Games were better in 2017 (for me) than any other year of my video gaming career and its not even particularly close. I made more of an effort to play as many games as I could this year, while maintaining a social life, than any year before and for that I have one thing to thank. The deletion of Dota 2 from my steam library. That game sucked up hours and days of my life that could've been used to do more productive things! Like play all of these games! . Oddly enough the top 5 of this list seemed relatively easy but these smaller games in the bottom half really took a lot of thinking. The games that aren't in the actual top 10 aren't really numbered or ordered but more of honorable mentions and I was too lazy to format them properly into an honorable mention category.
(List in reverse order because the formatting here is dumb and does 1 first)
Showing 1-10 of 17 items
Less Honorable Mention: This game is just so fine and alright in every imaginable way. I really enjoyed my time with it but it's pretty hard to figure out just what about it I found enjoyable. The combat is fun and the powers interesting but theres something frustrating at most turns. The story is incredibly bland until the third act when I sort of love everything there.
Honorable Mention Sigh Persona 5 I really want to love and play you but you are just so impenetrable and sloggy sometimes. The stakes set in the first dungeon are so unbelievably high that the second dungeon and losing progress in it were so annoying that I just didn't want to return to playing it after 25+ hours invested. Someday I'll get back to this game and finish it.
Honorable Mention I played a fair amount of Splatoon 1 and enjoyed. Splatoon 2 is more of the same in many ways and frustrating in others. If they didnt make so many truly confounding decisions around playing the games and modes with others I think I would've enjoyed it far more. Partying up with people is an absolute chore and semiincoherent and you just cant play Salmon run sometimes which is a huge bummer. The actual game itself was great, though I didn't much care for the single player painting and splatting opponents and stopping salmon is as fun as ever.
Honorable Mention This game is so lovely top to bottom. I played through it in one emotion filled night shortly after it came out. While some of the vignettes in it maybe aren't as effective the cannery sequence in particular was so ridiculously relatable to anyone thats ever worked a shitty job or felt directionless. The fact that it plays out so spectacularly and is maybe the most depressing of all of them is such an interesting contrast that would've been super easy to fuck up. If this game maybe had a more cohesive message it could have maybe cracked the list but I truly enjoyed my time with it.
Honorable Mention I didn't know I wanted a remake of Metroid 2 but I wanted a remake of Metroid 2. The linear nature and cutting out a lot of the bullshit that comes with a metroid title was so appealing to me, no longer did I have to shoot every single tile and backtrack to places and probably forget which place is the right place to use the power bomb and wait was that door a missle door? All of those systems are modernized in a smart package that results in probably my favorite end boss fight in a Metroid game ever. As a send off for the 3DS this game was truly worthy.
Honorable Mention This game was such a nice little surprise on Switch. I've always been a fan of games where you sort of just dig down but never got around to the first SteamWorld Dig. Having this on the go for my commutes was such a nice way to pass the time and it just feels great to play! All of the upgrades change the way you navigate and think about digging in smart ways and jetpack is maybe my favorite jetpack in all of games.
Honorable Mention Cuphead is a very good game. Its challenging bosses and wonderfully unique design are great, but I secretly could not stand the platforming levels for the life of me. Cuphead controls fine and feels great but something about doing a Megaman style platforming level in that game just turned me off so much that I stopped doing them entirely by the time I had the coins for the upgrades I wanted.
10. I didn't play this game until the very end of 2017 and it was a very nice way to send the year out. I havent quite finished it yet but feel very comfortable putting it right where it is on this list, right there at the bottom sitting above a ton of my other favorite games of the year... The world building and style of this game from the cast of characters to the cosmic bible that is outlawed because reading is illegal are top notch. Archetypes like strong silent type are made so appealing in a way I didn't think was possible for me anymore. I rolled my eyes when the strong demon lady was stoic and quiet but she grew into one of my favorite characters through her skills on the court and interactions with the other colorful cast of characters. Theres not any aspect of Pyre I can really put down and if I had finished it it may even be higher.
9. Wolfenstein II as a game is a very uneven package. On one hand (INCREDIBLY MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD TURN BACK IF YOU DONT WANT TO BE SPOILED SPOILER TEXT DOES NOT APPEAR TO WORK ON THESE INDIVIDUAL LIST ENTRIES WHICH IS ANNOYING) You fucking get your head cutoff in first person, an evil nazi lady holds it aloft for all of the Washington Mall and nation to see, she throws it in a fire, and your Jewish scientist cohort arranges for a drone to fucking catch it and reattach it to your brand new Nazi super soldier body. Moments like that are fantastic and are what led to Giantbomb having to breakout the game into its own damn category. On the otherhand its a singleplayer fps that is made by Bethesda and doesn't play anywhere NEAR as well as DOOM. Hit registration on yourself and enemies doesn't feel good and many of the guns I just flat out ignored because they weren't as effective as dual wielding shotguns or they just flat out felt bad. If this game had DOOMs level of gameplay polish it would be much higher.
8. onics back! Ignore Sonic Forces! Sega please give Christian Whitehead even more money to make more Sonic games! Leading up to this games release I was brushing it off as nothing more than another 2d Sonic game how could that be any good I've played all of those and liked them for what they were in the 90s. Boy was I wrong about how you could design a Sonic level in 2017 to make it compelling in a way that I didn't know was possible. The way the game eases you into its new style is fantastic with some familiar levels from Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone. It says hey heres what you remember from the 90s in the first level of a zone, then completely improves on those levels in every way of level 2 with a new remixed version with new mechanics and it only gets better from there. They made Oil Ocean zone good!