Best PC Video Games of 2017

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Best PC Video Games of 2017

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is the best we’ve seen this franchise in some time. It took some bold risks: moving the action to a first-person perspective and making the entire game playable on the PSVR. At the same time, however, RE7 showcases the best of its classics, finally capturing the fear and intensity of its best titles.

The story takes you to a ruined plantation manor in Louisiana, as you (Ethan) arrive to find your dear, missing wife. Before long, you make pretty good friends with the home’s inhabitants — the utterly deranged Baker family. Their threat is a mixture of pure danger and some kind of funky familial love. Their threats are possessive, and their motivations more sinister than to simply kill. This danger culminates in the patriarch, Jack Baker, the last person you ever want to run into. He moves deliberately, tosses out colloquial threats, and oozes his deranged personality all the while serving as the game’s most terrifying face.

Amidst this terrible family, scavenging for supplies, and solving puzzles, you’ll come face to face with what makes Resident Evil 7 shine. Its characters and mechanics, layered onto endless fear, make for one of the best PC video games of 2017. 

For Honor

Best PC Video Games of 2017

For Honor is an action game unlike many others. This brand new Ubisoft IP pits Vikings, Samurai, and Knights against each other in feverish melee battle. While battlefields are filled with objectives and small soldiers duking it out, you’ll actually spend most of your time locked into one-on-one combat with a fellow warrior.

These moments make up the tense, strategic gameplay that makes For Honor shine. Each character can guard and attack from three directions, and must not only vary their movesets, but predict those of their enemy. This means watching carefully, fingers twitching, and holding your breath awaiting their next move. It also means mastering the game’s many classes, each weilding their own strengths and weaknesses against the others.

Padding these encounters is an ample system of customizeable feats and gear, and preceding them is a surprisingly entertaining single player campaign that teaches the ropes throughout a campy war story.

All in all, For Honor is one of the most unique action titles released this year, and if you’re willing to pony up the time to learn its ins and outs, you’re in for a treat.

Halo Wars 2

Best PC Video Games of 2017

This year, the Halo series is taking strides in the RTS department with the release of Halo Wars 2 for Xbox One and PC. It almost suffers from this cross-platform existence, providing a much-needed RTS experience on consoles, while coming across a little weak compared to other PC offerings in the same vein. Regardless, this early in the year, it’s a solid title that’s easy for newcomers to pick up and a bit of Halo fun for series fans.

Gameplay plays out from a bird’s-eye view, with humanity and the alien Banished facing off in single and multiplayer stages. The simplicity comes in its rock-paper-scissors system of strengths and weaknesses, with three unit types, each effective and weak against one of the other two. Modes include Deathmatch (fight until one player remains), Stronghold and Dominion (focused on controlling points on the map), and Blitz, a unique mode with card-game features. Players will create decks, and use cards to deploy units in the game.

If you’re looking for another mind-blowing Halo experience, you won’t exactly find it here. But if you’re itching for a more carefree RTS or another dip into the Halo universe, definitely give Halo Wars 2 a shot.