My games of 2017
Here is a list of games I played (and finished) in 2017 (note: not necessarily games released in 2017) and I can recommend. It’s basically all games I finished, maybe excluding a couple of very small ones. There is around 70 of them, so the list is long :P
I’ll probably make proper posts about many of them, but here it is for now :) They are not in any particular order.
Best ones
A couple of games that I think were the best ones.
What Remains of Edith Finch
Even if “walking simulators” are not your thing, I’d still totally recommend that one. Amazing atmosphere, story and incredibly imaginative game. Must play.
What Remains of Edith Finch on Steam
Night in the Woods
Although probably not for everyone, but an amazing adventure. Great cartoon setting (although not a really cheerful game), really nice story about life problems, friendship and living in a small town, mixed up with some unreal things happening. Brilliant.
Tyranny
RPG game with a really unique setting and story. You’re not saving the world, nor you are a “good guy” (and this term might mean a different thing in here anyways). I got sunk in almost from the first minutes. Made on the same engine (and same people) as Pillars of Eternity, with some changes. Really good.
Layers of Fear
A masterpiece (pun intended) horror walking simulator. But fear not (ok, I’ll stop), it’s one of the best horror pieces there is. Explore the house of a painter and uncover his dark story, sinking into madness..
The Flame in the Flood
I’m not a big fan of survival games, but this one was a great adventure. Accompanied by a dog, survive in the world that was flooded for some reason. Very nice art style, in an isometric 2D, crafting-based game. Although the game looks fairly simple at first, there are quite a lot of mechanics and new stuff to discover along the way. Very chill atmosphere, with a bit of a challenge.
The Flame in the Flood on Steam
Pyre
Sports game mixed with a story-rich, visual novel like travel? Sounds interesting, and it really is. Supergiant Games delivered another great game (if you didn’t play Transistor or Bastion, I also recommend both of those!). Wonderful visuals, interesting world and really nice gameplay, paced between travelling with relationship building and sport matches with team management. Top it off with amazing soundtrack and overall quality.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Another masterpiece. Dive into dark Celtic mythology with Senua - a female warrior who suffers from “a curse”, trying to rescue her loved one. Uncover the dark secrets and fight with the gods, pushing through horrors inside - psychosis. Game was created with specialists and people suffering from mental illness, to recreate how terrifying and awful those can be. For me - absolutely terrifying, one of a kind experience. The best audio design and performance from the main character.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice on Steam
Ori and the Blind Forest
Simply - one of the best platformer adventures. Beautiful world, heartwarming story, challenging mechanics and a real crispy gameplay. Can’t wait for the second part, that is coming!
Ori and the Blind Forest on Steam
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Standalone DLC for Dishonored 2. Expands the story of Billie Lurk, giving us another great adventure in this unique world. Storyline is really good, great mechanics from Dishonored 2, slightly simplified gameplay (which is good for a smaller DLC) and different approach to abilities (which changes a lot!) - a proper way to do spin-off DLCs.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider on Steam
Gorogoa
Probably the smallest of games here, but how mesmerizing and unique. One of a kind puzzle game, telling us a story. Nothing more to say - just play it!
Little Nightmares
A cartoon-style platformer? Well, it’s not happy at all - it’s one of the creepiest games I played. As a little girl, try to escape from the ugly place that you found yourself in. It really feels like a horrifying nightmare that you want to escape from. Art style, graphics, gameplay, audio quality - this game has it all.
Stories Untold
Everyone makes that comparison, but it really is accurate. Did you like Stranger Things? This game is totally for you. Play through 4 creepy stories and feel the atmosphere of ’80s. Must play for people that like to be frightened a bit.
Others
Warning: the list is quite long ;)
80 Days
Ever wanted to travel around the world in 80 days? Well, you can try this one - a rather small game, about time and resource management, with some planning involved. A chill game, with quite many story arcs involved in it.
Agata Christie - The ABC Murders
For anyone liking detective games - I can recommend it. Story is good (well, duh), with decent-ish gameplay. If only you can stand the Belgian French accent ;)
Agata Christie - The ABC Murders on Steam
Beat Cop
Nice retro game, packed with ’80s cop shows references. It’s pretty much a time management game, so it gets slightly repetitive after a while, but it was pretty nice.
