2015 left its mark as an interesting year for me. Its starting to become harder and harder to game regularly. I'm shifting from the lock myself in a room and don't come out for days habit to more of a casual sit down and play something if I have an hour or two style. Because of this, I found myself avoiding a lot of new games this year. If I looked at it, I immediately had to consider whether it was worth using my time playing this, or if I would just be happier playing a game I know I already love. Time is precious after all.
For this reason I did not make it through a lot of big name titles this year. I tried Metal Gear Solid V. I really did. Bought it full price and everything, but it just didn't resonate with me. I found myself getting frustrated with the controls and gameplay way too much. Eventually I just set it aside into the "I'll come back to this some day" pile. There are a lot of cool things in that game, but not enough to keep me going right now. I also avoided games like Fallout because of my time constraints. I only have so much room for very time consuming games, and as you look at my list you can see that this room is already taken up by some very big games.
While I may be a bit late on the draw here, I just want to take a moment to wish everyone a happy 2016. We're starting the year off with a bang luckily. A lot of good games are coming in the next couple months. Fire Emblem Fates and Dark Souls 3 are what I'm looking forward to in particular.
Honorable Mention:
Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls:
While definitely not a 2015 game, I have spent hundreds of hours on it this year alone. The patches have really helped make the game into something fun, and last season in particular was a blast racing my fellow clan-mates to get to GR 50 first. The new Demon Hunter items were sweet and I managed to get ancients of my favorite bow and quiver in the first couple weeks, so it was a good season for me. I was really hoping for a new expansion announcement in 2015, but I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed for something to show up in 2016. You didn't forget Diablo 3 right Blizzard? ...Right? Oh well. Guess I'll just enjoy season 5.
The List
10. Heroes of the Storm:
I had a huge Heroes fever between October 2014 and about May 2015. I played daily, I met people online, I formed a team with guys on skype who I started practicing with. I was into it. Even when we lost the game was fun, and it had the advantage of being short matches in general so we could just grind through a bunch of games in a night. It was a great experience and one that I typically don't have since multiplayer games don't really speak to me a whole lot. The experience of coordinating our 5 man, theorizing new strategies, and watching pro games to look for ideas was one that I likely won't have again any time soon. If ever.
I'd like to put this game even higher on the list, but there is just one problem. I can't stand playing it now. I fell off for a few months while I did other things, and in that time things changed quite a bit. I was willing to learn. I'm adaptable after all. But man, does getting a good team when you have any random people at all feel absolutely impossible now. I used to grind dozens of games a day going solo or duo queue and come out with a pretty good win record. Now I'm just happy if I get any win at all. It's not a fun experience. There is always one guy who sinks the ship in some way, and its a huge bummer. I'm not about to turn into the thing I hated about League of Legends, so I just opt not to play anymore. It's too frustrating in a bad way. In a way that makes it hard for me to improve my personal game because I can't enjoy losing anymore. Still, I have to acknowledge the time I did enjoy with Heroes. I love you Heroes, and maybe I will return some day. For now, though, I just need some space. Take this time to improve yourself, and I'll still be watching you do your esports thing.
9. Axiom Verge:
I haven't played a metroidvania style game in a long time, so this actually felt kind of fresh to me even before they started throwing their creative curve balls in. The game is really fun and easy to pick up and put down in short bursts. Something that is very nice compared to a lot of the other games I played this year which were much large time commitments. The weapons were pretty cool and defied my initial expectations. The art is a bit funky but overall I felt like it worked together as a total package.
8. Pillars of Eternity:
Baldurs Gate 2 is up there on my list of favorite games of all time, so its no surprise that this game would attract me easily. But still there is a lot of room to mess this up (Just look at Sword Coast Legends, ugh). Luckily, they managed to come out on top with a really well made and solid old school PC RPG. I found myself having flashbacks of the good old days as a kid on the PC, and I even went back to the enhanced edition of Baldurs Gate 2 and gave it another run through after Pillars.
It's not without its faults however. The pacing and story of Pillars wasn't always great, and some of the characters just bored me. There's a lot of things that I'd like to see improved on, but given the scarcity of this type of game anymore its hard to complain too much. It exceeded my expectations for this genre and that is more than I can ask for in this day and age. I hope to see more in the future from it.
7. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
I put a lot of hours into the original Tri on Wii and the enhanced version on Wii U. This game was a for sure buy for me earlier in the year. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they made the entry into the game fairly easy. Things felt smoother and better explained than before. While I didn't need the explanations, the tutorial didn't feel as annoying to go through as it did in Tri.
