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slax

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2021 Games Played

Here we go again, on my own, dun dun dah etc.

Making a list, checking it just the one time as I try and track and rank what games I've played through the year. I'm going to put games I finished and quit and whatever else, exciting stuff! We are rating these games on the 5 star 5 star scale. The first set of stars denotes whether this is a "good" game, and the second whether this is a "fun" game. I use it for movies, let us see together if it works for games! I'll denote quality with * and fun with ^ because carrots are fun! It's also just a whole lot of stream of consciousness writing, mostly to remind me of how I felt. But if you are reading this and want to chat about a game, leave a comment, happy to delve further into my thoughts.

Honorable Mentions:

Splitgate - Honestly, pretty fun! Put about 10 hours into it. All the playlists are named the same as the Halo ones which is silly!

Pokemon Unite - This game made me wish that there were more approachable MOBAs because I think the concept is cool. This game made me think about what a lane based MOBA shooter would look like. So that's nice. Also this game did want to eat your money but you didn't have to let it and could still have an okay time.

Diablo 3 Season 24/25: I got way into "watching" AEW again this year and since my favorite part of wrestling is the plot (lol. although big spots are fun too) Diablo 3 was the perfect game to play. Seasonal stuff has really been ramping up, but Acti/Blizz, needs to get their shit together and start taking care of people and protecting vulnerable populations.

Valheim: I forgot I put in like 20 hours with friends in February. Had a fine time with this game. I'm someone who takes these at a slower pace, so playing with friends can kind of be an experience of log in get all the best gear handed to me and not really know what I need to accomplish. But I think it showed some promise, just not sure what they are going to do to bring me back in.

Factorio: Just a little bit of this game, it's like a less fun but more functional Satisfactory. Peaceful mode seems to be the way to go, but you still hit a point of factory burn out.

Satisfactory: I love this game. Has a similar co-op problem to Valheim when you need to go to bed and wake up the next morning to a completely different factory that has been left producing all night. But playing solo is such a nice relaxing experience (some of the time). I always get to a certain point in these factory games though, where I'd need to rebuild everything after unlocking recipes or technologies to make everything more efficient, but I've put so much time into the original build and it's humming along nicely. I had a plan for it the last factory, but it took so long so I stopped playing. Excited to see what's next for them though.

In progress, but probably won't finish this year, SMTV, Pokemon BDSP, Diablo 2 Res, and learning Japanese I guess?

List items

  • *****^^^^^

    Finished: 2/24

    I can't explain why this game hit me just right like it did, but I am a huge fan. It does so much right and makes the process of solving the mystery so fun!

  • ****^^^^^

    Finished 3/26 and Shura Playthorugh 4/1

    The greatest thing that Ghost of Tsushima did for me this year is get me to finally jump into Sekiro. That and a couple of twitch streams from people I enjoy who aren't FromSoft diehards who still really enjoyed it.

    Having played through all of Dark Souls 1-3 this is by far my favorite From game. The combat is perfect and the mobility really sings. The game on-boards you surprisingly well for a From game and the progression in the first play through works flawlessly. There is so much to find and discover and in a real shift for From games there weren't really any areas (shy maybe part of one) that I didn't like exploring and being present in.

    This game is tops! The story exists and is...fine? I mean good for most of it, nonsense for part of it. The main disappointment I had with this game is that NG+ doesn't really have much for you besides the different endings. Blazing through it a second time I realized all those mini-boss fights that felt so great the first time, don't have any rewards worth fighting for. You get more money, and you already have so much at that point and barely anything to spend it on. The combat is still great, as is using all the skills and muscle memory you've built up and easily defeating enemies you struggled with the first time, but it isn't quite enough to push me through trying to get the remaining two endings, at least not for a while.

    Regardless. This game rips!

