The Impact Factor’s 2015 Game of the Year Awards!

Article, Part 1 of 2

2015 has been an absolutely phenomenal year for games. We’ve had stellar AAA games years in the making, surprise indies that wowed, and small artistic experiences that brought something new to the world of gaming. It’s also probably my busiest year ever as a gamer. I jumped between my computer, phone, Vita, 3DS, PS3 and PS4. I played nearly 60 games total. Starting The Impact Factor back in January was a huge inspiration to sit down to play anything and everything that not only caught my eye, but the critical eyes of others too. 2015 is the year current generation consoles became a must buy. Welcome to The Impact Factor’s game of the year awards for 2015! Strap in.

It’s a real treat to once again list my favorite, and the best, games of the year. After all, making a game of the year (GOTY) list was how I started The Impact Factor. What was five last year is twelve this year. I’m sorry. I just can’t narrow it down to the standard list of ten. Believe me, I tried. The games in the #12 and #11 slots are just too good to not be represented here today.

As a scientist first and games writer/podcaster/streamer second, I’m all about full disclosure to my audience. To address the first and most pressing question: no, I was not able to play literally every single game that came out in 2015. You may notice some big exclusions, or games that made it onto many other GOTY lists.  By virtue of me actually trying to complete my Ph.D. in a non-Rip Van Winkle-esque timeline, I just can’t get around to playing all the games I want to. My list, like all lists really, are a collection of the games I thought were the best this year. My favorites. All GOTY lists are subjective and given how many exceptional games came out this year, it should come as no surprise that lists this year were so varied. So I suppose I should include an asterisk in this article’s title that reads: *based on an incomplete sampling. You can see all games that I ‘sampled’ below.

This year was the first I could share my GOTY list in more than written form! The Impact Factor podcast just recorded its GOTY talk, in which I go into more detail about my top five favorites of the year. You can find the episode below.

But without further ado, let’s get into The Impact Factor’s top 12 games of 2015! 12-7 are today, honorable mention and 6-1 tomorrow!

12. Grow Home

3D platformers are few and far between nowadays, but Grow Home gets it so right. The game is charming, whimsical, atmospheric, and fun. I finished Grow Home over the course of one night & the following morning because I couldn’t stop playing. Grow Home nails floaty physics, contrasting the powerful pull of growing large vines with the lightness and clumsiness of your lovable little robot. 2015 is the first year I can quote myself about just how much I enjoyed some of the games on this list, so I’ll let my review’s summary do the rest of the work here: “Grow Home is an unmissable experience in gaming. My time with the game was awe-inspiring and meditative. A beautiful world complements your simple objective—to fill a planet with life. Climbing your way through a growing world creates a tremendous sense of player impact. Unusual physics and controls set the foundation for creating a compelling bond between the player and the game’s robot avatar, B.U.D., the more you play. Grow Home is a game that understands what it wants to be and shows players total respect. Grow Home is a perfect, compact experience deserving of your time.” You can read my full review of Grow Home for more about what makes the game so great.

11. Life is Strange

Life is Strange does a remarkable, and almost unprecedented, job of making the ordinary extraordinary. You live the life of a teenage girl discovering who matters most in her life, who she is, and who she wants to be. With a bit of supernatural elements added into the mix to amp up the drama. To summarize it briefly: you play as Max, a senior at a high school for the arts, who discovers she can manipulate time. She uses her newly found powers to reinforce, or erode, her social bonds. More importantly, though, it’s about rebuilding her time worn friendship to her childhood bestie, Chloe. What’s most impressive and engaging about Life is Strange is its depiction of normal life. The coming of age in during a trying time and about the complicated nature of making meaningful connections. Life is Strange runs the gamut of big dramatic moments, like drug abuse and suicide, but it’s groundedness (and humanness) make its dramatic flairs feel earned. Over the course of the five episodes I grew so attached to Max and Chloe. I did everything in my power to keep the two happy and healthy, because they deserved it. A few instances of clunky dialogue aside, Life is Strange excels in every way. I loved seeing another studio, DotNod, take a shot at a genre that Telltale had seemingly monopolized. And do it so incredibly skillfully. Life is Strange was another of 2015’s big surprises.