The heart of the game, the monsters, were all well done as usual as well. With a lot of returning monsters and quite a few new ones, there really isn't one that I can think of off the top of my head that wasn't fun to hunt. Frustrating, maybe, but that's just a more painful kind of fun.
The new weapons all felt very good as well. I gave them each a shot but eventually settled for the redone switch axe. I used to be a lance guy in Tri, but this time around I thought I'd get a bit more stylish since they improved the axe.
I did fall off this game faster than I did in Tri, but that might be because I didn't have any friends online to hunt with this time around. I just finished up with the story based stuff and then set the game aside. Not that this is a bad thing or the games fault. It's me, not you Monster Hunter. We're just in different places in life now. I don't have the time, and I want to be able to see other games. Maybe I'll return some day.
6. Tales from the Borderlands:
I do not like most adventure games. In fact, I don't like TellTale games either. I kind of actively despise them. I trudged through the Walking Dead because of my fandom for the source material, but I stopped having fun with the game after episode two. When I heard they were making a Borderlands game in addition to all of the other material they put out this year, I rolled my eyes in annoyance. I'll be honest in saying the only reason I gave this a shot was because of word of mouth and because it was on sale for like $8. Its hard to beat that price for something that at least takes place in a game world that I kind of like.
Surprisingly, this game is probably the best of the bunch? Its hard for me to say that because I've only played the Walking Dead and have had only viewing experiences of the other games. What I can say though is that they nail the humor and they manage to create very interesting characters and drama in a setting that isn't known for much more than joke characters. The characters are all fairly like-able and LoaderBot is amazing. The story goes to some interesting places, and it got me interested in the world of Borderlands again. I had fallen off after Borderlands 2, so it was nice to play a Borderlands game that I could really get behind again. It's impressive to me that I really found myself enjoying this game. Maybe this will start a trend of me diving into adventure games. Or maybe not.
5. Starcraft 2 Legacy of the Void
Starcraft 2 is finally concluded! Wow. When they said three separate games, I never expected it would be 4 to 5 years later. I guess it makes sense considering the pro scene. I like the fiction and the characters involved, but man is the story so cheesy. I can accept it for what it is rather than what I want it to be though. We aren't going to get another Brood war from Blizzard as disappointing as that may be. I took it as a fun sci-fi action movie and was able to enjoy my journey through it. I'm more of a Zerg kind of guy, but playing the Protoss this time around was pretty fun. It's nice to finally have all the races available in campaign mode.
They also made some very smart additions and changes to the multiplayer. Enough to get me back into it. I'll never be a pro level or even above platinum probably, but there is a lot going on here to keep me interested. Co-op modes, archon, and 1v1s all offer a nice package with variety. I'm looking forward to those upcoming voice packs, and diving into the multiplayer more in 2016. I want to hear Abathur and that lady Zerg with Aigus' voice talk at me while I forget to build overlords and need more vespene.
4. Bloodborne:
This is quite possible my favorite Souls game. The only one I haven't experienced at this point being Demons Souls. While its much simpler and requires much more grinding for consumable items, the overall combat and art style just feel so satisfying. This game has crazy style. I loved dashing around enemies, flipping my trick weapon through transformations, and bringing my enemies down. Compared to my Dark Souls style of Block-Attack-Block repeat, this was immensely fun.
The boss designs are likewise some of my favorite out of this line of games. They really went as grotesque as possible, and I feel like the Souls' bosses really shine when they're grotesque, massive, and unbelievable. There are a few duds combat-wise, but they each challenged me in their own unique way. I could rarely take two different bosses on with exactly the same strategy. I found myself experimenting between the two modes of my weapons to see which let me get the best hits in on a boss, and finally cracking the pattern felt satisfying. That is more then I can say about Dark Souls' bosses, but hopefully that will change in 2016 with the third entry. My one knock against the game would be developing a build didn't feel particularly engaging. Outside of weapons, most gear and stats felt the same. I just pumped 3 stats continuously because I didn't really need the rest. Likewise I stuck with the same armor for most of the game because they were all so similar.
While Dark Souls may end soon, I hope to see a continuation of this, or at least a continued evolution of this unique style of game.
3. Until Dawn:
This is a rather unexpected game for me really. I have never played the Heavy Rain style of game before and in some ways have even avoided it. It just did not sound like my cup of tea.
After seeing GBEast play on their first episode of Until Dawn, I decided to give it a chance because of the horror movie theme and the characters. I'm a sucker for good characters and character interactions. What I found is a tense game with lots of fun decisions to make and lots of jump scares. Even if all of the decisions do not play out all too differently, something about any character being able to die and just disappear from the rest of the game is fascinating.
