I really like making and reading top 10 lists every year: there’s a kind of solidarity in everyone distilling all of the games they played in a year down to the 10 they enjoyed the most. At the same time, there are well more than 10 games worth talking about in any given year, and I often play a good chunk of them. That’s true yet again for 2017, and since I’ve stopped regularly writing about games I’ve found that ranking of all the ones I played from the year is an effectively quick way to talk about them. It’s also pretty fun :)

With that, for the second year running, here’s my new tradition of ranking every game I played from 2017. Obviously I can’t get to everything; some notable omissions include Resident Evil 7, Divinity: Original Sin II, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, and Fire Emblem Echoes (all games I might get to someday). But I still touched a good number of games in 2017, and I do my best to rank them here. I consider this a “rough” ranking, meaning the margins are often slim, and I didn’t stress over it too much. But it’s close enough, and I had fun putting it together. Thanks for reading, and away we go!

1-10: See my GOTY 2017 list.

11. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. I like a lot of what Hellblade does, and it was my “tough cut” for 2017. From a presentation standpoint, the visuals are very striking, and the audio design is among the best I’ve ever heard; those voices are just gnarly. And of course, the performance by Melina Juergens is phenomenal. This was my emotional gut-punch game for the year, and hit me pretty hard. What holds it back is something I experienced in a number of otherwise good games this year: I didn’t really enjoy playing it. The combat became a tedious slog over time, and the environmental puzzles were tedious from the start. I could see the argument for that tedium being some kind of metaphor for mental illness, but the interactive parts still bugged me just enough to keep Hellblade off my top 10. Great game though.

12. Horizon: Zero Dawn. This is one of those games that I had a mostly good time playing, but once I put it down almost nothing stuck with me. I think it is a very well-made game in a lot of ways, and it’s downright gorgeous at times. But it perhaps plays it too safe to stand out more than that. As someone who’s not the biggest fan of traditional open world games, I had high hopes this one might break the mold more than it did. It was also too long and repetitive for my tastes, and the late game audio log dumps really got to me. Horizon is a good open world game that simply got overshadowed by other games that did more unique and/or impactful things for me as 2017 wore on.

13. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. This is a really amazing thing that (sadly) just isn’t quite my thing. As someone who’s not prone to sinking dozens of hours into a multiplayer-only game, I haven’t spent nearly enough time with PUBG to either get good at it, or have it endear itself to me in a lasting way. Still, most times I do play it are very fun, especially when playing with friends, and I think it is an amazingly cool thing with some smart ideas in it. I can understand why it’s the phenomenon that it is, even if I haven’t fully caught the bug. Though I did headshot that dude out of a car as he was trying to run me over with it that one time. That was cool.

14. What Remains of Edith Finch. This is another 2017 game that I like a lot of things about, but didn’t enjoy playing. Its narrative hooks are wonderful, and it tells a really touching and artistically creative tale about family, tragedy, and embracing life in all its brevity. I only wish I enjoyed playing more of its vignettes than I did. I think a few are great, with Lewis’ being the clear standout. But the majority of them I found too clunky, or too devoid of meaningful interaction. I think people’s mileage will vary a lot on this one, depending on how well the simple interactions connect to the narrative in their heads. For me that was generally very little, which left me not quite as enamored with the final experience as I otherwise could have been.

15. Nidhogg 2. Nidhogg is great! And Nidhogg 2 is more Nidhogg! Its weird art style eventually won me over, and I even came around on the new weapons (including the wonky bow). I think this sequel expanded on the core game in just enough ways to make it worthwhile, even if my favorite way of playing is basically like original Nidhogg. Oh, and the soundtrack is incredible. Really, it is. I had a great time playing this (even that one 30 minute match that wouldn’t end), and I’d put it higher if it simply brought more new to the table.

16. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. I played a lot of games in 2017 that I felt were simply too long, and Mario + Rabbids is probably the worst offender. There are a lot of really great ideas and mechanics in here, and it’s a super well-made and polished “my first tactics” kind of game with a lot of charm. I think the movement mechanics in particular are a lot of fun to engage with. But the campaign and your character progression are stretched way too thin for far too long. By the time I passed the 20 hour mark it had already become a real slog fighting through the same handful of enemies over and over. Which is a real shame, because I think there’s a solid core here, they just needed to tighten it up.

