Each year the game industry has its ups and downs, some year’s standout in memory as the year that changed things for the better in the industry. Others stand as one we would like to forget, these games been a huge disappointment and the year has been better. I don’t know when we will have another 1998 again, and honestly if given the chance to find out I would not want to know, each year is still their own, and we must live with the flaws and successes that come from them. Still some are years that are better off in the past and we as videogame fans strive to hope for a better future and 2015 may not be a shining year but it was still a wonderful year for games.
2015 changed a lot for the game industry, this has been the year where virtual reality has been officially ushered in as a major future endeavour. The year also saw the evolution of narrative driven games such as Life is Strange and Until Dawn which pushed the boundaries of storytelling beyond anything we had seen in recent years. Major Role Playing games dominated the year with the likes of The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4, and honestly for the most part the year showed signs of improvement across varying forms, I must even note just how well independent games have improved across the year. I started 2015 not caring less about independent games having barely played any that were worth my time, but the level of brilliance I have seen over 2015 gives me hope for how the industry can continue to soar especially with independent games leading the charge.
But now we get to the point of this, 2015 was filled with many great games and many of the ones I played deserved consideration for my Game of the Year. When I decided my choices for this year I relied on a couple of basic rules, one was the obvious I had to have played the game, two was the game had to be released in 2015 so no remakes or remasters. So with all that out of the way, the nominees for my Game of the Year includes:
Each of these games I picked as perspective Game of the Years are all really good games and ones I absolutely loved. Each game has a reason for me picking them and each was great in their own unique way, but when it came down to it and choosing my official Game of the Year it came down to half my nominees which I truly felt were a cut above the rest. One of these nominees came to my attention because of the endless possibilities for fun and creativity, another was for the well told story, and finally the last was all for a franchise reaching a new high point. I won’t say it was easy to pick which game I liked most, honestly all were equal and many self-debates were used to determine which game was best in my viewpoint and then finally I came up with a winner. So the game I chose for my Game of the Year in 2015 is….
Until Dawn
This was once again one of the most interesting arguments I have had with myself, but once again a decision was made and I think the best game won. Interestingly this year’s competition was originally between Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Super Mario Maker, but Until Dawn chose to come into the equation and completely shifted the way I was thinking about things. It started to seem like a no brainier that Until Dawn was truly the game that defined 2015 for me, it was the story of the game that pulled me through and urged me to explore the possibilities of choices, and the way it altered my thoughts. Super Mario Maker which was close competition just didn’t have that thought value which I spent 2015 looking for and Until Dawn offered just this, it was a truly deep experience and really developed its ideas well and made my choices matter, and I liked this power. Interestingly it was not until this game came out that I cared about it and I am happy that I was afforded the opportunity to play this game. It was a surprising standout and I can’t think of any game released during 2015 that even came close to the masterpiece that was Until Dawn, at least in my eyes. Thank you Supermassive Games you delivered a wonderful gaming experience that I don’t think any Playstation 4 owner should miss out on, though it will split opinions, I suppose mine just falls for these types of experiences.
