Prev Next 1 of Previous Next Like every year, The Verge site – which mainly deals with culture, technology and science – has written the ranking of the best video games of the year; after having chosen 11 in 2016, this year it has chosen 15. The editorial staff of the site wrote that it happened because 2017 was particularly good and even in a decade we will look at this year as «one of the best years for new video games »: because new games of historical sagas have come out (Zelda, Mario and Resident Evil) but also new-new things that have made themselves noticed and appreciated, such as Horizon Zero Dawn and Cuphead. On the list there is a bit of everything: things for PC and consoles, smartphone games that just need two euros and thirty seconds to get them, games that you can start for free, now, online, but then you would end up doing nothing else for the next three days.
Cuphead (PC, Xbox One) It is an independent video game – in the sense that it is made by a small production company – of the “shoot and run” series. Except it's inspired by 1930s cartoons like Popeye and Betty Boop, with a jazz soundtrack and a surrealist streak. It was thought by the brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, who created the production company Studio MDHR and who took seven years to do so. Nick Statt of The Verge wrote that, moreover, it is also a game “with an unforgiving difficulty”. Plot: two twins lose dice against the Devil and to avoid giving him their souls they must go to recover the contracts of others who owe their souls to the Devil.
Destiny 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) It is the new chapter, released in September (on PC in October), of a 2014 space shooter. The Verge explained that many players liked it less than the first but that according to the editorial staff continues to be, especially from a visual point of view , one of the most “aesthetically pleasing and beautifully designed”. He also spoke highly of the online multiplayer mode. The locations of the game are some moons (of Saturn and Jupiter), the planet Nessus and the European Dead Zone of the Earth. If you've been out of the loop for a few years, this trailer is worth watching to understand how trailers for certain video games are made today.
Hidden Folks (iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, Android) The simplest way to explain it, but partly wrong, is to say it's some kind of Where's Waldo? for smartphones and tablets. It is actually a puzzle game, one in which you have to wander around animated and interactive environments looking for things or people that are hard to find. But in his review, Claim Gartenberg wrote that it is an artistic game and that “the level of attention to everything is amazing and the result is a relaxing and fulfilling experience, even after hours of play.” But maybe after five minutes of not finding what you are looking for you have already cursed three times and threw your smartphone away.
Horizon Zero Dawn It is an open world game, that is, in which you can move freely in a rather large space, going wherever you want. The world it is set in is a bit prehistoric and a bit futuristic, populated by dangerous robot dinosaurs. The protagonist must explore it, gather resources, fight, survive. Best of all, Gartenberg wrote, are the stories that any player can create. Then there are many small moments of beauty: “the sun rising over a brilliant snowy field, the ripples of a river, the joy of winning against a giant robo-T-rex”.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U, Switch) It is the last chapter of one of the most famous and beloved sagas in the history of video games, but it is different: unlike the previous ones, it is set in an open world. That world still continues to be Hyrule, the place where the Zelda stories unfold. Also in this game you have to hunt, build weapons, turn and, in the end, survive. Andrew Webster of The Verge wrote that he pushes the limits of what an open world game can be a little further and that the freedom of exploration is “unprecedented”.
Monument Valley 2 It is the sequel to a famous game for smartphones and tablets, which was already famous and became even more so after it was seen in House of Cards a couple of years ago. The first was very popular, because it was artistic, relaxing and not easy at all. The second doubled the characters and improved the gameplay by adding possibilities and mechanisms to this game with “impossible architectures and environments that remind Maurits Cornelis Escher”. Gartenberg wrote that it is “a game that, literally, forces you to look at things from another point of view”.
Nier: Automata (PC, PS4) It is the sequel to Nier, which itself was a spin off of the Japanese series Drakengard, set in a fantasy world populated by humans and mythological creatures. Nier's story takes place thousands of years later, when humans left Earth and have to contend with hostile alien species. In Automata the protagonist and her companion-drone fight against robots, in a world almost uninhabited by men. It is a surprising game for some of its dynamics and in certain moments it can be difficult to keep up with it, but the editorial staff of The Verge thinks that, in the end, it is worth it.
Persona 5 (PS4) It is the sixth chapter of the Persona series (you thought it was the fifth, right?), Which was born from Megami Tensei, the very famous and very popular Japanese series about people able to summon demons and make them fight each other. Persona 5 centers on a group of teenagers with special mental abilities, and is set in a Tokyo school. There is nothing revolutionary compared to the previous ones and «we continue to have to alternate the normal daily life of a Tokyo student with the heavy burden of having to save the world». Webster wrote that it is perhaps “the only game that can make doing homework seem cool.”
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (Xbox One) But those who play it call it PUBG, and they know it's an MMOG, which stands for massively multiplayer online game: online game for many contemporary players. It works like this: each game can be played by up to 100 players. Everyone is parachuted to an island where they must search for weapons to survive and kill all opponents. The peculiarity is that the playing area shrinks over time, forcing players to stay in contact with others more and more. It's like the Hunger Games, but more cruel.
Resident Evil 7 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) The latest titles in the popular horror video game series weren't very popular after Resident Evil 4, which was well reviewed. This has fared much better. It is the first of the series, which at first was about zombies but then evolved and took other paths as well, to be in the first person. It continues to be, like all the others, a survival horror: in Italian it means that it is not recommended if you are scared of movies with bad and crazy people who pop out of the dark rooms of Louisiana farms.
Sonic Mania (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) The protagonist is one of those seven to eight video game characters that everyone knows, also because it has existed for just over 25 years. Gartenberg wrote that, for the series, this game represents “a breath of fresh air that was so much needed.” Because he had to do what they say the new Star Wars should do: please original fans and please even those who want new things and have different tastes.
Splatoon 2 (Nintendo Switch) It's a third-person shooter (you shoot a lot and you see the character you're playing with, which is different to seeing with his eyes). It is a shooter but as the title suggests it is not macabre and bloody; it is cheerful and colorful. Webster wrote that he was thinking of a mix of “Call of Duty and a paintball match between half-human and half-squid teenagers.” The most witty among you will have understood that it is a sequel, the most informed know that the first one came out in 2015: this second The Verge is better, because it has kept its approach and theme but has put much more on it.
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch) Other sites have also placed it at the top (often at the top) of their video game of the year lists. Because he does that thing of taking something that is considered almost sacred, Mario, and bringing it to a way of playing that is of the present, in a world (or rather, twelve worlds) very large and full of things to do and discover. Nick Statt of The Verge is keen to let you know that if you have a Nintendo Switch and haven't bought it yet, you are wrong.
Yakuza 0 (Playstation 3 and 4) It is the new game in a rather popular series and Webster wrote that it “manages to be the best game in the series and, at the same time, a great starting point for a new player.” It's set in 1980s Tokyo, you play two characters and there are both dramatic moments and much more frivolous things. “It's a game where your fight to prove yourself innocent can go astray for a night out at karaoke,” Webster wrote.
Universal Paperclips (free, on the internet) It is addictive. The aim is to produce as many staples as possible, based on this question: “If one day we created an artificial intelligence that has the sole purpose of producing as many staples as possible, what would happen?”. The game shows it to you. But, really, wait for the Christmas holidays.
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