We love a list here at Set The Tape. Any excuse for a retrospective is a good one and seeing as we are on the cusp of video game silly season (aka that time of year that sets games upon us at a rate so thick and so fast that your average gamer’s head will spin), it seem like the perfect time to remind you of the slew of excellent games we’ve already seen in 2017.
The list is in no way exhaustive. While many would argue differently, 2017 has had an astounding amount of excellent games released to various degrees of fanfare. This list covers just a few of our favourites.
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: Guerrilla Games
Announced to equal parts surprise, glee and pessimism back at E3 2015, Killzone developer Guerrilla Games announced they were moving from more than a decade of making linear, corridor shooters, to developing a massive open world RPG.
Even fans of the Amsterdam based, Sony-owned developer were a little uneasy at the reveal. Several gorgeous trailers relieved some of the pressure but it was a nail-biting race to release day for a lot of players. Thankfully nothing could prepare us for just how great a game rose from the ground when it finally hit shelves in February.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Horizon gave us control of Aloy, a young outcast in a tribal world where enormous machines roam the gorgeous, luscious vistas, robotic dinosaurs attack at a moments notice and corrupt other machines as they go, and much more. In this world of pseudo-religious zealotism, these tribes cause more harm to the world than good and Aloy, whether she likes it or not, is possibly the only one capable of stopping yet another apocalypse.
Okay, so Zero Dawn, even once it’s explained, is a bit of a silly name. But outside of that, it’s a near perfect action RPG.
Resident Evil VII: Biohazard
Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Developer: Capcom
Another release from the very beginning of the year. Hitting shelves back in January (usually a time for quiet, under the radar entries that publishers would rather forget) Resident Evil VII is the game no player will be able to keep from their top ten of the year once we get to December.
We heard a lot of people telling us how “Resident Evil went back to its roots” as a sea of positive reviews poured in, much to everyone’s surprise. You can admit it: you were as worried as the rest of us after Resident Evil 6 became an action film you needed a controller to watch. But in less than ten minutes, we found ourselves in what could only be described as a hillbilly nightmare. The kind of which we haven’t seen since Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes.
It is a game of two very distinct halves, in the early hours of which will have you creeping around the rundown house of the Baker family, who are three generations of swamp-dwelling sociopaths whose creepiness is only outdone by the house they live in. It may possibly be the most nerve-shredding few hours you will experience in a game this year. The second half amps up the action stakes but maintains the jump scares, whilst the entire experience is ramped up to near lethal degrees if you own a PS VR.
What Remains of Edith Finch
Platform: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Developer Giant Sparrow
The first indie title on this list, What Remains of Edith Finch follows Giant Sparrow’s previously well received adventure game The Unfinished Swan. With a kind of sideways step for the developer in going for what they called a “narrative based first person adventure game”, WROEF cuts very close to being a “walking simulator” in its mysterious story of a family apparently cursed to die tragically young.
Are you dealing with a family curse? Or simply near comedic levels of bad luck? As you’re guided through the story as the last remaining member of the Finch family, various shrines will tell you the miserable tales of how various family members died – in the end, it’s your decision to make.
Easily the shortest game on this list too, the linear story can be completed in just a few hours. Nevertheless, whilst short, the game may be the best example of how a great and intriguing story can be told through this medium. Yes, indeed, games are art; and What Remains of Edith Finch is proof of that.
Injustice 2
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Developer: NetherRealm
The sequel to 2012’s Gods Among Us and the fourth game to be released since Netherrealm became Netherrealm and took the Mortal Kombat IP, blew off the cobwebs, and re-invigorated not just the MK name, but the fighting genre as a whole.
Like the few games before it, Injustice 2 puts the player into a splendidly built story mode that serves not only as a way to get your hands on all of the characters available in Arcade mode and learn their styles, but it also tells a fast-paced and intriguing narrative that is easily accessible whether or not you are familiar with these characters and their world.
Along with everything else from the developer’s stock, this series of games has a very unique selling point for fighting games: accessibility. Everyone can get involved in these slap-happy beat-em-ups; whether you’re a first timer, a casual button masher or a fluid combo smasher, you’ll find a happy place here to hone your skills or batter a few super heroes, both on and offline.
We’ve come a long way since that awful Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe mashup, haven’t we?
Starcraft Remastered
Platforms: PC
Developer: Blizzard
Not quite twenty years after its initial release, the world’s favourite real-time strategy game is back and looks more beautiful than ever.
There’s no denying that Starcraft is a fan favourite in the genre but talk to anyone that’s ever spent more than a couple of hours playing it, whether regular RTS players or not, and they’ll tell you there’s something mesmerising about this game. The completely ‘out there’ story of humans fighting against dinosaur-like Zerg and the technologically superior Protoss is simply stunning. Giving us the experience of playing as each race, slowly and carefully learning the idiosyncrasies of each species, is put together in a way that can only be described as perfect.
To give that spectacular game and its Brood War expansion a 4K lick of paint and some extra story telling comic-book style strips is an addition that, whilst not necessary, once you play it, feels like something you’ve been waiting years for. And if nothing else, it’s an upgrade to the now free-to-play Starcraft and Brood War. If you’ve never played them (where have you been?) get to it.
Did we miss your best of the year so far? Your surprise hit of 2017? Or do you think we are completely off our rockers with our choices? Join in the conversation and let us know.