've ever played. It really doesn't get any better.

Honorable Mention: Super Mario Odyssey. If you would've told me at the beginning of this year that a Zelda game would beat out a Mario game for my favorite game of 2017, I would've told you you were out of your mind. But here we are. In any other year this would've easily been my number one. Despite some lows here and there, the highs of Super Mario Odyssey are just incredible, with phenomenal level design and gameplay mechanics that put other 3D platformers to shame. Capturing enemies is (mostly) a joy, and traveling from kingdom to kingdom and the stark differences between them keep things from ever getting stale. While it doesn't quite reach the masterful levels attained by its galactic predecessors, Nintendo still knocked it out of the park with Odyssey, and I really hope they give us a sequel.

Best Story: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Boy, does this game go places. I won't talk too much about it here because it needs to be experienced to be believed, but the moment to moment storyline of Wolfenstein II far outweighs its mediocre FPS gameplay. The characters, their relationships and interactions with one another, the growth they experience, the **** that goes down... man. It really is a brilliantly crafted story that made my jaw hit the floor more than once. Outstanding.

Best Gameplay: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. As I said before, everything about this game is flawless, and the gameplay itself is no exception. Link handles so well, whether you're swinging your weapon to attack enemies, climbing up a mountain and praying the rain in the forecast holds off for just another minute, or simply running from place to place to experience what's around the next corner. While the inventory management isn't anything to write home about, I never once found it to be a nuisance, and shuffling between weapons, abilities, and bows and arrows with the D-pad works just fine. The weapon degradation can be frustrating at first, but it propels you forward to engage in what the game has to offer in order to find a new, better weapon, and the way the weapons scale in an open world where you can literally go anywhere is just another example of the impossibly meticulous thought put into Breath of the Wild. I only wish the Switch could've captured video while I was playing through this game, because I could've filled up a hard drive with the amount of amazing things that happened to me over the 100+ hours I put into it. Just an amazing game, in case I haven't been clear.

Best Look: Cuphead. Look, I am bad at Cuphead. Just bad. Of course it's been well documented how difficult the game is, but I couldn't even make it out of the first world. I just don't have the patience for a game like it. But man, did I fall in love with its look the moment the menu screen appeared on my TV. It perfectly captures the old animation style from the 30's, from the look, the animations, the music, everything about it just oozes nostalgia, and it's a gorgeous thing to behold. I only wish I enjoyed the game itself more so that I could've experienced more of it.

Honorable Mention: Persona 5. My "I love the style a lot more than the game itself" perspective applies to Persona 5 as well. I made it about 15 hours or so before I'd had my fill, but I really dug everything that game was offering my senses. The sound design, the music, the characters, the outfits, the menus, when you talk about style in video games, Persona 5 is the example you point to. Cuphead gets the edge because I prefer old-school animation to anime.

Best Music: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Okay, okay, I know, I know. Just hear me out. I understand that other games from this year are filled with excellent music. I get that. You can find some catchy tunes elsewhere. But with this category, I'm also factoring in the way the music is used. And in Breath of the Wild, music is used sparingly, and it works phenomenally well. I'm a guy who turned the music off in Red Dead Redemption because I found the constant guitar and fiddle took me out of its authentic open world experience. I didn't have to do that with this game, because the developers understood that as well. And when the music is used, it is effective. For example, there's a moment in one of Link's memories where Zelda is being attacked, and Link steps in to protect her, interfering and shielding her from her attackers. And as she looks up at him, the classic Zelda theme plays via a simple, slow piano. It's not some grand battle theme, an orchestra doesn't accompany the hero as he arrives in the nick of time to save the damsel in distress. It's soft, it's emotional, and it's perfect. And as I type this out, I get goosebumps. No other game came close to having that same kind of effect on me this year.

Best Online Experience: Splatoon 2. This is the only game from 2017 that I played online so it wins by default, but I really did have a great time with Splatoon 2 for the first couple weeks it released. Despite its limitations in terms of map variability and loadout capabilities, what was there was extremely fun, and it's a nice change of pace from the typical online shooters that flood the market every year. And I was actually good at it for a little while, which says a lot about its accessibility (though that's since changed).

Best Surprise: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. "Geez Reynar, we get it, you love Zelda." Well, I love Breath of the Wild. In the past, though, I was never a big fan of the franchise. My only exposure was A Link to the Past way back on the SNES, and I never got very far in it. I admired what was there, but I always fell off pretty quickly whenever I tried to play it, and I never played any further entries. So going in to Breath of the Wild, I had tempered expectations despite the heaps of praise it was getting from every corner of the internet. And, obviously, I was utterly astounded.

