Fourth Runner Up: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Ishmael Romero
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is a game that is much better than it had any right to be. Now that may sound like a slight against the series, but please rest assured that it isn’t. The AC franchise is a solid one, sure it’s had its hiccups, but it’s also delivered some of the most memorable video game experiences in the past 10 years. Yet even with that in mind, Syndicate just manages to be truly great.
Much like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the reasons for this are numerous. And while they are not truly game-changing individually, they come together to create one of the best entries in the series thus far, even rivaling the tales of Ezio (arguably the greatest assassin). Characters, world design, period, combat, and general gameplay all received just the right amount of tweaks to make something very familiar yet still new.
Industrial Revolution London brings fans closer to the modern age as an assassin than any previous entry. The world has entered a new age and has brought with it new ideas for society and civilization. Everything moves non-stop as modern technology takes root in one of the world’s largest cities, Templars now play with the lives of others in more intricate ways, and then there’s you. You’re thrust into a city with you knowledge and tools of the assassins of old, and you quickly realize that they’re not enough. This new world means you must be a new warrior. One who can adapt and find new ways to move about and bring pain to all those who cross you.
And all of that is done through not one, but two of the greatest protagonists to grace the series. Jacob and Evie Frye – twins, assassins, badasses. Ubisoft moved away from cookie cutter protagonists with a chip on their shoulder and an eye for romance instead of integrity. The Frye twins make you care about them and their mission in London. They’re funny, intelligent, and with their own missions and approaches to action it becomes difficult to choose a favorite.
With all of these elements coming together, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate brought something to the table that the series had been struggling with for some time: wonder and intrigue. It’s a game that drives itself as you become gripped by the urge to do and see more. It’s not very often that you get to see a game with annualized releases blossom as if it were something new, but Syndicate gave us just that.
Third Runner Up: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Sharon Coone
Penning the greatness of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an exercise in recollecting and organizing the piles of praise I’ve blabbered onto it over the past few months. A fun task much to the benefit of myself, and the detriment of my friends’ ears.
And yet, pinpointing The Witcher’s success is like trying to point out particularly strong threads in a shiny piece of cloth. The visual direction, the gripping characters, the gratifying combat and customization simultaneously all lean on and lift each other up infinitely like some sort of Escher sketch. It feels most fitting to speak here of the fabric’s greatest embellishment – a commitment to authenticity.
CD Projekt RED’s devotion and attention to detail have created something genuine with The Witcher 3, a fidelity that seeps through its world into its characters, and through the seams of every interaction. Though the world is sprawling, each square meter is handcrafted, and each region given its own landscapes, culture and dialect. From this custom world sprouts its people, diverse and painted with histories of war, prejudice and family. The mannerisms and beliefs of these inhabitants spill into each quest and conversation, bringing the tragedy and folly of their stories to life. On the receiving end of this world is a golden cast of personalities. The headstrong bunch weaves tales by simply reacting to their own world with a spirit that both rivals and plays off of their fully-fleshed surroundings.
Somehow, at the root of it all is you, the player. Choices both in dialogue and play never feel spurious, yet ripple to shape the world from endemic outcomes to the grandest of fates. You play a part in a world so strong it seems to fuel itself, and this interaction is made possible by a foundation so painstakingly built that it can believably sway with your agency, creating a story all your own, yet not yours at all.
The spellbinding interplay between the environment, its characters, and the player makes for deserving tales, glues your heart to the screen, and even makes you grieve for a demon fetus. The world of The Witcher 3, a masterpiece in its own, is easy to invest in, effortless to love, and impossible to ignore.
Second Runner Up: Fallout 4
Ishmael Romero
Creating the Fallout 4 that fans received this year was far from a simple task. While many series are fine with just releasing the same thing in a new world, the folks at Bethesda knew they had to do something more. It had been seven years since the last numbered release, and while that entry is remembered fondly by friends, it had its fair share of issues.
Fallout 4 needed to be more than just another game where you wandered through emptiness and encountered small towns with big plots. It needed a world you could get lost in, one that was alive and full of hope and opportunity. That’s exactly what Fallout 4 delivered. The Boston Wasteland wasn’t some desert, or completely torn down city. It was full of woods, bustling cities, looming husks of society, and people filled to the brim with the tenacity to survive.
