1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Mad Max's world might be one of the most unforgiving, but you've just got to hand it to Hideo Kojima and his team; their first attempt at taking the 20 year-old 3D Metal Gear formula and applying it to a couple of massive maps actually worked. Forget whatever qualms you may have with the story (that final twist is epic, though), and just take in the sheer amount of things you can see and do. You'll travel to Afghanistan and Africa both being lusciously detailed and packed with enemy encampments to seek out in between missions. An entire new game engine was built for Phantom Pain, one that takes a slightly more arcadey approach to Snake's movements, but also lets you deploy every item, weapon and ability under the sun at the drop of a hat. You can infiltrate completely stealthily using cloaking technology, cardboard boxes or shadow-clinging to complete objectives, utilise all manner of firearms to experiment with how the A.I. will react to you, deploy a string of buddy characters, launch airstrikes, develop sci-fi technology, find intel on enemy movements, listen to cassette tapes of phenomenally well-chosen 70s and 80s hits, interrogate guards, lay traps... and that's just the tip of the tactical espionage iceberg. There's a reason MGS V cost $80 million to make - it's by far the best playing, most expansive and impressive Metal Gear of all time. And that's saying something.
What was your favourite open-world game from 2015, and why? Let us know in the comments!
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