Oh, what a year… what a lovely year!

2015 was, um, something else to say the least. Two of the most influential blockbuster film sagas, which had also inspired various game-makers like Kojima, released new chapters to thunderous critic and fan applause. Marvel finally got something over a PG-13 rating in their Cinematic Universe by teaming up with Netflix for Daredevil and Jessica Jones. And how ‘bout those games? Now THOSE were just the cat’s pajamas this year, particularly when focusing on indie side of things. While I tend to overload the lists when it comes to N4G GOTY nominations, this year felt particularly overwhelming even by my standard (1). And I don’t mean to bring that up as a means of patting myself on the back; instead, it’s to stress just how excited I was to share the fun stuff I enjoyed from 2015 in the hopes of others checking them out. And there are just so many to check out.

January began well with one of my favorite horror games, Resident Evil Remake, getting the remaster treatment. So…“REmake Remastered,” I guess? There was even a critically underrated homage to that great era of horror with the ambitious White Night that released not long after. Taking the lessons of REmake’s fixed camera angles and blending it with this sharp, monochromatic art style instantly caught my attention. The game and story turned out to be pretty great as well.

Then March came along and things got out of hand fast. Between then and E3 there seemed to be this cluster of high-quality gaming experiences that could be considered serious GOTY contenders for their respective audiences. Look at this list:

-Bloodborne
-Ori And The Blind Forest
-Pillars of Eternity
-The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
-Invisible Inc.
-Splatoon

While I haven’t played all those games listed, thus going off of user and critic feedback, it wouldn’t surprise me to believe a majority of gamers would consider the first half of 2015 to have more GOTY contenders than the second half. That’s not to say the second half was a slouch but rather just how insane of a year it was. I could continue going off on specific titles for the latter half of 2015, but the integral aspect of 2015 that meant so much to me was in the unexpected hits, the new ways I got involved in playing games, and new methods of financing certain projects.

The ones I didn’t see coming:

Until Dawn would essentially be considered the next kind of Alan Wake-level success story for a game in development hell, perhaps considered an even greater success story. Not based on game quality per se; I enjoyed Alan Wake more but that came from an established developer. Supermassive Games, a studio known mostly for making PS ports, not only had to prove itself in making a new IP but in also scrapping its initial plans of being a PS Move-focused title. When considering that context of the situation the cards certainly seemed stacked against them. Luckily, Supermassive was carrying a straight flush with its clever writing and solid QTE-focused foundation that had a sense of consequence to many of your key actions. A few people have used the “Best David Cage game ever made” line to describe it too. Although I don’t agree with that sentiment—big fan of Heavy Rain, I must admit it did use horror tropes to a way that sets a standard for upcoming horror titles that’ll try something similar.

The “archaic search engine simulator” of Her Story was another I consistently kept coming back to until unlocking every bit of video. Writer behind Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Sam Barlow tapped into the media-frenzy story of Amanda Knox as inspiration for one of the most fascinating narratives of 2015. While the sound of just watching a bunch short videos sounds boring, it works so well at making you feel as though you’re inhabiting a different type of role than “the player.” Similar to the overworked gatekeeper in Papers, Please, I slowly began to feel like some down-on-his-luck detective trying to look for any words or visual cues given by the interviewee suspected of murder (played by Viva Seifert) on this mid-90’s desktop. Thinking of different words or phrases to use just to find another piece of the puzzle and put it together has never appeared so mundane in a game yet felt so engrossing.

Life Is Strange is another game that fits into the similar context of Until Dawn. Though not in development hell, French developer DONTNOD Entertainment was credited by many as ambitious to a fault with their first foray: Remember Me. Leaving the Batman Arkham formula for the foundation of a TellTale (TT) adventure was unexpected at first but they built upon that gameplay template in a much better way than any of TT's own adventure games from last year. It even went above and beyond their standard season packaging earlier this year with a nifty Limited Edition; on top of that, there wasn’t some underhanded move of only putting Episode 1 on the disc while hiding the rest as a one-use license for the Season Pass (looking at you Game of Thrones).

New ways of playing:

2015 was also the year of me diving into unfinished games. One such example of this was called Light Fall and was also one I got to write about for N4G’s Indie Month 2015 (2)! It could basically be considered the 0.1 version of the first level but, as far as toying around with the game’s mechanics it did a decent job. Aside from the developer giving me an alpha build I also dropped down real money for an early access game not on steam. Layers of Fear was a part of Microsoft’s new Game Preview Program that’s trying to stem steam’s flood of abusive early access titles through corporate curation and free 1-hour trials. While I still stand by what I’ve previously said about that sort of curative process (3), it appears as though the program has had a perfect batting average thus far. Although I can’t say I’m running with open arms to the idea of early access, even if finding the principle to be sound, it was still a treat to at least dip my toes into it.

Episodic games also became a really, really big deal for me last year. Granted, my first ever attempt at a game episode was with The Wolf Among Us’ stellar start back in 2014. This year however it came to the point where it’d be fair to rebrand me “episodic beans” in both playing new IP or all of Telltale’s adventure work from The Walking Dead Season 1 to now. Now THIS is a method of playing I’ll gladly run to with open arms for one key reason alone: it fits so well with my work schedule. Being able to just relax with a non-intensive set of gameplay systems tied down by a more story-driven approach gives a grander sense of accomplishment than a bunch of online matches in shooters to me.

