The outgoing year was difficult in many ways, but people did not stop having fun, so the gaming industry is working and developing as never before, despite the crisis in the world. Google has already summed up the results of 2015, creating a selection of the best apps and games for the year. I have an assumption that these applications were not selected by people, but by certain algorithms: very mediocre games were included in this list. Therefore, I decided to create my own selection of the best games of the outgoing year for the mobile platform Android.
This year has turned out to be quite rich in good games, but more than half of them are ports from a PC. It so happened that complex and 'serious' games are rarely made on mobile operating systems, often, the final profit does not cover the labor and financial costs of the project, and porting an already finished game from 'adult' platforms is much easier. The list is in no particular order, these are the games that are worth playing if you haven't already.
VainGlory
I think many are familiar with such a genre of games as MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), based on the example of the game Dota 2. For a long time there was no worthy representative of this genre on mobile platforms, but at the presentation iPhone 6 and 6 Plus showed the game VainGlory from Super Evil Megacorp. The game was demonstrated within the framework of the presentation as an example of the possibilities of Metal technology for iOS – devices, but this summer there was a release for Android as well.
The gameplay of the MOBA genre has been very successfully transferred with an eye to touch controls. The game is a 3v3 battle, the goal of each team is to destroy the enemy crystal. There are 20 unique characters to choose from, and one new one is added every month. The main condition for victory is a well-coordinated team game and a competent distribution of roles – one person stands on the main line and tries to destroy the enemy's defensive towers, the second collects (farm) money in the forest, and the third one is a support, at the right time must heal or pull an ally out of trouble. The beauty of the game is that the gameplay for each character is different, since each has its own skills and characteristics, and you need to pump it taking into account the situation: when you need to go into defense or, conversely, increase the damage done. One game session lasts on average 25 minutes, which is quite acceptable for a mobile game. I recommend playing on a tablet or a large smartphone with a diagonal of 5 inches or more.
The game is distributed free of charge, but for real money you can purchase images for characters, from this you do not get any advantages in the game, only the appearance changes.
Fallout shelter
In the summer, at the presentation of the long-awaited Fallout 4, Bethesda introduced the Fallout Shelter mobile game for fans to brighten up the expectation of a full-fledged game.
The game is a farm, but very unusual, the gameplay is similar to building a base in XCOM. At your disposal you get a shelter and your main task is to provide a place and resources for survival to everyone. To do this, you need to build generators, water treatment plants, canteens, laboratories and even a nuclear reactor.
Each character has its own characteristics S.P.E.C.I.A.L, starting from them you need to distribute responsibilities. You will find the most interesting and useful things by sending one inhabitant to the wasteland, you cannot directly control his actions, but you can read his comments about the journey, it's fun. In the wasteland, you can find armor and weapons for defense against attacks by raiders and mutants. Otherwise, this is an ordinary farm, made with humor, but you most likely will not be able to play it for a long time, after a week it starts to get pretty boring.
The game can be downloaded for free, for real money cases are available in which unique equipment and characters with good S.P.E.C.I.A.L. characteristics can be found. Well, we continue to wait for the port of the “classic” two parts of the Fallout game.
Lifeline (1-3)
The text quest is now an almost forgotten genre of games, it was popular at the dawn of computer technology, when the entire user interface consisted of text. Games like this developed fantasy and spatial thinking well.
I will not talk about the plot component, everything is very, very good there, the first and second parts tell about different stories, and the third is a continuation to the first. In each game, you act as an interlocutor and advisor, the game is a kind of chat, your interlocutor is like a living person: he tells life stories, jokes, shares experiences and constantly advises you where to go and what to do. You are given two answers to choose from, they are almost always diametrically opposed, but they are not monosyllabic, that is, not just “yes” or “no”. The game takes place in real time, that is, if the interlocutor says that he has gone somewhere far, then he can answer you in a few hours. Personally, I was pleased with the implementation of the gameplay, if you can call it that: messages from your “interlocutor” come to the notification curtain, from there you can immediately respond, that is, you don't even need to enter the game itself. All of your answers affect the ending of your character, and he may not even live to see the end of the story.
In addition, the game has a rather interesting plot with high-quality translation into Russian. I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with any of the parts.
Gunbrick
A puzzle platformer in which you play as a cube. You have an armored edge on one side, no one and nothing can break through it, and on the opposite side you have a weapon with which you can push off the ground and destroy enemies. Based on the structure of the cube, you need to “turn” to the threat with the armored side during the time, and to attack – the other. At the same time, you can only move by 'rolling' to the right or left side, and for the successful passage of the game you need to roll in the correct sequence so that armor or weapons are in the right place. It would seem nothing complicated, but thanks to good level design, the game becomes moderately difficult, but at the same time interesting. The desired mood is created by pleasant music in the style of good old 8-bit games.
The game has quite a few levels, but just enough so as not to get bored. Nice pixelated graphics included.
Evoland
This game is a parody, in a good way, of many old games. Throughout the game, you will observe the development of the gaming industry.
