Welcome to part 2 of my favorite games of 2017. I’ll be bringing you numbers 10 through 6 in this piece as well as covering some titles that didn’t make this list at the very end. Let’s get started with my number ten entry.
#10: Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Monolith Soft
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 12/1/17
I'm kind of cheating with this one. I'm haven't finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2 yet. I'm around halfway through the game, but I have a good idea on how I feel about the game.
I was disappointed with Xenoblade Chronicles X, a Wii U title that came to the west in late 2015. I played a few hours of the title before dropping it. I loved the first Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, but couldn't get into it's less story focused spin off. Monolith Soft listened to fans, however, as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 features a strong story, rock solid gameplay and beautiful locales to explore just like the first title.
Gameplay falls under the “single player mmo" genre of jrpgs similar to titles like Final Fantasy XII. You have direct control over a single party member and utilize special attacks and chain combos to defeat enemies. Level up, change gear and upgrade your skills, this is what you'll be doing for the bulk of the game. It's a nice change of pace from the standard turn based jrpg-fare. Positioning plays an important role so you can never doze off during an important fight. The tides can quickly turn against you.
Combat is nice, but the real draw of these titles are the world's you explore.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 features locales based on the bodies of giant creatures known as titans. These living creatures float and walk along an endless cloud sea. These areas are stunning. The second major titan you'll explore takes place almost entirely on the inside of the titan. While I would rather not think about the “lakes" you swim in while exploring this titan, it showcases the creativity the team at Monolith puts into creating interesting locations. Unfortunately, the game struggles at some points to push the player in the right direction. These are massive worlds and I found myself on more than one occasion trying to figure out the exact path to the next location. It became very frustrating as a simple fix would have been including either an easier to understand map or better portion way markers.
I can't say too much about the story since I haven't finished it yet, but I am enjoying it so far. I don't think it's quite as good as Xenoblade 1, however. The presentation, on the other hand, could use some work. The title skimped out on this area in order to meet its release date. Voice lines very rarely match up with the characters lips. Music will often times just stop when you're transitioning between areas. I found myself on more than one occasion stumbling into cutscenes and then transported to a new area on the map. A few extra months of development time were needed on this one.
There's a lot to Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I plan on finishing the title soon and if I feel like updating my thoughts on the title, I'll do so. Until then, I'm going to listen to this soundtrack some more. It's one of the best of the year.
#9: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Platform: PS4
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 8/22/17
Uncharted is one of my favorite game series and I'm all for smaller titles going forward if they match the quality of Lost Legacy. While the numbered titles in the series follow Nathan Drake, Lost Legacy let's us play as Chloe Frazier. Chloe sets out on a journey through India to find a lost city and treasure. There's explosions along the way, a bad guy reveals his incredibly philosophical plan and you climb stuff. It's the same Uncharted fun, but in a shorter and smaller package.
The Lost Legacy skips the globe trotting this time around and focuses entirely on the lush jungles of India. I was a bit disappointed by this due to the series having focused on jungle locations so many times in the past. The locations can are breathtaking at points and I loved some of the set pieces found throughout. An optional camera collectible is also used to take pictures to memorialize the journey. It’s still great, but just a little too green. I would have loved the opportunity to explore a larger variety of locales.
Lost Legacy has some great set pieces and chase sequences. The finale might be one of my favorite in the series as it jumps from trains to jumps to on foot combat. There is even an entire non-linear chapter early on that allows players to tackle puzzles in any order they want as well as an optional side quest. I really hope future Naughty Dog projects bring back these open levels as they help break up the crazy pace of action.
The gunplay is same great style as Uncharted 4, but quiet moments are kept to a minimum and spread out. This keeps the pacing from dragging like Uncharted 4 did in the earlier portions of the game. Overall, it’s a fantastic experience from start to finish.
#8: Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
Platforms: Everything (played on Wii U)
Developer: Yacht Club Games
Publisher: Yacht Club Games
Release Date: Spring 2017
I LOVE SHOVEL KNIGHT. It’s one of my all-time favorite games. Shovel Knight smashed my best games of 2014 list and the first expansion, Plague of Shadows ended up on my top 2015 list. Since then, the developers at Yacht Club Games have been working on the final expansions to the game. Specter of Torment released throughout the spring on every platform imaginable. It’s the better of the two expansions so far and feels almost like an original title.
