The past year was an interesting one for shooters. With games like Star Wars Battlefront, Evolve, and Rainbow Six Siege skipping campaigns altogether, fans of single-player experiences had slim pickings. That said, the online space got more interesting as Destiny cleaned up problems from the game's first year and Nintendo created a cute new franchise for those who prefer to color the world with paint instead of blood splatter. Here are our picks for the 2015 shooter genre awards.
Best Campaign: Splatoon
The campaign selection was meek in 2015, which gave an opening to a new face in the shooter genre to make its mark. Splatoon's campaign isn't particularly deep - it's essentially a collection of challenges - but the Mario-style platforming sequences and boss fights were more interesting than the competition.
Best Setting: Splatoon
Shooters are commonly decried for their dark and brooding color palettes, but when Nintendo stepped into the arena with Splatoon, things got a whole lot brighter. The "everything is rad" vibe calls to mind the aesthetic of late '90s video games, and environments like the pseudo-Shibuya hub world and the Splatfest dance parties give the game a feel all its own.
Best Character: Cayde-6 - Destiny: The Taken King
Fans and haters alike decried Destiny's lack of forward-facing world building and storytelling last year, and thankfully Bungie listened. This wise-cracking hunter vanguard brought some much needed personality to the Tower with his wry quips and flippant approach to facing overwhelming odds.
Best Graphics: Star Wars Battlefront
Battlefront may have been light on content, but it was flipping beautiful. DICE used photogrammetry techniques to port actual Star Wars props into the Frostbite engine. The result was stunningly realistic environments that looked like they were ripped directly out of the original trilogy. We can't wait to see if the studio uses this same process to bring Battlefield 5 to life this year.
Best Audio: Rainbow Six Siege
No shooter brought as much tension to the firefights via audio cues as Ubisoft Montreal did in Siege. From the hushed rush of footsteps on the other side of the door to a hackle-raising breach explosion, the studio masterfully created a competitive scenario that feels as tense as it does exciting.
Continue to read about the games with the best weaponry, gunplay, and multiplayer map, as well as our 2015 shooter of the year.