Honorable Mention: Steamworld Dig 2. I had to find a place to mention Steamworld Dig 2 in these categories because it's at or near the top of the heap for me this year once you get past the two Nintendo juggernauts, which I definitely did not expect. It's a totally joyful twelve or so hours to 100% completion, and I enjoyed it so much I had to write a lengthier than usual review of it, which you can find in this thread. The 2D sidescrolling gameplay is silky smooth and tight, the cartoony graphics are gorgeous to look at (and in a game about digging in a mine, the environments are surprisingly varied), and the music is one of the more underrated soundtracks from this year. I can't say enough about it.

Best Downloadable Content: Forza Horizon 3 Hot Wheels. Similar to the Best Online Experience category, this one wins by default because it's the only piece of DLC I played extensively this year. But, it's brilliant and worthy. What a great idea to combine the open world arcade nature (or about as arcade as Forza gets) of Forza Horizon with Hot Wheels, and it works extremely well. Going through speed boosts, driving through loops, and racing off huge ramps and getting insane air time had me feeling like a kid again playing Stunt Track Driver on my parents' old computer. It's a fantastic idea executed as well as you could hope, and one of the most fun experiences of 2017.

Most Disappointing: Mass Effect: Andromeda. What a sad, sad thing. *sigh* Mass Effect, probably the best trilogy of the last generation of consoles, some of the finest sci-fi storytelling in video games, and it's succeeded by this pile of garbage. The facial animations were BETTER in 2007. How does that even happen? It's got the most generic third person shooter gameplay imaginable, a dull story, bland characters, and a dialogue system that removes all personality from the main character. Not to mention the game was a buggy mess when it released and I have no idea if it got any better because I stopped playing pretty early on. Mass Effect: Andromeda isn't just the biggest disappointment of 2017, it's one of my most disappointing experiences with a game ever, based on the acclaimed franchise it takes place in and the pedigree of the developer. Just depressing to think about.

Best Old Game: Inside. I blew this game off last year as some pretentious arthouse thing that I didn't want to mess with. That was a mistake. Upon revisiting it earlier this year, I found a side-scrolling action/puzzler that captivated me from start to finish with its intriguing world and gameplay mechanics. After finishing it, I just had to get online and find some theories and explanations of what was going on, and it handles all this in a way that doesn't come across as pretentious at all, which would've been really easy to do. It's quick but it's heavy, and I can't recommend it enough. Play Inside.

2017 Games I'd Like to Play But Didn't: Hollow Knight, Night in the Woods, Yakuza 0, Torment: Tides of Numenara, Metroid: Samus Returns, Pyre, Resident Evil VII

Most Anticipated 2018 Game: So out of my most anticipated 2017 games from last year, two of them were delayed to 2018 and the other one got the nod for Most Disappointing game this year. So I hesitate to jinx any more games, but I'll go ahead and do it anyway. Red Dead Redemption 2 is my most anticipated 2018 game. As I've said before, RDR is my favorite game of all-time, and the trailers make the sequel look like a gorgeous followup that I am itching to get my hands on. I'll also give a shoutout to Kingdom Hearts III, although I doubt it'll end up being released this year.

Top 10 Overall:
10) Horizon: Zero Dawn
9) Uncharted: Lost Legacy
8) Splatoon 2
7) Tekken 7
6) Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
5) Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
4) Steamworld Dig 2
3) Assassin's Creed: Origins
2) Super Mario Odyssey
1) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

 

Barely completed any games this year, but I've started playing a lot only to get distracted by other stuff. The only game I really beat was Wolfenstein 2, so not exactly a bad one to tick off the list. If I'd played more of Persona 5 and Horizon though I'm sure they'd probably take the prize for me (Persona especially).

 

I haven't even finished HZD and it still takes the prize for me over anything else.

 

So there's a pointlessly long post I could make (none of it made simpler by the fact that Persona 3 might be the most thematically coherent game I've ever played, inevitably resulting in a compare & contrast) but in a lot of ways P5 felt like the final triumph of style over substance for that series in a way that the previous games gradually made inevitable. Consequently I think your reaction is pretty forgivable.

 

Persona 5 was my first in the series, so I didn't have anything to compare it to. I knew going in how much of a time investment it would require, and with that in mind I knew it'd need to have something special for me to fully commit to it. It just didn't. I can't point to anything in that game and say "I didn't like that." I just liked all of it and loved none of it, and after the fifteen hours I put into it, I found myself wanting to play something else. I told the same thing to my friend who loaned me the game, and he shrugged and said that was about what he expected knowing my tastes. There was no "Nah man, you gotta get to that part," in the same way I see people talk about Nier Automata (a game I also bounced off of, in about half the time). I don't regret the time I spent with it, but I just couldn't see myself putting in much more.