12 Phenomenal Indie Games That Deserve Your Attention In 2015

6. To The Moon

Speaking of games that are total emotional powerhouses, Ken Gao's To The Moon is definitely one of those 'interactive narratives' rather than something with a defined gameplay loop of interacting systems. However, as is the case with titles like this, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture or - to a lesser extent - Telltale's The Walking Dead, it's simply because you're the linchpin holding everything together that makes every revelation deeply affecting. TTM's story focusses on an Inception-like tale of granting a dying man's one last wish - the setup being if your two scientist characters can rewrite some of his core memories, he'll then think he's achieved the impossible. From there on out it's a heartstring-puller of the highest order, with Gao's script walking the line between unbelievably emotional exchanges as you discover what Johnny's life was like before his life-threatening condition, alongside some more Eastern-humoured exchanges between scientists Neil and Eva. It's a tricky balance to get right, but Gao does so with the utmost confidence. The concept brings you in immediately, and despite it not having the graphical clout of something like Heavy Rain, excels above and beyond any of its contemporaries' emotional scenes through belief in both its subject matter and the delivery mechanism of video games alone.