This is a blog about the ten best games I played for the first time in 2021. As I did last December, I could contextualise this list with a high-minded introduction that would attempt to discuss how these games were an escape from the depressing current events in the wider world. But fuck it, I don't want to talk about upsetting news; I want to talk about engrossing video games. So, in purely alphabetical order, here are:

The Ascent

The Ascent's atmosphere is so thick, it's intoxicating, and that's not a metaphor. Any vestige of nature on planet Veles was bleached out long ago to make room for a magnificent waste of stack towns that threaten to collapse in on themselves. And politically, that is what's happening in The Ascent. Just thinking about its premise gets me excited: the corporation running your city goes bankrupt, and as the vultures swoop in to pick apart its carcass, you are trying to get out with your bite of the carrion. As a systemic character editor, The Ascent is a lot more freeing than its contemporaries. Too often in RPGs, it feels like the upgrading has already been done for us: we give the mage INT points, the knight STR, and so on. In this cyberpunk bloodbath, all progression paths feel equally valid for your one character. And the augment powers like birthing exploding spiders from your back or reloading a copy of your health from the past are cool, stupid, and stupidly cool.

Forza Motorsport 6

If you're a Forza fan, you'll understand what it means when I say this is where the series' assist mechanics finally clicked for me. It was the title where the gradient between the difficulties was fine enough that I could hike my way up its challenge curve. With the helping hand of options and consumables that felt supportive but never intrusive, I was able to unbolt the game's training wheels one by one until I felt the satisfaction of shifting and drifting by my own hand. I did also play Forza 7 this year, but that game just doesn't understand the subtle weights and lifts that 6 uses to propel you to success.

Halo Infinite

Forget Infinite's uninspiring campaign for a minute and just focus on its multiplayer. It's a newborn: inchoate, in want of rapid growth, and yet radically new and exciting. No Halo has done more to transform the series than this one, purging permutations on the same weapons and introducing imaginative new firearms that show an open-minded vision for what an FPS can be. A gun that keeps damaging the player even when they're not being shot? A repeater sniper rifle? All things are possible now. What's more, a new aiming model and a rationing of Spartans' shields makes combat a high-speed blur of munitions that challenges you like never before.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

I don't know why I didn't play this sooner. Maybe because I thought I already had all the Halo I needed in my life, maybe because I already knew the series front to back. But The Master Chief Collection isn't just a convenient holding case for some of the most revolutionary action games in existence; it's an awe-inspiring experience in its own right. The pre-rendered cutscenes in 343's Halo 2 remaster provide some of the most breathtaking sci-fi CGI out there. At the same time, their in-engine art captures the vividness and clear communication that was a keystone of Halo, in general, but was seldom present in its graphically drab sophomore entry. The Master Chief Collection's multiplayer is a slot machine of nostalgia. No one game in its hopper stands up stable on its own, but together, they form a delightful rainbow of competitions.

Hitman 2

Hitman is exceptional in its ability to detail settings, both artistically and systemically. Its locations are alive, electric, full of people performing their daily routines just waiting for you to secretly insert yourself into their midst. As Agent 47, you're not just a killer and a thief but also a cartographer of environments and an observer of human behaviour. The game brings the deep satisfaction of fully comprehending a structure as you take it apart and put it back together in the configuration that favours you. Hitman 2 continues to show that the series' format makes it versatile enough for you to roleplay almost anyone, anywhere, from a formula one driver in sun-soaked Miami to a humble tailor in bustling Mumbai. This game is doing everything Hitman (2016) already did, and that's exactly why it's great.

Katamari Damacy REROLL

It's rare to see a game that elicits as much joy in players as Katamari Damacy, and rarer still to see one that sustains that celebratory mood through whole levels. On its colourful cartoon playgrounds, we can interact with any and every object we want, and its core mechanic of rolling a ball around provides a runaway momentum to the exercise. A tight feedback loop of collecting items and increasing our ability to collect items gives the title a frantic, empowering pacing, while the soundtrack is so much warmer and more refined than it has any right to be. Who wouldn't smile playing Katamari Damacy?

Mirror's Edge: Catalyst

The original Mirror's Edge is forever embossed on my mind as a game of wind-in-your-hair exhilaration and crisp, flooring visual design. Yet, Catalyst makes it look like a mere opener for the headline act. The heart-pumping freerunning of Mirror's Edge is a perfect fit for the open-world blueprint. The two coalesce to bring you a boundless skyline that it feels like you could parkour across forever. In comparison to its predecessor, Catalyst more convincingly massages its vivid colours into a liveable city, presenting a metropolis at once beguiling and soulless.

Spiritfairer

I like a game that's not afraid to get heavy, and it doesn't get much heavier than Spiritfairer. As we prepare outbound souls for the afterlife, we unpick a ludonarrative not as much about leaving this plane of existence as it is about preparing people to do so. Its message comes through loud and clear: no two individuals go through that experience the same. They are in death as they are in life: beautiful in their uniqueness, outlooks, and failures. The internal complexity of the characters in Spiritfairer makes for stories relatable and poignant.

Super Mario Maker 2

Mario Maker is not just a new flavour of Nintendo's flagship franchise but a fresh way of thinking about how games might be developed. With the whole world working overtime to rearrange Nintendo's colourful characters and liberating physics into original stages, the pool of levels in Mario Maker displays a variety and ingenuity impossible for one studio to muster. From the standpoint of a level designer, the logic and UI in Mario Maker 2 are intuitive yet soaked in potential, making it the best amateur dev tool on the market.

Yoku's Island Express

Yoku's Island Express is pinball that goes beyond the table. The geography of its play space is ever-changing to turn what could be minutes of fun into hours. Whatever you're doing on the eccentric paradise of Mokumana Island, it's engaging because the basic building blocks of traversal in this game are springy, spontaneous, and jubilant. Where backtracking could easily become a pedestrian chore, this pinballvania makes it into a fluid rollercoaster adventure. Add a carefree tropical setting and a protagonist that's as cute as a bug, and you've got yourself a gem of a video game.

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That's another year in the books, and not a bad crop of games, if I do say so myself. Honourable mentions go to Depanneur Nocture, Horizon Chase Turbo, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Luigi's Mansion 3, RiME, Superliminal, Two Point Hospital, and Wolfenstein: The New Order. Thanks for reading.