What games from 2017 until today get a shot at the title of "Greatest of All Time?

  • Hollow Knight

    Votes: 191 9.8%
  • TLoZ: Breath of the Wild

    Votes: 987 50.8%
  • Red Dead Redemption

    Votes: 327 16.8%
  • God of War (2018)

    Votes: 387 19.9%
  • The Last of Us 2

    Votes: 467 24.0%
  • Other (Put in the comments)

    Votes: 161 8.3%
  • None from 2017 until today is good enough to be called GOAT.

    Votes: 219 11.3%

  • Total voters
    1,943

Jalen

Member
Dec 18, 2017
190
The only game I've come close to thinking is on par with BOTW is P5R. Even P5 was kind of a distant second but P5R is just so damn good.

But, I will say playing Zelda made me feel like it was nothing I had ever played.
 

Deleted member 54073

User requested account closure
Banned
Feb 22, 2019
3,983
Last of Us 2 and God of War are far better imo.

Never got the fascination with BotW, it's the least enjoyable Zelda game I've ever played.
 
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Sulik2

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,168
Bloodborne already took the GOAT in 2015 and nothing has passed it. Hades came close. BOTW is a good game sabotaged by a TERRIBLE item and inventory system.
 

erlim

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,558
London
Yeah...I absolutely can not see how anybody thinks any other game besides BotW could even come close to being called GOAT.
 

Gemüsepizza

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,550
I'm currently playing Zelda: BotW, and I legit can not understand the praise this game is getting. There hasn't been a single moment yet that made me go "Wow, this is incredible":

- Graphics are mediocre
- Music / sound isn't special
- Characters aren't fully voiced, why
- Combat is awful: some enemies are damage sponges, others (with a different color) die almost instantly. Enemies deal too much dmg, one-hit-kills, not enough arrows
- Weapon durability sucks, it devalues weapons you find, don't care for them, it's tiresome
- Handheld controls don't feel good
- Cooking is too cumbersome
- Rain / lightning sucks
- Quest design / game world isn't special
- Whole game feels like it doesn't respect players time "figure it out by yourself", "oh you should have brought a torch" ..
- People rave about the exploration, haven't found anything special yet ( except korok seeds, more breakable weapons)
- Physics aren't great: Loot sliding down hills, hard to control motion puzzles, ...
- Horse riding sucks

I could go on and on. I feel like if you removed the Zelda branding from this game, this would a 7/10 at best.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was merely ok, it could have been great but there is just too much stuff in it that sucks and which kinda ruins the game: blurry graphics on PS4 Pro, the controls like hitting trees while riding / the shooting, bad quest design (quest fails), missable content/trophies because of chapters, length / pacing. Was glad when the credits rolled tbh.

I've played a lot of great games in the last few years, but the ones that stood out to me were The Last of Us Part II and Titanfall 2. There were so many times while playing these games where I thought "holy shit" or "how???". TLoU II is probably the best looking game I've ever played, such an incredible experience. And I don't even like scary games. I can't wait for what ND are going to do on PS5, good god. Titanfall 2 was also amazing, so much creativity and I really liked the design of the characters and the story.
 
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Trey

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,534
I'm currently playing Zelda: BotW for the first time, and I legit can not understand the praise this game is getting. There hasn't been a single moment yet that made me go "Wow, this is incredible":

It's fine to not like something. Normal even. Nothing you listed is an objective analysis of the game, so therein exists a large space where many people can disagree with your opinion. Nothing more or less.
 

Bitch Pudding

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,202
BotW is an amazing game which I really enjoyed playing, a truely remarkable experience. But to be considered THE best game of the last few years it needed a better story and antagonist.

I probably never forget playing TLOU 2, especially not that the part in the middle and its conclusion, so I'll go with that game, with GoW 2018 being a close second.
 
Mar 11, 2019
549
In my book, when thinking of the most overrated games this generation, BOTW is the first game that comes to my mind. I wondered how the game would have scored not on the switch, on a different platform and not having the name of Zelda.
 
Dec 27, 2019
6,230
Seattle
- Whole game feels like it doesn't respect players time "figure it out by yourself", "oh you should have brought a torch" ..
It's a game about curiosity and exploration and solving puzzles. If you don't like figuring out how to do something, you're not gonna enjoy it. I don't know exactly what you're talking about regarding torches, but that's a good example. Cause there are dozens of different things you can do as a substitute for a torch. Some of us enjoy figuring out what they are, and some don't.
 