  • ****^^^^^

    Finished: 2/14

    While Paradise Killer gives you most of your agency at the end of the game during the trial period, this game gives you more agency as you go. Both have moments where you feel so smart when you get something right. This game probably has more of those moments, the only thing holding it back is the vibe while perfect for what it was, didn't quite hit as hard as Paradise Killer, and the fact that due to some design decisions, cleaning up the remaining crew members near the end of the game is a lot of backtracking through nested memories, which while is fine, sort of lost a bit of the momentum it had going for it.

  • ****^^^^^^

    Finished 7/6

    I love this game warts and all. And oh boy are there some warts especially when it comes to some of the story stuff, but the nostalgia I have for this game, and the improvement of Golden really make this game great.

    This was my second time through Golden after playing it on the Vita back in the day and it still is such a comfort food for me.

  • ****^^^^^

    Finished: 1/3

    This game is delightful!

  • ****^^^^

    Finished: 3/1

    This game is still fun! I haven't played it since it game out, and I think a lot of the puzzles feel dated since it's been over a decade since it was first released, but I actually really like how dark and menacing the game feels in the middle. If it hadn't been meme'd to death, I think people who still look back fondly on the story and atmosphere. Nothing is overly surprising, but it's fun how they doled out little hints and storytelling along the way.

  • ****^^^^

    Finished: 11/21

    This game is sure something. Spooky, fun, weird. Just has a lot going for it. I am almost sad it got less spooky after the first act, but still very much enjoyed what was there. I actually got a little emotional with how the (in-game) story wrapped up.

    I'd suggest going in blind and just seeing what's there. There are some puzzles that weren't particularly fun, but the core gameplay and the way the story unfolded was enough to keep me engaged the whole time.

  • ****^^^^

    Stopped 7/23

    I'll probably play this game more. This is the year I took the plunge, bought a lot of DLC and tried to figure out how to actually play a Total War game. I've always been interested and given a couple a try but this is the first one that I kind of got a handle on the combat.

    This game is really good! It made me want a 40k one, because Warhammer fantasy is just okay, but I really like it regardless. There are so many races and leaders that all have different ways of playing, which is really to this games benefit. Do you like going wide, sure plenty of races for that, how about tall, you can do that too! You want archers, or artillery, or just melee, those are all options. Even if you are just playing as one race, having to adapt to what other races are doing is engaging!

    I had a really good time with this game.

  • *****^^^

    Finished (100% items) 10/21

    I like Metroid Dread and really wished I loved it. This was my first proper Metroid game. I played a lot of the GBA Castlevanias, but never found myself playing the other-side of the _____vania genre. I think I tried Super Metroid at one point and found the controls to be, bad?

    And honestly I think that might've been part of the reason I didn't absolutely love this game. It's not that the controls are bad. There are just a lot of them and a lot of situations that can require you to be doing a bunch of precision jumping and inputs to be successful. There is also so much I feel like the game doesn't tell you about the controls which is a real shame! Honestly I felt like it wasn't until nearly the end of the game, one of the last bosses, that I really started to feel what others had been talking about, that the game is such fun to play. I think if I had that background of Metroid games, I might've come to that conclusion earlier, but instead I was fighting with the controls, or playing within my limited scope of controlling Samus for so long that it might've detracted a small amount of enjoyment.

    The other thing was the exploration. I felt like the map was not great for remembering where I need to go back to or what I needed to do next. Maybe I was missing some obvious functionality, but I like the older grid format of Castlevania games (and I think older Metroid titles) more. The map gives you so much information that it becomes like a hidden pictures game to figure out what I missed that I just ended up wandering around until I found out what to do next. Which wasn't maybe the best strategy as it made everything take longer, but that's what you get I guess.

    I didn't mind a majority of the EMMI encounters, I think only 1 really frustrated me, but that was due to (intentional) limited mobility, which I didn't love in practice.

    The atmosphere was good! There was kind of a story which was very funny to me and I didn't really expect it. That ending though...it made me laugh out loud. I'm not sure if I was missing context, but I found it very humorous.

    Overall I had a pretty good time. I just felt like there were a couple of things the game could've done a better job of up front to allow someone like me to brush of the layers and get to the really fun game even quicker.

