Top 10 Games of 2017

Another year, another load of games, however I think my backlog has probably increased instead of decreased this year, no matter, onwards!

10. Finding Paradise

Waited for this since To The Moon, one of the greatest games of a sup-par genre that actually makes me enjoy it.

9. System Shock 2

My thoughts are literally above this post, just look up

8. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000

Intense action, fast gameplay, and fun/scary depending on the character picked.

7. Afrika

I'm glad it was good for the price I had to pay to have it sent to the UK. Pokémon Snap 2.

6. Railroad Tycoon 3

A lovely relaxing little sim, which my cousins steal my laptop so they can play it.

5. Thief 2: The Metal Age

Great stealth game, great improvement on the original

4. The Curse of Monkey Island

Years I've been waiting to play this game, I laughed more playing this than any other game this year.

3. The Witcher

Great RPG, can't wait to get into the rest of the series.

2. Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together

I only realised this yesterday, all the evil characters have dark hair, one guy can be evil depending on your choices and his hair actually goes black if he's evil, yet this is made by a Japanese studio. Still playing this to get all endings.

1. Persona 5

I've been waiting for this game since completing Persona 4, one of the few good turn based RPG series still around, amazing soundtrack one of the best of any game I've ever played, only disappointment was the 2 year delay on release.


Best Game I never got a chance to finish

Dark Souls

Got stuck on the Gravelord, Life gets in the way and now it lies there waiting for me to get back to it. I wanted to try beat it without a walkthrough, though I may change my mind on that.

Biggest Disappointment

Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaire's Conspiracy

They should've just ended the series. The biggest waste of money of any game I've played this year. Story was garbage, the characters are terrible, I don't know if they wanted to appeal to kids, but Layton was one of the few series I know non gamer's played, particularly adults. I won't be buying the next game in the series if it follows a similar design to this game.

Anyway, here's to 2018!

I think this is one of the all time greats.

I had played this game many times since I was a kid, but I didn't know that fact. lol.

Currently juggling 3 games (2 gifts: Escape Goat 2 + Divinity: Original Sin EE) plus the surprisingly addictive HOG/mobile mashup Farmington Tales.

The best thing about the last has been how appropriate it is for my 4 y.o. to play. I have to read most of the words, but at least most of the items are doable. A lot of fun to play together (and currently in an otherwise so-so Fanatical HOG bundle, but this alone makes it worth the $1).

My top 6 beaten in 2017:

Saints Row 4: Not as great as SR3, and some of the DLC missions were annoying, but an over-the-top ball of fun nonetheless.

Train Valley: Some quirks with the track pathing, and a few mechanics perhaps could have been a bit clearer up front, but I really had a lot of fun with this game.

HuniePop: Esp. on hard this game is going to challenge you tactically. Well, it challenges me, anyway. Lots of upside for a Match-3. Some of the bonus characters were pretty ridiculous, though. Still, I'd play this game again if they remade it with pets.

Ember: For not having much of a name/following, and more cliches than you can shake a stick at, I still really liked this RPG.

Epistory : Typing Chronicles As games based almost entirely on typing, this one has a lot to love. Great atmosphere, the way both the narrative and the landscape unfold in front of you. Likewise, some of the combat will push you to type complete words in a way few of us bother to do anymore at all, and furiously. Good fun. Complaints would be that the map is perhaps overly large by maybe 25% compared to what's in many stretches of it.

Grim Dawn: Some sort of ARPG. Not sure it's my favorite ever, but it was quite good in terms of both character builds, exploration, and combat. Good use of supplemental reading materials/hidden items.


Honorary mention:
Anomaly Warzone Earth (tower attack)
Clicker Heroes (idle/mgmt/clicker)
FATE (mid-oldschool ARPG)
Nightmares of the Deep 2: Siren's Call (HOG)
HunieCam - definitely not a deep game in any respect, and the price reflects that, but a few hours trying to crack the mechanics was pretty interesting. Once you do, though...there's nothing interesting left to it.

Happy New Year!

Won't be able to finish another game at this point (still playing through Master Mode in Breath of the Wild).

Biggest Surprises of This Year:

-What Remains of Edith Finch
Haven't played that many walking simulators, but this is probably my favorite one I've finished so far when it came to telling a story (a pretty depressing one too).

-BloodRayne: Betrayal
A decent side side scrolling beat 'em up that I actually had some fun playing, which is pretty amazing since BloodRayne 1 was an absolute borefest and the sequel was putrid dog shit.

-Bayonetta (PC Version)
A bit late to port the game to PC (8 years), but I'll gladly take it. Pretty amazing action game all around, even with the dumb instant death QTEs and oddball moves certain enemies have. Really had a blast replaying it (although Non-Stop ∞ Climax Difficulty was an absolute pain to Platinum).

