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bigevil1987

I knew I had heard @PackBenPack's cake cutting theory somewhere before. Your old boss didn't invent it, Sir Francis… https://t.co/aol93gUhqV

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2021 Sure Went By Quickly

What a weird non-year 2021 was. I'm not the first one to say it but I feel like I'm still stuck in 2020, it feels simultaneously that all time has passed and no time has passed. After another crazy, blurry year of working in healthcare, I'm late but ready to start building out a GOTY list. Here are some games that stood out for me in 2021. I may not be able to do this whole list in one sitting so I will edit as necessary. These won't be in any strict order but generally, the further down the page we go, the higher the ranking. Now, for a few quick awards...

Best Surprise:

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

Most Disappointing:

Mario Golf: Super Rush

Best 2021 Game Soundtracks:

Death's Door, Valheim (both the in game one and the one I made on Spotify), Sable, Kena, Nier Replicant, Inscryption and Loop Hero

Honourable Mentions:

Outriders and The Ascent

I was going to add these games to my list to make it a round 20, but I just couldn't do it. So, I figured a mention would do. Neither are particularly great games, especially Outriders which is, really, really not great. But, they were notable for me in 2021 because I played both in co-op with a friend. We experienced all the highs and lows (mostly lows) together and it made a memorable experience, painfully memorable. Both were games with good ideas, but fell short of their potential.

List items

  • I don't really do the whole survival crafting game thing. Aside from No Man's Sky, I haven't really latched onto anything else in that arena. On top of that, I don't play a lot of games in early access, usually preferring to wait until a game is finished before experiencing it.

    Valheim though, grabbed the attention of myself and a few friends. And even though we all fell off of it after about 5-6 weeks, by that time I had put over 100 hours into it. It was also my first experience with renting a server and building an ongoing world with friends, having never been into games like Minecraft. We had a lot of fun, and some arguments as well. All made for a great experience that I hope to recreate when the game hits 1.0 or some more significant updates drop. (I still maintain that while not aesthetically pleasing, trenches are the best way to defend a settlement.)

    Back when I was a super cool teen, I used to make soundtracks for video games I enjoyed. I would choose songs I liked (mostly nu metal at the time, like I said, super cool) that reminded me of the game in some way or I thought fit the vibe well. Valheim is the first game in quite some time that awoke that urge in me and I ended up making a 9+ hour Spotify playlist of vaguely Viking-esque music I could listen to while playing. (It's mostly Danheim and Apocalyptica tracks, but I like it.)

    Valheim also definitely wins the award for most satisfying game mechanic of the year, cutting down those trees feels damn good.

  • I mean, obviously, like so many others, this had to be my GOTY.

    What can I possibly say about Inscryption that hasn't already been said on a hundred sites? It sits at the top of my list because it grabbed me in a way no other game in 2021 did. I knew from the trailers I wanted to try it out when it launched, and was somewhat familiar with some of Mullins' previous work from videos here on GB. What I didn't know was how raptly I would play Inscryption.

    Between Valheim, Inscryption and Into The Pit (which I barely played but will come back to, maybe on my 2022 Games I Should've Played In 2021 list) it's been a hell of a year for old school PS1-style visuals but none of the others pulled it off so well as this game. I loved everything about the vibe of Inscryption, the cards, the visuals, the music and just the general mood sucked me right in.

    I'm not even a big deck builder guy, but I really enjoyed the puzzle aspects of the various card battles. (So much so that my wife is now concerned about how much Slay The Spire I've been playing, but that's neither here nor there.) Then, just when you think you've started to figure out what the game wants from you, Inscryption swerves and changes everything about itself. What a delightfully strange, cleverly designed experience. I will be recommending Inscryption for years to come. Like Hades was in 2020, I think Inscryption will go down as a timeless classic.

  • While we guessed some of the revelations in The Forgotten City long before they happened in game, playing it with my wife was definitely one of the best gaming experiences I had in 2021. TFC is a superbly executed clockwork game. I loved messing around with individual parts to see how they would affect the whole. Then reset the day and do it all over again.

    The basic concept is that you're stuck in a time loop, but TFC smartly avoids the pitfalls that concept can open up. Such as having to repeat tasks over and over which can quickly become tiresome in a video game. The developers knew exactly what they had here and didn't pad out the length with pointless tasks and didn't waste your time once you had figured something out. As I get older I have less time and less patience for repetitive tasks in video games and I will respect any developer that understands that. Not every game needs to be dozens of hours long. I really hope TFC did well so the very small team can go on to make something else.

    The writing is smart, funny, and emotionally affecting when it needs to be. And the "canon" ending you can work towards by successfully saving the day is one of the more satisfying video game endings I've had the pleasure of experiencing. If the idea of a Groundhog Day-style mystery set in ancient Rome is in any way appealing to you, PLEASE play The Forgotten City, I promise you will thank me.

