It's nice to be able to put an Atelier game on these lists again. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy.Suffers a bit because it's basically Forza Horizon 4.5, but honestly who'd turn that down? Not me. I think I finally understand why people like Halo's combat so much. An astounding achievement: a Halo campaign I can like pretty much without reservation. It's a fantastic action game and maybe my favourite Ratchet & Clank games to date. Super polished, effortlessly entertaining. The caption on the video was just one word: "Satisfying." Now imagine that feeling across an entire game's worth of houses, driveways, playgrounds, cars, RVs, you name it. It was a quick video of the dirty wall of their friend's house being carefully sprayed clean by a power washer. Once, an Instagram friend posted a video of them visiting friends halfway across the country. A lovely experience from start to finish. There are several storytelling moments where shuffling around the items from your moving boxes, desperately looking for the right place (or any place) for all your stuff, feels like the most important thing in the world. It's a simple game with one core mechanic, and Unpacking milks that mechanic for all its worth. And yet, here I am: Returnal is my game of the year. I hate games that feel unfairly difficult, and I think of myself as a baby gamer quick to complain if I feel challenged. Victory always feels like one mastered tactic or one deciphered enemy tell away. I'm still amazed at how perfectly Returnal balances its difficulty: you never feel safe for any period of time, even when working through biomes you've seen a hundred times before, but no challenge feels so insurmountable that you want to give up. All of those things told me Returnal was a big risk I could enjoy it, but I could also spend a lot of money on a game I would never finish. I didn't get this game at launch despite my interest it had the next-gen tax, it was a roguelike, and it was extremely difficult. Probably not going to finish any more 2021 games before the deadline, so fine: The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes.The Forgotten City has a fantastic story and an excellent time loop mechanism. Guardians of the Galaxy was repetitive, but it's got heart.
A solid entry to the series that takes the best from RE7 and leaves the worst behind. Resident Evil Village worked for me a way that RE7 did not. What I like about it the most is simply the developers listened to the fans comments and resolved almost all of them. House of Ashes is one of the best Dark Pictures titles. The Medium had an interesting storyline and a hint of Silent Hill.
I didn't think open world would work but they did it well. Halo Infinite is a fine return to form of the franchise. Mass Effect Legendary Edition rekindled my love of the series. It's probably not quite as good as any of those 3, but the first half in particular is delightful. Why is Fantasian not in the auto list? In another world, this is a 4th PS1 Final Fantasy. I love the simple platforming and combat that grows in complexity over time, the sense of mastery you attain, and the minimalist approach to storytelling. Cyber Shadow seems criminally underappreciated to me. It is my favourite part of my favourite Final Fantasy. I think enough has been said about Endwalker that I have nothing to add. I'll write only a few words about some of my choices.ġ. There are also a few games from 2021 that I did play, but I didn't enjoy enough to recommend: Deathloop, Loop Hero, Returnal and Metroid Dread just didn't do it for me at all.Īnd there are a few that I think I'd enjoy a lot, but haven't played yet: SMT V, Great Ace Attorney, Monster Hunter Rise. Gloomhaven I admittedly didn't play much of - but when I wasn't able to play the board game IRL, this quenched my thirst. Gnosia is great, a fantastic implementation of Werewolf against AI. I love the way it encourages you to keep moving forward and managed an incredible feat - if your favourite hero loses an arm, you don't want to reload - you want to see what happens next in their story! Wildermyth is a great dynamic tactics game that feels like a solo tabletop RPG. Inscryption was a fantastic trip, I enjoyed it from start to finish. Both fantastic, tightly designed games that I didn't want to put down until they were done. Ratchet & Clank and Guardians of the Galaxy are stand-outs for me. New Pokemon Snap managed to be the perfect sequel to a game that I never, ever thought I'd see a sequel to, let alone a good one, let alone a great one. I didn't end up playing a great deal of 2021 games, and I've probably forgotten some releases that I did play.