Best Video Games of 2017 So Far

If the Dark Souls hack-and-slash roleplaying games swapped their eldritch trappings for early 17th century Japan (but kept the brutally difficult gameplay bits), you'd get Nioh. Team Ninja's long awaited opus was inspired by an unfinished Akira Kurosawa script, perhaps fitting since the studio made the Ninja Gaiden series. In place of systematic hack-and-slashery, Nioh tenders the same gauntlets of tactically vexing enemies, but lets players engage with nimbler controls and indulgent wuxia-like moves. Weird, psychedelic, seductively rhythmic and visually beguiling, it's a relentless test of reaction that matches and at times transcends its inspirations.