  • ****^^^^

    Stopped: 6/23

    It's more Nioh, which is fun! And fists are fun to use! And just like Nioh 1 the story is there and not really told to you, you just sort of see cut-scenes of characters talking and then maybe that was supposed to explain something to you, but realistically you just need to go in your journal to understand what's going on.

    Just like Nioh 1 though, I don't feel a huge need to play through it multiple times, which in start contrast to Sekiro, there is a reason to do. But in Nioh 2's case, I'm not even convinced I'll finish it. Made it through most of it, had fun with friends and now feel like maybe I'm done?

    Who knows. Would probably suggest if someone wants to play a Nioh, Nioh 2 seems better in every way. But their similarities and playing them relatively close together probably is what slowed me down. A much better playing game than Persona 5 Strikers, but still runs into a repetitiveness that drug it down.

  • ****^^^

    Finished 4/19

    I played the Ninety-Nine Nights demo for hours back in the day and a little Warriors at a friends house growing up but outside of that the muso genre never stuck with me. I bounced off of Hyrule Warriors, even with my love for the Zelda series, but I figured if a Persona muso couldn't get me into a muso game, then what could?

    I had a great 30 hours with this game, and then maybe a sub-par 20 or so after that. The story is a great follow-up to Persona 5, mostly just because they get to flesh out these characters even more and well, I enjoy hanging out with them. The muso elements where fairly well integrated into the Persona series in what I'll call a reverse Yakuza Like a Dragon. There gets to be problems later, and the spongy nature of some enemies made them not super engaging to fight, but all the stuff surrounding the combat in this game is actually pretty good. I enjoyed the level design and traversal for the most part, got to fuse cool personae, and talk to my friends with no calendar holding me back.

    This game is probably a bit too long and overstays it's welcome, and honestly if everything was the same and it was just back to the turn-based combat, like a Persona 5 Lite with new story, I probably would've been overjoyed.

    As far as ratings go it's the opposite of Ghosts of Tsushima in that this is what it looks like when gameplay is okay, to not great, and story is fun and engaging I guess.

    I used a cheat table for the last 20 hours or so I played this game and cannot imagine not having done that. It made combat a breeze and got to mainly just move from story beat to story beat. Highly recommend if you are thinking about playing this game but the gameplay doesn't seem really appealing to you.

  • ****^^^

    Finished: 10/3

    I started this game on game pass back in the day before it someday just broke and couldn't progress. That was enough to turn me off of this game until recently where I jumped in on Steam (probably through a humble bundle or something.)

    I love Aria of Sorrow, I think that SotN is fine (I came to it late, don't hurt me) and this game has a lot in common with those old GBA Castlevania games. There was just so much to grind in this game, between food and monster crystals and equipment, it felt arguably too much. This game didn't need as many systems,

    Again, cheating got me through to the end, which was especially needed for the true ending which brought you through an area that was just kind of a slog to traverse (they put the good traversal skill deep in this area, which just felt mean). It's visually kind of a cool take on the inverted castle. What if big? But overall I had a good time, not a great time, and maybe these games need to still be on a mobile console for me to get the full enjoyment out of them.

  • ***^^^

    Finished: 2/27

    I started this game last year and finally got around to finishing it. I do not enjoy the combat in these games which is a shame, because I love the main and side stories and the characters. It's a shame that it has sub-kingdom hearts level beat-em-up combat. But cheat engine exists, and helped me fly through some of the grindier parts, so I'm glad all the Yakuza games have come to PC and honestly am really excited for Yakuza 7.

  • ***^^^

    Finished the first playthrough 12/9

    I don't hate this game, but I think a big part of that is turning off the dialogue. So then it was just a fun game to run around and loot with friends. With that said, while it's a nice co-op or podcast game, it still doesn't really know how to be engaging long term. I had fun, but I think I'm wrapping up my time with it, which too be fair was a fair amount of time, but a lot of that was chasing loot and finishing a build which, while somewhat fun, is missing the better feedback loop of better loot games (I'm looking at you D3, Season 25 was pretty fun)

    Guns shoot pretty good and there are some fun abilities and builds that can come out of the game. Why no set items though?