    P.S. We Stan Galerius in our house.

  • Nier Automata unexpectedly became one of my favourite games. I fell in love with the world and characters and general Taro Yoko weirdness. In the years since Automata's release, I've read and watched a dozen lore summaries and told myself one day I would go back and play the first Nier at some point.

    Luckily, they decided to release an updated version with 2021's Nier Replicant ver.1.23whatevernumbersfollowedthoseones. I knew going in Nier was an odd, grindy experience, especially if you wanted to do all of the sidequests but I happily went along for the ride and loved every minute of it. You know when "funny" games break the 4th wall and say "boy, escort missions sure do suck" but make you do them anyway?

    Well, Replicant is basically that concept turned into a full game, except instead of the constant fetch quests annoying me I was excited to see where they would take me. Partially because of the amazing Okabe music pulling me through, partially because I knew I would be rewarded with another great cutscene. Much like Automata, the characters are what's great here. I wanted to part of their journey and learn everything I could about them. The Nier world is a bleak and beautiful place, and I hope we get to return there some day, outside of a shitty mobile game.

  • Wow, this one came out of nowhere huh? After some questionable looking trailers, and being the next Marvel game from Square following the mess that was Avengers, no one had high hopes for Guardians. I still bought it at launch, not sure why, I guess I continue to be a sucker for Marvel stuff, but I'm very glad I did.

    It feels weird to write but GOTG is the closest any game has come to scratching the Mass Effect itch I've had since ME 3. After a shaky first few hours, I fell in love with this version of the Guardians. While the gameplay isn't always very engaging, the visuals and the writing are top notch. There is SO much dialogue in this game, like, a Psychonauts level of dialogue. And almost all of it serves to further deepen the characterization of the Guardians.

    At first it's hard to separate your mind from the MCU versions of these characters, but they quickly do enough to establish this universe as separate from that one. The one major complaint I have is that even after multiple patches, there are a fair amount of bugs, particularly in regards to the aforementioned dialogue. Characters will often talk over each other, making it difficult to parse all of the dialogue. After a few hours I ended up standing perfectly still every time a conversation started for fear of triggering another conversation that would cut it off or play over it.

    If you like Marvel, or even just sci-fi action adventures, you could do so much worse than GOTG.

  • My approach to Psychonauts 2 was likely different than most Double Fine fans, Double Fans? Whatever. I played the original game, and the VR-based sequel in 2021, shortly before the second game's release. I didn't have to wait almost 2 decades like a lot of the Psychonauts fans did, which was great because I didn't expect to love the Psychonauts world as much as I do.

    I knew the original game had a following, and was generally well regarded, but man, Psychonauts is great! Gameplay-wise, I can't say I loved playing the original but I was shocked how well the writing held up. As a result I eagerly awaited (for about 4 months) Psychonauts 2, thinking it would be essentially be more of the same at a higher resolution. Which would have been fine but I'm happy to say I was wrong, Psychonauts 2 exceeded my expectations in almost every way.

    The gameplay was vastly improved over the original, high resolutions added a lot to the already great art style, and I continued to love the story and characters even more. If you haven't given this franchise a shot, please do, I would love for more people to experience it and for Double Fine to be given the opportunity to make more things like it.

    Also, if you're going to play Psychonauts 1 any time soon, just do what I did and look up some cheats. The old Xbox cheats still work on the PC version and you'll have a much better time with the clunky controls if you don't have to worry about dying.

  • Unlike some of the other games on this list I can't say that anything Kena does is new or unique, but like Ratchet before it, it does everything so well and it's so damn pretty. I loved everything about this world. It's one of the best looking games of the year, the little rot dudes are adorable and it has a soundtrack full of bangers. All of it made even more impressive by the fact that this studio has never made a video game before. I really hope they get to come back to this world, or even just continue making games, they're clearly a talented group of people.

  • Horror games are tough for me sometimes. While I enjoy horror fiction a fair bit, actually PLAYING the games instead of watching someone else play them sometimes turns me into a big wuss. Mundaun however has such a unique aesthetic and setting that it demanded I play through it. I can't say I've played a game in Romansh before, and it was a very cool, spooky, occasionally unsettling experience. Others have joked that it's basically the video game equivalent of an A24 horror movie and they're not wrong. Please check Mundaun out, I'd love for this developer to be able to make more.

  • Despite enjoying a few games in the series, I'm not really a Zelda guy, nor am I a Souls guy. But for some reason when you combine aspects of the two, I may like your game. Death's Door is great. Just challenging enough to feel satisfying but not overly difficult. There are a few things keeping it from being truly great, the lack of a map for example, but it's dang good otherwise.

    I loved the art style and the charming characters, and while I'm getting a bit burned out on indie games about death the story is quite good. Also, if you're like me and couldn't figure out why the (very good) soundtrack sounded so familiar, it's the same composer as Moonlighter. The two soundtracks are VERY similar and both are excellent.