Characters and companions were more than just temporarily intriguing individuals. They had their own hopes and dreams, as well as goals out in the world. Whether it was catching some mutated criminal from years long gone, or making a hope for a family, they were people who were just as alive as you. Your interactions with these folks extended beyond the simple dialogue of previous games as well. You could build something worthwhile, something that became a beacon to others out in the world. Settlements where people could come together and and work towards a bright future as society rose of from the radiated ashes like some sort of nuclear powered phoenix.
This all set a new foundation for the vastly improved gameplay that fans of the series had come to know. Shooting felt more intuitive and worthwhile, exploration felt more meaningful with one man’s trash truly becoming the next man’s treasure (and resources), and the RPG aspects were further refined. There was more control given to the player, and when that’s combined with a world that is finally truly alive and wants to do its own thing you’re left with something truly amazing.
First Runner Up: Life is Strange
Ed McGlone
At the beginning of the year, no one here on the Twinfinite staff would have predicted that Life is Strange would be appearing here on this list. Even amidst all the AAA, high profile competition, a little episodic game about two teenagers captured our hearts and conquered all but one game for us. How did that happen? Max and Chloe, that’s how.
For many of us here at Twinfinite, Life is Strange catapulted its two main protagonists, Max and Chloe, into iconic video game characters that will be remembered for years to come. Watching Max struggle with her new time-twisting power and seeing her come to terms with how much damage she was doing to her best friend Chloe and the world, was an emotionally draining experience across Life is Strange’s five episodes.
It’s hard to doubt that Max had all the best intentions in the world and tried to use her powers for good. However, Life is Strange hammered home the point that you shouldn’t mess with time, with each episode ending with Max further botching everything up. It all culminates into a brutal final choice that forced us to really examine our values and after absorbing five episodes worth of content, who and/or what was most important to us (the player). Final choices for decision-driven games are almost guaranteed to be divisive and at times, unpopular (just ask Mass Effect 3). However, Life is Strange presented us with one that puts everything you could care about at stake and shows us how that choice impacted the future. For us, that’s all you can really ask for.
Aside from the supernatural, Max and Chloe also had relatable teenage issues that touched home with us as well. Bullying, sex, love, problems at home; all of these were obstacles that Max and Chloe needed to overcome and it made us root for them to succeed that much more.
The technical stuff such as the gameplay and visuals are nothing that will blow people away. However, they all play a supporting role in telling the story of Max and Chloe in a way that was so touching and memorable. It is because of that Life is Strange is number 2 and first runner-up in our 2015 Game of the Year list.
Game of the Year: Bloodborne
Sharon Coone
Whittling this year’s Game of the Year contenders was a unique impossibility. The gaming riptide that was 2015 saw high caliber titles from almost every genre. Until Dawn elevated the rickety interactive drama equation by embracing its B-list attitude and scientifically engineering waves of fear. Rocket League blew PSN into pieces and then built it anew, and the world has magically embraced the joy of a multiplayer game that 90% of us still suck at. The limitations of an RPG were thrown out the window by The Witcher 3 and its commitment to greatness. Fallout 4 was birthed from the womb of pure hype.
Alongside these juggernauts stood Bloodborne, an unapologetically disturbed, decidedly grievous reverence to a scourge. Hidetaka Miyazaki creates a field of corruption and agony dedicated to killing you, but the game’s poignant themes stem from more than the harrowing screeches and increasingly disfigured creatures. Picking up the controller and choosing to resist Miyazaki’s unforgiving world, to feel the weight of failure with every movement through it, is the true confrontation with horror.
Driving players through this trial is an immersive atmosphere, a visceral combat system, and an intrigue in not only its carefully strewn lore, but its unnerving difficulty. A Lovecraftian and Sisyphean parade in design, Bloodborne’s madness doesn’t just surround players; it invites them to dance. Exacting and rewarding in jarring tandem, an abject horror experienced through our own resolve to challenge it, this, the never-ending waltz between madness and sanity.
Miyazaki’s Bloodborne gets a special spotlight this year. A crown not undeserved, though strongly challenged. We invite you to share your own game of the year, because thankfully, there’s plenty of unforgettable titles to go around.
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