  • ***^^^

    Finished (All Acts on Recruit a couple missions on veteran): 11/9

    I liked playing Left4Dead back in the day with friends, but the repetitive nature of that game meant that once I had seen most of what the game had to offer, I was ready to bounce.

    B4B seemed to have way more going for it at the outset. A progression system and ways to improve your guns felt like there would be more legs to this game. And the missions seemed to have more variety than what I remember from L4D. But still upon finishing all of the missions I kind of felt done. I had a decent enough time with my friends, but whether due to the wild increase in difficulty (and the bugs that haven't been fixed that magnify this issue), the post release balance changes nerfing a lot of cards (that doesn't make me excited for the future, buff stuff instead of nerfing unless it is absolutely broken and there is no way to fix it), or just slow and tedious way of unlocking the cards, I can't really be bothered to sit down and play much more.

    Also, could these games do less boss fights? They are okay, not particularly fun, but okay through the game and the end boss is dumb and not fun. I also find it interesting that you just fight zombies the whole time. The Walking Dead and other such stories are very quick to remind us that man is the real monster, and you meet some people up to some shady stuff, but nothing ever really comes of it.

    And don't get me started on the "story". They have one, it's basically air. Nothing really matters, and because you could be playing multiple different characters, no one really grows or changes in a way that matters. Not that they should, but the game wants to make you think that's happening. The ending cutscene, woof, just really isn't great.

    The guns shoot pretty good though, and some of the attachments can really make a difference. I had a long range sawed of shotgun for a bit and that was a lot of dumb fun.

    I think this game is a decent one of the horde shooters, but I think a few different decisions could've really elevated this game and made it hold my interest for longer.

  • ***^^^

    Finished: 8/11

    I love Picross and the idea of Ace Attorney. Put it together and what do you get, well, a pretty good game. The story isn't quite as fun as I was hoping, but is still engaging enough, the Ace Attorney moments are easy and the Picross got fairly challenging for basic Picross!

    I did kind of wish that the overall mystery was more engaging. And while I think the music absolutely nailed the late 80s early 90s vibe the game was going for, I really didn't enjoy it so much, which is a shame, because you are listening to it a lot.

    Overall, totally good time, doesn't overstay it's welcome too much and got me excited to jump back in to the Ace Attorney Trilogy which I've been putting off far too long.

  • **^^^

    Finished Story Mode 7/10

    This game is sort of baffling. On one hand the golf is so fun to play, and having an RPG leveling system should be all I need. On the other hand, all the new golf modes seem okay at best and way to slow at worst. I wish this game simplified, just did a really good job at normal golf, had tournament modes and have a silly story.

    Speaking of story, this one surely is silly, but mostly not interesting and pretty nonsensical. The game starts out with you and a squad of rookies that you think you'll compete with as you climb the ranks. Does that happen? Not really, they mostly go away. Wario and Waluigi show up and SPOILERS i guess, if you care about this story, you go on a quest to free Bowser and I was like, oh man, are you gonna have to fight Mario and it turns out you are on the bad side, that's pretty cool. But like no, they are all friends and you fight a snowman.

    More/Sillier courses would've been great. Hopefully they'll add stuff in the future. As it is now, I had fun playing normal golf and i don't know if I need to go back.

    Also this needs a tournament mode. Just allow me to level up while I golf on a bunch of different courses and get trophies. That's literally all I need.

  • ***^^

    Stopped 4/21

    I bought this game years ago and restarted it last year and finally made some headway. The first 10 hours of this game are really good. It's difficult and spooky and some large revelations happen pretty early on that are fun and interesting.

    And then it is weighed down by 1-dimensional characters, the story starts to be drip fed very slowly, and you outpace the overall difficulty rather rapidly.

