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ev_rowe

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GOTY 2015 Candidates

This list will serve as a place for me to properly keep track of my favorite games in 2015 and (hopefully) capture my thoughts about them AS I play them. Rather than, you know, forgetting to ever do either of those things.

List items

  • Still in progress, but this is a quick contender for my favorite (western) RPG of all time, beating out the likes of Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and others.

    Notes:

    - Incredible visuals

    - Rich stories for even the smallest quests

    - Excellent combat system

    - Memorable characters with generally well-delivered performances

  • This game took me by surprise in a big way. After the enjoyable but wholly janky mess that was Dead Island, it was uncertain whether Techland was going to deliver something that could make good on all of its promise, or another package that amounted to a good concept with flawed execution.

    Dying Light is, without a doubt, the game that Techland probably wanted to make the first time around. With stunning visuals, fluid parkour controls, a solid combat system, and smartly crafted skill trees, this game is a flat out gem. It features an extremely well-realized world that's a blast to traverse with the parkour system, and it only becomes more fun to move through as your parkour skills become more varied through skill tree unlocks. I daresay I found myself enjoying moving through the world more than I have in any Assassin's Creed game, for example.

    Similarly, the combat becomes more and more rewarding and you get deeper in, with creative skills that allow you to punish the undead hordes in incredible ways. By two thirds of my way through the game, I had unlocked a sequence of abilities that allowed me to jump over one enemy, launch through the air and drop kick another one's head clean off, which was one of the most satisfying and raucously hilarious things I have ever done in a game.

    The cooperative play is also brilliant, and in my opinion is the best possible way to experience the game. It's impossible for me to reflect on my time with Dying Light without a gigantic smile on my face, and that's saying something special. Techland knocked this game right out of the park, and I'm excited to see what the team's next project is.