2017: A Taste of Things to Come – Part One

Whatever else 2016 was, it was a pretty good year for gaming. You can check out our look back over the past year here, here, here, and here. But against this backdrop, it looks like 2017 is going to be even better. Major sequels like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Destiny 2 should be out by the end of this year, and Nintendo is launching a new system along with new installments in their Legend of Zelda and Super Mario franchises. Some highly anticipated new concepts are also launching, as it looks like we will finally get to see Ubisoft’s For Honor, Warhorse’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Team Ninja’s Nioh this year. And of course, as sure as night follows day, we can expect to see new installments of all the major sports franchises. But let’s have a closer look at some of the titles we at DLH are looking forward to in 2017.



First, let’s have a look at what Capcom is up to these days. Capcom’s biggest IP since the days of Mega Man and Street Fighter is without a doubt the series that made “survival horror” a thing – I’m talking about Resident Evil, of course. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was revealed at E3 2016, and it looks like it could be the best game in the series to date. Developed using the brand-new RE Engine, the game is set a few years after Resident Evil 6, in a fictional town in Louisiana (so expect some cringe-worthy, stereotypes, cher). It features a civilian protagonist, and his skills are deliberately more limited than the main characters of previous games. Gone are quick-time events, and for the first time, you play from a first-person perspective, though the developers insist that this game will not be a “gun fest”. Other popular gameplay elements like herb gathering, puzzle solving, and resource management make a return, too, and did we mention no quick-time events? Biohazard will be released worldwide on January 24th on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. And as an added bonus for PS4 owners, that version will be fully playable using the PlayStation VR headset.



Another title that Capcom will be putting out in 2017 is Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite, for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The sixth main entry in the series that helped us answer questions like “who would win in a fight between Mega Man and Magneto”, this fighting game will feature two-on-two matches between your favorite characters from Marvel Comics and Capcom games. Few characters have been revealed so far, but appearing for the first time in the series are Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) and  Mega Man X. One new gameplay mechanic borrowed from the 1995 arcade game Marvel Super Heroes will be the Infinity Stones – players can choose a Stone before each match, which grant certain perks and abilities. The game will also feature a story mode, along with online matches. No release date has been set yet, but since the game was just announced in December, don’t expect to see it too early in the year.



The characters of the DC universe won’t be idle, either, as Warner Bros. will be releasing a sequel to their 2013 fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us, developed by NetherRealm Studios (the folks behind Mortal Kombat X). Injustice 2 will be available at some point this year for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Android. Expected to feature the “largest roster of any DC game to date” according to the devs, the game will also introduce RPG-like elements, such as loot drops and the ability to upgrade characters with special gear that changes their look and grants stat boosts. It will also bring back many of the elements that characterized the original game, such as interactive environments, character fights, and the “super meter”. New characters will include Supergirl, Deadshot, and Blue Beetle, among others.



It looks like those “what if X fought Y?” questions are going to be answered in spades this year, actually. Ubisoft’s For Honor will be out on PC, PS4, and Xbox One this year on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, just in time for some gaming-related romance. A showstopper at E3 2015, For Honor is a hack-and-slash melee combat game pitting knights (The Legion), samurai (The Chosen), and Vikings (The Warborn) against each other. Each faction features four classes, and battles are 4v4 matches (at least in multiplayer). Multiplayer gaming and tactical combat is dominated by shooters, of course, so it will be really interesting to see how Ubisoft Montreal, the studio that gave us most of Ubisoft’s top franchises, handles medieval combat using only pre-gunpowder weapons. More than anything though, For Honor looks like a hell of a lot of fun.




While For Honor works on a very liberal interpretation of the Middle Ages, the Czech developers over at Warhorse Studios have been busy creating what might be the most realistic medieval game to date – Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Set in the Kingdom of Bohemia in the early 15th century, the game features an open world of 16 square km worth of painstakingly researched and designed real-world locations in the modern-day Czech Republic. At the time, Bohemia was a major part of the Holy Roman Empire, and subject to constant power struggles in which most of the suffering was borne by the nameless peasants who lived in the countryside. Kingdom Come: Deliverance has you play as the son of a blacksmith whose family has been killed by an invading army. Eschewing almost all the fantasy elements so common in RPGs, the game will focus on realistic combat using period weapons and fighting styles. One common complaint among more recent RPGs (looking at you, Skyrim), is that the gear systems have been dumbed down. Well this game features 16 clothing slots that can be layered, with clothing types providing protection against various weapons, of which there will be a lot. Other RPG elements include a “needs” system requiring you to eat, drink, sleep, etc. and perishable or degradable items. The quest system will be extremely open-ended, with branching quests that encourage immersion and exploration. The game will hit PCs, PS4, and Xbox One some time this year, to the sound of millions of history nerds rejoicing the world over.



