Phew...another year in the can. And what a year it was! Gaming kicked ass in 2015, you guys. We finally saw the new consoles come into their own. Big AAA games were bigger and AAA-er than ever before, and indie games took their rightfully prominent place right alongside them. I don't do much PC gaming, and the only current console I have is a PS4, so my experience is fairly limited, but the fact that I still had a hard time choosing what would be on my Top 10 says a ton about the quality of this year in gaming. It's also the great thing about being on Giant Bomb and following the game industry at large, that I can experience all of what I don't get to play vicariously through others. I can at least appreciate everything that slips by me. I will probably never play MGSV, Super Mario Maker, Undertale, or Splatoon, but that doesn't mean that I don't dig what they're doing and love that they even exist.
What DIDN'T slip by me, however, are these ten totally rad games I had the pleasure of playing this year. Nailing the order, right down to number one, wasn't easy for me. They all brought something compelling to the table, either with new and novel mechanics, superb storytelling, or just a perfection of existing formulas. So let's quit wasting time and get to the meat. My top 10 games for the year 2015!
10. Rocket League
This game came out of absolutely nowhere. Hell, the only reason I, and likely thousands of other people, tried it is because it was free on PS Plus the month of its release. It turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the year, in more ways than one for me. I don't care for sports in general, and most definitely not sports video games, but the concept of soccer played by little rocket-powered RC cars is a concept so unique that it's hard to not at least give it a try. It didn't really grab me at first but I was determined to keep at it and see what all the fuss was about. After a couple of days, I really got the hang of it and was actually managing to score goals and land some pretty tricky shots. It was mildly frustrating, but never not fun. Granted, I only stuck with the game for a couple of weeks, which I regret. But damn if that wasn't an exhilarating couple of weeks filled with screams, cheers, and hearty laughs.
9. Galak-Z: The Dimensional
Galak-Z is one of several indie darlings this year that spent a good amount of time in the boiler. The gameplay, primarily the movement of the ship and utilizing it effectively in combat, is one of the most challenging and rewarding things I've done in a game all year. It takes a good while to get the hang of, but once it does click, you realize the amount of control at your disposal and are able to start kicking ass across the levels. I never managed to finish Season 4, because I honestly think the rogue-like elements are both unnecessary and poorly implemented. It's just too long of a process to get all the way to the fourth season again. Luckily the fantastic gameplay, as well as its 80s anime animations and graphics, more than redeems it.
8. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
What's that? 2014's real best game of the year got a new downloadable stand-alone expansion, with more of the brutal, double-fisted, gore-filled mayhem of the original? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP. Some people might say I was unreasonably excited for this more bite-sized addition to the The New Order, but those people can eat a dick. It gave me more of what I loved and even managed to mix it up in unexpected ways. For $20, it serves up a varied and action-packed 5 to 6 hour campaign, with a bunch of score-based challenge maps thrown in as a bonus.
The quality that the campaign carries over from its full-priced predecessor is impressive, with all-new environments to explore and few really cool action set-pieces. This game is, for all intents and purposes, a remake of the first act of id's masterpiece Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I knew where the story would end up, but the events unfold in a really fun way. It's really the best BJ you can get for 20 bones.
7. SOMA
I've yet to finish this moody and bizarre high-concept first-person sci-fi/horror hybrid. But damn do I want to! The story starts out strong, digging its hooks into you from the outset with it alluring set up, and only gets weirder and more intriguing from there. It's less horror-focused than I first assumed, given the developer's pedigree with the terrifying and bone-chilling Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but it's got a few effective moments here and there. Instead, the game focuses on exploring the themes of what it really means to be human, but does so without ever getting too pretentious or delving too deep into a bunch of existential mumbo-jumbo. There's still definitely a game here to play, with a mix between exploring, puzzle solving, and hiding from monsters, and even though the monster segments so far have been the weakest points, I've always been compelled to press forward and reveal the next big revelation. SOMA is something I will have to finish in 2016, but I'm eagerly anticipating jumping back in.
