ArbitraryWater's Top 10 Games of 2015 that actually came out in 2015
By ArbitraryWater 10 Comments
Okay, now it’s time to party. Game of the Year is over everyone, get ready to pack up and leave because I’m here to drop the last GOTY list of 2015 that you need to care about. Well, besides the site-wide overall top 10. And maybe the lists of people you like more than me. And your own list, if you haven’t gotten it out yet. Regardless, 2015 was a great and generally productive year for me and video games, even if it continues the trend of not being a great and generally productive year for a lot of other things. I bought a PS4, so I was finally able to play modern games at worse framerates and resolutions than all the cool PC kids out there, which has since been further compounded by 2015 perhaps being the death knell for my stupid laptop’s ability to play anything vaguely recent, but of course I can’t really afford to build a half-decent PC. I just hope it can run Torment well when that comes out. You might notice a certain Witcher-sized omission from my list this year, but that’s only because I haven’t gotten around to playing enough of it. What I did play of it was good enough that it will likely get its due in 2016, probably in the spring after this next semester of school. We’ll see. But for now, let’s take a look at and celebrate/occasionally deride some of the games I did play in 2015! Starting from 10 and working my way up to the top:
Most Improved: Destiny The Taken King
I don’t know what idiotic impulse led me to pre-ordering the digital super duper version of Destiny: The Taken King, but as a “bonus” I got to play the vanilla (Dinklebot) version of Destiny for a little bit before the expansion came out. Boy, if I had bought that game last year I would’ve been so angry at the infamous Shoemaker Destiny Breaker of 2014. The Destiny of 2014 was a cold, charmless game with the single most baffling non-story I’ve ever seen in a piece of interactive entertainment. I know there have been essays written, exposes published, but allow me to chip in that, yes, the story of Destiny was that bad. The shooting was so damn good though, and The Taken King implements the radical idea of taking that shooting and making everything around it far more acceptable. It has something resembling a story! With characters (like “Snarky Nathan Fillion”) who do things! And missions that involve more than having your Northbot buddy scan things while you hold off a wave of enemies! And loot that is occasionally worth using! I spent a decent amount of time grinding my character up to 290 light, and uncharacteristic of most grinding experiences, I actually enjoyed doing it. Not enough to actually try and find a group willing to do the raid with me (because people are scary), but at least I have this sweet heavy fusion rifle that shoots ricocheting death lasers.
The second-best From Software game I played this year: Dark Souls II Scholar of the First Sin
This is sort of cheating, but as a member of “Team Pro-Dark Souls II” I think it fair to remind everyone that the remixed version of this game also came out this year and is still great. While I didn’t see the game the entire way through again, I did watch my roommate do everything, including the DLC (which I found impressively dickish) though minor tweaks and improvements to this remixed version of the game can’t really change the fact that there are too many bosses and too many of those bosses are giant dudes with giant swords. Whatever man. Dark Souls II is still great and if you don’t think so you can respectfully disagree with me using evidence and polite discussion.
The “Eff it man, I’m putting it on the list” award for game I should probably play more of: Xenoblade Chronicles X
Last year, I made the mistake of putting Dragon Age Inquisition on my Game of the Year list despite only putting a “mere” 20 hours into it. When I tried to go back to it this year, I found the first (non-Sonic, non-MMO) Bioware RPG I couldn’t force myself to finish, an approximation of everything I dislike about modern big-budget RPG design and likely a future candidate for me to make fun of when I relapse and force myself to play more. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen here. But yes, I’m around 20ish hours into Xenoblade and still haven’t gotten my mech yet, but in a year when I thought I’d gotten tired of open world stuff I still want to play more of this one. I also don’t play a ton of JRPGs and found the stuff in this game refreshing, psuedo-MMO structure be damned. But if you want the real reason why Xenoblade is on this list, it’s a positioning trick to deny Fallout 4 a place. We’ll talk more about that one later.