GSG

Member
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,051
I'm currently playing Zelda: BotW, and I legit can not understand the praise this game is getting. There hasn't been a single moment yet that made me go "Wow, this is incredible":

- Graphics are mediocre
- Music / sound isn't special
- Characters aren't fully voiced, why
- Combat is awful: some enemies are damage sponges, others (with a different color) die almost instantly. Enemies deal too much dmg, one-hit-kills, not enough arrows
- Weapon durability sucks, it devalues weapons you find, don't care for them, it's tiresome
- Handheld controls don't feel good
- Cooking is too cumbersome
- Rain / lightning sucks
- Quest design / game world isn't special
- Whole game feels like it doesn't respect players time "figure it out by yourself", "oh you should have brought a torch" ..
- People rave about the exploration, haven't found anything special yet ( except korok seeds, more breakable weapons)
- Physics aren't great: Loot sliding down hills, hard to control motion puzzles, ...
- Horse riding sucks

I agree with most of these. I do think the game looks good for the style it's going for, but the framerate is atrocious at times on both consoles.

The extremely postive reception to BOTW has honestly baffled me for the past 4 years, I feel like many of the game's fans look past a lot of the game's technical shortcomings and busy work(not to mention certain divisive game mechanics). I've had the game since launch on the Wii U, beat three Divine Beasts before I put it down for good and it just never clicked with me during that time, I genuinely don't see the appeal of the game.
 

Sky87

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,877
RDR2 and Witcher 3 (yes, it's from 2015 so doesn't really count i guess) are both better games in every aspect.
 

The Unsent

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,618
I'm currently playing Zelda: BotW, and I legit can not understand the praise this game is getting. There hasn't been a single moment yet that made me go "Wow, this is incredible":

- Graphics are mediocre
- Music / sound isn't special
- Characters aren't fully voiced, why
- Combat is awful: some enemies are damage sponges, others (with a different color) die almost instantly. Enemies deal too much dmg, one-hit-kills, not enough arrows
- Weapon durability sucks, it devalues weapons you find, don't care for them, it's tiresome
- Handheld controls don't feel good
- Cooking is too cumbersome
- Rain / lightning sucks
- Quest design / game world isn't special
- Whole game feels like it doesn't respect players time "figure it out by yourself", "oh you should have brought a torch" ..
- People rave about the exploration, haven't found anything special yet ( except korok seeds, more breakable weapons)
- Physics aren't great: Loot sliding down hills, hard to control motion puzzles, ...
- Horse riding sucks

I could go on and on. I feel like if you removed the Zelda branding from this game, this would a 7/10 at best.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was merely ok, it could have been great but there is just too much stuff in it that sucks and which kinda ruins the game: blurry graphics on PS4 Pro, the controls like hitting trees while riding / the shooting, bad quest design (quest fails), missable content/trophies because of chapters, length / pacing. Was glad when the credits rolled tbh.

I've played a lot of great games in the last few years, but the ones that stood out to me were The Last of Us Part II and Titanfall 2. There were so many times while playing these games where I thought "holy shit" or "how???". TLoU II is probably the best looking game I've ever played, such an incredible experience. And I don't even like scary games. I can't wait for what ND are going to do on PS5, good god. Titanfall 2 was also amazing, so much creativity and I really liked the design of the characters and the story.
Wait until you reach the Divine Beasts Dungeons, they're so varied and each has a unique atmosphere

/sarcasm.
 

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,550
In terms of game design? I don't think so. Fellow Devs may marvel over the stories, animations, or graphics of new games as they come out. But I haven't seen marveling over a game's actual level/world design the way the entire industry was for BotW since its release.
 

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,550
I agree with most of these. I do think the game looks good for the style it's going for, but the framerate is atrocious at times on both consoles.

The extremely postive reception to BOTW has honestly baffled me for the past 4 years, I feel like many of the game's fans look past a lot of the game's technical shortcomings and busy work(not to mention certain divisive game mechanics). I've had the game since launch on the Wii U, beat three Divine Beasts before I put it down for good and it just never clicked with me during that time, I genuinely don't see the appeal of the game.
not everyone cares about framerate. Era blows it way out of proportion. Lots of people don't even notice.
 

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,550
In my book, when thinking of the most overrated games this generation, BOTW is the first game that comes to my mind. I wondered how the game would have scored not on the switch, on a different platform and not having the name of Zelda.
Probably better if it was a new IP, given that most complaints come from "it's not the Zelda I know and love!"
 

