My top 10 games of 2021
My favourite part of the year (alongside the New Year break) is collating the many hundreds of hours I’ve spent in front of a screen to entertain myself. If I have a carefully curated list to produce at the end of it, it somehow makes my year feel more cohesive in retrospect. I have several lists I’m working on while I catch up on any major outliers but here is my first list; video games.
10. Wordle
https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/
The daily word game that quickly went viral. It happened on my Twitter where more and more people (especially on NZ Twitter) posted spoiler-free emoji grids of their games, inspired by kiwi tweeter @irihapeta. If you’ve seen a bunch of green and yellow squares on Twitter lately, that’s what that’s all about.
🟩🟨🟨⬛⬛
🟩⬛🟩🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
It’s essentially a game of Mastermind with words, where you get six guesses and the colours after each guess tell you which letters you got correct and if they’re in the right place or not. It can be surprisingly difficult at times but given enough patience you can make it through. I spent more minutes than I’d like to admit staring blankly at the screen trying to conjure words out of the limited information available.
On New Year’s Day, I decided to quit cold turkey. Needless to say, the next day after seeing multiple people on Twitter struggle with the word of the day, the game pulled me right back in. So far I’ve played 25 games and have a 100% success rate.
9. The Forgotten City
This Australian developed game first began its life as a well-received Skyrim mod. You’re transported to an underground Ancient Roman city where the people are trapped and live in fear of the Golden Rule, where if one person commits a sin, everyone is turned into a golden statue.
Your character visits the city on such a day, where someone will attempt a murder. Fortunately, you have the ability to rewind time and try your luck again to see if you can change the city’s fate. It’s a giant escape room set in a time loop, except most of the puzzles rely on conversations with the city’s inhabitants. There are some light platforming and shooting sequences but the meat and potatoes are the exploration and problem-solving.
8. Unpacking
Another Australian developed game (I liked the nods to a New Zealand trip in the form of fridge magnets). As it says on the tin, for each level your character has moved to a new place of residence. You have a bunch of boxes to open and decide on the placement of your belongings. And that’s really it. It’s surprisingly therapeutic in its minimalism, and as your character moves locations and forms relationships there is a story told in objects if you care to take notice.
7. Life Is Strange: True Colors
I may have been slightly put off by the way they spell ‘colour’ but I just can’t help loving every Life is Strange game. While they’re often pretty straightforward, the stories are pretty decent for the number of distinct choices you can make. The locales a perfect slice of small-town Americana (ironically, the primary numbered games in the series are made by a French studio).
And of course, there’s always a superpower. In this one instead of rewinding time or telekinesis, you have the power of empathy, which is essentially mind reading but in some cases, this means knowing how to solve people’s problems when they may not even be consciously aware. For a series that is known for exploring emotions, it did feel a little on the nose but I quickly got past that when exploring the depth of the characters.
6. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
I was a little disappointed in the first Mario platformer for the Switch, Super Mario Odyssey. The new addition to the Wii U port of 3D World in Bowser’s Fury makes up for that in its unique take on the little Italian plumber. It’s a fully open-world split into distinct areas where you ride a dinosaur over the sea between locations.
And there’s a massive Bowser, a kaiju like Godzilla, raining fire on your parade. Your job is to collect enough Cat Shines to ring a bell and turn Mario into a giant cat. That way Mario can bring out the claws and scratch up that no good Bowser. Though technically, Bower’s been taken over by a goo that is making him more evil than usual and that’s why you’re teaming up with his son, Bowser Jr. Maybe after all those mushrooms this is finally Nintendo’s take on substance abuse?
5. Metroid Dread
I’ve always wanted to play a Metroid. I tried the first one a while back but quickly got stuck and gave up. I’ve enjoyed many Metroidvania games like Ori and the Blind Forest and the unabashed Metroid clone, Shadow Complex.
This is the first modern Metroid in a good while and thus marks my entry point into the series. Sure, the story makes no sense to me, but the pure exploration is what makes this game tick; coming back to previously explored areas with your new ability to unlock new pathways.