Best Surprise: Tales from the Borderlands
I’ve talked about Tales from the Borderlands already and recently, so I’ll keep this brief: If you haven’t tired of the Telltale formula yet, you should play Tales from the Borderlands.
Best unnecessary revision to a game that perhaps didn’t need to be revised: Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition
Did Capcom really need to update Devil May Cry 4? That is a question that has confounded our greatest philosophers for centuries, but I guess after the Ninja Theory-developed reboot flopped as bad as it did they had no other option than to return to the white haired bishonen anime version of Dante we all know and love(?). What better way to return to form then add 3 full new playable characters and some minor gameplay tweaks to a 7-year-old game whose fundamental problems had nothing to do with the quality of the combat? What? Are you saying that’s somehow weird? Are you saying that Capcom has been in a weird position for the last 2 or 3 years? Listen man, if I yell “MAKE DRAGON’S DOGMA 2 AND ALSO MAKE SURE THAT RESIDENT EVIL 2 REMAKE HAS FIXED CAMERA ANGLES” loudly enough, it will eventually happen, trust me. Oh right, Devil May Cry 4 is really fun and the new characters are cool even if it’s all still stretched over half a game’s worth of content.
The real “Spookin with Scoops”: Super Mario Maker
Super Mario Maker is the story of a hero named Patrick Klepek, who much like Sisyphus before him must push a rock up a hill only for it to fall all the way down again. Except instead of rocks it’s weird nightmare levels hand-crafted by Dan Ryckert (and to a lesser extent, Jeff Gerstmann) as foils. But Patrick always pushes back, in spite of Dan’s endless capacity for evil. It’s a triumph of the human spirit in the face of futility and one of the greatest stories ever told.
Ok, so Mario Maker is also a game where regular humans who aren’t big-time internet personalities can theoretically make levels that aren’t designed to be the worst thing ever. Like me! I’ve had a lot of fun crafting my own interpretation of Mario levels, and while I’m not going to say I’m fantastic or anything, I think the levels I have uploaded are alright (no seriously someone please play them and tell me if they’re any good or not). As someone who wasn’t raised in a cave (or Europe, where I guess they had egg games and Giana Sisters instead of Mario or something), I’m a fan of the Super Mario and I’ve run across lots of great levels in my time with the game. Really, with the strength of the premise alone this game could almost be perfect, if not for the part where it’s hard to filter the good levels from the bad. As Sturgeon’s law rightfully predicts, I’ve run into more than my fair share of crummy Mario levels. Nintendo set up that bookmark site, and that’s a start, but it’s out of game. I don’t want auto-playing levels, I don’t want bad musical renditions and, sorry Dan, I don’t want exercises in sadism that test my patience. You aren’t making Mario levels, you’re making nightmares. (Jeff also makes nightmares, but his are of a different cloth.) Still, beyond frustrations about getting anywhere in the expert version of the 100 Mario Challenge, making my own levels has been fun enough that I’ll probably keep on doing it.