  • Normally Forza Horizon games are higher on my GOTY list, but this time around I debated including FH5 at all. It's a very well made entry in the series, and like previous FH games I will likely return to it when expansions get released. However, FH5 is probably the quickest I've ever dropped off one of these games, likely because I was still playing FH4 in early 2021 as there was no new Forza game the year before. This made me feel at odds with everyone else, because this seemed to be the FH that everyone else on the planet decided to jump in on.

    Maybe it's because Game Pass keeps getting bigger, maybe it's an effect of the pandemic and people wanting to travel, maybe it was the epic trailers Xbox put out. Whatever it was, I've never seen this level of hype for an FH game, which was great to see, but just had me constantly thinking "you guys should play the other ones."

    So, while I enjoyed my time with FH5, I couldn't help but feel like I'd just played it. Aside from the Horizon Adventure objectives there isn't much new here that hasn't appeared in previous entries. Also, I'm not always a fan of all the music in Forza games, but man, this one has the weakest soundtrack I've heard in a while. I wish they would bring back the custom music integration.

  • Is it "fun" to play Loop Hero? I'm not sure. Even after 35-ish hours I'm not sure I ever had "fun" with it. It's one of those games I admired for it's ideas and aesthetic more than the actual gameplay. Sometimes LH can feel more like a series of tasks than a video game, but I occasionally found completing those tasks very relaxing. And as someone that essentially walks in a loop all day at work delivering things to people, I identified with the hero quite a bit.

    It was occasionally a "podcast game" for me but I often played it as my main focus as well, it's tough to play something with a soundtrack that good and listen to something else at the same time. I'll be honest, after about 30 hours my progress stalled, luckily I remedied that by opening an easily accessible ini file and changing some variables.

    My last 4-5 hours with the game was spent collecting TONS of resources and jogging right through the last few bosses and truly, I didn't regret it. I loved the concept, the story, and the music in Loop Hero, but I think I admired the mechanics more than I enjoyed them. Still, do yourself a favour and look Loop Hero up, I can't say I've played anything quite like it.

  • I'm happy to be a Halo fan again. While I enjoyed Halo 4 and 5 more than most I think, they obviously didn't have the same impact the earlier entries did. The early hours of the campaign had me thinking Infinite would've ended up higher on my GOTY list, but after many repetitive open world objectives, some mediocre indoor missions, and what felt like should've been some major plot points happening off screen before Infinite's story even started, it dropped a few notches.

    Still, a hell of a game and I'm continuing to have fun with the multiplayer once or twice a week despite not being much a competitive shooter player these days. There's just something magical about chaotic Halo competitive matches that makes getting my ass kicked fun. Now if they could only fix that Big Team Battle mode.

  • The first time I played Sable I was staying up all night to get my body ready for some upcoming night shifts. I wasn't sure what to do that night and decided to try it out on Game Pass, I ended up playing it for 6 hours straight before going to bed and finished it a few days later with a couple more extended sittings.

    I love games and play them all the time, but it's rare that any hold my attention for multiple hours at a time. Moebius' Breath of the Wi--I mean, Sable drew me right into it's world. The art is gorgeous, the music is pleasantly atmospheric, but the writing was what truly pulled me in. There isn't a ton of dialogue, but what's there is thoughtful and charming and made me want to push past the (numerous) bugs and glitches to see it all.

  • Boy, I didn't turn my PS5 on much in 2021...

    Rift Apart, though, was a fantastic excuse to do so. It was a bit less impactful for me since the 2016 remake was still fairly fresh in my mind. But the characters are incredibly charming, the visuals are gorgeous and it was pure fun from beginning to end. I loved the new characters and hope we get to see more with them in the future.

  • I expected New Pokemon Snap to be a cute trip down Nostalgia Road, but I ended up enjoying it beyond just that. My wife and I both bought it and played it on our separate Switches and had a great time comparing Snaps and giving each other tips. It's a grindy experience, but I found it so relaxing and anything that gave me happy vibes in an ongoing pandemic is going to get a shout out. Hmm, I need to get back to those extra courses they added...

  • Jackbox Party Pack 8 didn't really do it for us in 2021, but a standout game with similar mechanics is What The Dub?! If you've seen comedians play Film Dub on Whose Line, you'll immediately get the premise here. It's silly and I had a great time.

  • I sat down with my wife and played through Unpacking in a couple of hours but it's an experience that will stick with me for a bit. The pixel art is gorgeous, and it tells a story with very few words. Environment storytelling at its finest.

  • At first I thought Say No! More was just a fun, silly little game I could amuse myself with for a short time. But it actually ended up being more impactful than I expected. Yes it's goofy, but also contains a solid message about not being afraid to say no, and choosing to be a better, kinder person to those around you. A game that stuck out for me, especially when being burned out from work during a global pandemic.
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