We are already a month deep into 2015 but come take a look at what I thought were the best games of last year.

2014 had a lot of games delayed and pushed into 2015 but there were a still a lot of great games that deserve to get recognized.

Honorable Mentions: Dragon Age Inquisition, Call of Duty Advance Warfare, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

10. This War of Mine

This War of Mine took war personally. Getting to control civilians in a war torn country and having to worry about day to day survival a fresh new approach to the typical conflict driven power fantasy. Developers 11bit Studios did a great job at conveying a darker more somber approach to war while still making the strategy gameplay full of interesting mechanics and dynamic events.

Favorite Moment: Sending out a character to look for supplies and getting ambushed for the first time. Losing that character and seeing how her death caused a ripple effect impacting my team and the rest of the game.

9. Sportsfriends

Sportsfriends is a great example of a successful Kickstarter campaign. This collection of competitive and cooperative minimalistic sports games is a perfect addition to every gamer’s library. The goofy physics of pole riders is ridiculous to watch, and difficult to control but makes for great 2 v 2 hilarity. Bara Bari Ball, and Hokra are intensely competitive, but nothing quite compares to having 7 glowing PS Move controllers and competing to be the best in Johann Sebastian Joust.

Favorite Moment: Getting a full group friends in one room, slapping and fighting to stay alive in Johann Sebastian Joust.

8. Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Valiant Hearts is another great example of telling war stories from a new angle. The beautiful, fantastical art style contrasts well against the bleak setting of World War I. I found myself learning a lot about the war as I played, but at the same time enjoying the mechanics of the game. Hopefully Ubisoft starts publishing more games like this and fewer ones that need apologies for being broken.

Favorite Moment: Discovering the urine soaked rag and other in game collectables showing that collectables can be used in meaningful ways.

7. Jazzpunk

Comedy in a game is often difficult, but Jazzpunk does a great job of being absurd and making sure that you know it. Joke after joke I was in a constant state of laughter throughout the game. If you like to smile you should really give this game a chance.

Favorite Moment: Gathering a jar full of spiders to throw on a sushi chef to poison a cowboy.

6. 1001 Spikes

At first 1001 Spikes seems like just another retro styled game trying to play into nostalgia, but beneath the surface it is an unforgiving pixel perfect platformer that pairs extreme difficulty with a rewarding sense of accomplishment. The dynamic music, difficult and the surprising hidden traps.

Favorite Moment: Spending over an hour, and a hundred deaths on one stage to finally complete it and be filled with satisfaction.

5. South Park: The Stick of Truth

South Park has a long history of terrible licensed video games. The Stick of Truth breaks the mold and completely surpassed my expectations. The surprisingly deep turn based RPG combat mixed with the quality of writing and voice acting I have come to expect from the show made for one of the best RPGs I played this year.

Favorite Moment: Exploring the world of South Park and finding all of the hand placed items with layers of jokes from the series history.

4. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

The Nemesis System from Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is one of the most interesting mechanics to come out of 2014. A complex, procedurally generated hierarchy of enemies that actually grow stronger and more challenging with every death. Middle Earth does the ‘open world’ game very well, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much without the meaningful enemies that would randomly interrupt my questing.

Favorite Moment: Hunting down a nasty fellow that had killed me multiple times, getting him nearly down and having 4 other warchiefs show up and getting destroyed.

3. Destiny

Destiny is one of those games that I just couldn’t put down. The precise shooting and movement controls are something you only find in a Bungie game. The world that has been crafted is full of rich potential for years to come.  I found myself replaying all of the content to endless repetition with an amazing online community. The mid game grid was well worth it to see the complicated raids and the unique exotic gear. The only thing preventing Destiny from being higher on this list was the lack of content, and drastic changes to the core of the game through frequent updates.

Favorite Moment: Teaming up with 5 other friends and going into Crota’s End raid without any knowledge or information and getting to the end after 7 hours of solid teamwork.

2. Sunset Overdrive

An energy drink that transformed those who consumed it into crazed mutants. That is the premise behind Sunset Overdrive, and it’s wonderful. Sunset Overdrive recognizes that it is a video game, and frequently breaks the fourth wall to make sure you know. The traversal mechanics are different pace from traditional 3rd person action games, and mastering them is a rewarding experience. The humor is well done with plenty of comic relief peppered frequently throughout every scene, and the bright colored, pop-punk style had me coming back for more. When I completed the story missions and side quests I found myself going around to get the pointless collectables, just as an excuse to spend more time in this world.

Favorite Moment:  Fighting a giant dragon boss, and getting to a point where the character reaches into the HUD rips out the lightning bolt shaped style meter and stabs the boss with it.

1. Transistor

Transistor does so many things right across all pillars of gaming. The story is told through narration, with such articulate voice acting, I was hanging on to every syllable anticipating whatever would come next. I explored the richly detailed, cyber styled world for every scrap of voice acting that I could trigger. The gorgeous still artwork that made itself seen at frequent times me time to ponder the existence of such a world. Even with all this style, Transistor still managed to come up with a world appropriate combat system using a mixture of turn based and realtime combat. As soon as I finished the story, I jumped right into a new game just to experience it all over again.

Favorite Moment:  Realizing that holding down a button will cause the character to start humming along with the song playing. 

 

Well that does it for 2014! Now things are already in full swing for the next year, where we can hopefully see the new consoles be taken advantage of by the developers large and small.