The New Year has just begun, and it brings with it the usual hype train of players looking forward to their most anticipated releases of the year. These are the 5 games that I’m most looking forward to in 2017.
Horizon Zero Dawn.
Some of my excitement for this game stems from the fact that I just upgraded to a 4k TV, and this is one of the titles which supports 4k on the PS4 Pro. I was blown away by Horizon Zero Dawn’s visuals, even while watching the trailers in 720p on my 5-inch phone display, so the potential to play it in 4k on my television has me extremely excited. One of my favourite movies when I was younger - even today - is the original Jurassic Park, and how fantastic the effects were - how good did the dinosaurs look? What’s better than Dinosaurs, you ask? Robot Dinosaurs. The game takes place in a dystopian future where Humanity lost the war to the robots (John Connor apparently called in sick for this one) and robot dinosaurs now rule supreme. I hope this game doesn’t suffer from the hype train that is building, as it has the potential to be a Game of the Year contender.
Death Stranding
(Gaming Editor’s note: My money’s on 2019 for this one, but I admire Kieran’s optimism)I don’t know too much about this game, other than Hideo Kojima is making it. Metal Gear Solid 3 is possibly my favourite game of all time, even though I could not explain the plot of Metal Gear if my life depended on it. Metal Gear Solid V was good, but I found it lacking - perhaps because Konami decided to fire Kojima before development finished - so I have high hopes that Death Stranding can scratch that itch for a Hideo Kojima masterpiece. The game looks like a typical Kojima game, if they can be described as typical. I’m guessing you play as Norman Reedus’ character from the trailer, with Mads Mikkelsen (who seems to be in everything nowadays) playing the antagonist. There have been two lengthy trailers thus far, though neither explained very much. That, though, is why Kojima is so fantastic: you don’t know what is going on while playing his games, but you love every second of it. I’m optimistic for a 2017 release for this one, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t come out until 2018 at the earliest.
God Of War
I realise that both Death Stranding and God of War are PS4 exclusives, but I play on PS4 so I apologise to the Xbox and PC players out there. The E3 trailer for the newest God of War was stunning: the live musical performance; the slow reveal of Kratos; the epic Norse Mythology-style setting and enemies - somewhat reminiscent of Skyrim - all sent shivers down my spine, and I didn’t even play the original God of War trilogy. The game seems to focus on Kratos and his son, who he is trying to develop a relationship with, and there is an interesting dynamic between them as Kratos struggles to contain his Spartan rage, while also needing to provide guidance for his son. The game seems to adopt a grittier feel; I don’t want to say more realistic, but certainly not as over-the-top violent as the original trilogy. We can expect more quiet moments of character development in this one.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
The only reason this game isn’t my number one most anticipated game is because I don’t have much longer to wait. The game finally has a release date as of the recent CES expo (March 23rd in Europe). I have already written a full page in this paper before about Mass Effect and why I’m looking forward to it, but there’s a little bit more information out there now. The story is still pretty vague, you travel to the Andromeda Galaxy to find a new home for humanity, blah blah blah. New details have emerged about the class system, as in the original trilogy you picked a class; soldier, technician, etc. and played through the whole game with that class. Now it seems you can change this up on the fly to adapt to the situation. The game looks visually stunning, and it has 4k support.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Mass Effect: Andromeda is my most anticipated game at the moment, but Red Dead Redemption 2 is my most anticipated game in the long run. I have written a full page breaking down a one-minute trailer for this game before, and nothing new has emerged about it since, but it’s Rockstar and they know what they are doing, so I have faith that this is going to be a Game of the Year contender. We can speculate until the cows come home about the story of this game, whether it be a prequel or a sequel, but regardless of whether Rockstar choose to continue the story of John Marston, I look forward to seeing what they do with the game.