Best-Playing Metal Gear Solid Game; Worst Metal Gear Solid Game: Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain
I am a fan of Metal Gear Solid. This is true even after not enjoying MGS 4 when I played (“played”) it for the first time last year and thinking Peace Walker was kind of boring the year before that. Hideo Kojima’s batshit crazy, long-winded series about the worth of soldiers in the modern world, nuclear deterrence, control, nanomachines, poop jokes, possessed arms, and stupid giant robots is exceptionally self-indulgent and anime as hell, but it turns out that’s also what I like about it. It certainly wasn’t the gameplay, which has never been good in that entire series. That first Metal Gear Solid becomes a far less impressive stealth game even in context when you recall it came out the same year as a little game called Thief: The Dark Project. But I digress. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is one of the best playing stealth games ever made. I might prefer the more hand-crafted likes of a Dishonored or Deus Ex, but MGS V controls amazingly and allows for so many dynamic player solutions to any given scenario at hand. It’s really, really, really good, even if I’m to understand that some of the base building mechanics have become less player friendly thanks to Konami’s post-launch “support”. It might go on for a little too long, be a little too repetitive in those two environments that you spend too much time in, but the variance in how you can tackle those missions is impressive and vast and only started wearing on me when I was almost done anyway. So, it’s with some amount of regret that I say if this game had a better story, it could very well be number 1 or 2 on this list, full stop. When you put the words “Metal Gear” on your box, you give me certain expectations for how your story will turn out. Perhaps fittingly given how good the gameplay is, maybe even intentionally given the way the story is about a counterfeit Metal Gear Solid protagonist, it doesn’t give me that at all. I won’t get into too many specifics, because then we’d be here all day but I’ll say that there are individual moments that are great. It just too bad they’re near the end when the game actually remembers that it has a plot that needs dealing with outside of cassette recordings and it all culminates in a cheap, unnecessary twist that didn’t necessarily sour what came before it, but didn’t improve it either. It’s not the postmodern anime insanity of MGS 2’s story, nor is it the more reserved (relatively speaking), poignant tale of MGS3. It just sort of fizzles out, which is almost a pity given that we all know this is going to be the last “real” Metal Gear Solid game. Still, the pain in my heart is eased quite well through the surgical and systematic abduction of entire enemy outposts via fulton. That tends to work well.
The Sky and the Cosmos are One: Bloodborne
Bloodborne might’ve been lower on this list if not for me replaying the game when the DLC came out, which has led to me going deep into the chalice dungeons in a desperate attempt to get the Platinum trophy before I start school again. I’m currently on the same boss that killed Brad a couple thousand times. Bloodborne is pretty great yo. I reject the notion that the Souls series has somehow become stale, but BB’s emphasis on speed and offense is certainly refreshing, as are the Lovecraftian horror elements that start innocuously but end with the moon turning blood red and a giant indescribable horror of tentacles descending upon you. It helps that the DLC areas are really good and add a bunch of fun new weapons and bosses, though the lack of build variety in Bloodborne isn’t really the most suspect part of the game. The chalice dungeons, on the other hand, might just be that. While not terrible or bad by any means, they trade on one of Bloodborne’s (and Dark Souls’) greatest strengths, hand-crafted environment design, in favor of randomly generated labyrinths for the purpose of uninteresting loot to help you make more chalice dungeons. At least there are unique bosses and enemies who aren’t in the main game. That certainly helps.
The “Heroin Addict” award for game most responsible for tanking my grades: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Listen, while your favorite games personalities might put 2 hour games about “feelings” and “personal experiences” (likely delivered in a way that panders to their nostalgia as 30-somethings) on their lists, I’m here to tell you that the True and Holy path for this medium are games that are as mechanically satisfying as they are unacceptably arcane, wastelands that you pour 365 hours into and only stop because you broke the damn L button on your 3DS and didn’t really need to grind out that Silver Rathalos bow anyways. I’m talking about Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, a game that, among other poor life choices, is part of the reason why last winter was a disaster for me academically and socially. I’m so glad Monster Hunter X hasn’t been announced for the west, because I would die. If you want actual reasons why I liked MH4U, read the blogs. I’ll be over here, not thinking about how now that I have a New 3DS XL, I could finally do that G-Rank White Fatalis fight that was released as DLC after I stopped playing.
My Game of the Year: Pillars of Eternity
I was a backer on Obsidian’s “Project Eternity” back in the olden times when horseless carriages were all the rage and “Crowdfunding” had not yet become a dirty word. Now, roughly a century later, I can claim with some confidence that it’s as good as I hoped it would be. Obsidian has one of the best writing teams in the business, more subtle and less inclined to pander than Bioware, and their interpretation of a modern Infinity Engine game is suitably different from Baldur’s Gate and its sequel. The story and characterizations are more subdued and it works to their benefit most of the time. While I’ve seen complaints from the dark, inhospitable, grognard-y corners of RPG fandom claiming the real-time with pause combat and RPG systems are terrible and bad and for babies, they worked out pretty well for me. The combat is a tad messy, but it’s messy in the same way the Infinite Engine combat was messy, so at the very least it’s accurate. Of all the RPG revivals that have happened within the past few years, I’ve found Pillars of Eternity to be the best of them, and once that second expansion comes out I’ll probably give it another playthrough.
