AndiC.uk

2017 has been an incredible year for video games. It’s up there with 2007 and 2013 as one of the best years I can remember. A new Nintendo console launched with a brand new concept, and two masterpiece games in the year. A new IP from Sony blew everyone away, and there were more surprises with stunning single player games. It should be a year to live long in the memory.

But things did not start on the right foot. On 9th January, Microsoft’s new IP Scalebound was cancelled. This third person monster hunting action adventure game was first revealed at E3 2014, and had a gameplay demo at E3 2016. There was no official reason for the cancellation from developer Platinum Games, but as Kotaku put it, the game appeared to be "stuck in development hell". This also caused all YouTube footage of the game to be deleted.

On 13th January, Nintendo held its final presentation on their new console, the Switch. Where we finally heard about the release date (3rd March), the price (£280), and the battery life (2-6 hours). We also found out that there would be motion controls in the Joy-Cons.

Two great games did launch in January. Gravity Rush 2 was a PS4 exclusive sequel to the original game that was initially only available on the Vita. I loved the Japanese art style and animation being used in both games, it made me buy Gravity Rush Remastered on PS4. It reminded me a little of Infamous in terms of an open world, third person action game. But the gravity control, it’s jazzy music, and Dusty the cat is what makes this series unique. I’m sure I will pick up Kat’s story in Gravity Rush 2 at some point.

The other great game in January was Resident Evil VII: Biohazard. A brilliant return to form for the horror survival series. Apparently the first two thirds of this game are fantastic, with the last third not as good. But nonetheless a terrific experience for horror fans. The entire game could also be played in PSVR, to really scare the pants off you. This was the first real PS4 retail game that could optionally be played in VR in its entirety.

Overwatch continued its seasonal events in 2017. January saw a new Capture a Flag mode introduced for the first time called Capture the Rooster, inspired by the theme of Chinese New Year.

In February, two great games with a heavy focus on sword fighting were released. Nioh was the next PS4 exclusive, and a brand new IP for Sony. Another take on a Dark Souls style game but featuring Japanese samurai characters. The other game was For Honor from Ubisoft. A much more multiplayer focused medieval melee combat game with a short single player story included. It surprised many people just how good it’s sword fighting combat was, which led to the game selling much better than expected.

My most anticipated game for the first half of 2017 at least, was Horizon Zero Dawn. Another PS4 exclusive that has simply looked better and better with each reveal. Thankfully this brand new IP for Sony delivered everything fans were looking for, even exceeding my expectations.

Taking down the huge mechanical dinosaurs in Horizon Zero Dawn is a fantastic feeling. Playing as Aloy, a young female tribal outcast, using primitive weapons like bows, slingshots, and tripwires, to hunt a massive Thunderjaw or Stormbird, you feel like such an underdog. But by slowly tearing components off the machines, and even using them as weapons to fight back to finally kill the beast - it's exhilarating. Also the photo mode in this game is unbelievable.

Each dino robot in Horizon is unique in its appearance, its attacks and its weaknesses, you have to craft different weapons and different ammunition to take them down efficiently. The story and the performance of Aloy, by Ashly Burch, are also brilliant and so engaging, surely she becomes a new mascot character for Sony. All of this is set in a stunning open world, that is by far the best looking I’ve seen in a video game to date (check out my gigantic gallery here). Horizon Zero Dawn blew me away for the 75+ hours I put into it.

Then, only 2 days later, came a little game called The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And a new console launch with the Nintendo Switch. The Switch has gained increasing traction with gamers every month since it’s been available. The ability to play any game on the system as a traditional console game or anywhere as a portable is where Nintendo have hit a new sweet spot.

But I do wonder if things had been different had Zelda not released alongside the launch of the new system. This is easily a 100 hour game to get completely lost in, and it received the highest praise from critics - it was sitting on a 98 on Metacritic for March.

The reasons for this super high score? The art style is stunning, the story is great, it has over 100 puzzles in the form of Shrines. But perhaps the biggest selling point is the way Link can explore the world. He can climb literally any surface (as I pointed out from E3 last year) to reach any high vantage point. Then you can also craft a glider to fly to anything interesting you can see in the distance. This little gameplay loop is what makes this Zelda game wonderful and unique to play - especially the climbing mechanic in a third person open world game.

Other notable launch titles for the Switch were: 1-2 Switch, Just Dance 2017 and Super Bomberman R. Essentially a party game, a dance game, and a top-down puzzle action game. None of which came close to the acclaim or sales of Zelda.

Continuing this incredible first week of March were two more great titles. Nier: Automata and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands. I felt sorry that both of these games were releasing so close to the outstanding Horizon and Zelda.