The boss fights are a repetitive chore that break up the game in a not so enjoyable fashion, where you have to memorise every boss attack and move you need to make. It’s a brutal game of trial and error. I much preferred the chase of the E.M.M.I. robots, where you have a chance to sneak by or make a run for it until you find the weapon to take it down.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy
I wasn’t immediately on board with the marketing of this game. Having already played The Telltale Series, this one looked rather generic. But after hearing much praise from critics I admire, I decided to give it a shot (rather, a blast of Star-Lord’s blasters).
You play as Star-Lord (not the Chris Pratt version) and lead your team of Guardians. In combat, while your team has autonomy, you can still command them to use their special moves. I ended up not being very strategic at it but still making good progress nonetheless. This might be a deal-breaker for some but I was in it for the characters and light Uncharted action and exploration anyway.
At times, Guardians of the Galaxy feels something akin to Mass Effect, as you go back to your ship to regroup and have conversations with your fellow Guardians. Your colleagues rarely stop talking and also give you the option to respond, even while you’re running around, making the whole experience feel lived-in as if these AI’s really are the characters they inhabit.
3. Psychonauts 2
As a disclaimer, I backed this game on Fig. My name is in the credits (hidden amongst 24,109 backers) but I was not an investor so I don’t have any financial kickbacks from this game.
The original Psychonauts came out in 2005 while I was still in high school. It wasn’t a big hit mind you, but certainly developed a cult following. It was Double Fine’s first game; a company started by Tim Schafer. Tim Schafer is the lead writer and visionary behind Psychonauts. He worked on some of my favourite adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango.
Three PlayStations later and I’m finally playing a sequel. Like the Kickstartered point and click adventure game before it, Broken Age, Psychonauts 2 was a chance for Double Fine to bring back the classic 3D platformer, a genre that was admittedly already waning when the first game came out.
Psychonauts 2 has the unique art style of its predecessor, where nothing is truly symmetrical and looks more like a stop-motion-animation such as The Nightmare Before Christmas. You play as Raz, a junior Psychonaut, an organisation of operatives who naturally jump into people’s brains. That’s where Psychonauts truly shines, in its mashup of personalities and themes. For instance; a hospital run like a casino or a ten-pin bowling alley over-run by germs. It’s a pure joy to explore these worlds and the story also has some emotional heft to it.
2. Resident Evil Village
Resident Evil VII was a true comeback for the series that had gone too far in the direction of an action shooter and that I hadn’t really enjoyed since 4, my favourite of the bunch (and which had a VR port this year).
Village (or VIIIage) sticks with what VII did right and builds upon it, staying with first-person and embracing the series’ roots of being a survival horror first and foremost. It’s a thrilling adventure that isn’t afraid to go camp, as witnessed by the giant vampire lady that took the Internet by storm.
1. Inscryption
Deck-builders have become increasingly popular as of late. When the digital collectable card game, Hearthstone, first came out in 2014 I was hooked for months. I fell off after they kept adding more to it because I just couldn’t keep up with the new additions. I’ve tried a few times to get into Slay the Spire but I feel as if I’m making no progress. That’s rogue-likes for you.
Well, Inscryption isn’t a simple rogue-like. It has an end (and more besides). As well as being a solid deck-builder with the ability to manipulate cards (while making some overpowered), Inscryption is a card game wrapped inside a puzzle box. There are secrets upon secrets and the game isn’t afraid to change things up as you go. I’ll let the mystery be but strongly encourage you to try out the demo and see for yourself.
Honourable Mentions
Oddworld: Soulstorm, Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut, The Artful Escape, Before Your Eyes, NUTS, Overboard, Mundaun, It Takes Two, Rocket League: Sideswipe, Backbone
Asides
I started PlayStation exclusives Deathloop and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and then Loop Hero on PC but quickly got distracted by some other shiny new thing.
Chicory and Death’s Door are on my wishlist and look very much like something I would enjoy but I haven’t gotten around to them just yet.
