The Games of 2015 in Review: January

Shacknews is preparing to release its selections for 2015 Game of the Year. Before we get to the staff's selections, Shacknews is taking a look back at the past 12 months in video games, spotlighting a handful of major releases, including a few that readers may perhaps like to include in their own personal GOTY conversations. First up: January!

January is typically considered a slower month of releases, as video game publishers and developers are either recovering from the busy fall release season, preparing for the busy spring release season, or both. So it's not often that January sees a lot of action. While that was true, for the most part, this month saw the release of a few interesting games, including something of a swansong for the Saints Row world, a major peak for the folks at Techland, and the first remaster of an old LucasArts classic.

Dying Light

Prior to January, Techland had mainly been recognized as the team behind the Dead Island series. It was a polarizing series of games, to say the least. It had a devoted following of players that loved to put weapons together and crush the (un)living daylights out of zombies. There were also others that found the games to be bug-addled messes that were infuriatingly dumb and shallow.

The latter crowd didn't expect much better when Techland moved on to Warner Bros. to release Dying Light, however, this zombie-killing effort proved to be a pleasant surprise in just about every way. By adding freedom of movement and wild parkour moves to its arsenal, Techland added some much-needed freshness and fun to its zombie romp and its day/night cycle gave it a further shot in the arm, adding a sense of tension and urgency to each mission.

Regardless of one's opinion about the Dead Island games, it's hard to argue that Dying Light isn't an improvement in just about every way. It still wasn't perfect, given its iffy narrative and aggravating weapon durability mechanic, but it was definitely a game worth shining a light on.

From our review: As someone who enjoyed both Dead Island games, warts and all, Dying Light certainly feels like a vast improvement. The inclusion of parkour allows the player to be much more agile than they were in Dead Island, which helps in giving them a better escape plan if they get in the middle of an undead pickle. The variety in infected also kept me on my toes, and missions that needed to be carried out at night required me to pop an extra Zoloft to help from having a complete breakdown.

Grim Fandango Remastered

Tim Schafer and Double Fine had old adventure game fans in a tizzy after announcing that Grim Fandango would make its return. Grim Fandango Remastered put a new coat of paint on an old classic, bringing its characters into a more modern-looking generation. And of course, the game managed to retain the point-and-click mechanics, the impeccable humor, and the thoughtful puzzles that made the original something worth remembering over 15 years later.

Grim Fandango Remastered serves as a great reminder of what made LucasArts adventures so beloved in the first place and serves as a worthy time capsule of an era gone by. One of its most intriguing features is its director's commentary, allowing players to go into the mind of the game's original creators scene by scene. It's a very unique element that one is more accustomed to finding in blockbuster Blu-Ray/DVD releases and further adds a culturally historical element to this effort. Anyone who has a curiosity about how games are made would be well served to enjoy Grim Fandango Remastered and enjoy the stories behind some of their favorite scenes.

From our review: Grim Fandango is a game that should be experienced, plain and simple. The combination of story, presentation, and atmosphere come together in perfect harmony to offer arguably one of the best point-and-click adventure games ever created. With that said, I was a bit disappointed to see the Grim Fandango not get the full remastered treatment I feel it should have received. I’ve seen other LucasArts titles like The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge show more impressive remastering. After seeing what’s possible with those particular games, you could see why I’d be a little heartbroken at the rough edges and bugs.

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

Enough time has passed that Saints Row fans can begin to come to terms with the fact that its day has come and gone. Many people had fun with Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row IV, but the over-the-top open world gangsta romp seemingly had no further ground left to cover. So with that, Volition offered a makeshift goodbye the best way it knew how: by sending the gangstas to Hell. More specifically, by sending Johnny Gat to Hell.

Gat out of Hell was more of a standalone expansion to Saints Row IV, offering up many of its same power-ups, though some had a new coat of paint. But this time, it was a player's first opportunity to take control of one of the ultimate figures of the Saints Row mythos. Playing as Gat certainly didn't disappoint, as he had plenty of one-liners to go along with his demonic murders. His run-ins with historical figures like Shakespeare and Blackbeard were also hilarious, as Volition's humor from previous games was just as on-point as ever.

If there was an issue with Gat out of Hell, it's that it was too short. As a full-blown Saints Row effort, it could have been something truly special. As it was, it was a fun, but all-too-brief romp through the fires of Hades.

From our review: Volition knows exactly what the Saints Row series is. It's dumb, enjoyable fun that's not to be taken too seriously. Gat out of Hell certainly fits that criteria and though it's a smaller package this time around, it's still nice to take a short weekend trip to hell. Just don't expect to stay very long.

Life is Strange: Episode 1

Back in January, Square Enix suddenly released an episodic story-based game from the development team behind Remember Me. It came out of nowhere, but it had an interesting premise. Dialogue-driven decisions and point-and-click mechanics would move the story forward, as they so often do in games of this variety. However, the main character also had the ability to rewind time, offering potential second chances with conversations and even with manipulating objects in the world.

Life is Strange started off with a lot of potential and as it went along, it became one of the most compelling choices of the year. Leave out this writer's opinion of the game's final endings. (We'll touch on that later.) Life is Strange turned out to be one of the most innovative efforts of the year and was doubly helped by some truly compelling character work that had even the most jaded soul invested in the lives of two young teenage girls as their lives and their very town were all facing the brink of disaster.

From our impressions: It's an introduction and one that should appeal mainly to fans of the genre, with all others perhaps better served with trying the free demo first. The "edgy teen drama" tone may not work for everyone, especially since it's prevalent throughout the entire game. It remains to be seen whether the rest of Life is Strange's story can maintain a sense of intrigue, but it won't take too long to find out. The second episode is set to hit in six weeks.

Join us at Shacknews as we continue our look through the year 2015, month-by-month. Coming up next, we look at a concept with all the potential in the world that didn't live up to its monstrous expections and another game that unfolded like an action blockbuster... right down to its running time.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?