Back to Ubisoft – their other major title releasing this year will be Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, which will be available on March 7th for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. The tenth game in the Ghost Recon series, it will be the first one to take place within an open-world environment, which Ubisoft claims will be massive, and feature a wide variety of terrain types and a dynamic weather system. A third-person tactical shooter, Wildlands will include a 4-player co-op multiplayer mode, or you can play it solo with 3 AI-controlled companions. The game has been in development since 2012, and if it’s everything Ubisoft claims it is, it could end up being one of the top open-world games of this generation.



And speaking of shooters, February 14th is also the launch date of Sniper Elite 4, from British developers Rebellion. Its predecessor, 2014’s Sniper Elite III, got a decidedly mixed reception, due to its weak storyline, unlikeable protagonist, outdated game mechanics, and lackluster content apart from the main campaign. That said, it did feature some excellent core gameplay as a stealth and sniper game, demonstrating great potential. Sniper Elite 4 is a direct sequel, taking place in Italy in 1943, where players control an OSS agent assisting the Italian resistance. It looks like the devs will be continuing with what worked in the previous game: the X-ray kill cam has been retained and even expanded, the maps are a whole lot bigger, and the AI has been overhauled and improved – not to mention some gorgeous visuals. It remains to be seen if they’ll do anything about the storyline and other elements, but in any event, the devs are promising a “sniper’s paradise” for those players who are into such things.

One of the big movie releases expected to hit in 2017 is Star Wars: Episode VIII, and you can bet that means that EA DICE is working on another installment in their rebooted Star Wars Battlefront series. Little has been revealed so far, but many people are hoping the game does better than the 2015 game did. Not that it didn’t sell well, mind you – it’s just that Star Wars Battlefront seemed incomplete and to some extent, and dumbed down compared to DICE’s Battlefield series, to which it was inevitably compared by players and critics alike. For Star Wars Battlefront 2, DICE will be joined by developers from EA’s Motive Studios. While we can expect to see some maps from Episode VIII and probably also this year’s Rogue One, what fans are really holding out for is to see whether this latest offering will include a single-player campaign, something that was sorely lacking in the first game. And while we’re writing a wish list, let’s hold out hope for some actual space battles this time too. After Rogue One, it would be a crime to leave them out.



Reboots have been big lately, and one of the biggest ones in 2016 was Bethesda’s reboot of Doom after acquiring id Software, the folks who more or less invented the first-person shooter. And since we’ve also been seeing new releases in the Wolfenstein series over the past few years, it was only a matter of time before id Software’s other huge IP would see a relaunch. Quake Champions will be the first main entry in the franchise since 2005’s Quake 4. Since its announcement at E3 2016, alongside a trailer, Bethesda has not revealed much about the game, though we do know it will be a first-person, multiplayer arena shooter, and there’s a strong possibility it will also feature some MOBA-like elements, sort of like Blizzard’s smash hit Overwatch – a colorful roster of unique playable characters, each with their own set of skills and abilities. So far, there’s no set launch date, and the only platform we know of for certain is PC, but there’s also a good chance the game will be available on PS4 and Xbox One as well.



The last game we’ll be looking at today is another PS4-exclusive, Horizon Zero Dawn, published by Sony and developed by Dutch studio Guerilla Games, the people behind the Killzone series. Originally expected to arrive in 2016, it was delayed until February 28th of this year, and they’ve been working on it since 2011. But man, does it look like they’ve been doing some good work. The all-new epic takes place 1000 years in the future, in a world dominated by robotic dinosaur-like creatures, where players take on the role of a hunter named Aloy in a game that’s essentially a third-person ARPG. Horizon Zero Dawn will feature a beautiful, dynamic open world and a deep quest system, and it’s shaping up to be one of the most interesting new IPs of the coming year.