Dichenko is nostalgic.
2007 became a meme for a reason. Then an insane amount of cool things came out: remember the music of that time or the movies! Games, as usual, did not lag behind — it was in 2007 that the top franchises of our time successfully launched. I wanted to be nostalgic — catch my personal rating of the best games of the year, which will never return, no matter how much we joke about it.
8. Crisis
The shooter from Crytek clearly sold the engine of the German studio, though not very successfully. Crysis looked stunning: grass, jungle, water — the realism of the picture went off scale. Few people could see the beauty of the tropical island specifically in 2007, the computers of the era could not cope with such powers at all. I saw a game not in 10 FPS only after about three years — and I was notably surprised that the shooter takes not only technology!
Crysis started almost the first real sandbox shooter. I wasn’t bombarded with scripts like a nervous Call of Duty desk mate did. He carried out missions as it came into his head: either he arranged a strength test for the military in the spirit of the Predator, or he sneaked like Hitman, trying not to disturb anyone. The Nanosuit made him feel like a superhuman, which in turn made it boring to face ordinary people. The aliens slightly corrected the situation, but it was too late.
7 Assassin’s Creed
A media franchise always starts with something simpler. Assassin’s Creed in 2007 was not a huge project with a million side effects and did not seek to dissolve the player in itself. Then it was an experiment from the authors of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in the genre of social stealth action. They wanted to give the player a new experience of interacting with the crowd: they could mix with them and slip away from the guards or eavesdrop on an important conversation.
The concept is quite interesting and even breakthrough, but Ubisoft’s adventure was desperately lacking in content. In addition to the plot in the open world, they only offered to look for flags and eliminate the Templars. Well, yes, I almost missed the most memorable part of every Ubisoft game for a long time — towers first appeared in Assassin’s Creed. According to the original idea, the project was not supposed to have an interface: the player climbed to a bird’s eye view and then understood where he needed to move. The interface was nevertheless implemented, and subsequently the opening of points of interest was turned into a boring obligation.
6 Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
«Drake’s Destiny» was for Naughty Dog the first step towards cinematography and, in general, a game of a completely different genre. The studio used to specialize in platform games like Crash Bandicoot and had a loyal fan base. Now it was about a fun action movie where the resourceful Nathan Drake is looking for El Dorado.
The action had enough problems. The studio’s lack of experience in the genre resulted in unbalanced shootouts and an overabundance of jungle. Seriously, the games of those years were already full of jungles. The first Uncharted was saved by several factors: the script of the game was uncharacteristically worked out for an ordinary adventure action movie, and the bright characters were instantly remembered and loved.
5 Mass Effect
The space operas had to get to the games as well. One of the leading studios of the era BioWare valiantly transferred the laws of the genre to a new project. Moreover, it is completely original, which gave the authors both plot freedom and gameplay. When I first launched Mass Effect, I was stunned by the level of lore development. Forgive me, Star Wars fans, but the original world plot and conflicts in ME sounded much more exciting.
It wasn’t really easy to play. It affects my love for shooters, and the Bioware project was much closer to the classic role-playing games. There is a full-fledged roleplaying of the character in any direction. The class system of companions is available. There is a unique dialogue system. Solid shootouts — pfft, they didn’t deliver. The studio also frankly failed to cope with the diversity of worlds. She set the ambitious goal of allowing players to land on a bunch of uncharted planets, but how boring it was! In the sequel, the rides were naturally reduced, compensating for them with a sticky mini-game with planet scanning.
4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
Football is in this ranking for a reason: PES 2008 then brought football sims on PC to new heights! While FIFA has been pleasing only console players with innovations for three years now, the Japanese studio in 2007 made an absolutely equivalent game for most platforms (the Nintendo DS became the victim then).
As a result, as a PC gamer, I was overjoyed. After all, I was waiting for a new generation of graphics: clear weed, believable faces of football players and no more soap! The ball in the Konami simulator moved suspiciously realistically, and the scripts barely choked. After the FIFA stagnation, the game was very fresh and relevant, and then it was not so sad with licenses in PES. I spent a really long time in it, and I didn’t return to FIFA for a very long time.
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty has always been an attraction where you are led by the handle, and around everything explodes beautifully. However, the series really took off with the release of the first Modern Warfare. If earlier Call of Duty transferred the real World War II to the screen, now it did not limit itself in anything. The terrorists who have gone are ready to unleash a new global war, and the brave special forces of several countries are trying to stop them. Atmospheric Pripyat and a nuclear explosion in the Middle East I will hardly be able to forget, such a cool production there.
Multiplayer also turned out to be a breakthrough, and for the entire genre of first-person shooters. Cheerful running around at the ready with modern trunks and a pleasant impact from shooting then bowed to the side of Call of Duty a lot of people who wanted to have a good time. And these fans have not diminished over the years.
2. STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
After six years of development, Stalker did come out and divided those who were not indifferent into two camps. Some quite reasonably complained about the weak, inconvenient shooting and a whole train of bugs, which did not really let you play. Others simply closed their eyes to all the shortcomings and disappeared into the Zone.
The atmosphere of this place is difficult to describe, as well as to feel through someone else’s passage. You need to absorb the particle by particle yourself, eating a loaf and drinking something stronger. Music and soundtrack made the Zone a very special place: you dream to find yourself there, even though it would be a real nightmare. An epochal game, which only an absolutely cheating collection of three games managed to beat.
1. The Orange Box
Valve’s marketers were geniuses. Three great games for the price of one — I’m still in awe of that purchase and Valve’s decision to sell them all in one bundle! With Half-Life 2: Episode Two, everything seems to be clear: another short but mega-driven episode of a really big game. Then it seemed that Valve was doing everything right: I did not want to wait for the continuation of the story of Gordon Freeman and Alix for another 5-6 years. Why not get a little snippet of a first-class adventure once a year? But the corporation trampled on all the expectations and dreams of the fans: Episode Two became the last game in the franchise that does not require expensive VR helmets.
Much more curious than the rest of The Orange Box games. The sequel to Team Fortress radically changed the style and tone, thanks to which it became recognizable and gained new fans. Hat fever, by the way, grew out of this shooter.
Portal, on the other hand, is an absolute masterpiece of the industry, which showed that the coolest mechanics can be built on only two actions: one opens the first portal, the second opens the other. I’m not a fan of the puzzle genre at all, but I love Portal for its understandable approach, intriguing plot and the beautiful GLaDOS.
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Probably, the first parts of BioShock and The Witcher are missing in the rating: they could well get somewhere and even compete for important places. Alas, I just haven’t played them. And what games from that same 2007 do you like the most?
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