Which Video Game did you Miss this year?

The world of video games just keeps getting bigger. More games are released every year than the one prior, and it’s easy to lose track of things.

This is a list of some of the easily overlooked and most interesting games of 2015. They aren’t necessarily the best games, but each one does have something special. When you’re searching for something small and off the beaten path, we hope you’ll give some of these video games a try.

Dying Light (Xbox One, PS4, PC)

Dying Light is head and shoulders above anything Techland has done in the past. This video game gives you a detailed, lush Middle Eastern metropolis and teaches you how to scramble, run and jump your way through it. Your lead star is slightly flimsy, and there are numerous zombies, so the best thing in most circumstances is to use some of the best first-person freerunning since Mirror’s Edge to make a desperate and quick escape. Avoid missions where the video game attempts to make you use a gun.

Invisible, Inc. (PC)

Stylish and dense, Invisible, Inc rethinks the stealth genre to function at a slower pace. Taking on the format of a turn-based tactical game, Klei Entertainment’s inventive sneaker has the gamer running through a sequence of capers, leading their agents into enemy territory to collect intelligence, technology and resources by any means possible. The only rules: don’t get caught, and get out alive. Here the learning curve is steep, but the play is substantive, and a range of difficulty levels and campaigns can keep a dedicated player busy for a long time. Planning and a stun gun makes perfect.

Killing Time at Lightspeed (PC)

Classic science fiction has not succeeded in predicting some of the most interesting parts of our present. This video game takes a chance at fixing that problem, imaging the role social media could play in the alienation and excitement of a space-faring future. Keep up with the world during a faster-than-light space odyssey as the years pass outside using nothing but a Twitter-like social media feed.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U)

Nintendo produces a lot of Kirby video games, but this is the one to play, a sequel to Canvas Curse from 2005 that makes the Wii U Gamepad’s touchscreen sing. It’s a Wii U game played completely on the screen; you will never have to push a button or look at your TV. The Claymation-style graphics are executed flawlessly and tie it all together.

Map (PC)

It’s quite rare for a video game to look at the world from the perspective of a middle-aged woman but in this interactive game that’s exactly who you become: an agoraphobic, lonely housewife who feels paralyzed by a lifetime of mistakes and abandoned by her family. However, not all hope is lost. Something weird is happening inside the house you’re too scared to leave – it’s growing. Every day a new door appears, opening into a situation in the past where you made an important decision. With the ability to do it all over again, you will find a way to make a happier life, or uncover so much of yourself that your world totally falls apart.

Mini Metro (PC)

Your task is simple, design a subway system to route passengers around cities like London, New York, Berlin and Hong Kong. As demand increases and new stations pop up inconveniently and unpredictably around the map, you’ll have to reroute and unwind the colourful coils of your subway lines before the city gets paralyzed by underground gridlock. It’s a simple video game to play – just drag a line between two points.

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (PS4)

The video game equivalent of the passion play. It’s operatic, sweeping and deeply interested in the things of higher minded thoughts such as death, mortality and human connection. A mysterious force has resulted in the disappearance of all of Yaughton, leaving only you to make sense of the aftermath.