The Year of Legends - 10 Best Games Released in 1997
How many timeless hits were released in just one year, 1997? We invite you to join us for an extraordinary journey back in time to the era of the birth of Diablo, Fallout and GTA!
Table of Contents
The next installment of the legendary Diablo has been released. Considering that the series was created in 1997, it has been a long time for the fourth full-fledged installment to come our way But let's not focus on Diablo 4, it's time to look at the beginnings of the series and year 1997. Aside from the highly atmospheric journey through the land of Sanctuary, many other games were released at the same time and have made their mark in video game history to this day Some of them were, or even still are, kept alive in subsequent sequels, others turned out to be more short-lived, but all of them, without exceptions, provided extraordinary emotions, so we remember them fondly to this day.
Of course, the following list is heavily incomplete, otherwise this article would never end Second half of the 90s It was such an extraordinary period that every year there were numerous candidates for the title of GOTY. Let's consider the choice of 1997 slightly symbolically, taking the Diablolaunch a perfect touchstone, because 1996 and 1998 also brought upon us many incredible productions. So here's our list of the most interesting games released in 1997 – the year of Diablo – but not only! It's a really interesting lesson, which allows us look back into the history of gaming. Let's go for a real trip through the time!
Notable mentions
Taking into consideration the number of hits released in 1997, I'm aware of how many titles I've missed and every comment along the lines of "And where is the game XYZ?" is completely justified! Feel free to add your suggestions, meanwhile we will throw in a few more interesting productions, such as:
- Tibia – back then, nobody wrote the game any reviews, nobody realized that this inconspicuous production would soon captivate millions of players and would survive another quarter of century.
- Gran Turismo – the first installment of this iconic racing series appeared in December 1997.
- Other than than, we have to mention: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Need for Speed 2, Tomb Raider 2, GoldenEye 007, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, MDK, Carmageddon, Interstate ’76.
Diablo – the "three-dimensional action game"
- Release date: January 3rd (USA), November 2nd (EU)
- Developers: Blizzard North
- Genre: action RPG
- Platforms: PC (initially)
The rather intricate term tried to describe what we simply call "hack'n'slash" and "action RPG" nowadays. But at that time, various standards and genres were only just forming, and the term "hack'n'slash," although known earlier from traditional, paper RPGs and MUDs, wasn't yet so strongly associated with computer games. The "Secret Service" reviewer was quite right, comparing Diablo to an action game, because its creator, David Brevik, was inspired by fast gameplay titles, such as NHL '94and other sport games. He wanted the player to be allowed automatically begin the game after class selection and not restrict him with multiple restrictions Strong inspirations were also titles like the dungeon crawler Telengard from 1982 and The Legend of Zelda, which showed how attractive real-time combat is instead of turn-based rounds.
We know very well how it all ended. Although originally the creators assumed that sales of 100 thousand copies would be a success, on the launch day they had to prepare half a million boxes. Diablo occupied the first place on the charts for three months until X-Wing vs. dethroned it. TIE Fighter. Reviewers and players were amazed by addictive gameplay, randomly generated dungeons, excellent graphics, and an incredibly atmospheric soundtrack. Diablo has entered the best games of all time pantheon, and the great sequel along with expansions just confirmed the genius of this production. Although the next installments have had their flaws and problems, the cult status remained and that's why we are waiting for the fourth part – to relive those emotions at least in part.