Disappointments:

-Little Nightmares
Didn't play through the DLC, but after finding all the Nomes and Statues I didn't really feel like continuing. The platforming felt weird at times, some of the enemy hitboxes felt a bit off, and the 3D perspective didn't really do anything for me outside of a few areas. It was pretty looking, and the music was nice, but that was about it.

-Miitopia
Not really a sequel to Tomodachi Life, but after playing this I wish Nintendo made one instead. Outside of a few chuckles I got bored halfway through, and it ended up being a boring grind towards the end.

Favorite Games of This Year:

-Sonic Mania
A textbook example of nostalgia pandering since it's a 2D Sonic game that's almost identical to the original Genesis titles in terms of controls, physics, and level design with a few modern tweaks, but I honestly don't give a shit. It was a blast playing through this and ended up being my second favorite Sonic game (Sonic 3 and Knuckles is at the top).

-Super Mario Odyssey
Been waiting for a 3D Mario game that was similar to 64, and I couldn't stop playing once I turned it on. It controls beautifully, Cappy is super useful (both with and without the capture ability) and adorable, the levels were all great and fun to explore, and had an amazing soundtrack too. Easily my favorite Mario game (hell, even my favorite Nintendo game) in years.

My 2017 game summary

Games that I played this year from the worst to the best:

14. Beneath a Steel Sky bad joke even for free game...

13. System Shock 2 - I could not play it for longer time, for me this game is really boring.

12. Spelunky since you must finish the whole game on first attempt it became really frustrating for someone who do not play too much.

11. Jack Orlando: A Cinematic Adventure - This is really bad adventure, nor my nostalgic from childhood could help this game.

10. Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption - too linear RPG...

9. Gobliiins - average adventure game.

8. Duke Nukem - interesting piece of history, but since first Duke is really old game mechanic is too simple.

7. Flight of the Amazon Queen - adventure full of teen jokes and mostly logical puzzles sold for free.

6. Deadlight: Director's Cut - easy and short platformer for one weekend afternoon relatively funny.

5. Bio Menace for me one of the best platformer ever. Moreover for free.

4. Tropico Original and what is more important fun simulator of dictatorship, although you can be relatively kind to your people.

3. Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty Easier than original, but same great experience.

2. Divine Divinity - Due to compatibility issue on W10 did not finished. I can not understand how such great game could be hidden in front of me for such a long time... I will definitely try other games in series.

1.Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss - Although many years since game release, this game can still compete to new games. There are many possibilities what you can do with superb living (under)world. On the other hand be careful about inventory bug.

Not entirely sure, one of "medium" difficulty levels, probably erring towards easier ones.

If you have no objections, I'll start the thread for 2018. I'm gonna just gonna copy-paste your heading for that one as well.

Slain: Back From Hell (Linux)

This will be the last one for this year since I finished it a few minutes before midnight.
Well, the music and style of the game is great, when it comes to game-play, I have mixed feelings.
It is quite true to the old unforgiving platformers of the NES era while giving you a lot more checkpoints.
At times it feels unfair and random but there is a certain rhythm to the combat. Near the end enemies are so fast and strong that you have to jump-attack nearly everything.
The weapon system is as basic as it gets. You have a sword which later can be enchanted with fire or ice (axe). Fire has more attack speed while ice has more range and some enemies have a heat or cold resistance although I ended up using the frost axe most of the time since the added range is important for jump attacks since you die after very few hits.
If you manage to find the hidden talisman peaces - which are not hard to find - you stand a chance against the second phase of the last boss, so make sure to find those.
DirectInput game-pads are supported which isn't often the case anymore but delighted me greatly since I'd never play this game without a proper d-pad at hand and didn't have to fiddle around with a key-mapper in this case.
Although having been pissed a few times from it, it isn't a bad game, some of the checkpoints are quite awkwardly placed though, often either after a few very easy sections or after a long row of very hard fights.

So in conclusion: If you have an itch for really old-school platformers in the tradition of the first Castlevania and like metal as well as gritty style and see added value in a well working Linux port and proper game-pad support, you could give this a try, if you hate dying a lot and mind repetitive and more rhythm based combat, it might not.

6/10

And the final game I beat in 2017 is ... drumroll....

Hell Girls

Ecchi Match-3/Rpg hybrid in the vein of Puzzle Quest/Kingdoms/etc, but much shorter (took me 7 hours) and not as good. Yes, I played it with "the patch". The ending seemed rather anticlimactic, especially considering that it felt like a "final boss' minions" fight, not "final boss fight". But all in all, I had fun.

I didn't see your post until now (kind of hate working weekends sometimes). =/

Thanks for creating the new thread.

A little late but these are the games I beat in 2017. All of them are first playthroughs as I typically don't replay games.

Bloodrayne, Jan 2 (GOG)- A fun little game until the final boss wherein I encountered what I assume to be a bug that caused the screen to flicker black and the movement of the character to lag. Had to use a cheat to beat it.