Specter of Torment lets you play as Specter Knight, one of the many bosses from Shovel Knight. Originally I wasn’t sure that Specter Knight’s design would translate well to the Shovel Knight style of gameplay. Yacht Club seemed to agree and gave Specter Knight a slight redesign for this prequel. The title takes place before the events of Shovel Knight and tells a tale of how Specter Knight became a member of the Order of No Quarter while also detailing how he became a Specter. It’s a touching story and an excellent change of pace from the previous experiences.
Specter of Torment still uses the original Shovel Knight level themes, but has completely redesigned the levels for new forms of gameplay. The most notable of these new additions are wall climbing and rail grinding. Both feel fantastic to do in the world of Shovel Knight given how tight the controls are. My only complaint with the new mechanics are how little rail grinding is used in the new levels.
Specter of Torment still looks and sounds great. I absolutely love all the Shovel Knight titles and I’m extremely excited for the final expansion, King of Cards, to drop sometime this year. Now if only they would release a physical version of the game on Nintendo Switch so I could move over to playing that version.
#7: Horizon: Zero Dawn
Platform: PS4
Developer: Guerilla Games
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 2/28/17
It’s not secret that I’ve leveled a fair number of complaints towards Sony this generation. I felt like Sony had lost a part of the magic that they had in the middle of the PS3’s heyday. With the exclusion of Uncharted 4, their exclusives just weren’t living up to expectations. A lot was riding on Horizon, not only as a new IP for the playstation brand, but also my own faith in the company. Lucky for me, Horizon is a very good title that could have topped my list in an average year.
Horizon doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It’s a very standard open world title that we’ve seen crop up this generation. It doesn’t do anything entirely new. What it does, is take that open world formula and polish it to a shine. Add in an interesting setting and a good ole mystery story about finding your self worth and you’re all set.
The gameplay of Horizon focuses primarily on hand-to-hand combat and stealth. Or rather, it’s stealth until you get caught. Then you bust out the big guns. Combat against humans in the game is rather boring. In fact, it’s one of my least favorite parts. However, Horizon features giant mechanical creatures that roam the land. You can fight these monsters and, after awhile, hack them to utilize their skills. Horizon shines here. Large scale combat against these creatures is always fun. It’s great to set up traps and plan out what boils down to a hunt for parts. There’s even an entire side-quest known as the Hunter’s Lodge that tasks you with defeating the biggest and scariest creatures on the map. This is the high point for me.
The story is decent. I liked the setting, but quickly became bored by the middle of the game. It does pick back up towards the end and ultimately sets up a potential sequel. I can’t say much for the characters either outside of our main hero, Aloy. I loved Aloy as a character. She’s a excellent example of a modern day video game hero. It’s just a shame that she often times has to play second fiddle to many of the game’s less than stellar plot lines. This is redeemed somewhat in some of the more story-focused side quests, but isn’t enough to get over the lackluster second act.
Horizon is one of the best looking titles on the Playstation 4. At times I was tempted to purchase a PS4 Pro just to squeeze out every beautiful pixel. As I said before, I do like the setting of the game, but found the middle portion of the game’s map, which features a large desert, to be too bland. The sound design is excellent and the voice cast is pretty solid. I especially love Ashly Burch as Aloy. The production values for Horizon are sky high.
Horizon still falls into many of the same traps that Open-World games contend with. There are too many pointless collectables. The pacing is poor. The “bush-stealth” combat is old now. It took too much of this to really break out of “just another Open-World game” pegging that it received. I hope that for Horizon 2, we see the developers address this. If so, there’s the possibility for a really great game coming soon.
Also, the name is really stupid.
#6: Splatoon 2
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 7/21/17
Splatoon became a breakout success during the otherwise snooze worthy Wii U era of Nintendo. It was the first new character-based IP from Nintendo in over a decade and it’s excellent gameplay and perfect style made it an instant classic. The moment Splatoon 2 was announced, I was 100% on board.
Splatoon 2 does a lot to improve on the original, while also failing to take the necessary steps to make the title a masterpiece. There’s a new campaign this time featuring Marie from the first game’s Squid Sisters. She’s trying to find her sister, Callie, while also taking down the octolings once again. There’s over 25 levels that mix shooting and platforming that scratch an itch I’ve had since the first game. New to the campaign (and absent from the rest of the game) are grind rails made of ink. These on-rail sections are a ton of fun, but their exclusion from other modes is a missed opportunity.
