It is time for my game of the year list. This has been a great gaming year for me with 44 games played. That is twice as many as my goal of 22 games, and 4 times as many as I played 2016. I have discovered three new genres, Shoot-em-up, walking simulators and graphic novel. I also recently discovered that scary games doesn’t scare me, but I haven’t played Resident Evil 7 in VR yet, so let’s see about that.
I’m going to list my top 3 games I played 2017. These are not necessarily released in 2017, it’s just that I played them this year. I also choose to list only 3 games, because while I have the capacity to do a list 10 good games from this year, I’m really only interested in promoting the game changers.
Let’s get started!
#3 Thumper
This game was released in 2016, but I didn’t finish it until early 2017. It is an unknown pearl of adrenaline, because once you enter that VR helmet and start up Thumper you will go into a world of a high speed beetle rhythm game.
This game is perfectly balanced. It throws you right into the action and teaches you by showing and not telling. The difficulty ramps up easy but in the end you will be doing ninja style rhythm moves that you only could dream of when you started.
Thumper gave me a completely new experience in 2017 and taught me that games still can make my heart race.
#2 Superhot VR
The second game on my game of the year list is Superhot VR. If Superhot was redefining the way we play FPS games, Superhot VR took this even a step further.
Imagine standing inside the FPS experience seeing the bullets fly past you, and you can even reach out with your gun and push the bullets out of their trajectories.
At first you’re marveled at being inside the world of Superhot, but pretty soon you start juggling guns, throwing knives and picking bullets out of the air. It is an amazing experience that I’ve never had before and that is why this game is on my GOTY list.
#1 What Remains of Edith Finch
This year I discovered that I like walking simulators and I’ve played several of them. Many of them have very strong story elements and leave you really affected.
What Remains of Edith Finch takes you out for a ride. It is not a long game, but it is so intense by telling each part of the story with new game play elements and in more and more innovative ways.
It leaves you puzzled and bewildered, and I think it might be impossible to not be affected by Edith and her family story. This is my game of the year because it told a new story I hadn’t heard before and let me experience it in a way I never experienced games before.
This is what gaming should be like in 2017.
Here my list should end. But I have a bonus for you. It is not officially on the list, but if I had time to finish it mostly likely would be there.
#BONUS Sky Force Reloaded
The return to shoot-em-up has been a huge thing for me in 2017 and I rediscovered this genre by playing Sky Force Anniversary. That game has been out a few years but was recently followed up by Reloaded, and “oh my!” what a game! It does everything the previous game does right and it does it even better.
This game represents my cooperative play together with my son that really took off this year and we have enjoyed many good games together.
If I had the time to finish this game before 00:00am 1 January 2018 it might push down Thumper to #4, but I’m really looking forward to finishing it in January.
Last but not least I wish you all a happy new gaming 2018!
Replay 