10. Persona 4: Dancing All Night

The surprises keep rolling with Persona 4: Dancing All Night (P4D). At the start of 2015 I would have scoffed at the idea that I’d care about a rhythm slash visual novel hybrid game based off a JRPG franchise I’d never played before. Let alone that it makes my top ten of the year. But here we are, and P4D is my number ten favorite game of 2015. I was blown away by Persona 4 Golden earlier this year, and it created an insatiable hunger for more. P4D sated that hunger, surprisingly, and stood out as it’s own fantastic game. P4D does everything well. The visual novel elements are well-written, funny, and feature great animated character models (a big deal for a visual novel game). The rhythm elements are even better. Motion-captured dancers move through interesting backgrounds, songs are instantly catchy and infinitely repeatable, and the inputs are simple yet mask a complexity that appears at higher difficulty levels. The Persona team does not make bad spin-offs. Perhaps most powerfully, P4D is a game that my fiancée played while I watched. Playing through P4D with her is one of my favorite gaming memories from 2015, easily cementing the game’s placement in my top ten list. I’ll let my own words wrap this up, “ P4D exudes design confidence, showing that Atlas not only knows its world, but knows how to perfectly expand upon it. I expected P4D but to be fun, but not great. Turns out it’s exceptional.”

9. Until Dawn

Until Dawn is the best realization of a long-promised notion in games: that your choice matters and affects the outcome of the story. What an exceptional surprise and a devilishly fun game. Until Dawn had everything going against it: a troubled development (it started as a PS3 Move game over five years ago), a formulaic plot (teen slasher / supernatural horror set in a cabin in the woods), and released with almost no fanfare. As a big fan of both horror and adventure games, I had to see what Until Dawn had to offer. I was blown away. Until Dawn is so freaking fun. The characters are shallow and tropey, but knowingly so. Voice acting is exceptional. The story takes twists and turns that easily carry you through the 10 hour experience. You’re in a constant state of fear, not only because of the monsters lurking in the shadows, but knowing that every choice you make could result in the permanent death of one of the game’s protagonists. You can beat Until Dawn with everyone alive, no one alive, or anywhere in between. Until Dawn does new and interesting things with adventure game control schemes too, namely the ‘don’t move’ prompt that requires you to keep your controller perfectly still during some of the game’s most tense moments. Until Dawn is a great solo experience, was a great co-op story experience for my fiancée and I, and would also be an exceptional party game. Until Dawn is the game form of yelling at the screen during a B-horror movie: do you run or try to hide from the masked intruder? And so on. Until Dawn was another of 2015’s great surprises and easily one of the best games this year.

8. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Well, here it is. The game I promised to review since March. The game I never got around to reviewing. So this will have to suffice. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (MH4U) is exceptional. MH4U was my first foray into the long running Monster Hunter franchise. A franchise that, while limited to a small (but passionate) following in the west, is routinely one of the biggest games in Japan. The game boils down to a couple disparate parts. You travel out into a multi-zoned map to track, find, and kill gigantic monsters to complete quests. Killing said monsters awards you with monster parts, which can be used to craft new armor and weapons. There’s a loose story, but MH4U is all about killing big things with big swords (or axes, in my case). MH4U is impressively complex and almost unfathomably content dense. Killing your targets is never a button mash fest—it’s the exact opposite. Killing these giant monsters requires problem solving, pattern recognition, and quick reflexes. Your attacks are slow, monsters do a ton of damage, and they have a large health pool. Each new fight is a puzzle, one in which your life is on the line. Combat is therefore deliberate and tense. Enemy design is great, too. MH4U is an RPG fanatic’s dream, with a wealth of systems to master, each with immense complexity. The game is also like 8+ games in one, as each weapon type makes monster encounters feel totally different. Fighting with a sword and shield is nothing like fighting with a switch axe, a bow gun, or a hammer. They each require their own skill set and approach. I played MH4U for 80+ hours and I got maybe halfway through the content. That’s if I’m being generous. MH4U took me completely by surprise. And as I’ve read online, as the most accessible Monster Hunter yet it’s a perfect place for newcomers like me to jump on board. Just writing this makes me want to pick it up again. Dangit.

7. Tales from the Borderlands

Tales from the Borderlands is the little game that could. It had a lot to prove from the outset: how could Telltale make a game set in the Borderlands universe? It also had some pretty lofty expectations to overcome. As a big fan of both Telltale and the Borderlands IP, this unusual pairing was very much a peanut butter in my chocolate kind of scenario. But I was skeptical. Tales from the Borderlands delighted in proving me wrong. The game is one of the year’s best (duh), one of the year’s funniest, and Telltale’s second best game ever (just behind The Walking Dead S1). If I were to make a list of my favorite new characters from 2015, Tales from the Borderlands would easily secure upwards of four to five slots on a top ten. Letting me speak for myself here, “Tales from the Borderlands is fresh and exciting. Telltale flourishes in their return to comedic storytelling. Original characters feel at home in the Borderlands universe and are some of the best Telltale has ever done. The writing is sharp, witty, and often laugh-out-loud funny. Decisions made in Tales from the Borderlands feel meaningful, both within the game’s self-contained plot and in the Borderlands universe at large. Tales from the Borderlands is a wild ride and a raucously good time.” Telltale also plays with their own game conventions in Tales from the Borderlands, freshening up the play experience for the first time since The Walking Dead. Fan of Borderlands or not, Tales from the Borderlands is a must play. You can check out my full thoughts on the game in my review.