The multiplayer from the first title is back and largely unchanged. Like Splatoon 1, the multiplayer has received constant updates since launch. I loved the new weapons and maps, but still dislike the choice to limit players on the maps available to play at any given time. Splatfests also return and I’ve had playing a few of them. I love picking a team and then realizing that the other team is full of losers because they made the wrong choice. #teamketchup and #teamicecream for life.
A new mode is present in Splatoon 2 called Salmon Run. It’s a survival mode that puts up to four players against multiple waves of salmon creatures. You don’t just survive though. You also have to collect Salmon eggs that function as a form of currency. This mode is a ton of fun. I spent the bulk of my time with Splatoon 2 playing Salmon Run. However, Salmon Run isn’t available at any time. Much like how multiplayer rotates out maps, Salmon Run rotates out of availability. This was incredibly frustrating at launch as the mode wasn’t available very often. Since then Salmon Run has been available almost daily so this issue has been fixed… sort of. If nintendo would allow players to play the mode when they wanted it would be much, much better.
It still lacks features such as Split-screen multiplayer. Local multiplayer is limited to you and your friends who are using their own Switches. This is a major loss because I have the most fun playing splatoon with my wife and honestly do not feel like dropping even more money to play something that should be included in the base game. A third splatoon title (which we know is coming at this point) should include split screen multiplayer. Please Nintendo. Please.
Splatoon 2 is an improvement over the original despite its flaws. It's a series that captures everything I love in games. It's got great movement, tight controls and some of the best style out there. I’m excited to see where the series goes from here as it’s quickly become an A rank nintendo property.
Bonus
I wanted to take the time to cover some other titles that I played last year very quickly. None of these titles made my favorites list, but are worth discussing.
Mass Effect Andromeda: I don’t know how this happened. The Mass Effect Trilogy is one of the best trilogy of games ever made and Mass Effect 2 easily ranks in my top 20 games of all time. Bad management botched this title. It isn’t fun. It isn’t interesting. It isn’t even technically competent. It’s the worst game I played last year which is a shame given how much I love Mass Effect.
Prey [2017]: One of the stupidest names for a game ever. An unnecessary reboot when it should have just been a new IP. Oh and the game is dull as can be. I tried to get into Prey [2017], but just couldn’t do it. The world seems cool and the production level is definitely high. But the gameplay puts me to sleep. It’s not fun and how anyone could really enjoy the title is beyond me. This is definitely a title that will seem more mixed as time goes on. There’s some good ideas here, but everything else is just so bland. Did I mention that the name is stupid?
Cuphead: I didn’t find Cuphead that great. It’s pretty, but after you’ve seen the gameplay and watched the videos analyzing the art style it just gets old. The gameplay isn’t anything special. It just feels like a standard shoot em up with a lot less personality than something like the Contra series. Perhaps if the gameplay was more refined and forgiving, then this would have been a title that I could have seen all the way through.
Hollow Knight: A long and boring Metroidvania. I might pick Hollow Knight up again down the road, but my time with it ultimately boiled down to thinking “This isn’t nearly as good as basically every other metroidvania title I’ve played”. The combat is very basic and I don’t like the art style that screams “gray!”
Fire Emblem: Heroes and Fire Emblem: Warriors: Two different fire emblem spin offs in one year? Neat. Both titles are good, but neither really went beyond their base material. One is a mobile game, but Fire Emblem. The other is a Dynasty Warriors game, but with Fire Emblem. They’re fun at the end of the day, but they’re closer to junk food for me than a nice steak.
Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon: They’re basically ports of Pokemon Sun and Moon with around 3 hours of new content and a worse story. That’s great if you didn’t get Sun and Moon, but it retreads too much of the same ground for me. These would have been much better if they didn’t drop so soon after Sun and Moon.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War: Remember how I said Horizon was a great, albeit very basic Open-World game? That’s what Shadow of War is except it’s not very great and has orcs. Lots and lots of orcs. The game is too long. It uses too many standard open-world design flaws, yet I enjoyed it at the end of the day. Again, it’s kind of like junk food except longer and often makes you question life. It was a fun experience, but not a game changer.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm: Chloe Price is one of the best video game characters to appear in recent years and this prequel focusing on her is really good. I enjoyed Before the Storm quite a bit. I wish the story had focused a tad bit more on a supporting character, Rachel, but otherwise have no major issues with it. The ending is incredibly depressing like most prequels.
That wraps up Part 2! Part 3 will be available tomorrow as I cover my top 5 games of 2017.
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