From the Pit: Baziel's Games of the Year 2017

This post originally appeared here.

Ok, so first free weekend of the new year. Here’s the games I played and loved in 2017:

*Assassin’s Creed series (Revelations, 3, Liberation, 4, Rogue, Unity, Syndicate),
*Darksiders series (1&2 - remastered editions),
*Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor,
*Antichamber,
*What Remains of Edith Finch?,
*Prey,
*The Talos Principle,
*The Turing Test,
*Brothers: Tale of Two Sons,
*Batman: The Telltale series,
*Firewatch,
*Journey,
*Legacy of Kain series (again)
*Tomb Raider 2 Dagger of Xian fan remake demo,
*Resident Evil 7 demo
*… And a special shout out to Persona 5 for having the most addictive soundtrack which I’m still humming even though I didn’t play the game just listened to someone else.

Gotta say I loved things like the open worlds of AC, the story and world of Darksiders (even though the game itself was so unreliable and prone to issues), loved the weird mind bending physics of Anitchamber, the mechanics of Brothers, the atmosphere of Prey and the creativity and sadness of Edith Finch etc etc

For the absolute best I’m kinda torn between two. I perhaps felt Assassin’s Creed Rogue was my favourite AC game and it probably edges it for the AAA games I played, with so much to explore and do in the world and with a plot that came back to match up with its previous games and nod towards the future - just a shame it was so hideously overshadowed on its release by the initial failures of its successor.

Not everything can be AAA though, and the game I’ve probably felt for most was the Talos Principle - a seemingly simple puzzle game that with a ‘what’s going on?’ storyline told in scraps that blossoms into a philosophical discussion on the nature of humanity and has a punch the air ending (if you pick the right one - pro tip do everything then go easy, hard medium in the endings). In many ways it’s like the opposite of my pick of last year’s bunch SOMA that leaves with the same 'that was awesome’ feeling - maybe don’t go so much into the DLC though.

For 2018 I’ve got AC Origins, Shadow of War, Hellblade Senua’s sacrifice and Evil Within 2 already queued on the playlist. It’s gonna be an interesting year.