Pack on the Doritos and Mountain Dew, here are reviews for the top 5 biggest gaming releases of 2015.

Rise of the Tomb Raider:

This game takes place just one year after the events of the 2013 game, Tomb Raider, as Lara Croft struggles to explain Where is Sean?her supernatural experience on Yamati. Following her father’s research of the Divine Source to the lost city of Kitezh, she yet again encounters Trinity, an ancient order of knights that exist as a paramilitary organisation to investigate the supernatural. In an attempt to prevent Trinity from abusing the power of the Divine Source, Lara fights alongside local natives to reach the artifact before Trinity does.

This game introduces new survival techniques as well as new weapons and a new upgrading and crafting systems which overall makes the game play smoother.

This game is recommended to anyone who has an affinity for action-adventure games but loves a good story and doesn’t mind a few hard-hitting deaths along the way.

Fallout 4:

Taking place in and around Boston, Massachusetts some 200 years after nuclear war, this latest installment of the Fallout series is by far the most diverse world yet.

The nuclear wasteland of what we Rhode Islanders once called our backyard serves as an interesting backdrop for this New World order. In it, your quests thrust you into challenges with mutated animals, human synthetic robots, and the occasional group of “raiders”. Often times throughout the game you are faced weighing the pros and cons of certain actions, rarely finding the right answer or middle ground. This leaves you in a constant state of restlessness as you explore the open-world map in search of your son Sean who has been kidnapped.

Throughout the course of this game, your character transforms into a wasteland warrior as your quests become more hazardous and you slowly climb the social ladder in search of your son.

Needless to say, this game is definitely worth a play or two.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3:

It’s the near future and the new Black Ops soldier emerges as a lethal combination between robot and human with never before seen weapons of destruction at their disposal.

In this latest installment in the Call of Duty series, three modes of gameplay are offered: campaign, multiplayer, and zombies. Each mode offers new ways to rank up, customize, and gear up for battle. Each gameplay mode also offers unique player XPs and progression systems and, for the first time in the series, COD can be played entirely online in any mode. New AI and animation systems, and graphics add to the ambience of well created environment.

Overall, multiplayer maps and game types are extremely well designed and the introduction of skill trees opens up a new level of depth to the usual COD experience.

However, at times you may find yourself stuck back in the rhythm of run, shoot, cover, and repeat, which can be a turn-off for some gamers, myself included.

But, simply put, if you like any other Call of Duty game, this is for you. If you did not, try something else.

Undertale:

Long ago, two races ruled over the Earth: Humans and Monsters. One day, a war broke out between the two races and after a long series of battle, the humans were victorious. The greatest of their magicians sealed the monsters to the Underground with a magic barrier. However, this barrier is not a perfect barrier.

This is Undertale.

What’s interesting about this game is that it appeals to the emotional side of the gamer more than the combatant side. Your character is not a “blank slate” character who influences the world around them through actions, instead you are treated as a living being who has emotional needs. You are treated as if you are someone who’s truly present in the eyes of the other characters in the game which no game has managed to pull off before. Nothing in UnderTale is one-sided. You’re living and breathing along with these characters in every sense in of the word, and so are they with you.According to one player “[This game] is a whispered reminder that great games can do more than impress with sheer complexity and breadth, they can also draw us in close to them as to engage with our humanity.”

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate:

Assassins? Templars? DNA? Abstergo?

Welcome to the latest installment of the Assassin’s Creed series.

Meet Jacob and Evie Frye, twin assassins and leaders of a gang named the Rooks in 1868 London during the Industrial Revolution. Almost opposite in nature, these two work together to take back London from Templar control by infiltrating and uniting London’s criminal underworld.

In this action/adventure and historically-based game, notable Victorian figures like author Charles Dickens and biologist Charles Darwin serve as allies to aid you in some of your quests

This 2015 release of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate marks the first time in the Assassin’s Creed series where the player can freely switch between two different protagonists. Jacob and Evie are each upgraded separately, so it isn’t just a basic costume change; the siblings have different abilities that complement their personalities.

It’s clear the developers of this game concentrated on creating an environment in which the player can completely immerse themselves; including more attention to detail in the free play map and smoother game play in stealth and combat.

While there are some minor bugs in the gameplay, they never take away from the ambiance of the well-created environment.

Other games worth a play or two:

• Until Dawn
• Life is Strange – Episode 4
• Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Mario Maker
• Rocket League