Check back here tomorrow for a couple honorable mentions and #6-1!

A Tale Worth Telling

Review

Tales from the Borderlands, Telltale Games (PS4)

Abstract: Tales from the Borderlands is fresh and exciting. Telltale flourishes in their return to comedic storytelling. Original characters feel at home in the Borderlands universe and are some of the best Telltale has ever done. The writing is sharp, witty, and often laugh-out-loud funny. Decisions made in Tales from the Borderlands feel meaningful, both within the game’s self-contained plot and in the Borderlands universe at large. Tales from the Borderlands is a wild ride and a raucously good time. If you’re looking for something clever, funny, fun, or enthralling look no further than Tales from the Borderlands. It’s not only one of the year’s best, but one of Telltale’s best games to date.

Telltale has become somewhat of a staple in my household. Overwhelmingly positive word of mouth led to my acquisition and subsequent playthrough of the turns-out-everyone-was-right-and-this-game-is-incredible The Walking Dead. The way in which the team at Telltale explored human relationships and allowed the player to personalize their character and their world through choice made the first season of The Walking Dead an impressive & memorable experience. The game’s strong narrative propelled the now fiancée and I through, and created a hunger for a type of gaming experience that (to the best of our knowledge) only Telltale could provide. From that point forward we picked up every new Telltale release. The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead Season 2. I wrote a bit about why I love playing these kinds of games here.

We are also huge fans of the Borderlands universe. Borderlands 2 was a game the two of us played for easily 200+ hours together, spanning three playthroughs and 4 different characters. Much like Telltale games, we loved the universe & characters Borderlands built for itself. Being a Vault hunter and exploring, shooting, and looting everything in Pandora was a blast. The dialogue was charming. We even got into the lore of the Vaults and the corporate history centered on Vault hunting. Again, ever since Borderlands 2, Justine and I were hungry for more.

 

Telltale plus Borderlands? Be prepared for a wild ride.

What we never expected, however, was that Telltale’s chocolate would mix with Borderlands’s peanut butter. Announced during VGX, Tales from the Borderlands appeared to be the perfect fusion of our recent gaming interests. But it also filled me with a lot of doubt. Mechanically speaking, the two styles of games appeared immiscible. How would Telltale get across the feeling of being on Pandora, where shooting things is how you spend your day to day? What about the tone of the game? The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us were both dark, gritty stories about loss, evil, and what people do with their back against the wall. Borderlands isn’t all love and hugs, but everything there is steeped in dark humor. Tales from the Borderlands would have to be funny in that uniquely Borderlands kind of way. It was with trepidation that we dipped into the first episode of Tales from the Borderlands.  But in doing so I was met with my biggest surprise yet: not only does Tales from the Borderlands perfectly fuse Telltale narrative & gameplay with Borderlands’s humor & world, but it might be Telltale’s best game to date. It’s really, really good.

You play as two protagonists in Tales from the Borderlands. You have Fiona, the scrappy orphaned thief from Pandora, and Rhys, the quippy pencil pusher from Hyperion (the largest corporate arms dealer in the galaxy). Fiona and Rhys are highly ambitious. They both put plans into action to rise above their stature. Plans that, inevitably, force the two plucky characters to cross paths. And what is this bold, crazy plan? The surreptitious sale of a Vault key. That’s right, a key to what everyone on Pandora seeks—a way to locate, and open, a Vault. The same Vaults that adventurers from around the universe travel to Pandora for. The sale goes…poorly, leading Rhys & Fiona to join forces against psychos, monsters & corporations alike to unravel the mystery of the ‘Vault of the Traveler’ and (hopefully) stay alive while doing so. The story takes a bunch of twists and turns that kept me engaged throughout all five episodes. It’s a fun action-adventure heist told with a thick layer of comedy. Exactly what I’d want from a Telltale Borderlands game.

 

The relationship between Fiona & Rhys is spectacular. It was so fun
to see it evolve over time.

