Its been *checks notes* 8 years since I posted a blog on gamespot, but I felt a compulsion to write about my favorite games from 2021 for some reason so here it is:
2021 ended up being a bit of an odd year for gaming for me, and honestly not a great one. A lot of the games I was most looking forward to either didn’t turn out great, or got delayed to next year. One has to think the disruption to development caused by the pandemic had a role to play.
I feel like I had to struggle a bit to find 10 games to put on a list, and I have some reservations with pretty much everything outside the top 5. Still, some quality games did come out and next year is looking like it should be better so without further delay, here are my top 10 games of 2021.
10. Psychonauts 2: I never played the original Psychonauts, and decided to give this one a go on a whim since it had good reviews and was on gamepass. I ended up mostly enjoying it thanks to the creative presentation and unique story. The gameplay was a bit clunky but not bad enough to cause major frustrations, and the amount of variety in the levels kept things interesting enough to be engaging to the end. This might have my favorite soundtrack of 2021 as well and all that was enough for this to squeak into my top 10.
9. Forza Horizon 5: Coming in a bit lower than expected is a game that was near the top of my most anticipated list for the year. I got on board this series with Forza Horizon 3, and absolutely loved both that game and its follow-up.
FH5 ended up being a bit too similar to those games for me, suffered from some frustrating technical issues especially in multiplayer, and also suffered for me because I played it right after the very similarly structured but more exiting and fresh Riders Republic which will appear later on in my list. A lot of the story events are boring and force you to listen to cringey dialogue. Despite these drawbacks, I ended up having a good amount of fun with the game, especially in multiplayer despite the aforementioned bugs and technical issues. It looks amazing and is incredibly optimized. If I just want to sit on the couch and play something to relax, this game has filled that role and I’ve played it more than I initially thought I might.
8. The Ascent: This is also a game that was carried almost entirely by its presentation. A simple isometric shooter with some ARPG elements, I had a great time with this game primarily because it looks absolutely incredible, with a detailed, grungy, beautiful cyberpunk world backed up with great audio design and a sweet soundtrack. The action felt solid and was enjoyable but really I just adored the atmosphere in this game and had no trouble finishing it despite some uneven difficulty and performance.
7. Age of Empires IV: Though I did play Age of Empires III, my RTS time was largely spent elsewhere when it came to the classic games. AoE IV proved to be a solid RTS and a nice bounceback from Relic after the quite disappointing Dawn of War III. Though I only finished one of the four campaigns, I had a lot of fun playing skirmishes against AI, sometimes with human team mates. Though perhaps the game plays it a bit safe overall and didn’t hold my interest for as long as I’d hoped, there are so few quality RTS these days that I still had a lot of fun with this one.
6. Halo Infinite: I would not describe myself as a Halo fan. My only fond memories of the series come from the PC release of the original Halo CE which I played a long time ago, and greatly enjoyed. I think I missed the boat on the rest of the series, bouncing off Halo 2 in its eventual PC release, and only dabbling in the other games when they recently arrived on PC with the Master Chief Collection and not really getting too much out of them.
Halo Infinite was the first time then I’ve been able to play a Halo game on release. I didn’t spend much time in the multiplayer initially as I wasn’t very good at it, but campaign proved quite enjoyable thanks to great action and a nice mix of more linear levels and bigger sandbox ones. After the campaign I returned to the multiplayer and had a better time thanks to my familiarity with the mechanics. The grappling hook is a good addition to the action and the physics allow for some really funny moments.
5. Hell Let Loose: I’ve been playing Hell Let Loose for a couple of years now, but it only fully released this year so I think it earns a spot on my list. HLL has turned into my go-to multiplayer shooter as it offers a good mix of realism and accessibility; this is a hardcore tactical shooter but it’s surprisingly easy to jump in and get into the action. The game looks excellent and has finally seen some much needed optimization though it’s still a demanding game. It has some outstanding WWII atmosphere/immersion and a hefty amount of maps, though the recently added Eastern Front still needs fleshing out. I will likely continue to play this on and off for the foreseeable future.
4. Chivalry 2: Another game that probably should have spent longer in development, I am unashamedly putting this game on my list because I’m really good at it thanks to my time spent with the similar Mordhau and Chivalry 1. Despite some frustrating issues with forming parties with friends and matchmaking, I had an absolute blast with this game. When I played regularly I would be at the top of the team almost every game, going on some ridiculous killing sprees. Running up to the front lines and seeing opponents recognize you and run away because you’ve beat them so many times is a power trip I won’t get anywhere else. Winning a 3-on-1 that ends with you beheading your last foe is a high you don’t find anywhere else. While Mordhau and Chivalry tended to frustrate me, some smart tweaks to the combat in Chivalry 2 made it much less enraging and I only stopped playing because I got bored of the maps and modes available.
3. Riders Republic: After Ubisoft proved you could make a fun open-world winter sports game with Steep, they knocked it out of the park with their extreme-sports follow-up Riders Republic. Mountain biking/bike tricks and jet-packs were added to the existing roster of sports, alongside more varied environments and improved multiplayer features. They also took some design cues from Forza Horizon, and in my opinion made a more fun and exciting game with some ridiculous devices like rocket-skiis and rocket-bikes to play with.
Disclaimer, I’m a big skier and love spending time in the mountains so a game that lets you race down a mountain on skies or mountain bikes is going to appeal to me more than one based entirely on driving. Highly recommend this to anyone who wants a pure fun extreme sports open world game, though I’d suggest turning off the dialogue as it is really bad.
2. It Takes Two: This was just a fun, well paced, well made and remarkably varied co-op game. Despite a cheesy story and one really obnoxious character, ITT was a joy from start to finish. The amount of variety in the levels and gameplay ideas feels like something out of a classic Valve game. The great graphics and animations and tone of dialogue between the two lead characters makes it feel like you are playing through a Pixar movie at times. Grab a friend and play through this if you missed it, you won’t regret it.
1. Valheim: Winning the number one spot rather easily on my list is the biggest surprise of 2021. I’ve never been huge on multiplayer survival crafting type games, bouncing off the likes of The Forest and staying away from the likes of Ark and Rust. However, the Viking theme, strong atmosphere and clear structure of Valheim lured me in got me hooked. This is just an incredibly well designed game and produced so many memorable moments, both building up bases and out exploring/adventuring.
It also helped I had a good group of guys to play with, as we’d build forts/outposts and share communal supplies that allowed me to focus on the things I enjoyed doing. One friend kindly ran a dedicated server to host our shared world, and the game has lots of stuff that works well solo or with other Vikings at your side. After seeing everything the initial early access launch had to offer I’d put close to 100 hours in the game, making it a more complete and polished experience than most “finished” games this year. I look forward to jumping back in once more content has been added.
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There are still a couple of games I need to play (or play more of) from 2021, but this is my list based on what I was able to play. 2022 is looking to have some really strong games, with Stalker 2 existing at the top of my hype list.