Most anticipated of 2022
Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the rare open-world games I’ve managed to finish. I’m usually overwhelmed by all the side missions and bonus objectives in such games but this time I wanted to see the story through. Possibly because this wasn’t as much a fantasy as it looks on the surface. It’s more science fiction than fantasy with robot dinosaurs in a world overtaken by nature. And besides, Aloy is a badass with a bow and arrow. Hawkeye ain’t got nothing on her.
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals
Oxenfree was a neat little point and click adventure with a chilling story. It’s not a game I expected to have a sequel but here we are. The studio got bought up by Netflix so it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with next. Just no more Stranger Things, please.
God of War: Ragnarok
God of War (2018) was a much-needed reboot of the franchise, throwing Kratos into the world of Norse mythology with a solid story and fantastic adventuring. The God of War is a dad now (well, a dad again. I won’t go into his macabre backstory). From what I’ve seen so far this one doesn’t look to be delving that far away from its predecessor but as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
FAR: Changing Tides
I only played FAR: Lone Sails this year but it was a gem of an experience. A big adventure on a 2D plane, moving from left to right, managing a craft, fixing it when it breaks down and solving puzzles to get past obstacles blocking your path. Your character doesn’t have many actions (probably why it’s also available on phones) but this next one looks more fluid in the amount of movement available to your character.
Stray
Published by Annapurna Interactive. This publisher really knows how to pick interesting indie games. In Stray, you play as a cat. And those are the only two things I need to know in order to play this game.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Coming from Rocksteady, the creators of the Batman Arkham trilogy. I bought Arkham Asylum with my PlayStation 3. Then I bought the limited edition Arkham Knight designed PlayStation 4 along with the game. Needless to say, I’m a big fan. The Suicide Squad of it all does have me slightly nervous. I’m not a big fan of those characters as enjoyable as James Gunn’s latest film was. But in Rocksteady we trust. Gotham Knights is also releasing this year from WB Games Montréal, who created Batman Arkham Origins, which I never played. So I may wait for the verdict on that one.
Forspoken
Like with Horizon, the fantasy setting isn’t grabbing me but the fact the protagonist is ripped from our reality makes it more interesting. From a team of writers I respect, including Amy Hennig of Uncharted and Gary Whitta of The Book of Eli and Telltale’s The Walking Dead. The movement and powers look fluid. One to watch out for.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp
Delayed to 2022, I was a big fan of the original Advance Wars. I’m not into strategy games generally but Advance Wars was just so darn approachable. It inspired a similar game I admired; Into the Breach. Advance Wars is like a more contained version of Risk, manoeuvering your tanks and defending your buildings. I’m ready to hop back in.
Tunic
This one’s been a long time coming, first announced in 2017. A cute isometric game reminiscent of Zelda.
Somerville
The first game from new studio Jumpship, co-founded by the ex-CEO of PlayDead, creators of LIMBO and INSIDE. So far the teaser trailers are pretty cryptic but it’s certainly atmospheric and has my interest truly piqued.
2022?
As the last few years have taught us, game delays are the new normal. So who’s to say what games will be released until they’re actually out. Then there are some without much info at all so I’ll just list those here.
An unnamed Indiana Jones game from MachineGames, developers of the new Wolfenstein games I truly loved. Of course, since Microsoft bought Bethesda I’m not sure how I’ll play this on my PS5…
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake. I’m not quite sure what’s happening with this but I’ve had an itching to replay Sands of Time ever since I first played it. It had a great story with a fun time travel mechanic.
Dead Space remake. Despite the original Dead Space being absolutely terrifying, I somehow worked up the courage to make it through. Although my tolerance for horror games has increased, with revamped graphics, lighting and sound design I may be back in the same boat as I was then.
Morbidly curious…
Because of the cost of games, I’m less likely to pick something up out of morbid curiosity. But also, my time is precious and I end up spending a lot more time on most games than on films or even TV shows, so I do my research before diving in. There’ll be more to add to ‘Morbidly curious’ in my forthcoming lists!