The game starts literally with one “forward” button, you reach the chest and “pump” the game to the ability to walk in all four directions. Find a sword in the following chests, add monsters to the map, and so on. It is very similar to the “classic” RPG-games, but only in this one you pump not your character, but the game itself. You will personally go through the history of games from primitive 8-cue ball, to modern 3D games.
I strongly advise fans to feel nostalgic for old games and even those who have not seen the so-called “those times” when the grass is greener and games are more interesting.
Grim fandango remastered
Using this game as an example, one can understand that a high-quality graphic setting and an interesting plot are much more important than the technical component of the game. Therefore, there are so few graphical innovations in the re-release of the game.
Grim Fandango is an example of a “classic” quest, despite its age (18 years old) the game looks quite good and stylish, if you don't take into account some graphical flaws. You will take part in another mess, written by the rather famous screenwriter Tim Schaefer. The plot of the game tells about life after death, where each person ends up on the Land of the Dead – this is an intermediate link between life on Earth and before the Ninth Afterlife. The main character, Manuel Calaver, works as a kind of travel agent and offers the deceased who have come to the next world, everything that can somehow “brighten” their afterlife. Their last journey directly depends on their life to death, if during life a person lived according to honor and earned a lot of money, then his way to “eternity” he could travel on high-speed train No. 9 in just 4 minutes, for others it will take 4 years.
I advise you to familiarize yourself with this game, and if you have already played it, then go through it again. It is best to play on the tablet with headphones, the game has amazing musical accompaniment.
Limbo
The long-awaited port of a very atmospheric platformer. The entire game consists of subtle silhouettes of people, objects and monsters. Despite the very simple black and white styling, the game looks just fine.
You have to play as a little boy who finds himself in a mysterious dark world full of mysteries and dangers. You will have to use your brains quite often, but you will hardly have to resort to third-party sources in search of a solution.
The game is dominated by the spirit of hopelessness and uncertainty. The plot of the game is no less mysterious and very ambiguous. Everyone will draw certain conclusions for himself: what is “Limbo”? Why did this child end up in this place? The ending evokes similar sensations, but no one forces you to search for a sacred meaning in all this, you will enjoy this game without searching. Moreover, the whole story is presented without a single word.
I advise you to wear headphones for complete immersion in the atmosphere.
LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham
Personally, I have always been skeptical about the LEGO games, considered them purely childish. It was quite pleasant to be disappointed with the example of a construction set-style game in the Batman universe.
It is very easy to describe it in two words: funny and funny. They are completely saturated with humor, this is especially clearly visible in the contrast to the “seriousness” of the Batman character: when a character consisting of LEGO-constructor parts tries to give out some phrase with a serious “mine”, it is extremely difficult not to smile.
The game is a three-dimensional platformer with nice cartoon graphics and well-directed videos. You have to play as two characters, changing them as needed, there are more than 100 characters in the game.
I advise you to pay attention to this game, as it has a very large discount as part of the New Year's sale, it can be purchased for only 15 rubles (before 315 rubles).
This war of mine
This game will make you plunge into wartime and feel for yourself all the litigation of the fate of civilians in the war.
You have to control a group of surviving civilians who are trying to survive during a long siege of the city. The game is conventionally divided into two phases: night and day. During the day you are busy with the arrangement of your shelter: produce tools and weapons, prepare food, heal the wounded and give rest to those who were on duty at night. When night falls, you send one character on a sortie to different locations. The whole point of the game is in survival, you have to go to extremes and sometimes even take risks or deliberately send your man to death, sometimes you will have actions that are contrary to all moral norms – sooner or later you will have to kill or rob absolutely innocent and unarmed people in order to to get food, but, often, people are extremely hostile. There are two extremes in this game: either you are theirs, or they are you. All actions directly affect the mental state of the survivors, they can become depressed and become inoperable.
The game is made in a beautiful hand-drawn style, in dark gray tones, and there is a very atmospheric musical accompaniment in the accompaniment, so I highly recommend playing with headphones.
Crimsonland
A top-down RPG shooter game. You play as a paratrooper who will have to fight hordes of various monsters.
There is no plot in it, but there are three game modes: in Quest mode, your task is to destroy all the monsters on the level, in Rush mode, you need to destroy as many monsters as possible, and in Survival mode, accordingly, to survive as long as possible.
You start with a pistol, with low health and zero experience. By destroying monsters, you gain experience, and bonuses or weapons may appear on their dead bodies. You can spend the accumulated experience on new abilities that improve your characteristics or add special skills. The game has a very large arsenal of weapons and, together with a variety of monsters, you will not be bored.
Such a simple, at first glance, gameplay can take many hours. I advise you to familiarize yourself with this game, because it is she who is the ancestor of this genre of top-down shooters.
This concludes our list today. Many games have passed by us that were worth mentioning, but otherwise this text would be too long. Therefore, I invite you, dear readers, to tell you about your best games of the outgoing year.
I would like to once again wish you a Happy New Year and wish you all the very best.