The Bridge
Probably a must play for puzzle/logic games enthusiasts. Travel through an Escher like levels, sprinkled with Newton’s nightmares. Play with gravity, time and perspective. All of that in a pretty grim style.
Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today
Really good adventure, point and click game, set up in really grim times. Woken up in a post-apocalyptic like world (on just times), try to find what’s going on. Proper example of adventure game - exploring new locations for new items to use in other places. Story is really good and interesting, ending with a cliffhanger - the next game is being developed.
Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today on Steam
DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE 2
Guilty of being a Dragon Ball fan. Although the game has it’s weird moments and all (and there is a lot of grind if someone likes to), the story is quite interesting and the fights are still super enjoyable. Definitely improved from the first one, especially in teaching how the fights work and what can you do (there is a proper “school” of learning new and advanced techniques).
DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE 2 on Steam
The Franz Kafka Videogame
This is a weird one. Well, title might suggest it ;) It’s basically a puzzle game, with a lot of surreal elements. I enjoyed it, but wasn’t anything spectacular (and was really short). Worth checking out if it’s on a big sale ;)
The Franz Kafka Videogame on Steam
Hard West
What happens if your mix XCOM, western and some dark rituals? This game. Although the game has it’s issues (and at times feels like a low quality game), it should be still enjoyable for fans of tactic games (unless idea of demons in wild west isn’t repulsive). There is a lot of unique mechanics, really fitting the western setting. Also, campaign is separated to several different stories, which are linked (or not) with each other. Probably not worth the whole price, but still a decent game.
Her Story
Yeah, I know it’s quite old. But that doesn’t mean it’s a great story and a really interesting game. You start with “ok, what’s even my purpose?”, go through a “oh wow, that’s so interesting” to “holy shit, I figured it out, wow, what a story”. One of the best and unique story telling games there is.
Hidden Folks
Do you remember “Where’s Wally?” (or “Where’s Waldo?” for US folks)? Did you like it? This is definitely a game for you. Find hidden people/objects/other things in an interactive environments, hand drawn and animated, accompanied by great sound layer (where most of the sounds are done by humans, seriously, it’s hilarious). It’s a lot of fun, which gets really tricky and hard on the big areas (and they are really big).
Small logic games
I’m a sucker for good logic games from time to time. So I grouped a bunch:
Telltale Series
Telltale had a really good year again - and as a fan of their work, they are obviously here.
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series (Steam): I enjoyed it a lot. Good comedy action, and maybe even if “another telltale game”, it drew out what is good from characters and played it well.
- The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (Steam): I feel like somewhat different from previous seasons, but still having that same atmosphere that keeps you in.
- Batman: The Enemy Within - The Telltale Series (Steam): even if the season didn’t end yet, I feel that it’s much better than the first one. Showing the early days of many villains (and other characters), including new creations of them (Joker is still very interesting) like also giving their known nature (Harley Quinn is smashing this season, seriously). Can’t wait for next episodes :)
Human: Fall Flat
Does it look like a “youtube” game? Well it is, but it’s also great fun. Learning how to move around and use the arms of the guy is fun, puzzles and places are quite interesting and really leveraging what he can do. Mastering climbing gives a lot of satisfaction, as well as performing a lot of other stuff here. Recently they also added multiplayer mode, which I saw on stream and was a lot of fun ;)
The Lion’s Song
Check out my post about it here.
The Little Acre
A really cute, cartoon style adventure game. More of the side of being funny and easy, but still enjoyable. Probably the biggest flaw is that it’s really short, only about 2 hours.
Metropolis: Lux Obscura
Well, that’s an interesting one. It’s basically a noir comic, when some of your actions are pushing the story in a different path (there are 4 endings IIRC). But to progress it, you need to fight. And fighting is done by… “line 3 or more” game. I’m not joking. But it’s done pretty well, so it’s somewhat engaging. But the art background - the noir style and everything around it - it’s really good.