6. Bloodborne
I also have yet to finish this one (similar to the other Souls games), and while I wasn't grabbed by it as much as Dark Souls 1 or even 2, Bloodborne is an undeniably great game. Fast and challenging combat help compliment a gorgeous and macabre environment inspired by old Victorian London, filled with some of the nastiest beasties you're likely to encounter any time soon. If nothing else, Bloodborne has the most incredible art direction of anything else this year. Every inch of the world is brimming with detail and personality. The monster designs...holy shit. Calling some of those bosses unnerving would be the understatement of the year. They're the stuff of nightmares. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm looking at, and I often don't want to have to fight it, but I'm left with little choice.
I will probably finish Bloodborne eventually. Probably. And probably with another person, because I hate getting caught up for too long without making progress. I will also probably buy Dark Souls 3 next year and not finish that, either. Such is life.
5. Until Dawn
Who knew that what is basically a David Cage game wrapped in a teen slasher packaging would end up being one of the best games of the year? Not myself, that's for sure. The concept wasn't even something I was inherently interested in. The talk around how shockingly great the game was piqued my curiosity, and I ended up buying it from a friend for $20.
Yeah, I guess it's another one of those games where you could say that it's barely a game, but that doesn't discount the delight it gave me and my father as he watched me play through it. Until Dawn doesn't just trade in schlocky B-horror, but also subverts expectations by playing on the typical tropes of the genre. Character archetypes that you would expect to hate end up being the ones you root for in what is essentially a 7-8 hour interactive movie.
Critical choices that can have devastating consequences are sprinkled generously throughout, and the implications of making them are rarely obvious. In fact, I found the story to be legitimately gripping and suspenseful with some great, unforeseen twists. I certainly didn't expect it to end up where it did. The multitude of different ways things can play out has made me want to go back ever since I first finished it...especially since I only had three people left alive when all was said and done. It also looks great and has stellar performances by an excellent cast, including the always charming and always creepy Peter Stormare. Let's hope that the fine developers at Supermassive Games get to do more with this promising new IP.
4. Nuclear Throne
I remember being a small child and having my great grandfather regale me with tales of his expeditions into the Early Access version of Nuclear Throne. I listened in wide-eyed wonderment, excited for the day that I, too, would be able to reach the fabled throne. Fast forward, decades later, and somehow, some way, the game is officially "out". Or is it? Yeah, it is. I even dabbled in the Early Access version myself a couple years ago, and despite never making it very far, had a blast with it. Though I had it on Steam already after forking over $20 to play a very unfinished version of it some time in 2013, I bought the PS4 version on release day just to have a more comfortable place to play, and proceeded to sink my teeth in.
Anyone who's played this game knows: Nuclear Throne is HARD. It really does not fuck around. It took me a good 17 hours or so until I was able to finish it. In fact, it would have been lower on my list if I hadn't finished it because I didn't actually believe it was possible to. Eventually I did kill that damn throne, with Steroids, and looped to level 1-3. And it was glorious. Unfortunately there's not a ton of variety in it with very few reasons to see it through again, but the core gameplay is so, SO satisfying, with the wanton use of over-the-top screen shake and bevy of secrets to unlock that it's worth coming back to. I'm just happy I got to see it released in my lifetime.
3. Dying Light
I'm still a sucker for zombies. Always have been, long before they became the "the big thing", and I always will be. I didn't love Dead Island, but it provided some fleeting gory entertainment for a couple dozen hours, at least until the infuriatingly bad final act. All of the promises Techland was making about the spiritual follow up in Dying Light were lofty and ambitious. It looked gorgeous and impressive in pre-release footage, but we all know how deceiving that can be. I was rooting for this game to be amazing but secretly did not have the greatest of expectations going in.
Then I played it for myself and discovered that not only did the game live up to all of its promises, it pushed to do even more. It's an incredible looking game, even on consoles. The fictional island of Harran is richly detailed, bleak, and perfectly ripe for parkouring. The game pulls off what is, by far, the best example of first-person parkour to date. It starts out intentionally a bit clumsy yet still intuitive, but as you level your agility and proficiency simply by doing it all the time everywhere, it gets smoother, faster, and more effective. That's not even to mention the late game-changer of the addition of the grappling hook.