En-ou

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,843
I'm currently playing Zelda: BotW, and I legit can not understand the praise this game is getting. There hasn't been a single moment yet that made me go "Wow, this is incredible":

- Graphics are mediocre
- Music / sound isn't special
- Characters aren't fully voiced, why
- Combat is awful: some enemies are damage sponges, others (with a different color) die almost instantly. Enemies deal too much dmg, one-hit-kills, not enough arrows
- Weapon durability sucks, it devalues weapons you find, don't care for them, it's tiresome
- Handheld controls don't feel good
- Cooking is too cumbersome
- Rain / lightning sucks
- Quest design / game world isn't special
- Whole game feels like it doesn't respect players time "figure it out by yourself", "oh you should have brought a torch" ..
- People rave about the exploration, haven't found anything special yet ( except korok seeds, more breakable weapons)
- Physics aren't great: Loot sliding down hills, hard to control motion puzzles, ...
- Horse riding sucks

I could go on and on. I feel like if you removed the Zelda branding from this game, this would a 7/10 at best.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was merely ok, it could have been great but there is just too much stuff in it that sucks and which kinda ruins the game: blurry graphics on PS4 Pro, the controls like hitting trees while riding / the shooting, bad quest design (quest fails), missable content/trophies because of chapters, length / pacing. Was glad when the credits rolled tbh.

I've played a lot of great games in the last few years, but the ones that stood out to me were The Last of Us Part II and Titanfall 2. There were so many times while playing these games where I thought "holy shit" or "how???". TLoU II is probably the best looking game I've ever played, such an incredible experience. And I don't even like scary games. I can't wait for what ND are going to do on PS5, good god. Titanfall 2 was also amazing, so much creativity and I really liked the design of the characters and the story.
i see salt crystals materializing. All your complaints are just preference. OR You're just trolling..lol
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,448
I like BoTW to the point that I consider some of its aspects (mainly, its amazing soundtrack) to be underrated. But it is hardly Greatest of All Time material and neither is anything else that comes to mind from the last few years. Certainly none of the games in the poll. And I love many of the games that have come out in the last few years.

But damn, there's plenty of history in this medium by now. I wouldn't say that any book, movie, or record that came out since 2017 is the Greatest of All Time, either. What a short time frame that is. GOATs are rare.
 

Jencks

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,504
I'm currently playing Zelda: BotW, and I legit can not understand the praise this game is getting. There hasn't been a single moment yet that made me go "Wow, this is incredible":

- Graphics are mediocre
- Music / sound isn't special
- Characters aren't fully voiced, why
- Combat is awful: some enemies are damage sponges, others (with a different color) die almost instantly. Enemies deal too much dmg, one-hit-kills, not enough arrows
- Weapon durability sucks, it devalues weapons you find, don't care for them, it's tiresome
- Handheld controls don't feel good
- Cooking is too cumbersome
- Rain / lightning sucks
- Quest design / game world isn't special
- Whole game feels like it doesn't respect players time "figure it out by yourself", "oh you should have brought a torch" ..
- People rave about the exploration, haven't found anything special yet ( except korok seeds, more breakable weapons)
- Physics aren't great: Loot sliding down hills, hard to control motion puzzles, ...
- Horse riding sucks

I could go on and on. I feel like if you removed the Zelda branding from this game, this would a 7/10 at best.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was merely ok, it could have been great but there is just too much stuff in it that sucks and which kinda ruins the game: blurry graphics on PS4 Pro, the controls like hitting trees while riding / the shooting, bad quest design (quest fails), missable content/trophies because of chapters, length / pacing. Was glad when the credits rolled tbh.

I've played a lot of great games in the last few years, but the ones that stood out to me were The Last of Us Part II and Titanfall 2. There were so many times while playing these games where I thought "holy shit" or "how???". TLoU II is probably the best looking game I've ever played, such an incredible experience. And I don't even like scary games. I can't wait for what ND are going to do on PS5, good god. Titanfall 2 was also amazing, so much creativity and I really liked the design of the characters and the story.

Yeah I just flat out disagree with most of these (particularly the bit about the music) or feel like you're grossly overstating how big an issue some things are.
 
Jan 29, 2018
9,595
Even at the time I had a hard time choosing a favorite between BotW and Horizon Zero Dawn. I still do.

Outer Wilds is also up there. A very special game.
 

Tarot Deck

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
4,253
I am actually impressed that hollow knight was ranked amongst the others.

Amazing game, probably the best Metroidvania to date.

