Top 5 video games of 2017 worth dying for
This has been an interesting year for the video game industry. Backed by the advances in silicon technology, games this year have become better than ever. With improved graphics and deeper, more immersive storylines, video games this year have taken the industry to a new high.
With 2017 drawing to a close, we take a look at the best video games of the year.
Assassin's Creed Origins
Released on October 27, Assassin's Creed Origins already looks to be on course to become the best-selling game of the franchise. According to Ubisoft, the game's developer, the title sold 100 per cent better than Assassin's Creed Syndicate in the same first 10 days of its release.
The game takes the users into one of the most alluring settings yet in the series: ancient Egypt. Playing as Bayek of Siwa, players are taken through a journey where they are strung through a twisted story of pharaohs, corrupt leaders, and the plights of the "lower class" at a time when they were routinely worked to death and nobody batted an eyelid.
The game uses redesigned mechanics and a beautiful map that recreates ancient Egypt’s varied architecture and environments to give the player a unique experience. The title is available on Xbox, Playstation and PC, and comes highly recommended.
Call of Duty: WWII
This latest title from the award-winning series by Activision has been developed by Sledgehammer Games. Like the name suggests, the title takes the game back to the roots of the franchise – Second World War based first-person shooter. The game feels like an attempt at rebooting the series as a grounded, sober military shooter which captures the blood, sweat, horrors and the heartbreak of the bloodthirsty war of the 1940s.
Built on top of a game engine that facilitates brilliant looking visuals, fluid action and more than a few breathtaking moments, the game's plot keeps you hooked for hours. The title also has a great multiplayer mode and a Nazi Zombie shooter add-on that is great fun to play.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War
The sequel to the highly popular Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, this new game ticks all the (right) boxes. The game improves on the thumb-numbing combat system from its predecessor, and uses the entertaining nemesis system of 2014's Shadow of Mordor, to provide an entertaining experience that sees gamers going through hordes of orcs at a stretch.
The game revolves around the game's protagonist - ranger Tallion - and his quest for revenge against Sauron’s minions in Mordor. However, where the Shadow of Mordor - much like its predecessor - shines is by giving the enemy, a personality of its own, that sees a player's interaction changing how the Orc leaders of the game evolve.
The sequel also improves on the game's map, with a lot more being added to the mix to ensure that gamers are hooked on to the Orc killing madness of the game for hours.
II: The New Colossus
Very few games have the ability to become an experience in themselves that transports the gamer to an alternate reality. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus does just that. With a powerful storyline set in an alternate universe where the Nazis "win" the Second World War and plunge the world into a deep pit of hate and violence, the game sets the floor for a revolution at the hand of its main protagonist William Joseph "BJ" Blazkowicz.
Playing as the BJ, the game takes you on a wild Nazi-killing ride that not only keeps you engaged, but makes you beg for more when the story finally ends.
With lots of guns, and more than enough Nazis to shoot at, stands out as arguably the best first-person shooters of the year. But above all else, the game features Obergruppenführer Frau Irene Engel - arguably the strongest antagonist the video gaming universe has seen this year - delivering some really mean and spine-chilling, but brilliant lines in thick German accent.
Sample this for taste: "For your crime you will die like vermin. I will hunt you down. At the end of the Earth, I will find you. Your skin charred and your fats rendered. Your kind exterminated. In the end, I will feed your flesh… to the furnace." – Frau Irene Engel to BJ during an interaction in the game.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
The seventh installment of the Resident Evil franchise is a gruesome and eerie experience. The game with its brilliant mechanics and plot plays on the most basic of human fears by putting gamers bang in the middle of incredibly unsettling and unpleasant locations.
One of the more important changes that the developers have brought is to bring the game back to a first-person platform, where protagonist Ethan Winters searches for his wife in an abandoned plantation inhabited by the Baker family. Through the game, you use weapons and tools to fight against the Baker family and other side enemies in the game.