My 5 Favorite Video Games of 2017

I’m not the first to say this, and I certainly won’t be the last: 2017 fucking sucked. Between the American political system going up in flames, parts of the country actually going up in flames or other countries being washed away by hurricanes, and personal medical issues that rocked my family, this year has been a bitch and a half to deal with. But it’s also been incredible for video games. We saw Capcom rise from the ashes of their poor decisions, and Guerrilla successfully transition from first person shooters to an open world action RPG. It was a year of gaming dreams coming true, which provided some much needed relief from the horrors of the real world.

To get this list started, I have to give some shout outs to the games of 2017 that either have to wait until after this list goes up, or just didn’t quite make the cut. Prey, Resident Evil 7, Heart of the House, Agents of Mayhem, and The Sexy Brutale were all games that I really enjoyed this year, but didn’t quite rank up against the ones that stole my heart. You can read my more in depth thoughts on these over at OkBeast. My deep apologies to Nier, Hellblade, BOTW, and LIS: Before the Storm. I’ve started each of you, but haven’t gotten far enough to have valid opinions. May we meet again in 2018. And finally, shout out to Thunderbird Strike, you slipped through the cracks this year, but now that you’re on mobile I’m definitely going to give you a try.

Now that those acknowledgements out of the way, let’s get on with what you’re really here to see: my top five games of 2017!

1. Night in the Woods

This was far and away the game I enjoyed the most and that left the biggest impact on me. It’s sad, funny, insightful, and more real than any other game I’ve experienced. The characters became my friends and neighbors, the story took a wild turn that made it even closer to reality, and the town of Possum Springs showed me its best and worst without restraint.

Night in the Woods hits on so many important issues like mental health, American industry, small town queerness, and access to higher education, and it handles each of them with thoughtful care. It would be easy to drop the ball on any one of these while juggling so many, but Infinite Fall wove them all together into a powerful, honest story about feeling lost in your 20’s.

Despite the heavy subject matter it dives into, NitW still manages to be funny and sweet. There were so many moments across my playthroughs that left me smiling or laughing out loud. Mae’s relationships with her friends and family are often hard, but they’re also heart warming and genuine.

There’s so much to dig into with this game, and I hope to eventually get my thoughts together enough to do so. Nothing else I played this year made me want to write a million essays, or start a cult dedicated to all the ideas that came from it (if you’re interested, hit me up; we’ll get cool jackets). That’s probably the highest praise I can give a game. When you find yourself with ten or so hours to devote to a game, please, please consider checking this one out. If you like great narratives, engaging characters, and cute 2-D art, Night in the Woods is for you.

2. Pyre

No game this year surprised me as much as Pyre did.

Originally, I had no interest in magical basketball, then I got itchy for something different gameplay-wise, so I downloaded it. Y’all, I really like ritualistic magic basketball. The systems are fun and satisfying, and they fuse with the plot, changing how you’ll play and how characters’ arcs will end depending on your choices. I had to change up my strategies and learn to play in ways that were antithetical to how I wanted based on who was available to me as the game went on.

Starting the game, I hit surprise number two: visual novel storytelling elements. I don’t know what I was expecting in that department, but it wasn’t clicking through text. The way visual novels tell stories really appeals to me, so I was immediately all in. Then, the story was good, like way better than anything I was expecting. Overall, it’s a relatively simple plot, but it ends up having a lot to say about the cost of freedom and changing oppressive systems.

Another aspect that took me off guard was how much I ended up loving each character, even the ones that weren’t on my team. They all have unique and complicated personalities that make them endearing in their own ways. The relationships that they develop with each other are interesting and often unexpected, demonstrating the depth of their personalities and the world building that went into this game.

Pyre is different from anything else I played this year. The combination of its gameplay, setting, and storytelling make it incredibly special and unforgettable.

3. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus 

In a year where people were seriously debating the morality of punching Nazis, Wolfenstein II was exactly what I needed. That game has no illusions about the morality of taking down Nazis, and leaves no room for a false equivalency between the Reich and the resistance. It acknowledges that yes, Nazis are people with dreams and families, but that doesn’t change the fact that they all need a bullet between the eyes.

While utterly ridiculous at times, The New Colossus tells a great story. In a wild world built on stolen ancient Jewish technology, BJ and crew go through some crazy shit, but ultimately they’re fighting to free their home from both a fascist regime, and the white complacency that got them there in the first place.

Wolfenstein II doesn’t pull punches when it comes to white Americans’ role in the Nazi takeover of the U.S. Grace, leader of the resistance movement in what remains of New York, flat out tells BJ that America fell because of white people. The game reminds him and us of this again and again through scenes in Roswell and Mesquite. Taking America back will be a war on two fronts, and the resistance has a lot of work to do.

This game made me gasp, go misty, yell, and cheer, something not a lot else that came out this year was able to do.

4. Butterfly Soup

Queer stories in media tend to suck. Queer movies usually end up being poorly written or horribly sad (sometimes if you’re real unlucky, they’re both), and video games don’t have a great history of treating queer characters well. Butterfly Soup is not like most queer stories.

The writing in this game is excellent. Storywise, it’s pretty simple, but it’s treated with care. Each of the four girls are fully fleshed out and feel like real people. They’re funny, awkward, and (sometimes) painfully reminiscent of what teenage years feel like.

Butterfly Soup isn’t ultimately a sad game, but it doesn’t shy away from the negative aspects of growing up, families, and the world at large. There are some very intense moments, but they don’t eclipse the overall positive message of the game.

Brianna Lei created a sweet, heartfelt, beautiful story that made me kind of give a shit about baseball, a huge accomplishment in and of itself. I’m so glad I heard about it from Waypoint, because it definitely made my year in gaming better than I thought it could be.

5. Injustice 2

Fighting games have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was little, my dad used to take me to the arcade around the corner from my house and we’d spend hours playing Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. When I got my PlayStation 2, those hours were devoted to Soul Calibur. Despite this history, I’m not a fighting game nut. I don’t follow the scene, and my strategies are probably awful compared to anyone who spends any amount of time with these games. But they’ll always have a place in my heart.

When I brought Injustice 2 home, my first instinct was to sit my dad down for a game. This franchise is special to us because it’s not just a fighting game, it’s a DC fighting game. Another thing we’ve always shared is a love of comics, especially DC, so this game hits every box for father-daughter bonding time. My dad’s arthritis makes it hard for him to nail combos, so I had to take it easy on him when we played, but even so, each match was amazing because it felt like being a kid again.

That’s why Injustice 2 is on this list. I haven’t spent as much time with it as something like Horizon or Persona 5, and I didn’t love it in the same way I loved all the other games on this list. But I got to punch my dad in the face with Catwoman, and see the joy on his face playing as some of his favorite characters in a way he’s never gotten to before. That’s a gaming experience that means more to me than anything that happened in other games this year. Its surprisingly good story-mode and the addition of Poison Ivy to the roster were the cherries on top.