#goty2021

Weird year, man. Global Pandemic Year 2 coincided with Year 2 of me taking time between jobs. You see how I did that? "Taking time between jobs" sounds a lot better than "very unemployed, dangerously burnt out, wandering through a depressed haze while spending two years being very, very broke." You would think that being forced to stay in my apartment by a deadly virus and having no job would've led to me playing more video games this year, but something about 2021 makes it hard to remember what I even played. Everything is a blur, in many ways it feels like I only played every game about two hours. If my brain was in constant fight or flight mode in 2020, in 2021 it just sort of sizzled on a pan like those old anti-drug commercials, spastic but nicely heated by the dual stress of pandemic and crushing capitalism.

That said, I'd like to share with you my Top 8 games of the year, and then spend some time talking about all the things I played that didn't quite rank in that Top 8. mostly because I didn't play them quite enough or because they came out years ago. Okay, let's go.

MY TOP 8 GAMES OF 2021

#8. HITMAN 3

Hey they added some more levels into Hitman and slapped a three on it! It lets me play all the Hitman I already own! It's still that fun and goofy Hitman experience, even if I've kind of played a lot of that over the last five years!

I enjoyed my time with it, but I probably only played through the new levels once. I had a blast playing the new experimental stages, but quickly found myself using it as an excuse to go back and play the older stages from Hitman 1 & 2 that were my favorites.  Like several games on this list, I didn't play as much Hitman 3 in its release year as I would've liked, but I am comforted by the idea that it is sitting on a hard drive, ready for me to dive into at any point in the future…

#7. FORZA HORIZON 5

…Which is exactly how I feel about Forza Horizon 5. Here's another one of those series that I like a lot, that is still just as good as it’s ever been, but I didn't play as much as I thought I would this year, because I play so much of them every year. Honestly, I probably played a lot more Forza Horizon 4 this year than 5, just due to the fact that 5 came out in November and I had all the months before November to fool around in 4. So, honestly, well, 2022 is probably gonna be my big Forza Horizon 5 year.

The cars are still fun, the concept of a weird wild "car festival" is still just the right amount of dumb, and boy does beautiful Mexico look good in 4K on a Series X.

#6. ALAN WAKE REMASTERED

Alan Wake is still great. The tone and influences and writing still impress eleven years later. Maybe more interestingly, some of the things that bothered me when the game first came out no longer do. I despised collecting manuscript pages and coffee thermoses back then—thought it really destroyed the pacing and atmosphere to be bumbling around the levels collecting literal garbage, and maybe it still does—but now I don't mind it. Hang out in this cool spooky pacific northwest town a little more? Sure.

Perhaps more importantly, Remedy succeeded so well two years ago with Control that I can't wait to see what they do with the newly announced Alan Wake 2.

#5. MONSTER HUNTER RISE

Every time I pick up a Monster Hunter game, I enjoy it a little bit more and I play it for a little bit longer than the last one. Rise didn't buck this trend, as I spent most of the month of March fighting and capturing giant weird dino monsters. I think the combo of the game being handheld and just generally more accessible than even the previously pretty accessible Monster Hunter World helped a lot. I also think that maybe the lowered technical prowess of the Nintendo Switch worked in its favor, as the thing that finally stopped me from playing Monster Hunter World on PS4 was that I felt sad when the monsters would limp around after a beating, and I'd have to chase them to their nests and finish them off. The Switch makes everything feel a little more cartoony, and that actually makes me feel less bad about mass monster murder.

#4. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Oh wow, what a nice surprise this game is. Square Enix's Avengers game was such a downer that when I saw the first video from this game I was immediately turned off... but it's great! The story and writing are just charming as hell. It tells a pretty complex cosmic Marvel story in a real chill, natural way, with great introspection on each character and actual real laughs. The combat is serviceable in a throwback kind of way, but I kept playing for the story, and boy does the story deliver.

#3. DEATHLOOP

This game has everything I'm looking for with its premise, setting, and characters. Set in a 60s mod supervillain lair and starring two cool black characters? And it's about time travel? It ticks all my boxes, and does it all with a great style. The gameplay borrows chunks from several genres, rearranging them in brand new ways to make a game that is so different than everything else that it takes about three hours of prologue just to fully understand its mechanics. It's got all the best parts of a rogue-like game without the frustration. It's got a lot of the things I love about an immersive sim, but in digestible bite-sized chunks. There's a PVP element where you're being hunted by the antagonist in the otherwise single-player game, and that antagonist can be player controlled. The PVP is well-balance and thrilling and you can turn it off but why would you?

My only complaint with Deathloop is that it appears to overstay its welcome a bit, because well, I haven't finished it. But that's okay, I look forward to spending more time with it in 2022, wrapping up that story, and then seeing if I can sneak into some other player's games and mess them up.

#2. METROID DREAD

It felt so good to play Metroid again. Metroid Dread is such an achievement, in a restrained way that’s still somehow surprising. They just went and made another of those old Metroid games! It's dripping with nostalgia, but holds nothing back. It always feels like it's throwing a new upgrade, power-up, or boss battle at you. And boy, is it a challenge. My official completion time was somewhere around 9 hours, but I spent an additional 7 hours just dying over and over again to bosses. Somehow it was never frustrating, though. The difficulty felt as nostalgic as the other parts of the game, taking me back to what it was like to play games as a kid, how I would have to put something aside and step away from it for days or weeks, then come back and give it another go.