Breath of the Wild is the first game since Super Mario Galaxy that I can call it my favorite game of all time.
 

En-ou

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,843
I agree with most of these. I do think the game looks good for the style it's going for, but the framerate is atrocious at times on both consoles.

The extremely postive reception to BOTW has honestly baffled me for the past 4 years, I feel like many of the game's fans look past a lot of the game's technical shortcomings and busy work(not to mention certain divisive game mechanics). I've had the game since launch on the Wii U, beat three Divine Beasts before I put it down for good and it just never clicked with me during that time, I genuinely don't see the appeal of the game.
Most don't give a shit about 4K textures or 120FPS except the gfx over gameplay folks who usually don't understand what great gameplay and design are. Cause all they're impressed with is that the character has individual strands of hair rendered. Basically great gameplay and design will overshadow any technical limitations. But 4K turd is still turd.
Developers lavish praise on BotW because they see the ingenuity and talent behind the systems that come together for an unforgettable experience. Anyone can do 4K and 120 FPS. The hardware does most of the work there.

I'm glad Nintendo is not chasing raw power primarily and continues to evolve design and gameplay. Otherwise RIP any innovation, and we'd be stuck with 3rd person 4K cinematic shooters.
 

BrickArts295

GOTY Tracking Thread Master
Member
Oct 26, 2017
14,156
Its really near perfect, I have no problem calling it one of the GOATs among RDR, God of War (2018) and TLOU Part 2.
My only problem is that its one of my least favorite Zelda games from a narrative perspective, its just pretty weak but I understand that game puts Gameplay > Story so its something I can overlook.
 

InspectorJones

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,644
Ended up restarting Master Mode over the weekend and the game still feels almost as fresh and inspiring as the day The Switch released.

So overall I do still think BotW is one of the greatest of all time, certai ly recently as far as AAA productions go. Disco Elysium is the o ly other gsme si ce to really wow me and that is sort of the antithesis of game design and all narrative. An aspect BotW is lacking (Wind Waker still is my favorite Zelda game in terms of story/quest).
 

thecaseace

Member
May 1, 2018
3,234
I'm currently playing Zelda: BotW, and I legit can not understand the praise this game is getting. There hasn't been a single moment yet that made me go "Wow, this is incredible":

- Graphics are mediocre
- Music / sound isn't special
- Characters aren't fully voiced, why
- Combat is awful: some enemies are damage sponges, others (with a different color) die almost instantly. Enemies deal too much dmg, one-hit-kills, not enough arrows
- Weapon durability sucks, it devalues weapons you find, don't care for them, it's tiresome
- Handheld controls don't feel good
- Cooking is too cumbersome
- Rain / lightning sucks
- Quest design / game world isn't special
- Whole game feels like it doesn't respect players time "figure it out by yourself", "oh you should have brought a torch" ..
- People rave about the exploration, haven't found anything special yet ( except korok seeds, more breakable weapons)
- Physics aren't great: Loot sliding down hills, hard to control motion puzzles, ...
- Horse riding sucks

I could go on and on. I feel like if you removed the Zelda branding from this game, this would a 7/10 at best.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was merely ok, it could have been great but there is just too much stuff in it that sucks and which kinda ruins the game: blurry graphics on PS4 Pro, the controls like hitting trees while riding / the shooting, bad quest design (quest fails), missable content/trophies because of chapters, length / pacing. Was glad when the credits rolled tbh.

I've played a lot of great games in the last few years, but the ones that stood out to me were The Last of Us Part II and Titanfall 2. There were so many times while playing these games where I thought "holy shit" or "how???". TLoU II is probably the best looking game I've ever played, such an incredible experience. And I don't even like scary games. I can't wait for what ND are going to do on PS5, good god. Titanfall 2 was also amazing, so much creativity and I really liked the design of the characters and the story.

If I had this many issues with a game I was in the middle of playing I'd just stop playing it.
 

Aniki

"This guy are sick"
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,844
Personally Prey which also released that year is my favorite game of the past decade. But BotW is right behind it.
 

Ocean

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,707
BotW is an amazing tech demo but I agree it's not a great game. I spent *a lot of time* dicking around the open world because the mechanics clicked very nicely. But the plot is terribly simple, the graphics are not great, the framerate is even worse. The enemy design is absurdly limited and repetitive for a world this big. Weapons breaking literally made me not give a shit about ever opening any chests or trying to discover anything, because it'd either break or I'd stash it somewhere and never use it (so that it didn't break, yay).

