Disclaimer: this is a thread by Dance Inferno backed by the Adopt-a-user program.
I've spent this year playing a combination of 2016 and 2017 games, and as I begin putting together my GOTY list I'm realizing that most of the games I want to put at the top of my list are actually games that came out in 2016. Let's run through them quickly, shall we?
Best single-player FPS I played this year: DOOM
I finished Wolfenstein 2 earlier this week and was completely unimpressed with its gameplay. BJ is incredibly fragile, it's hard to tell when you're taking damage until you're dead, and levels are mostly just a bunch of destroyed steel corridors. I started re-playing DOOM again afterwards and I had forgotten how pitch perfect the combat in DOOM is. Hectic, fast-paced, punchy, and with a litany of options to help you manage the battlefield. Double jumps to get out of danger, an arsenal of weapons that are useful for a variety of situations, glory kills help you regain health, chainsaw kills help you regain armor, and most enemies fire projectiles, allowing you dodge and weave to avoid damage. No shooter in 2017 has made my heart beat as much as DOOM.
Best multiplayer FPS I played this year: Battlefield 1
I tried a few shooters in 2017 (mostly Destiny 2, as well as the Battlefront 2 and COD WWII open betas), but nothing comes close to the scale and cinematic experience that is Battlefield 1. Zeppelins crashing overhead, tanks rumbling across wide open plains, 32 soldiers rushing up a hill towards you with bayonets drawn... No other multiplayer shooter captures the scale of war like Battlefield 1.
Best immersive sim / stealth game I played this year: Dishonored 2
Dishonored 2 is officially my most-played game on Steam. I'm on my fourth playthrough of this, and it will be only the second ever game I 100%'ed. The amount of replayability in this game is crazy: I did a loud lethal playthrough, a pacifist ghost playthrough, a no-powers playthrough, and I'm currently doing a stealth assassin playthrough. You can play this game over and over and over again and continue to find new ways of approaching missions and levels. The depth and richness of the world never gets old, and the gameplay improves upon most stealth games in myriad ways.
Best open-world RPG I played this year: Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
Step aside Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3 is still the best open-world RPG I've ever played. Blood and Wine wasn't as good as the base game, but it still had an infinitely more interesting universe, plot, and side quests than BotW. The world is so well realized that I didn't want to stop playing. Meanwhile, I struggle to play BotW for long periods of time given how throwaway the plot and writing is, and it struggles to make me emotionally invested in its world.
Best strategy game I played this year: XCOM 2
Granted I don't think 2017 has been a banner year for strategy games, but XCOM 2 is such a fantastic game that I haven't seen topped this year. I dropped 20 hours into this game over a weekend without even realizing it; it's so good at what it does and the emergent storylines that develop as you play through a campaign are unrivaled. I know this game had an expansion in 2017 but I haven't picked it up yet as I'm still thoroughly enjoying the base game.
Best narrative / walking simulator I played this year: Abzu
What Remains of Edith Finch comes very close, but Abzu took my breath away. I played the entirety of this game in one sitting on a Saturday night with the lights turned off, and it transported me to a magical world with amazing visuals and music that I did not want to leave. Yes there isn't much "gameplay" per se, but the emotional and sensory experience it puts you through is unrivaled in 2017.
There are a number of other games I haven't even listed here (Dark Souls III, Hitman, The Witness, Inside), but suffice it to say that I'm finding myself more thoroughly impressed with 2016's game output than 2017.
I've spent this year playing a combination of 2016 and 2017 games, and as I begin putting together my GOTY list I'm realizing that most of the games I want to put at the top of my list are actually games that came out in 2016. Let's run through them quickly, shall we?
Best single-player FPS I played this year: DOOM
I finished Wolfenstein 2 earlier this week and was completely unimpressed with its gameplay. BJ is incredibly fragile, it's hard to tell when you're taking damage until you're dead, and levels are mostly just a bunch of destroyed steel corridors. I started re-playing DOOM again afterwards and I had forgotten how pitch perfect the combat in DOOM is. Hectic, fast-paced, punchy, and with a litany of options to help you manage the battlefield. Double jumps to get out of danger, an arsenal of weapons that are useful for a variety of situations, glory kills help you regain health, chainsaw kills help you regain armor, and most enemies fire projectiles, allowing you dodge and weave to avoid damage. No shooter in 2017 has made my heart beat as much as DOOM.
Best multiplayer FPS I played this year: Battlefield 1
I tried a few shooters in 2017 (mostly Destiny 2, as well as the Battlefront 2 and COD WWII open betas), but nothing comes close to the scale and cinematic experience that is Battlefield 1. Zeppelins crashing overhead, tanks rumbling across wide open plains, 32 soldiers rushing up a hill towards you with bayonets drawn... No other multiplayer shooter captures the scale of war like Battlefield 1.
Best immersive sim / stealth game I played this year: Dishonored 2
Dishonored 2 is officially my most-played game on Steam. I'm on my fourth playthrough of this, and it will be only the second ever game I 100%'ed. The amount of replayability in this game is crazy: I did a loud lethal playthrough, a pacifist ghost playthrough, a no-powers playthrough, and I'm currently doing a stealth assassin playthrough. You can play this game over and over and over again and continue to find new ways of approaching missions and levels. The depth and richness of the world never gets old, and the gameplay improves upon most stealth games in myriad ways.
Best open-world RPG I played this year: Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
Step aside Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3 is still the best open-world RPG I've ever played. Blood and Wine wasn't as good as the base game, but it still had an infinitely more interesting universe, plot, and side quests than BotW. The world is so well realized that I didn't want to stop playing. Meanwhile, I struggle to play BotW for long periods of time given how throwaway the plot and writing is, and it struggles to make me emotionally invested in its world.
Best strategy game I played this year: XCOM 2
Granted I don't think 2017 has been a banner year for strategy games, but XCOM 2 is such a fantastic game that I haven't seen topped this year. I dropped 20 hours into this game over a weekend without even realizing it; it's so good at what it does and the emergent storylines that develop as you play through a campaign are unrivaled. I know this game had an expansion in 2017 but I haven't picked it up yet as I'm still thoroughly enjoying the base game.
Best narrative / walking simulator I played this year: Abzu
What Remains of Edith Finch comes very close, but Abzu took my breath away. I played the entirety of this game in one sitting on a Saturday night with the lights turned off, and it transported me to a magical world with amazing visuals and music that I did not want to leave. Yes there isn't much "gameplay" per se, but the emotional and sensory experience it puts you through is unrivaled in 2017.
There are a number of other games I haven't even listed here (Dark Souls III, Hitman, The Witness, Inside), but suffice it to say that I'm finding myself more thoroughly impressed with 2016's game output than 2017.