    I made it to where you are locked into a path based on your choices. I had heard that Neutral was the true, or best, or coolest ending. I don't know what it was that pushed me that way, but I was like cool. The best way I found to get Neutral is to not do side quests that may drastically alter your alignment, since you have no way to track your alignment except vague hints from some NPC you can talk to if you know about him, and just keeping track of it yourself. You have a very small window to get Neutral Alignment and once I saw it was locked in it was all worth it....for exactly one second, until the game was like, now do all the side quests, most of which are boring fetch quests through this map that is, not great, so that you can get to the ending. To which I promptly turned the game off and watched the end on Youtube.

    All that to say, I think this game starts by doing some interesting stuff and really falters somewhere along the line. This hasn't discouraged me from possibly playing the sequel which seems like it might have enough QoL improvements to make it more enjoyable for me, or even playing SMTV or the 3 Remake. This game in particular is so disappointing because it has so much potential and really squanders it with some design choices that were made.

  • ***^^

    Finished: 9/12

    This is a complicated one. The HD release was my first foray into Skyward Sword after years of people rating it fairly low on a list of best 3D Zeldas. But when it was announced I was excited for the chance to jump in. See, I am not a huge fan of Breath of the Wild. I'm super impressed by what it was doing and all the systems in a place that could interact with each other, but it didn't feel like the kind of Zelda game I like. (I do need to give it another go now though)

    Skyward Sword is such an interesting playing it after BotW as you see where they started testing out multiple ideas, like Stamina, a glider (or in this game a don't die when falling-er) and item wheels etc. But since it doesn't have the vastness of BotW or the focus and mechanics of older 3D Zeldas it starts to fall a little flat. Further, the fact that the HD version didn't do more work to make a button-centric control scheme that really worked is baffling. You are playing a motion control game on a system that seems barely designed for that.

    This game also has the widest range in a Zelda game that I can remember, between music I adored and music I did not like at all. Generally all the harp stuff you play is, not good? It's just you running your hands up and down a harp and then the music kicks in and is better? Fi's Lament and the Goddess' song or whatever on the other hand are tops.

    Overall I think this game hasn't aged well and really finds itself in between identifies.

    When you fail an encounter or puzzle multiple times because the controls are just not that great, it really puts a sour taste in my mouth. Not the worst game certainly but just not nearly as good as I was hoping. I suppose that's on me.

    (I did realize that the way I was trying to do one really frustrating puzzle was probably wrong and there would've been an easier way. So I felt dumb about that, but also....why the game be like that you know?)

  • **^^

    Finished: 1/30

    I wrote up a whole blog about this one. I wanted to like it much more than I did. The combat is serviceable to good which is the only reason I went on to finish this game. But so much of it is so so uninteresting. Also this game made me think about directional audio and how when it is done poorly it is immersive breaking more than any game should make me thing about it.

  • **^^

    35+ hours in I think I'm done. 11/7

    This game asks a lot out of you and offers you very little in return. I had heard that Prison Island is where the game really picks up, which is just under half-way through the game, and boy does the story have an obvious twist there. The problem is, even if it wasn't obvious, it doesn't matter. It's barely a twist. This game sets nothing up and just assumes that you'll care about these dumb kids, but they don't even try to give you a reason.

    I struggle so much with this, because on one hand, playing the combat with Reyn was kinda fun, and this game was an okay podcast game, but on the other hand, this game just doesn't respect your time. I'm fine with long games, but not when they are just all filler.

    Is this a worse time than I had with Ghost of Tsushima? I guess so, and it's kinda wild it took most of the year to find a game I played for any substantial amount of time and liked less. GoT seems like the perfect combination of easily finish-able boring game, but this one had such a passionate community that I really tried.

    I looked up the rest of the story and it just seems like tropey nonsense. I think would be a good case study on the vicious cycle of popular opinion's presented online. I generally agree, or am maybe slightly harsher than the people who said it was an empty single-player mmo with a bunch of fetch quests. But I think that some people grew up with that being like their RPG as a kid, so it makes sense that for the DE to come out to a lot of praise and a passionate community surrounding it. Just doesn't do it for me in 2021.

    I've heard things about the future games, so I may give them a go, especially since the combat has been reworked, but,....who knows.
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