I wanted to get some of my thoughts written out on some of my favorite games of the 2015. Granted this is done a year after so my thoughts will not be as fresh but I felt it was still a good idea so I can remember moving forward.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - I never owned a PlayStation growing up so Metal Gear Solid is not something I was able to experience until far after its original conception. I had heard of it from friends, gaming magazines and even watched my friend Billy make his way through the original here and there, but never really got the chance to play it for myself. My first entry into the series was Metal Gear Solid 4 and even that was years after its release when I finally got a PlayStation 3.
Metal Gear Solid 5 is an incredible piece of work and it's remarkable how well it came out given the toxicity surrounding Konami in 2015. Mechanically this game is almost perfect, the stealth is by far the best implementation I have seen in a game. The story was crazy just like I wanted it to be, even though some stuff might have made me cringe a bit (Quiet specifically). The structure really struck a chord with me, and hijacking people and equipment with the Fulton system never stopped being fun. The support characters were great and varied, though once you unlock Quiet it seems silly to use anything but her.
MGS 5 did have some shortcomings, like the resource management that gated progress, it never bogged me down too much, though I played at release and heard some of it may have gotten worse. Most of the Skulls missions were not fun and forced me to play contrary to how I had been playing for most of the game. It was also a bummer that Kiefer Sutheland really didn't have much to say at all but I don't think it affected my enjoyment much. I also found the multiplayer to be competent but hardly resembled what Metal Gear Solid really is, or why I like it. Even with these missteps I found Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to be the most fun I had with a game in 2015.
For most of the year I thought there was no way Bloodborne was not going to be my game of the year. I completed a new game+ run and that is something I literally never do, and certainly not right after I just completed it. I really enjoyed the art style, the environments while not being super varied all fit a very clear aesthetic, the boss designs were grotesque and horrific. The weapons looked great and the different forms they took looked cool and even offered different combat options and move sets. Basically it all fits together very well.
Rainbow Six Siege was easily my favorite competitive game of 2015. I thought the gameplay was outstanding, it created some of the most tense and rewarding multiplayer situations I have been in. Being the last team member and successfully taking down three opponents to win a match is just an intense amazing feeling that I haven't had since I was deep into Counter-Strike 1.6. The operators were all unique and I found most of them fun to use. I was not the biggest fan of the shield wielding characters but that is probably because of how I choose to play.
This might be the best PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection game that has been released and may ever be released. In fact some might argue that its inclusion in that program was part of its huge success, I for one am not sure I would have given a fair shot if it was not free to me.
The joy I felt scoring my first goal after struggling a bit was immense, and the better you get at the controls the better the goals and the more frequent the good feelings. It is a simple concept that can take hundreds of matches to master but is fun almost instantly regardless of skill. This was another one of my top competitive games this year.
I was a huge fan of Dead Island. Sure it was not the best game and had a handful of shortcomings but if you have a group of buddies to play with it was a wonderful zombie sandbox, complete with hilariously busted trucks. So as you could imagine I was very interested when I heard about Dying Light, a polished higher budget Dead Island? Sign me up.
Dying Light took everything I enjoyed (baring the broken trucks) about Dead Island and added a movement and traversal mechanic that is maybe the best first person parkour implemented yet. It made moving around its world fun and engaging, by the end of the game you could run through the city with very little limitations and that made for quite the experience. The game also did a hell of a job with the day night cycle, it was genuinely terrifying at first to be out past dusk and even gave you a benefit to tempting fate with increased XP after dark should you be so bold. My only gripe with the entire game was the ending, without getting into detail it was frustrating and quite boring compared with the rest of the game. All in all it was probably my favorite zombie game to date and was a truly awesome sandbox to explore.
Mario Maker is really something special, it took the level editor that other games have tried to do and made it easy and fun to engage with. I have attempted plenty of level editors in the past with varying levels of success but none have made that experience enjoyable on its own. It makes me yearn for more of its kind and I hope Nintendo might use this formula for Zelda or some of its other properties.