I think the way the game teases scenes through the totems is genius. It encouraged me, who is the type of player who would just get scared and book it to the objective, to slow down and explore the environments with my little light source. I felt like I could not risk missing a totem because it could mean the difference between life and death for my favorite characters. That being said I still only found about half of them. Not sure where those little jerks were hiding out at.
It also helped that I was playing with a good friend, and we were passing the control back and forth whenever the game switched perspectives between the multiple characters. It was fun being able to watch him make choices and see how they affect the people I was controlling. And of course, give him some crap whenever it looked like he was going to get me killed.
2. Xenoblade Chronicles X:
I'll admit I haven't entirely finished this game yet, and its the reason why my list is coming in so late. It's huge! I'm sorry. I wanted to make sure I had seen enough of the game before trying to make a judgment on it. At this point the verdict is in, and its very positive.
I waffled back and forth on this game a lot pre-release. Seeing the initial trailers and teasers made me really want it, but then seeing some of the gameplay bits before it came out was enough to make me want to pass on it. Luckily, I decided with a shrug of my shoulders to give it a shot. Turns out this is my favorite game on the Wii U.
I'm a fan of anime so I really enjoy the setting, art design, story, and voice acting. Sci-fi anime is probably my favorite, and this game has a cool style about it. It all just comes together in a way that makes me feel like I'm sitting here watching a TV show on Toonami or something. I find myself picturing in my head how things would be if this were a TV show instead of a game. I appreciate how much the game lets you make it your own. From fashion gear to your characters classes, skills, and how you tackle objectives, the game gives you free reign to do what you want. It even had a bit of a Souls' vibe for me while I was trying to parse the mechanics and figure out how to effectively play the game. It does a decent job of presenting information to you, but its mostly up to the player to figure out what they want to do and how best to do it. That is a nice feeling.
The sense of exploration in the world is really quite something. I find myself just looking around while I'm running to my next objective taking in the scenery, the aliens, and the great music. It all comes together in a way that makes me feel like I really am trekking through an exotic alien planet on a search for adventure.
It also has way more online connectivity than I have come to expect from Nintendo games. I doubt I'll ever do any of it, but its a nice touch. While I'd rather enjoy restarting the campaign and playing it again, its nice that others have end game content to enjoy while teaming up with others. I can't speak to the quality of said content, but from an outsiders perspective it looks and sounds cool.
Also, props to being the only Wii U game I bought this year. If you already have a Wii U, this is probably the game to get on it.
1. The Witcher 3:
Anyone who has seen my posts since this game released probably has a good idea that it sunk its hooks into me deep. Because of this game I read through a majority of the Witcher novels, and hope to finish them this year. I could repeat what a lot of people have already said about the storytelling, the characters, and the world building, but instead I think I'll just share a quick story.
My friend and I were both sharing our experiences with the game so far, and we happened to get on the topic of who Geralt is romancing. I had picked Triss and he had picked Yennefer for his first play through. At some point in the conversation, he asked "Do you know if its possible to skip the quest line where Yennefer asks you if you still love her after the wish is lifted?". I'll admit I was a little confused. There's nothing really wrong with that quest, so I asked why he would want to skip that particular one. His reasoning was something that got me thinking. His words were something along the lines of "Well on my second playthrough when I choose Triss, I don't want to have to see Yennefer when Geralt shoots her down. It was already so sad watching Triss get rejected."
The more I thought about it the more I realized just how important the Witcher's characters felt to both of us. I completely understood where he was coming from. As someone who has played the game twice now and is currently on a 3rd run, its absolutely devastating to have to disappoint any of these main characters. Somehow Geralt's friends feel like actual friends. More so than the usual game companion does. I often found myself wanting to do their quests and wanting to get that time with them on screen. When Dandelion was mourning over the attack on Priscella, I felt that pain too and wanted nothing more than to get the culprit who hurt these two in such a way. When Zoltan needed those Gwent cards, I was going to be damn sure that he was going to get them. I even felt a bond to Letho in the way despite being enemies with him in the last game. When it came time for him to decide how to avoid the bounty on his head, I confidently gave him a "Head to Kher Mohren. I've got your back." Well, maybe Geralt didn't say it that way, but I did.
And there you have it! A pretty decent summary and ranking of my 2015 gaming experience. Overall I really enjoyed last year for gaming. It felt like quite a strong year. Here's to hoping 2016 can top it. Maybe this year I'll branch out a bit and try some genres I wouldn't normally play.
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