Down with traditional behaviors of financing a game:

In case you weren’t aware, there’s this site called kickstarter.com that’s pretty neat. Oh...late to the party on something again? Now this was one of the toughest new things for me to try out, not only because of the many previous controversies from there (4) but also due to rarely keeping up with what needed backing. Along comes the likes of a Banjo-Kazooie homage in Yooka-Laylee, Contrast dev Compulsion Games’ We Happy Few pitch, and Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night all calling me to lay down disposable income for these ideas to get off the ground. And I put down a sizable amount of money for each. It’s enjoyable taking on the role of an uninvolved observer with each developer, getting these little tidbits from different people on the creative process behind the art, music, narrative, and game design in these continuous updates. Granted, they’re going to stick with nice things to say about the game; but even then, the intention feels less like a marketing team using catchy phrases to woo me and more in the vein of a creative group of people genuinely excited with what they’re making.

A look back:

With now being an owner/co-owner of a Wii U and PS4 respectively, it’s also been that time to either play for myself or see the reactions of other communities for the plethora of different games to have released. And if my personal experience with those considerations is worth anything, I’d say it was a heck of a year for multitudinous reasons. 2015 had smaller developers focus on small-scale action to great results with Splatoon and Rocket League. It also delivered solidly in regards to RPG’s, open-world sandboxes, examples of adroit writing for horror and the supernatural, and weaving through complex decisions that had long-lasting ramifications. And a plethora of these great qualities spanned across different genres to the point where anyone could get into at least one of these gems. Dog companions were becoming more of a thing too! Could’ve used more puppies but, eh, it is what it is.

Not only on a broad scale but in a more focused lens there’s been subtle changes in the wind to dormant genres for me. There was one particular article from Rock, Paper, Shotgun that discussed this frustration in length about Kickstarter’s successes for RPG’s but not for adventure games (5). Outside of TT's adventure template, it’s certainly been one of the most stagnant genres. While I thought Night of the Rabbit was decent, and I respect Daedalic Entertainment for their continuous support to the classic point-n-click structure, it’s tough to ignore how same-y it’s remained since the 90’s. Yet in both respects to the classic template and TT’s episodic formula, 2015 had its own examples of adventure games testing those who’ve rested on their laurels. For TT this came in the form of two different examples. Life Is Strange used time travel as a means of exploration in dialogue versus The Walking Dead’s sense of permanence in decision-making; Blues and Bullets incorporated third-person shooting and deduction puzzles into TT's decision formula. Not revolutionary but still noticeable. The same goes for Dropsy’s spins on the point-n-click template with both the elimination of written text and the dreamworld exploring his headspace. These types of twists seem like they’re becoming more and more plentiful with examples like Oxenfree, Firewatch, and Tacoma making nuanced approaches that move traditional adventure games and ‘walking sims’ (which seem more and more like offshoots of the adventure game) forward.

Another slice of great news compared to the sour financial woes of only a few years ago was the selling power of the PS4 and Xbox One. PS4 continues its incredible sales streak (6); Halo 5 broke its old series' records (7); The Witcher series has now reached super-stardom (8); Splatoon also became one of the most successful new IP’s of this generation thus far (9). I’ll admit to these being cherry-picked, but even when looking at the grand scale of ‘15 financial success stories, it’s not hard to admit things just seem a lot less dire for consoles than they did back in 2012. One and 4 have been so successful that it even took publishers by surprise, if going by Jim Sterling’s insiders (10). And this continued success—to disparate degrees obviously—seems to have acted as a sort of bridge in welcoming new ideas to become the next big thing.

In a way, the term “bridge” could fit into a lot of what’s been stated here. For me: bridges have been built or strengthened in how games got to me and how I’d buy more games. For the business side: bridges erected in 2014 that contained awfully buggy AAA experiences seemed to have been burnt—well…mostly burnt (11)—while new ones were made to really start going after the consumer’s wallet with grand open worlds with more interactive systems than previous. Of course…there’s always disappointments. I can’t deny that everything I purchased was stellar or that gaming news had some big black spots. I’ve previously talked about some throughout the past year (12) (13). It’s just that when I sit down and think back to most releases (remasters, ports, new IP, sequels, whatever else) and all the other unlisted stuff I didn’t see coming it’s just so much easier to talk about the good. Even the corporate stuff like The Geoff Keighly Awards and E3 felt like something more than they intend to be.

I don’t know…maybe it’s just me. Perhaps down the road I’ll be embarrassed at just how rose-tinted my glasses seemed to be for 2015 games and games culture at large. Until then, I’ll keep wondering if this is finally that year which ranks up with the 7th gen’s amazing 2007.

Links:

1. http://n4g.com/user/blogpos... (Page 5)
2. http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
3. http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
4. http://www.engadget.com/201...
5. https://www.rockpapershotgu...
6. http://www.technobuffalo.co...
7. https://news.xbox.com/2015/...
8. http://www.gamersnexus.net/...
9. http://web.archive.org/web/... https://www.nintendo.co.jp/...
10. https://www.youtube.com/wat...
11. https://www.youtube.com/wat...
12. http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
13. http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...