Between climbing up walls and leaping across rooftops, you're dismembering, exploding, bludgeoning, or blasting literal hordes of zombies apart with all manner of weaponry. It's a bloody good time that consistently entertains. The night part of the day/night cycle is one of the most intense experiences I've had in years, as it's when the truly nasty monsters come out. You also can't see a damn thing. The final, or one of the final missions, also contains one of my favorite moments in gaming all year. Between the rock-solid parkour and combat mechanics, enthralling open world, and compelling quest design, Dying Light was a huge surprise for me and the best possible start to year of awesome gaming I could've asked for.
2. Fallout 4
Fallout 4 runs on like, decade-old tech. It has rigid animations, unstable framerate, texture pop-in galore, questionable writing, archaic inventory management, a shallow and poor dialogue system, one janky-ass crafting/building system, and more bugs in it than my grandfather's corpse. And yet, here I sit, 80+ hours in, still not finished with my first playthrough (and I can assure you, there WILL be more than one), and I can't wait to jump back in and continue explore the Commonwealth and blast raiders, Super Mutants, feral ghouls, and deathclaws with my .44 Plasma-Infused revolver I dubbed Filthy Larry. I'm one of those people who was gonna be a-okay with this game just being more Fallout 3/New Vegas. Fallout 4 really is that, and I AM fine with it.
That's not to say that I wouldn't have loved to get new tech and some truly revolutionary changes to Bethesda's tried and true open-world RPG formula, but I'm still happier than a pig in shit to eat up what they're serving this time around. It's just that...Bethesda really DO create open worlds like no other. It's hard to put into words how much I just love crawling around and exploring dingy environments that are jam-packed with hundreds of items to pick up, quests to discover, and weird characters to talk to. And although its map is relatively small, geographically speaking, it wastes absolutely no space. Everywhere you look is a possibility for a new adventure, and it's that hook that pulls me back every single time.
I won't defend the game's innumerable downfalls, but I will also adamantly come to bat for all of the amazing stuff it gets right. And now with much-improved -- though still not great -- combat, getting through the world is much more palatable experience. Unless you just can't get past that inventory management. Then the game might just not be for you. For the rest of us who live and breath Fallout, we'll continue to gladly dump dozens more hours that could've been spent doing something constructive, building a virtual shanty-town for our dumb AI friends.
1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
And here we are at numero uno. I had an internal debate as to whether The Witcher 3 was really my GOTY or not. My relationship with it is somewhat strained, but there is an undeniable bond there, one that can not be broken. I spent five months with this game before finishing it. I bought it and played it the day it came out, and put it down a few times here and there, but never too long. It certainly breaks my personal record for longest time spent with a single game on one playthrough. I mean, five months?! That's fucking crazy. But I think that speaks volumes about the game itself. It wouldn't have been able to hold my attention for so long if it was not, in fact, an amazing game.
Not everything is amazing, mind you. At launch, it had a pretty rotten inventory system, movement options, and bugs that have since been fixed via gigantic patches. Gameplay was never its strong suit, but it was serviceable. The combat was clumsy and awkward at worst, mildly satisfying at best. Oh, and Roach just might be the worst goddamn mount in any game I've ever played, full stop. No, that's what he does. He comes to complete halts on a regular basis for no discernible reason. Fucking dumbass.
But you know what? All that stuff can be considered a minor blemish on what is otherwise a beautiful, breathtaking open-world RPG. The world is massive but still manages to be stunning to look it. Lighting and weather effects and appropriately sized cities filled with NPCs go a long way to make it feel like a truly living and breathing world. I LIVED in this world when I played this game. Nothing has ever immersed me into its fiction and universe on this deep a level.
And the gigantic world would be nothing if not for the quest design and writing. Nearly every one of its 200+ quests has its own story to go along, with some side quests branching out into hours-long stories of their own that are at least as strong as the main quest. The quality of writing and dialogue can't be overstated. In five months time, I came to care about Geralt and his plights with genuine empathy and concern. I wanted to see things through so badly. Though I never even played the original Witcher and played about three quarters of The Witcher 2, I felt like I knew his entire life. Its an unparalleled feeling.