Where Telltale really succeeds is in creating extraordinary characters. Over the course of Fiona & Rhys’s journey they form an eclectic group of funny, strange, and thoroughly memorable characters. This was one of my biggest concerns coming into Tales from the Borderlands. Borderlands had already established such great characters. Creating new ones that felt like they belonged was a gargantuan undertaking. On the other hand, relying too strongly on series staple characters would feel unambitious. Tales from the Borderlands perfectly straddles that line: most of the cast is brand-new to the universe, with franchise veterans playing only small, supporting roles. I cannot emphasize enough how much I loved the characters here. Rhys is the perfect mix of inept, cocky, goofy & endearing. Fiona is at once scary, tender, sarcastic and badass. Vaughn, Loader Bot, Gortys, Sasha, Vasquez, August. Everyone. Everyone was fantastic. Saying too much more would go into spoiler territory, but I really want to emphasize how distinct and memorable the cast of characters is in Tales from the Borderlands. Many evolve over time, growing alongside the player as your actions becoming increasingly bombastic. I’d love to see Tales from the Borderlands’s cast come back again in the future and, if the ending is any indication, I think I just might.

 

Tales from the Borderlands has quite the cast. Loader Bot & Gortys are two
2015's best. 'Hi.'

Narratively, Telltale deserves special commendation as well. The studio nails its return to comedy in Tales from the Borderlands. Jokes felt effortlessly funny, supported by great dialogue and goofy physical comedy. Sure, a lot of what actually happens in Tales from the Borderlands is pretty dark, but Telltale approaches the subjects with the franchise-established lightness and wit. Tales from the Borderlands also allowed Telltale to play with their storytelling. For the first time in their modern suite of titles, Tales from the Borderlands is told from two different perspectives. Seeing, and playing, two sides to the same story felt fresh. Two protagonists also allowed for a more ‘epic’ journey. You could be doing two totally different (and insane) things at the same point in the game’s timeline because you controlled both Fiona and Rhys. It enhanced the feeling of the player’s importance to the game’s narrative, making my choices feel even more meaningful. On that note, too, Tales from the Borderlands is also the Telltale game in which your choices have the biggest impact on the actual plot of the game. Usually, your choices don’t really affect the overall outcome of the story but rather act as a way to define your protagonist. Your decisions influence the way they see & interact with their world (thereby affecting the story because of how they react to the set events). But in Tales from the Borderlands the decisions you make have profound implications. Not only do they define much of your experience in the game’s final chapter, but they also have tremendous consequences for the world of Borderlands. Your decisions dramatically alter the fate of Pandora. As a newcomer to the franchise, it might not mean much, but to a longtime fan it will be interesting how the events of Tales from the Borderlands will affect future Borderlands releases. They pretty much have to.

 

You make big decisions. Be prepared to live with the consequences.

If you’ve played a Telltale game before, you will know what to expect from gameplay. During conversations, you’re able to choose one of four dialogue options and characters react accordingly. Between conversations, Tales from the Borderlands lets the player walk around in small areas, talking to other characters or moving towards the next objective. Quick time events (QTEs: quickly pressing a button after a specific prompt appears on screen) are used for the game’s many action scenes. It’s what Telltale has done for a while, but it works. Layered on top of the old gameplay are some new systems, though. As Rhys you can use your robotic eye to scan your environment, which is used for both world building and comedy. Fiona can loot containers for money, which can then be used to customize her outfit or vehicle. Gameplay isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but it’s fun, functional, and supports the game’s strong story and characters.

QTEs galore, but they work well. Don't forget to dodge.

One of the most striking elements of Tales from the Borderlands is how Telltale plays with their own narrative and gameplay conventions. Perhaps the comedic nature of the source material prompted the studio to experiment, often offering tongue-in-cheek commentary on their standard practices. Narrative-wise, Tales from the Borderlands toys with the concept of the unreliable narrator. Neither Fiona nor Rhys are the best, most honest people you’d ever meet, and that comes across in their storytelling. Much of the game’s story is told via the two characters recalling their experiences. Heroic moments are embellished, nitty-gritty details are omitted. It’s sometimes hard to know what exactly happened. It’s a very cool feeling. Further, while Telltale gameplay systems are kept the same in Tales from the Borderlands, how they’re used is worth writing about. There are moments where the standard ‘choose one of four options’ only offers one choice to make. Another moment plays with how ridiculous video game shootouts can be, and how even more ridiculous it is to do with using only QTEs. A final moment plays with the idea of a QTE, asking the player to perform a Mortal Kombat like series of inputs. These tweaks, as small as they may be, made playing Tales from the Borderlands feel fresh and exciting.

 

Small touches keep the gameplay fresh. I went with the Riot Shield.

I still think back to my time with Tales from the Borderlands. It was one of my favorites this year. Telltale fan or not, Borderlands fan or not, please play this game. Comedy, characters and silly fun don’t get much better. Tales from the Borderlands is a delight.

Tales from the Borderlands

5/5