Stuff That Came Out In 2015 That Was Pretty OK
In ascending order.
List items
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I don't even like these kinds of QTE-based narrative games, but boy this one came out of nowhere, and boy is it the best modern example of the genre.
I mean, Until Dawn actually uses film talent effectively in a video game, both in front of and behind the camera. That's unheard of. So many games have tried and failed to do what this game does that I have no qualms about praising it.
David Cage has made 4 games in this style over a span of 16 years and none of them are anywhere near as good as this.
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It's good. It's real good.
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I played this several years ago, but I recently picked it up again and it's officially "out" this year so I'm adding it.
This game is responsible for me kinda sorta learning orbital mechanics and there's nothing like it.
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Axiom Verge initially looks a lot like Metroid. You've played these "retro-homage" games before. You know how this goes. Slavish, beat-for-beat replication of experiences from the designer's gaming childhood, down to the last fetishistic detail.
Except..that's not this game. This game is smarter than that. This game has ideas, *new* ideas about what can be done when amazing art, sound, and clever, surprising design are added to a Metroid-y base.
This is your one pixel-art game for the year.
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This is the best thing Frictional has ever done. Traditional horror of their previous titles gets dialed back and instead we get a complex, dense, thoughtful story with acres of atmosphere.
So good.
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An Ubisoft side project that came out of nowhere, this one brings back the joy of combat-free exploratory 3D platforming to a degree I haven't seen in decades.
Grow Home feels like the people that made it were just flexing their muscles and having fun, and no one was there to tell them that Ubisoft would never greenlight a combat-free 3D platfomer.
Maybe that's why it feels so joyful and effortless.
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CDProjekt finally made the Witcher game they've been trying to make since the first game.
The questing, the massive world, the plot - all of it feels exactly like a Witcher game should. After the first game's puzzling cliffhanger ending and the second game's complete lack of interest in pursuing the Wild Hunt ploline, we finally get some ends tied up. Also the throwaway creepy sex stuff from the first few games is completely gone, and replaced with something that feels grown-up, finally.
Even though the combat is still too shallow to be tactical and too awkward to be mindless fun, this is the best thing CDProjekt has ever done.
Honestly, it's probably the only Witcher game you need to play at this point.
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Specifically, the Taken King expansion.
This game sold me on console shooters. This is the first MMO I've encountered where the minute-to-minute *act of playing* is an interesting and enjoyable experience. Yes, it's an MMO, with MMO mechanics, but unlike every other MMO ever the explicit game mechanics don't make you want to pull your own face off out of boredom.
There's really nothing else like this out there. Borderlands left me cold, but this one feels as close to a latter-day DOOM MMO (with all the bad and good things that implies) as we'll ever get.
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It's a better Far Cry 2 than Far Cry 2, but it's a Kojima-helmed Metal Gear game, and there aren't *enough* cutscenes. Whoda thunkit?
MGS V is a dramatic departure from the last mainline MGS in basically every way, and yet it executes almost everything it tries to do impeccably.
Mechanically richer than anything this side of Arma, with the Kojima goofiness that used to be reserved for cutscenes oozing into the gameplay in a myriad of pleasing ways.
This is the most mechanically remarkable thing to come out of Japan in ages. This game feels like it shouldn't exist. But it does, and it's wonderful, and you should play it before you die.
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Bloodborne trades overall plot coherence and the usual replayability of the Souls games for something faster, weirder and more unsettling, while still being a fascinating, beautifully designed game.
A welcome refresher after the disappointing Dark Souls II, and another unforgettable Miyazaki effort. Fast, impeccable, profoundly atmospheric.
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