There are moments in the game, especially in the final acts, that put all of that emotional investment to good use. The Battle of Kaer Morhen is likely my favorite moment in any game all year. Getting to it and much of the other good stuff requires slogging through a languidly-paced large chunk of game that will test even the most patient of gamers, but the payoff is so, so worth it. Sadly, after all that time spent, I ended up getting the worst ending in the game and it felt like all was for naught. I don't think the ways the ending is determined are very well thought-out, but I will commend CD Projekt RED for not making them so clear-cut. I may not have had the most fun playing the Witcher 3 over other games this year, but it is easily the most memorable experience.
Honorable Mentions:
Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Grow Home, Just Cause 3, Helldivers,
How Could You?!
Unlike last year, 2015 was not a year of profound disappointments. At least not for me. I think we got off relatively easy, actually. Yeah, particular versions of certain games are pretty bad, and for me, that game is the console version of Just Cause 3. Holy shit, those load times on PS4...how in the hell?! And the framerate? When you're blowing up the living fuck out of everything in sight...you know, the one thing that is THE ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE GAME? On top of that, the game also has fundamental design choices I am very not down with. However, the game still wins me over by somehow still being really fun to play. I've not delved into it as much as I would've liked just yet, but it will get it's due sometime this year.
As for you, Hotline Miami 2, or should I say....Hotline Miami POO! Just what the fuck were you trying to do? The first Hotline Miami was a brilliant execution of brutal, twitch-based action turned into crazy, intense puzzles with tripping on acid in the 80s as a visual aesthetic. I loved that game. But this sequel, frankly, is a goddamned mess. It undoubtedly has flashes of its predecessor's brilliance, but gone is the need to solve a puzzle to carve a path through buildings full of bad guys. Instead, the solution to almost every level is "grab a gun and funnel everyone through a door and shoot them as they come through." If you don't play that way, the game is basically impossible. And even when you DO play that way, it's still too fucking hard. The environments are way bigger in this one, so that meant I was going to get shot off screen every time the game felt it necessary. Turns out that was approximately a couple dozen or so times in every level. The level designs and forced play styles are not at all conducive to the design philosophy of the original. Instead of building upon that successful formula, I guess they just said "fuck it. Just make everything bigger and more but not design around that." It's too bad, because man, that music is still fantastic.
Excuse Me While I Change My Pants
Thinking back on what my favorite individual moments in games were this year, there are a strong few that really stand out. Several of them came from The Witcher 3 alone. The aforementioned Battle of Kaer Morhen is absolutely amazing and flawlessly executed, even outdoing the infamous Suicide Mission of Mass Effect 2. And it's not even the end of the game! (Minor spoilers ahead) The moments leading up to that sequence involving you hanging out at Kaer Morhen with the other Witchers was also fantastic. I figured I would only be playing the game once, so I may as well go as deep as a can. As it turns out, that involves getting shitfaced and dressing up in Yennifer's clothes and contacting the witches of the Lodge. Simply perfect. The scene where Geralt finally finds Ciri is very beautiful and memorable, mostly for putting a character that has severely suppressed emotions into a situation so profoundly emotional that he is very visibly affected. Powerful stuff.
Dying Light actually had one, too. One of the final missions has you racing through a building to rescue someone (or at least that's how I remember it), when you round a corner and are suddenly faced with a wide hallway jammed with about 300 zombies. There's no choice but to go right through them. I jumped into the pit and slaughtered every last one of those fuckers while bellowing a mighty war cry and beating my chest. It was a moment of pure badassery that I wish I could relive for the first time.
And then there's beating the throne in Nuclear Throne. It is possible, folks. If I can do it, surely you can, too!
My Apologies
I only missed out on a few games I was interested in this year. I will surely buy Rise of the Tomb Raider when the PS4 version hits. I have a copy of Rainbow Six: Siege I'm waiting to install until I get my new hard drive. I also just bought Her Story, which I plan on spending an entire afternoon with very soon. I love games that make me write stuff down.
Well, that does it! Thanks for reading any or all of this mess. Thanks for even just popping in to skim my list and then tell me how wrong I am for excluding your favorite game. Well, guess WHAT? Your favorite game sucks. That's why it's not on here.
2016 is shaping up to be just as good. Uncharted 4, The Division, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, motherfucking No Man's Sky, Mess Effect: Andromeda, Horizon Zero Dawn, DOOM, and so many more. I can already feel my wallet emptying. Help me.
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