Kevin's top 10 games of 2017 - 1

#1: Nier Automata

If there is one thing that I am all about in media, especially video games, it's metatext.  I'm talking hardcore, fourth-wall breaking, mechanically inclusive, narratively focused, freak-you-out commentary on everything from the broad meaning of life down to the minute as the importance of a few megabytes of save data on your hard drive.  While in my mind this realm has been dominated by Kojima and Metal Gear for the past decade or two, it's encouraging to see more games take a stab at engaging a player directly.  Hell, this year we got both some excellent meta-narratives ranging from the art piece of What Remains of Edith Finch, to the genre-shaking in Doki Doki Literature Club.  But the complete package for me would be Square Enix  and Platinum's diamond in the rough.

Nier: Automata presents itself as a tight action sequel to it's original, but this surface presentation betrays a deep rabbit hole of genre defying story twists and commentary on video games as a whole.  Make no mistake that there is a perfectly enjoyable and functional game on display here, a sort of Bayonetta or Revengence-lite conceit with RPG mechanics sprinkled throughout.  You'll level up, get stronger gear, acquire new skills, tick of sidequests, all the normal tropes of a game of this caliber.  I'd go so far to argue that this presentation of normalcy is the set-up that really makes the events that follow stick in your mind.

After the credits roll the first time, your presented with a message from Square Enix PR to replay the game again for a different ending.  Starting the game over shifts the narrative perspective from 2B, the fiery no-nonsense heroine who executes orders without question, to 9S, the scanner side-kick whose curiosity you just know is going to get the better of him.  This second playthrough and repetition of content is kind of a staple for the related Nier and Drakengard games, but I'd argue the plot revelations you gain through hacking and talking to certain NPC's dwarfs the series prior.  The narrative move plays out similar to the protagonist bait-and-switch from Metal Gear Solid 2.  You may have been sold on playing as the sexy sword maid, but by god are you going to sympathize with tortured hacker boy.

All while this is happening, your being presented with these incredibly strange scenarios that raise new questions whenever one is answered:  What happened to all the humans?  If androids aren't supposed to feel emotions, why are they still always boiling under the surface?  Are machines truly the enemy, especially if they aren't aggressors?  What happened to the supposed alien attackers that caused humans to flee?  Are robots becoming sentient with their own goals?  Are they separate to my enemy?  Mix this with different robots being named after famous philosophers and suddenly you find yourself reading about Marx and Engels to try understand what communism was all about again.

Name-dropping great minds plays very neat and weird when you couple them with tricks only video games do.  A sequence where you adjust game settings while it's presented as setting up an android's operating system.  Hacking sequences that turn the game into a twin stick shooter, complete with chiptune versions of the game's soundtrack.  A sudden switch to a visual novel format as a way to see another side of a boss fight.  Or even watching a past recording of yourself faff about in the options menu are all really neat tricks that range from making you smile to pulling you deeper into the game's world.

This whole package gets topped off by a score that is nothing if not eclectic.  Keiichi Okabe's music can be energizing, haunting, melancholic, whimsical, innocent, bizzare, and often a mix of all these emotions and more all at once.  The technique of layering and fading between different versions that must all be playing concurrently, for purposes of hacking, introducing vocals, or shifting to an entirely different instrumentation is done masterfully and helps to perfectly accompany the setting.  Can't say enough good stuff about it.

2017 was a fantastic year for games, but there wasn't one that surprised me more and had me constantly thinking about it like Nier: Automata.  It weaves a tale and pulls off so many tricks that only video games can do to help explore profound, often disturbing ideas and questions.  I think it helps elevate the medium it's a part of.  To me, it's something really special, and my top pick for game of the year for 2017.