17. Prey. I’m still in the middle of Prey right now, and so far it’s been a mixed bag. On the one had, it presents a very well-designed space station to explore and scrounge for crafting materials. On the other hand, I feel like the pacing and balance (and controls) are all over the place. It feels almost confused at times, desperately trying to recapture the magic of System Shock 2 while introducing some new gimmicks of its own, all with mixed results. Again, there’s a good game in here, but it could really use some cleaning up and/or some more personality of its own. And it could be shorter… I’m hopeful I’ll finish Prey soon, but it’s at the point where every session feels like a chore.

18. SteamWorld Dig 2. I am also still in the middle of SteamWorld Dig 2 at the moment, and so far it is a very streamlined game that hasn’t fully grabbed me. In some ways, it almost feels too streamlined, to the point where I’m going through the motions without much real thought. Still, I can’t deny how polished this game is in pretty much all aspects: the controls, progression, upgrades, level design, and so on are all solid. This one could easily move up or down based on how the second half goes.

19. Night in the Woods. There are parts about Night in the Woods that I think are legitimately great. Primarily the writing, and how it effectively portrays a confused young adult trying to find their place in life. A few moments hit me pretty good, but in between those moments I feel like things drag. The light platforming has little merit, and I think all the minigames are pretty bad (yes, that includes the fake Guitar Hero sections). Perhaps most damning to me is the ending stretch. I see what they are going for, and those are topics worth tackling, but I think it’s a jarring transition that is not executed well at all. That kind of soured my final view of the game.

20. Metroid: Samus Returns. Yet another game I’m still in the middle of, but so far I’ve found it kind of boring; and I say that as a Metroid fan. I think it’s a combination of the game being much more linear than other Metroids, and the fact that you can douse the map to locate every single item. That makes it feel like exploration doesn’t really exist, and I don’t feel invested in the world as a result. And while the combat is better than most other Metroids, I don’t think it’s enough so to stand out as a pure action game. I will see this game to the end, and maybe I will come around on it, but so far it’s been one of my least favorite Metroid games. I think AM2R is the better Metroid II remake.

21. Snipperclips: Cut It Out, Together!. This is a very well-made co-op game that successfully rewards players for working together. Unlike a lot of co-op games, you can’t solve most of these puzzles on your own, and it’s pretty creative in its design. It’s also very simple, and very short, and that’s what ultimately holds it back. I enjoyed the very brief time I had playing Snipperclips, but I don’t know how much of it stuck with me in the end.

22. Gang Beasts. Wait, Gang Beasts is officially out now!? It seems like this thing has been in development forever, and I’ve barely touched the 1.0 version; most of what I’ve experienced applies to the early access period. But this is a goofy and fun local multiplayer jam. There’s something about the physics and the level design that seem to consistently cause ridiculous things to happen, and while I don’t know that I’d call it a great game, it’s proved a reliable one for producing laughs among friends. That’s worth something.

23. Heat Signature. I really wanted to like this more than I actually did. The general loop of raiding space stations is fun enough, and there’s a lot of cool style touches and fun writing. But like a lot of games with a roguelike structure, I found it to get too repetitive too quickly. I burned out after a couple hours, and when I saw how far I still how left to go, it felt like too big of a grind for me to continue with. Maybe someday I’ll go back to it, but for now Heat Signature is a game I find interesting more than I enjoy playing for long.

24. Tacoma. I loved Gone Home, and while Tacoma is a similar game that is by no means bad, it never hit me anywhere near as hard as Gone Home did. In the previous game, I felt like I could take my time freely exploring a household of four people. In Tacoma, it feels like I’m guided more directly through the stories of six main characters. This means each one gets less depth, and I’m not sure the discovery process is as organic. I didn’t get as invested in the core plot either. Still, there’s some decent beats in there, and I think the rewind mechanic is an interesting way to digest a narrative. I just don’t know that I came away with anything all that meaningful.

25. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone. As a fan of rhythm games, I’ve been curious about playing a Hatsune Miku game for years. When Future Tone dropped with like a million songs, I figured it was time. I’ve put a few hours into it, and think it’s a decent rhythm game, if also very bare bones; it's a port of an arcade game that's a collection of songs and not much else. Which is totally fine if you like the mechanics and the songs, but I also found those to be very basic. I don’t know that this does anything new or better than I’ve seen in other rhythm games, but if I just want to sit down and jam through a crapton of songs you could certainly do a whole lot worse.