Jade Empire Special Edition, Jan 16 (GOG)- Can't remember much about it now but I really enjoyed this one.

Red Faction, Jan 21 (GOG)- Non-offensive shooter

Gabriel Knight Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition, Jan 31 (GOG)- First experience with the Gabriel Knight series and I thought it was great. The story was good and the puzzles were good. I hope I enjoy the originals as much.

Gun, March 3 (PS2)- This was a fun western shooter. I hope the Red Dead series is like this only better.

Sam and Max: The Devils Playhouse, March 5 (PC Non-GOG)- A humorous adventure game. I haven't played a Sam and Max game I didn't like.

Invictus In the Shadow of Olympus, March 18 (GOG)- Easily the worst game I played of the year. There were one or two bugs that required a level restart but mostly it just wasn't fun. Just buy the most expensive units available and grind through the levels.

Painkiller Black Edition, April 15 (GOG)-Ugh I did not realize what this was until too late. This was not my kind of shooter.

Darksiders Warmastered Edition, May 19 (GOG)- I loved this game. I thought the mechanics were cool and the boss fights were good. I underutilized the combos as I typically do but it was a lot of fun.

Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy), May 23 (GOG)- As said many times before, the first half of the story is incredible. The second half of the story runs off a cliff but it wasn't enough to turn me off from the game. Some of the mini games were a pain but overall I enjoyed it. Looking forward to more like this from Quantic Dream.

Still Life 2, June 4 (GOG)- Not as good as the first Still Life but a serviceable adventure game.

Vampire The Masquerade Redemption, June 25 (GOG)- I wanted to like this so much. All I remember is that I could never hit anything, the companions were useless, and the story was meh.

A Boy and His Blob, July 13 (Wii)- A fun platformer but nothing too exciting.

Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers, July 13 (GOG)- An interesting and weird game but I didn't really enjoy it.

Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games, Aug 20 (GOG)- My first experience with the Jagged Alliance series. I enjoyed it but it slogged a bit too long and the difficulty really ramped up in the 2nd half.

Syberia 2, Aug 27 (GOG)- A pretty game but only an ok adventure.

Advent Rising, Sept 13 (GOG)- A lot of people are disappointed there is no sequel. The story was pretty good but I didn't enjoy the gameplay.

System Shock 2, Oct 28 (GOG)- This game was incredible. I loved the story and how it was told. The atmosphere was always tense. I hope I didn't miss anything by completely ignoring the Psi path.

Shadowrun Returns, Nov 5 (GOG)- This was a very fun TB RPG but much too short. I ended the game thinking it was only half over. Hopefully other Shadowrun games are a little longer.

Memoria, Nov 17 (GOG)- I really liked the story and characters of this adventure game. I didn't realize it was a sequel before I played. Hopefully it won't ruin the first game for me.

Saints Row 2, Dec 14 (GOG)- I don't typically play these types of games. I prefer the story missions and I don't really like most of the activities or races.

Waking Mars, Dec 19 (GOG)- This was a fun but short game that still went on a bit too long. The first half was fun and pretty original but the second half was a repetitive slog to collect seeds and advance to the next room.

And a couple of games I'm not sure the date I beat them.

Rayman Legends, (WII U)- This is probably the best platformer I've ever played. Granted I don't play too many but I'm trying to branch out. The music levels are incredible.

Super Mario 3D World, (Wii U)- I was playing this concurrently with Rayman Legends and I while this game was good it seemed to be lacking something.

Onimusha 2, (PS2)- I can see the seedling of a good game and good series here but I don't think this one was it.

La Pucelle Tactics, (PS2)- A couple of plot lines caused some of my characters to be underpowered for the whole game and some of the characters seemed useless anyway. I enjoyed it but I'm sure there are games that do it better.

Overall the best three games I played were System Shock 2, Darksiders, and Rayman Legends and the worst two were Invictus and Painkiller. Hopefully I can beat even more games in 2018.


I forgot one. New Super Mario Bros 2 for 3DS. A fun platformer made better since it can be played on the go.

Wow, what a list... Damn!
(Incidentally, 26 games in a year averages exactly 1 per two weeks.)

As for Redemption, remember finishing with Christof's dexterity at 100. Hitting was not a problem. And while Serena was in the party, it was a balancing act to keep her humanity at the lowest manageable level, without running too high a risk of unmanageable frienzies, to cast those nasties that require low humanity, so she was the squishy wizard, stay out of the fray and cast. The others, micromanaged as much as possible, burly fighter types had their uses, the others required nurturing and finding what roles they could fill.

I'm holding out hope Bloodlines is better.

I'd say nearly everyone will say you don't need to worry about that. (But don't expect the two to be anything alike. They both use VtM concepts, and that's about it.)