Oh, you thought it was over? IT’S NEVER OVER. Special Achievement Awards!
Honorable Mentions: Mortal Kombat X, The Age of Decadence, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance
Mortal Kombat X was another Mortal Kombat game, but this time with some neat character variation stuff and more aggressive DLC garbage. However, I fell off it harder and more quickly than I did with MK9 in spite of probably being a better fighting game. Certainly my circumstances are different than they were 4 years ago (I don’t quite have the friends to play against like I used to), but I think it probably also comes down to there being less interesting single player stuff. The story is fine for what it is, but the Living Towers are a lame substitute for the crazy tower stuff from MK9. I’m not good enough at fighting games to want to compete online regularly, so that fizzled out pretty hard as well.
The Age of Decadence is a game I didn’t love, but I have to mention it because of how ambitious it is. The weird romanesque, indie-developed RPG is yet another attempt at being the “True Successor to the Most Holy Crown of Fallout 1 and 2”, a crown I might have more respect for if I thought more highly of Fallout 1 and 2. It doubles down on the exclusionary elements of RPG character building, where a diplomatic character and a combative character will likely have very different experiences. The crazy thing is, it almost works. Its obsession with dice roll-free skill checks works as long as you accept you’re being railroaded down a specific path with no chance for switching tracks. If you play as a merchant, you’re going to need to shove all of your points into speech skills almost exclusively because any sort of major hybridization will gimp you in the long run. It’s the kind of game I could see a very specific audience loving, but it turns out even with all of my RPG street cred I am not part of that audience.
Disgaea 5 was originally on this list, but I figured I needed to play more of it before I put it on this list. Instead, I played more Xenoblade and put that on the list. Expect to see it on next year’s old game list, because I think it’s pretty good.
Most Disappointing Game: Fallout 4.
I haven’t played a lick of Fallout 4 since I wrote my blog about it last month, and I’m still sticking to what I wrote. There is a marked lack of improvement in Fallout 4 and in some cases even a regression from the Bethesda RPGs that came before it. The shooting is better, but the RPG elements are even more consequence-free. The writing still isn’t great, but now there’s a voiced protagonist with a predetermined backstory and motivation to ensure that you can’t make something out of him, and boy, boy is the main quest really bad. I’m not going to pretend I haven’t had fun exploring the wasteland, shooting things in the head and attempting to sneak everywhere. But this is the first Bethesda RPG I’ve made the concrete decision to put down, not because I was distracted by something else, but because I was tired of playing it.
Runner up: Hotline Miami 2
Worst game I played to completion this year that wasn’t Bound By Flame: Code Name S.T.E.A.M.
Just read my review. It’s not a very good game. Runner up is Massive Chalice, which I also thought wasn’t very good.
Game I need to play most next year: Serpent in the Staglands
If you are one of the approximately 3 other people who bought (and didn’t play much of) Whalenought Studios’ retro throwback RPG, you’d know why I need to get around to this game next year. It’s like if someone made a new Baldur’s Gate, but in 1993 and instead of the pleasantly generic Forgotten Realms it’s this weird, grim fantasy setting based on Romanian folklore. Also it seems hard.
Most Anticipated Game: Fire Emblem Fates
No, really, did you expect anything different? I’m also excited for Dark Souls III and Torment: Tides of Numenera, if that means anything.
Best Game I watched someone else play: Contradiction: Spot the Liar
2015 also marked the year that Giant Bomb East went into full operation, and what an operation it was. Between the surprisingly real, occasionally awkward but undoubtedly genuine Life is Strange, the sadism of Castlevania III, and the delightfully campy interactive teen slasher Until Dawn, it’s been a good year for the new branch of Giant Bomb, but one game stands above the rest. If I did this, would it mean anything to you??? \m/
And that’s it for 2015. Hopefully 2016 is better!