GamerKnights’ Game Of The Year 2015

2015 has been a bit of a golden year. After 2014 came and left us with broken dreams like DriveClub and Halo: MCC, and delayed title after title into 2015, it feels like this has been the year where the current consoles finally started to deliver upon their promise.

It’s not all been rosy, of course, with titles like Arkham Knight suffering from crushing issues (particularly the broken PC port), and a couple of games getting shunted into 2016, but 2015 feels like the first time since 2011 or 2012 where the number of quality games released has exceeded my available time to play them.

Carrying on the PlayDevil tradition, the GamerKnights crew will each present their personal top 5 games of the year, with their reasoning why.

From all the staff here, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas and an upcoming prosperous New Year.

We’ll see you for more great coverage in 2016. Enjoy our “Game Of The Year 2015“.

Ian – 5 – Rare Replay:

Rare Replay – 30 classic games for £20 – what more could you want? Well, Goldeneye for one. A few missing titles about, Rare Replay is an unbelievable piece of nostalgia, and ultimately could be about the only game anyone between the age of 30 -50 ever needed this year. Just about everything has been ported (and enhanced in many cases) perfectly, and there’s really something for everyone here, and at the ticket price, it would simply be rude not to. Essential, regardless of your age.

Joe – 5 – Life is Strange:

Buoyed by Telltale’s excellent ongoing work in the genre, the adventure game is well and truly back. It’s strange, then, that Telltale weren’t the creator of this year’s best. Instead, Dontnod and Square Enix delivered a fresh and earnest take on small town teenage life… plus time travel. Whilst much of the awkward attempts at youthful dialogue bounced uncomfortably off me, Max and Chloe’s tale resonated despite it all. Beneath the often-embarrassing quips are genuinely moving moments, great characters and a brilliantly fresh take on a worn out concept. Beautiful music cues and surprising moments of downtime where you’re asked simply to relax and take in the moment set it apart from the ‘what’s next’ feel of its peers, and a level of polish that Telltale still haven’t nailed truly made Life Is Strange a joy to play.

Ian – 4 – Life is Strange:

Games rarely make me emotional; only a handful have ever bought me to tears, and even thinking about some of the powerful scenes in Life is Strange make me well up. It probably helps that I’m a dad myself now, but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be drawn into Dontnod and Sqaure’s coming-of-age adventure game. There’s occasionally some cringey dialogue and slight wonkiness that betrays the limited budget, but Max and Chloe’s tale manages to be both chilling and heart-warming; powerful storytelling that proves games can have just as much of an emotional impact as movies or books. Fantastic.

Joe – 4 – Splatoon:

Splatoon is Nintendo’s best accomplishment in years. This excellent shooter (!) managed to introduce Nintendo’s signature charm and sense of pure fun into a genre that has become increasingly stale in the last decade, and its focus on online competitive play had me splatting strangers worldwide until the early hours of many a morning. The slew of free, post-launch content updates is a heartwarming thing to see in an industry as mercenary as ours, and the new maps, modes and weapons are still pouring out even now. Only Nintendo could make a shooter so perfectly aimed at younger players: I just wish I was better at it.

Ian – 3 – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt:

Ultimately The Witcher 3 should have been my number 1. I came into it late, and I’m still not done with it, but I’m some 40 hours in, and I can unquestionably say that the game starts you off too slowly, is often too bloated for its own good, and still, 10 patches later, has too many game-breaking bugs and glitches. But, it’s incredibly likeable, has the most amazing fantasy world, excellent, tactical combat, and a vast amount to see and do. Oh, and I probably spent more time playing Gwent than I did some actual full releases. Masterful.

Joe – 3 – Bloodborne:

Bloodborne is one of the slimiest games I’ve ever played. Everything in its gruesome world glistens, the ground is constantly wet underfoot and every towering boss drips and shines moist in the moonlight. Taking what we loved from the Dark Souls series of games and making it a faster and more terrifying experience worked wonders for this title. Its horror elements truly made it unique when compared to its forebears and its brutal combat rewarded players with some of the most exciting battles they’ve faced yet. Bloodborne was everything I could have hoped for, and I cannot wait for the next title from this increasingly incredible studio.

Ian – 2 – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain:

I’m not a ‘traditional’ MGS fan. I’ve played them all except 2, but only finished 4 previously, and that was a fairly ‘tight’ (for Metal Gear) 20-odd hours. So the concept of putting 55 hours into a Metal Gear game, with their bizarre plots, just seemed out of kilter. Kiefer Sutherland was clearly too expensive, so is a failure as Big Boss, but the open-world and free-form gameplay that add incredible depth and replayability make Metal Gear a genuinely good stealth game, a genuinely good open-world game, and a genuinely fantastic game in general. It’s a shame that Kojima has gone, because it seems like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a brilliant platform for future games.

Joe – 2 – Titan Souls:

Titan Souls was this year’s standout surprise for me. I’d loved the look of it in trailers, but never expected to fall as hard as I did for this pixelated gem. A hybrid between Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls, the title tasks players with taking down an onslaught of oversized bosses with a single arrow, and this simple premise created one of the year’s best titles. It’s elegant, beautiful and challenging in equal measure, and an absolutely must play.