Metropolis: Lux Obscura on Steam
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
A “big one”. Well, as much as I enjoyed playing it, it’s not without flaws. If you enjoyed playing the first one - play it. It’s still crispy regarding killing orcs and strongholds are a new, quite interesting thing. Regarding story, well.. it’s nothing amazing, but it has it’s moments (so, similar to first one). Now, there were much controversy about lootboxes in the game and shit, and well.. I don’t want to enter the subject. I didn’t need any lootboxes in the game, and I didn’t felt that they were needed. But, the annoying thing was the “real ending” - after finishing the campaign, you have a big grindfest of defending your strongholds. And it’s really repetitive and uninteresting - I actually didn’t finish that part, because there was no real reason to. I watched that ending cinematic on youtube (what a great reward for grind). But still - it was an enjoyable gameplay.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War on Steam
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You
One of my favourite story telling games recently. Touching subjects of surveillance, terrorism and conspiracies. Really good story telling, interesting gameplay and choices to take, that matter. I totally recommend it and can’t wait for the next part which is developed now.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You on Steam
Reigns
A small silly game, that you can kill some time with. Rule a kingdom by making decisions - you only have 2: left or right. Yep. Interesting game, packed with a ton of jokes and many things to discover. Underneath, it’s a resource management (or rather resource balancing) game, which encourage you to memorize what a given choice gave you (or took from you) and is better in current situation.
Samorost 3
Another part of a wonderful point and click adventure. I remember many years ago, the first part was a game made in Flash (I know, right?). Wonderful art, amazing audio and music, no text and weird world. 100% recommended for adventure game lovers.
The Silent Age
A short adventure game about time travel, not sure what to add more ;)
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Another oldie. I’m not a great fan of South Park, and too much of its humour can become annoying, but I have to admit that the game is true to it. South Park aside, I was surprised that the game is an actual RPG, with turn based combat. For someone that can’t stand South Park, it’s totally a no go. But for all the others - it’s a really nice game.
South Park: The Stick of Truth on Steam
The Stanley Parable
This one is even older ;) Probably the best satire game ever. Although a walking simulator and nothing else really, it’s engaging and a good laugh. Recommended for everyone.
A Story About My Uncle
I guess couple of older games in a row. An interesting platformer, with quite unique mechanics, moving us to a secret world, searching for our uncle. Maybe the game isn’t a masterpiece itself, but the platforming mechanic in it is really enjoyable and satisfying.
A Story About My Uncle on Steam
SUPERHOT
A unique shooter game. Or somewhat a puzzle shooter. Probably everyone heard about it. I enjoyed it a lot, although it’s really short.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm
Prequel to an amazing Life is Strange. This time we uncover the past of Chloe, which means that the adventure will be somewhat different, as she is really different from Max. Although it’s not better than the first part, it’s still a really nice adventure game with choices.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm on Steam
Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth
Even if the third (and last) book is not released yet, it’s still one of my favourite adventure games. Based on the quite popular - and quite old - book, you can be sure the story is really good. Story told from perspective of different people, initially not connected but later on intertwined. Fighting for power, love, religion, with constant plotting of wealthy and clergy - just a great story and a great game. Daedalic Entertainment delivers again.
Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth on Steam
Blackwood Crossing
Adventure game about siblings and their connection. A rather sad and weird story, moving us to world of imagination. I wasn’t blown away by it, but it was a nice, short game, that was made very well. The story and the conclusion wasn’t really something great, but probably still worth trying.
Here They Lie (PS4 only)
The first VR game for PS4, released later as a non-VR version. A really creepy game, really. Creepy, filthy and disgusting. There are times where it’s creepy, scary, and really really weird and disgusting (especially the middle part in the city - whole game is worth playing because of it). When it comes to story, it’s just a one big allegory of life and love and leaves a lot to interpret. It’s PS4 only, but if someone can play it and likes creepy games - I totally recommend it.
Here They Lie on playstation.com
Kholat
A horror walking simulator, uncovering the mystery behind the Dyatlov Pass Incident in Soviet Union. Travel through mountains in winter to uncover what really happened. Experience the surreal and don’t get caught by… something out there. With interesting back story, great narration from Sean Bean and unique approach to map and navigation, it’s very enjoyable. Regarding navigation - you have a map and a compass, no GPS, and you only have coordinates of interesting places. You can find places with current coordinates, so you can orient yourself. It’s challenging at times, especially that the paths are not that obvious in winter forest and mountains.