Nier: Automata is another brilliant PS4 console exclusive, and confirmed to me that the PS4 is in an unbeatable position this generation against the Xbox One. Ghost Recon Wildlands launched on all platforms (apart from Switch) and was a great 4-man team military shooter set in the jungle drug capital of South America. It was a real combination of Far Cry and Metal Gear Solid V. I enjoyed playing the beta but felt this game launched at the exact wrong time. Surprisingly though it did sell very well - most likely Xbox players craving another first person shooter.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the year for some gamers was Mass Effect Andromada. Launching at the end of March, after so many incredible titles, the bar had almost been raised for what a great game is. Sadly for Mass Effect, fans of the series weren’t happy. Character animations looked choppy, the game didn’t run well, and above all else it wasn’t that interesting to play - mainly due to forgettable characters. However one plus point for the game was the sex scenes. Plenty of janky sex scenes.

In April, a game I had followed throughout its development was finally launching, and as a free PS Plus title for the month (the same as Rocket League). Drawn to Death, the next game by David Jaffe, is essentially a hero based shooter, like Overwatch, but the art style is pencil drawings from a teenage boy’s school book. I enjoyed the gameplay and the crazy characters and weapons - including a poo-flinging monkey! But the game was too sick in places (as in nauseating rather than awesome) and unnecessarily abusive. Sadly the online community faded away quickly too.

A game faring much better this month was Persona 5. A huge 100 hour JRPG that fans of the series have been eagerly awaiting. It’s another PS4 exclusive and it also reviewed incredibly well - scoring a 93 on Metacritic. It just added to Sony’s incredible start to the year over Xbox.

Yooka-Laylee released in mid April, intended as a return to the 90’s glory days of 3D platformers. It stars a green lizard (Yooka) and a purple bat (Laylee), in similar gameplay to that in Banjo-Kazooie. It was a good game but didn’t meet all expectations in its world design.

May was thankfully much quieter than last year for game releases. Most notable this year was the new Prey. Another game with an annoying title - the year has to be included to distinguish it. This is Prey (2017), rather than Prey (2006). This was a game I did a complete U-turn on after its reveal at E3 2016.

Previews for the game earlier this year were all talking about a big surprise in the opening hour, it sounded brilliant and I was suddenly interested in the game. Prey has always featured aliens, and here they are called mimics which can take the shape of any nearby object. There is a brilliant early cutscene showing this ability - which sparked the excitement in the previews.

Despite a good story, a great setting in an abandoned space station, and loads of character progression options, Prey launched with a terrible breaking bug (mainly on PC). Thankfully it was patched within a week and reviews were adjusted to reflect a great game.

There were a surprising amount of game announcements in May. On the 16th, Ubisoft announced a new Assassins Creed, Far Cry 5, and The Crew 2. All supposedly launching within 12 months. Two days later Bungie held a Destiny 2 reveal event, which did feature an awesome gameplay trailer showing The Tower from the first game being destroyed. The cheer from the crowd when the janitor bot showed up was awesome.

On 22nd May, Rockstar disappointed fans by delaying Read Dead Redemption 2 to Spring 2018. Previously it was planned for Autumn this year. Imagine if that was still the case for this incredible year.

The Switch gained some much needed bigger titles by this point. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the formidable Minecraft. This version of Mario Kart 8 - a port of the Wii U version with all DLC included - has to be the best one to date. The visuals are stunning for an under-powered console this generation, and the tracks featured from all previous Mario Kart games are awesome fun, stretching right back to Rainbow Road on the SNES. I also love the highlight reel feature at the end of races.

The first week of June saw the release of DiRT4 - the latest title from the masters of rallying Codemasters. This was the first time I wasn’t ready for a new rally game. I could still happily play 2015’s DiRT Rally because it was brilliant and I was nowhere near finishing it. However DiRT4 was another improvement. Keeping everything from DiRT Rally but also adding a custom stage builder called “Your Stage”. This enabled anyone to create a great, unique rally stage by simply changing a few variables. This also expands DiRT4’s content to a near infinite level. It’s arguably the best game in the series to date.

Other releases in June included Wipeout Omega Collection on PS4, Arms - a brand new IP for Nintendo on Switch, and Nex Machina - another PS4 console exclusive by the arcade shooter experts Housemarque.

Nintendo then shocked us all on the 26th June, by revealing the SNES Classic out of nowhere. Gaming media expected Nintendo to be working on this after the success of the NES Classic. It was due for release on 29th September. Pre-orders sold out instantly, but thankfully unlike the NES Classic, the device was much better stocked everywhere after its release.

Lastly for June was another PS4 exclusive I was highly anticipating. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy - a complete remaster of the first 3 original Crash Bandicoot games for PS1 we’re combined into one incredible PS4 title. I was concerned what developer Vicarious Visions would actually do to these classic games, beloved by most gamers born in the early 90’s. Thankfully Crash looked good, and the original levels looked immaculate and stunning in HD. They made great additions too such as adding relic timed runs in Crash 1, and the ability to play as Coco in all 3 games.

I was so pleased it, I poured enough effort into the first Crash Bandicoot to earn the Platinum trophy. To my surprise N. Sane Trilogy became the highest selling platform exclusive of the year at this point, even beating Horizon Zero Dawn.

2017 Year Review - Part 1