2015 was a good year for gaming—a great year even. Several franchises saw reboots or additions, and a few new titles took people by surprise like Rocket League. On a personal level, 2015 was the year of the console. I still believe in a PC master race, but I am ultimately not disappointed in my purchase of a PS4. But on to my top 5 video games of 2015.
5. Until Dawn
Supermassive Games surprised me with this title. Until Dawn simply works well as an interactive horror experience in which players struggle to keep various characters alive (unless of course you want Emily to die) with a killer on the loose. It’s a serving of the good kind of cheese that makes you go back for seconds.
4. Rise of the Tomb Raider
Lara Croft. Enough said. But really, the game is solid: the puzzles and levels are intricate, the game looks good (I played it on PC), combat is satisfying overall, and Lara continues to be one of my top female protagonists. So far, the Tomb Raider reboot has been a success.
3. Fallout 4
As my first Fallout title, I was very happy overall. Fallout 4 presents players with a fairly sizeable world with plenty to explore and do. The major downsides to this game include the lack of an engaging story and some repetitive activities/quests. If you enjoy spending countless hours exploring, crafting, building up settlements, and taking in the little stories strewn throughout the landscape you will probably enjoy Fallout 4. Bethesda remains one of the best at world-building.
2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The combat is satisfying, the world is open, the companions are actually useful, and the allowance of flexible gameplay styles is refreshing. Momentarily I considered MGSV as my #1 but the burn of an unsatisfying and sometimes messy story is still alive within me. Still a loud recommendation from me if you haven’t already played The Phantom Pain.
1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Wild Hunt stole the show this year despite the strong games released later in the year. Although there were early grumblings about the change in graphical quality, Wild Hunt delivered an engaging open-world, interesting story, believable characters, and satisfying combat. The moral choices alone make for an interesting play through of this game. CD Projekt RED also wins my choice of devs for the year as their passion and commitment to gamers showed immensely.
Honorable Mention:
Star Wars Battlefront-Admittedly I have not played as much of Battlefront as I would have liked up to this point, but so far I have had a lot of fun traipsing the Star Wars inspired landscapes. Even co-op is pretty neat. As a huge fan of the films, Battlefront just feels right.