Hitman
Reboot of the series - which in my opinion was really good. Unfortunately, game was somewhat crucified for being released in episodes, but I don’t care. It was a great Hitman experience, with a lot of ways to achieve your goal, lot’s of replayability (especially that for good results you unlock new starting points and/or equipment and you can try new tactics). Even if somewhat hard at times (well, depending on your difficulty settings, which are very customizable), it was great to be Agent 47 again. Very big props for customizable difficulty settings (which can vary from “game is playing itself” to “almost no HUD at all”) - I recommend disabling most tips, so you need to really scout your area to discover ways to achieve your goals.
Hand of Fate
Really interesting game - exploration mixed with deck building (somewhat). It’s a great idea that keeps a really nice atmosphere, because of the amazing dealer mainly. Combat is mostly skill based, not turn based, with involvements of card in possession but is… weird. It’s not the best aspect of the game, even if one of the main ones. But still, the game is really good and I can recommend to anyone.
The Sexy Brutale
Yes, the name might be confusing - it’s not a porn game. It’s a unique puzzle/mystery game - you need to solve the death cases of guests of a mansion and save them. Wait, what? Yeah, you’re experiencing a sort of “groundhog day”, where you need to figure out what happens and try to save them. The issue is - they cannot see you, or you fail. It’s a really interesting game, with an amazing soundtrack and great art style.
Seasons After Fall
Great looking and cute platformer puzzle game. Travel through nature in all 4 seasons and solve some platformer puzzles by using and switching between different seasons. A really interesting idea with a good gameplay and chill atmosphere.
RiME
Beautiful game, being a platformer, with much exploration and puzzle solving. It’s art style is magical and reminds me of Disney’s movies, whereas the world is like from The Last Guardian. The game doesn’t have any text, but even without that it’s designed in a way that you actually know what to do, and it’s full of emotions.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
Not a super fresh one, but hey, Sherlock Holmes game! For me, a perfect impersonation of Sherlock Holmes. It’s a real detective game, where you actually search for clues and make some connections between them to deduce what really happened. There is a lot of decision making in terms of connecting the clues. Once you connect all the stuff and decide what really happened, you won’t get information if it was the “correct” choice - although you will receive some information about past cases in next ones. So the mystery about if you were right is still hidden (you can check it in game, but it’s hidden by default). This was a really nice touch into it. Great game. One thing that I could be picky on, that you actually can’t go wrong or miss something in it - which made it somewhat easy, but still very enjoyable.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments on Steam
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter
Another great Sherlock Holmes game. Although it didn’t change a lot from the previous one (Crimes and Punishments) there are a couple of different things in (I kind of liked the previous Holmes look, but oh well), and the story is much different. As well as the other one - must play for fan of mystery games.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter on Steam
Blues and Bullets
Episodical game, that never got finished (they released 2 of 5 episodes) and from what I know - it will never be finished. Nevertheless, it’s a really nice noir style game. It’s kind of a mystery game, with decision making - somewhat like Telltale games. The noir style is really cool and it’s a pity that it wasn’t finished.
Dreamfall Chapters
Yeah yeah, I know, how could I not play it before?! Totally a must pick for adventure game lovers - although you might want to play earlier games (The Longest Journey series), it’s one of the best adventure games there is.
Silence
A great sequel to another adventure game, The Whispered World. Enter a beautiful world of Silence in this really cute, but somewhat dark story. Classic point and click game with a great atmosphere. Oh yeah, and Spot <3
This is the Police
A very interesting resource management game. You play as a police chief, who “inherited” mafia connections. Juggle around with using your police force lawfully and helping mafia to make your own profit. A pretty nice management game, with a really good and interesting story in the background.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4 only)
Standalone DLC to Uncharted 4, showing the story of Chloe and Nadine. A different approach, because Nathan Drake is not in the game, not even mentioning he’s not the main character. But the synergy between both of the girls is really nice, and the game is still a great adventure-movie like game. The sights are so beautiful, that you actually want to just stand and look around. A must have for Uncharted fans.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy on playstation.com
The Unfinished Swan (PS3/PS4 only)
First game from creators of What Remains of Edith Finch. A really interesting game, with unique mechanics. Starts with you travelling through a world that is entirely white - and you only uncover it by shooting paint at it. It tells a story about imagination, a boy travelling through it in search of his mother. Amazing idea and a great game.