26. Super Rude Bear Resurrection. What a supremely silly game… but there’s something to it that kind of grabbed me. It controls well in a Super Meat Boy kind of way, and I think the whole idea of your previous body remaining in play is pretty interesting. It adds a light puzzle element to proceedings, even if it sometimes allows you to brute force your way through otherwise challenging platforming sections. Also, its style is something else. It’s not the most polished or varied 2D platformer out there, and I ended up not finishing it as a result, but there’s a certain charm to this one.

27. Doki Doki Literature Club. A game I respect more than I enjoyed playing. That opening hour or two was a real slog, and if I didn’t know something crazy was going to happen later on I would have never stuck with it (or even played it to begin with). It’s a tough line to walk, as the entire game’s success is based on subverting tropes that a lot of people (myself included) don’t like or want to engage with. And to be its most effective, the player has to understand and engage with those tropes, ideally without knowing they are about to be subverted. That’s a lot to ask. It’s a really interesting game that, in a weird way, I’m glad I saw through. But I can’t say I enjoyed the process that much.

28. Linelight. It tries to sell itself as a video game boiled down to its core essence… but maybe it boiled it down too much. It’s a very slight game, but at least what's there is generally good and well-designed. I had fun with this up to a point, and also enjoyed it’s chill aesthetic and soothing soundtrack; I became kind of zen while playing this. But it also got kind of boring quicker than I had hoped, and I didn’t see it through as a result.

29. We Were Here. This is a neat, free asymmetric co-op game. Each player performs a drastically different role, and your success relies entirely on communicating with your partner. Those kinds of co-op games are rare, and I was happy to have this one to play. Still, it’s very short, very simple, and kind of buggy/janky. And a handful of the puzzles are more frustrating than fun. It’s a “better in theory than in practice” sort of thing, but I still got some enjoyment from it.

30. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator. This one's heart is in the right place, and it has a handful of moments I found genuinely touching. But I also think by and large it’s not executed that well. Being a very straightforward visual novel, it hangs virtually all of its success on its writing, and that’s where I think it stumbles the most… it’s not consistently good writing. I’m admittedly not a big visual novel person, but even I’ve played plenty with better writing, and more interesting stories to boot. Dream Daddy’s comically Utopian society also lost me a bit; I like the positivity, but I had a hard time getting invested in a world that didn’t feel real.

31. Voez. I played Voez mostly as a curiosity, as someone who generally likes weird/quirky Japanese rhythm games. And to be clear, it’s not terrible, and I think the basics are there… but not much more than that. It’s a very no-frills rhythm game, and my main frustration is a lack of feedback. I had a hard time telling when I missed a note or not, and the general act of tapping on the screen was never satisfying to me. As someone who’s favorite rhythm games have been touch-based, that really stuck out, and I didn’t play a ton of it as a result.

32. Rivals of Aether. Certainly not a bad game, and I can see why some would like it, but I did not get into it at all. That’s probably in large part due to me not being a big multiplayer guy (it’s rare that one makes me want to spend the time mastering), and also someone who’s never been a fighting game person. I probably should have known better on this one, even though I've been into Smash Bros. before. But I got bored of it way too quickly, and never got much out of it.

33. Shift Happens. This is a game that means well, but is just too broken to deliver on any of it consistently. I think its central co-op mechanic is neat, and I had fun spending time with my friend. But when looking at the game itself, there are big problems. The controls do not feel good at all, the game’s ideas are stretched too thin and repeated too often, and worst of all, it is riddled with technical issues; game-breaking bugs and glitches that forced us to restart levels were a common occurrence. Shift Happens is simply too sloppy for me to consider a good game.

34. Spaceplan. This game is, in a way, a perfect video game: it does everything it sets out to do flawlessly. It’s also the first clicker I’ve ever played to completion (there’s a story there I won’t get into right now), and I can now confidently say that I think clickers are a complete waste of my time. But maybe that’s the point? I don’t know. Either way, every second I spent “playing” this game was a second I could have spent on something, anything more meaningful. I’m sure there exists a clicker out there that has at least some ounce of merit to it, but I don’t know that Spaceplan is it.