All in all it's worth buying and playing but it seems like a bowl with all the right ingredients, but never got put on the stove. If Switch 2 or Pro or whatever has somewhat not-garbage specs (doubtful but one can dream), and they use this game's sequel as a showcase for it, I'd be really hyped to see if they finally turn this concept into a full game. Like, one with some dungeons and dialogue and enemy variety and everything people have said this one lacked since day 1.

Also: locking content like costumes and goddamn Epona behind PHYSICAL MICROTRANSACTIONS doesn't get enough heat. Like honestly what the fuck was that about. You have to start a toy collection if you wanna see some cool shit in this game? Goddamn Nintendo just slap me with a regular MTX store page and let me pay you without the hassle of buying kiddy toys I don't want.
 
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Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever™
Member
Sep 24, 2019
35,003
BotW is an amazing tech demo but I agree it's not a great game.
Some of you have the wildest interpretation of "tech demo". I saw somebody use it recently for Control. Now we're seeing it for BOTW? Come on. You didn't like the game. But lmao ... BOTW is a "tech demo" now?
 

Ocean

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,707
Some of you have the wildest interpretation of "tech demo". I saw somebody use it recently for Control. Now we're seeing it for BOTW? Come on. You didn't like the game. But lmao ... BOTW is a "tech demo" now?
I mean I guess how that comes across wrong. I'll elaborate:

It's obviously a HUGE game packed with content, enough to get lost in for a hundred hours. I don't mean demo as in small or short. What I meant was: they built an incredibly cool physics-based reactive sandbox. Then they designed an ENORMOUS open world, and gave you the tools to explore it. By horse, hiking and climbing, paragliding through the skies.... top-notch stuff. So like, the fundamentals are there and they're probably still unsurpassed in some regards. I don't think any other game captures the "you see that mountain back there? You can climb it" feeling better than this one does.

But... it doesn't feel like there's that much to do. There's a very, very, very basic "plot" moving you forward but overall the game has close to no narrative. Those memory cutscenes you unlock with Zelda and stuff? I just kept thinking "holy shit I wish I were playing these scenarios because there's actual plots in them". Seeing the exact same enemies set up in pretty similar camps all over the world just kind of defeated the purpose of trying to defeat them. I skipped fighting most enemies because there didn't seem to be much of a point in fighting them. It was repetitive and you can't get any meaningful rewards in a game where using something means breaking it.

So I spent dozens of hours just playing with the physics. It was a LOT of fun. But I think a tech demo is what best describes the type of gameplay loop I was in. I was loading up a game to just bomb trees or fly through the air on a rock I time-stopped then bashed, or figuring out ways to send things flying across the map and stuff.
 

Lueken

Member
Dec 15, 2017
624
I tried multiple times to get into Breath of the Wild, but it just didn't click with me. Give me God of War or Hollow Knight instead. I have not played Red Dead Redemption 2 nor The Last of Us Part 2.
 

ClickyCal'

Member
Oct 25, 2017
60,611
I mean I guess how that comes across wrong. I'll elaborate:

It's obviously a HUGE game packed with content, enough to get lost in for a hundred hours. I don't mean demo as in small or short. What I meant was: they built an incredibly cool physics-based reactive sandbox. Then they designed an ENORMOUS open world, and gave you the tools to explore it. By horse, hiking and climbing, paragliding through the skies.... top-notch stuff. So like, the fundamentals are there and they're probably still unsurpassed in some regards. I don't think any other game captures the "you see that mountain back there? You can climb it" feeling better than this one does.

But... it doesn't feel like there's that much to do. There's a very, very, very basic "plot" moving you forward but overall the game has close to no narrative. Those memory cutscenes you unlock with Zelda and stuff? I just kept thinking "holy shit I wish I were playing these scenarios because there's actual plots in them". Seeing the exact same enemies set up in pretty similar camps all over the world just kind of defeated the purpose of trying to defeat them. I skipped fighting most enemies because there didn't seem to be much of a point in fighting them. It was repetitive and you can't get any meaningful rewards in a game where using something means breaking it.

So I spent dozens of hours just playing with the physics. It was a LOT of fun. But I think a tech demo is what best describes the type of gameplay loop I was in. I was loading up a game to just bomb trees or fly through the air on a rock I time-stopped then bashed, or figuring out ways to send things flying across the map and stuff.
Sums up my feelings on it in the short, but I also get that is what a lot of people want from Zelda and it works great for the majority which is fine.