Hits & misses of 2017

2017 saw many great games, however it wasn’t short on disappointing ones either. Some were great concepts while others just failed to live up to the hype. Let’s take a look at some of the best and worst 2017 had to offer.

Star Wars Battlefront II
We had hoped that DICE would learn valuable lessons from 2015’s Battlefront and implement them in its sequel, to an extent they did. Battlefront II had more robust multiplayer offerings in addition to a full single player campaign. But the end result was a mess of components that neither gelled well together nor were they any good on their own. The shooting still did not feel great and the disastrous story mode can be easily labelled as one of the worst FPS campaigns of this generation. It was also the centre of a massive controversy regarding lootboxes, as the game was designed to make players grind for dozens of hours in order to unlock their favourite characters.

Mass Effect Andromeda
Due to the relatively small amount of gameplay footage shown at events, there was a lot of concern leading up to the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Strangely enough, combat ended up being the best part of one of Bioware’s weakest games. Open world games had undergone dramatic changes this generation and having massive maps with tons of quests was no longer enough. This is exactly the mistake Andromeda made. In addition, the cast itself was boring and players had a hard time connecting with the lead characters. The quality of writing was also consistently poor and the game launched with an astounding number of bugs, probably the most for a big budget game since Assassin’s Creed Unity. With EA now putting the franchise on hold, we can safely say that the Mass Effect brand is forever tarnished.

 

Lawbreakers
The highly anticipated shooter from Cliff Blezinsky(Gears of War) was supposed to shake up the multiplayer landscape with its focus on movement and verticality. A sort of FPS MOBA combined with a lot of jumping. While it definitely got some things right, the constant emphasis of movement and combat was something that didn’t sit down too well with everyone, especially on some classes. Despite a disappointing launch year, the games developers are keen to keep the game alive and can hopefully turn things around in 2018

Need For Speed Payback
The go to franchise when it comes to racing games, Need For Speed is in a bit of an identity crisis. At this point what haven’t they tried to restore the former king of racers to is rightful place. The latest edition was supposed to bring in a story driven narrative to an open world racer and while it was definitely an enjoyable story the amount of grinding required to progress really puts you off. Having to concentrate on upgrading just your main car to progress defeats the purpose of giving you access to hundreds of cars and customisations. It comes nowhere near the likes of Forza Horizon that offer freedom, great driving and a lot of great cars.