The Unfinished Swan on playstation.com
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Second part of the series reboot. As usual - crispy and bloody gameplay with an even crazier story. Not sure if better than the first one, but somewhat different. Still very enjoyable - and at higher difficulty levels, quite hard.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus on Steam
Kona
A great mystery/detective game. Set in winter French Canada, get into a role of old detective hired by one of the locals. Experience strange blizzards, investigate surreal events and try to find what the hell is going on. An devnture game, with a lot of mysteries involved and sprinkled with some survival elements. Amazing atmosphere and interesting story.
Late Shift
Late Shift gets FMV games to a point how they should really work. It’s really an interactive movie - the part where you make decisions is so well done, that it’s really a smooth experience. The story is also modern and engaging, with a decent actor play. There is a lot of endings possible, so there is a lot of replayability - they actually made a lot of movie material for that.
Yesterday and Yesterday Origins
Great adventure games (the story and it’s prequel), telling a story about a guy that cannot die.. or technically he can, but he returns back as younger self but without any memory. Amazing story and really good adventure game, with an interesting art style. Recommended for adventure game fans.
Puzzle Agent and Puzzle Agent 2
2 great puzzle/adventure games from Telltale, from times where they did also other games ;) If you love puzzles and riddles - maths, patterns, astronomy, logic and all other stuff - I totally recommend this. The games are telling a story of a case, investigated by an agent of U.S. Department of Puzzle Research (seriously) and the investigation is going forward by solving puzzles. The game is done in a comic style and it’s packed with a lot of humour. One of the greatest puzzle games I played.
The Room and The Room Two
One of the best puzzle games there are - and when I mean puzzle, I mean real puzzles. Imagine secret locks and mechanisms, like from Da Vinci prototypes - that’s what this games are about. Try to crack codes, open locked chests and weird boxes. Just amazing games.
Bonus!
And for a bonus: games I really don’t recommend.
Black Mirror
Although I didn’t play the old Black Mirror series, it was looking quite promising. Mystery game, with some unnatural elements - sound like a game for me! Well, I was totally disappointed. The game quality is… very low. There is full voice acting, and it’s ok - not great, just ok. Graphics are quite outdated, and controls are just awful. Game baits you at the beginning that there will be puzzles to solve, which is a really interesting part for me, but turns out that there was basically only 1 or 2 puzzles, and not really sophisticated. The story didn’t really engaged me, probably because the game felt really “stiff” and weird. And to even worsen my experience - around 40 minutes before the end, my game bugged out (characters and my inventory disappeared) and I needed to restart. How amazing the experience was, when it turned out that my save game was also corrupted and the game was just unplayable. Finished the game watching the playthrough on youtube, frustrated. I won’t recommend it to anyone, unless you have a lot of spare time and you get it for free.
Old Man’s Journey
Seemed like a delightful, chill game. From time to time, I love to play those kind of games. And… I was just bored out of my mind. Ok, there was 1 interesting mechanic in the game, but also repeated over and over, and over again. The story was also really bland and I didn’t really take much from it.
Torment: Tides of Numenera
A bigger title, but I was totally unimpressed, and actually bored, although I finished it. The world of Numenera is interesting, the aspects of being reborn and whatnot (which is the core of it) also… but not quite. I wasn’t really driven by the story. I felt that the quality of the game is also “meh” - nothing game breaking, but felt a little stiff. Combat (or rather “crisis”) system was supposed to be “unique, new take” - and maybe it is, but in most of the places it was just tiresome. I get it, that the game was aiming for rather talking yourself out of combat or using some skills, but it really didn’t worked that well. And in a occasion of real fight - it was a nightmare to control. If you want a good RPG game - just pick up Tyranny, or suffer the torment (them puns, are everywhere).
Torment: Tides of Numenera on Steam
Bohemian Killing
As a sucker for mystery games, I picked that one. Well, although it has a nice idea of the core mechanic, I’m not sure if the execution of it is good enough to be enjoyable. The game felt really stiff and weird at times, quite limiting and not really fulfilling. It has a lot of replayability, if someone wants to uncover all the endings and whatnot, but I cannot imagine playing through it again, sadly.
Asemblance
Supposed to be a small, psychological horror. But well… I don’t really know what this game was supposed to offer. You actually don’t even know what you are doing in game, and there is no end-game or anything - you just get achievements for doing some super specific stuff and uncovering something. Don’t even try it.