You might have spent a good part of the year trying to ram giant
balls with your car or look for adhesive out in the Wastelands. While
you were off slaying mythical creatures, a number of amazing games
probably slipped under your radar. I’m talking about games ranging from
murder mysteries to sending a man up into space. Every year is an
amazing year for games and 2015 was no different. Here are our top 5
games that you probably didn’t get around to, but really should play
right now.
One of the remarkable bits about this game is that you’re dealing with full motion video. There’s something amazing about seeing a live human on the other side of the interview tapes. Viva Seifert’s portrayal of Hannah runs the gambit of emotions as she turns from victim to accused, but it’s that bit of realism that makes you feel like you’re really scrolling through old police files from years ago. Her Story is a remarkable game that blurs the lines of cinema and interaction.
A long time ago, monsters and humans used to live together in harmony. Something happened to destroy that and the monster all hid from humanity. You play as a child who falls down a hole in the mountains and finds these missing monsters. Like most RPGs, you fight through random monster encounters to earn money and experience to help you level up to fight even harder monsters… or not. Undertale allows players to pass through the entire game without swinging a punch by talking with each of the monsters you encounter. Compliment, bribe, even date; the system allows every monster to bring their own little bit of story into the drama.
But that’s really not everything. The game remembers choice you make in other games, knows if you are streaming the game online, and hides some of the deepest mysteries that players are still trying to solve online. With its simple color pallet and minimal animation, Undertale may be one of the deepest and most intriguing games you play this year.
Her Story
Imagine taking a great murder mystery, pulling out all the pages, and stitching it back together one word at a time. That’s the idea behind Her Story. In the game, you’ll have access to an old computer database filled with three months of interviews from Hannah Smith, the wife of the victim. You start out only knowing that she’s a suspect, but you have no other info on what or even how the murder happened. By typing in search terms into a 90s-style console, you pull up the first five videos that happen to match. From the words you glean from the testimony, the story starts to build around ideas, places, and important objects to the murder. Only by understanding what happened will you be able to piece together all the videos.
One of the remarkable bits about this game is that you’re dealing with full motion video. There’s something amazing about seeing a live human on the other side of the interview tapes. Viva Seifert’s portrayal of Hannah runs the gambit of emotions as she turns from victim to accused, but it’s that bit of realism that makes you feel like you’re really scrolling through old police files from years ago. Her Story is a remarkable game that blurs the lines of cinema and interaction.
Undertale
An hour into the game, you won’t get it. Two hours in and you think that it’s cute idea. Five hours into the game and you’ll start to understand what kind of magic lines underneath all of this. Undertale is one game that pretty much everyone I know has fallen in love with after playing it.
A long time ago, monsters and humans used to live together in harmony. Something happened to destroy that and the monster all hid from humanity. You play as a child who falls down a hole in the mountains and finds these missing monsters. Like most RPGs, you fight through random monster encounters to earn money and experience to help you level up to fight even harder monsters… or not. Undertale allows players to pass through the entire game without swinging a punch by talking with each of the monsters you encounter. Compliment, bribe, even date; the system allows every monster to bring their own little bit of story into the drama.
But that’s really not everything. The game remembers choice you make in other games, knows if you are streaming the game online, and hides some of the deepest mysteries that players are still trying to solve online. With its simple color pallet and minimal animation, Undertale may be one of the deepest and most intriguing games you play this year.