The game plays fantastic, and Nintendo did a great job of creating levels for you to go through. Mario Maker has also spawned its own unique type levels like auto-finish levels and never stop running forward type levels that were very novel on their first go, though I did burn out on both of these ideas.
My only real gripe with the game aside from how the levels are surfaced and finding levels your friends have made is that without proper exposure you don’t get much action on your own levels. I don’t have very many friends that play games so I really didn’t have anyone to share my creations with. Sure you would get a handful of players that were served up your level but it wasn’t enough to get much feedback. It made me truly jealous of the Giantbomb crew and how much they got to enjoy the social aspects of the game. I guess that is maybe more of my problem then the games but it certainly made this game drop in my ranks.
Taking into consideration what NetherRealm Studios was able to accomplish with Mortal Kombat (2011) I was extremely interested in the next iteration. I think it goes without saying that they were able to create the best fighting game story modes there has been to date, so I had high expectations for Mortal Kombat X. NetherRealm certainly didn’t drop the ball, once again they were able to craft a great story and an outstanding fighting game. It hits all the marks, a great roster with some new faces that include the children of classic MK characters. It has interesting stages that further implements the background interaction introduced in NetherRealm’s Injustice game. They even released some DLC that includes famous monsters from classic horror films that seemed to be a fun addition. It is a complete package that offers players of all skill levels a chance to have fun and once again I was reminded why Mortal Kombat is my favorite fighting game series.
As soon as I got my hands on Ori and the Blind Forest I knew it was going to find its way onto my top 10. This game is just plain gorgeous, from its animations to the backgrounds and even the character designs, everything looks wonderful. I also found the story to be quite touching at moments even though it could be considered a bit standard for a game narrative. However what really makes Ori shine is its fantastic controls, this game just feels great to play. Ori and the Blind Forest can be quite demanding in places and if it didn’t have as tight of controls this game would get beyond frustrating during certain sections. The whole game was a great experience and it certainly gave me a sense of accomplishment when I finished it. My only real gripe is that the game locks away certain areas of the map as you progress in the story. For a game of this style which also has achievements for uncovering the whole map and finding all the hidden items I was left a bit frustrated I couldn’t go back and complete that without starting the whole game over again. That is only a minor mark on an otherwise spectacular experience that I recommend to any fan of platformers or metroidvania style games.
When I first laid my eyes on Axiom Verge I knew it was something I needed to play. I have serious nostalgia for Metroid on the NES and this game immediately struck me for that reason alone. I would say it’s nearly impossible for any game to stand on nostalgia alone and that is really were this game earns its stripes. Axiom Verge is an outstanding creation from top to bottom, from its great pixel art to its various and wide ranging arsenal all the way to how it subverts your expectations of the genre and the games it takes inspiration from. The boss battles were engaging and fun to figure out, they also had a great look to them and each one was quite unique visually and game-play wise. The sound design was also pretty fantastic; it set an alien vibe to the world that really added to the mystery and tone of the world you were exploring. My only real gripe is that it could be somewhat confusing to navigate the world, I got lost for an hour or so with no idea how to proceed. That was only a minor hiccup in the relative sense and after I looked it up it was clear what I had missed. If you consider yourself a fan of Metroid or the later Castlevaina games then you should give this game a shot because it is a really great one of those.
Admittedly I didn’t play a ton of Crypt of the NecroDancer, but that didn’t stop me from seeing what an outstanding game they have created. Let me start by saying the soundtrack is great, I suppose it would need to be in a rhythm based game but they certainly knock it out of the park. They also did a great job of making a unique type of gameplay that I really haven’t seen done before, the rhythmic combat combined with tile based movement creates a unique and fresh experience. It also has a great look, pixilated graphics have been beat into the ground since independent games have become so widespread but this game still looks really good. I truly think this is a game that everyone should have a crack at, it’s just plain fun.