#1. INSCRYPTION

I had so much fun with Inscryption this year. I won't be spoiling the game here, and my advice to you is to not read anything else about Inscryption and just go play it. It's got a narrative structure that's only possible in a video game. It's just full of weird vibes, fun surprises, and satisfying gameplay. It's a weird spooky rogue-like card game that really goes places, and I recommend that everyone play it. What a game.

Games that I enjoyed, but that don't quite make a ranked list, mostly because I didn't play them enough.

Super Mario 3D World Bowser's Fury - If I was the type of person who felt it necessary to round this list out to a Top Ten, then Bowser's Fury would be on it. The Mario 3D World portion is just a Switch version of the very good Wii U game, but the Bowser's Fury content is a brand new, semi-open world take on Mario that hits all the right joy sensors in my brain, and gets me excited for whatever that Mario team is working on next.

New Pokemon Snap - Once again, if I was making a list that had ten games on it, this would be there too. I'm not a big Pokemon guy, but I love games that play around with photography, and this game is the right kind of chill. I do wish that Nintendo, with their near endless budgets, had spent a bit more creative capital and gone all out on this release. I would love true open world areas, better photo judging algorithms, and more extensive online mechanics, but I'm still just happy we got another one of these.

Pokemon Unite - I know I just said I'm not really a Pokemon guy, but oh wow, I played an embarrassing amount of this in the first month or so it was out. Just match after frustrating match, but for a brief period it really dug its way into me, even if I was actively angry every other battle. I recently loaded it up again, just to see how to unlock the Santa Pikachu they had changed the game thumbnail to, and it's still that same game, but now with a bunch more Pokemon and even more levers to make you keep playing and spend real money on things. I don't know, it still gives me what I want out of a MOBA without having to play a real MOBA, and so I'll probably keep it installed on my Switch forever.

The Ascent - Oh I really had a good time with this one, but hit enough bugs at launch that after ten hours or so I decided to wait until it got patched a couple times, and then I never came back. I really enjoy the setting and aesthetic, though, and definitely feel like it's a better cyberpunk game than Cyberpunk 2077.

Resident Evil Village - I only picked this game up recently, because I am a scaredy cat who loved RE4, but couldn't make it past the first five minutes of RE7.  I'm currently somewhere midway through the real tall lady's house, and really enjoying my time with it. I am still quite anxious about playing it, but so far I've found the balance of freaky things to bullets in my gun reasonable enough to keep me going.

Halo Infinite - Hey they made another Halo! The multiplayer seems good and I like that it's free and that the battle passes don't expire. They tried to do a semi-open world thing and that shows off how fun Halo gameplay is, but also I'm already kind of bored and I've barely played any of it? Frankly, Halo Infinite is a success in my book because it's not awful. I'm sure I'll give this game a lot more time in 2022, and I also bet I'll come back to the multiplayer for years.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition - I only played a bit of ME1 on here and only while streaming on Twitch. Mass Effect is still good and unlike some other remasters this year, this one seems alright.  Maybe I'll find time to play it more in 2022.

Death’s Door - It's like Zelda crossed with Dark Souls, but you play a cute bird. I wish I had given this more time, I really enjoy it.

Ratchet and Clank: A Rift in Time - What a good looking game. I got this right at the end of the year, so I've barely touched it. I'm very early on, but so far it's one of them Ratchet and Clanks but somehow looks better than a Pixar movie. I'm sure I'll leisurely pick away at it in 2022.

Lake - I just started this and want to give it more time. Nice relaxing story game where you deliver mail in a 1980s small town? Sure.

Alright, so here's the real list—the place I put my real gaming time this year—these are games that didn't come out in 2021, but that I still played and enjoyed:

Wide Ocean Big Jacket - Great narrative game you can play in an evening or two. Just good vibes, man. It's on PC and Switch and everyone should play it.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1&2 - Another great remake, which somehow was rare the last couple years. I just like having this on my hard drive just in case I need to be happy fast.

The Last of Us Part 2 - I despised the discourse on this one so much at launch—and the depressing nature of the series was not what I needed in Pandemic Year 1—but in Pandemic Year 2 I finally got a PS5 and so I picked it up on sale and really enjoyed the small amount of time I put into it. I'm not that far, maybe 10 hours. I stopped because I suddenly had to kill a bunch of dogs and I don't know, that doesn't seem like such a great time? Maybe I'll go back to it, or maybe I'll just pretend that Ellie retired in Seattle and now lives with a bunch of really nice dogs.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla - I put so many hours into this in 2021. Such a big game, just beautiful and so much to do and just enough weird Assassin's Creed lore bullshit. I'm still somewhere in the Ireland dlc, and so I guess I'll be playing more of this in 2022.

Spider-Man Miles Morales - I maybe enjoyed this more than the previous game? It's shorter, with a tighter story, and it just so good to have a game starring Miles Morales and to see him treated well, and to have the other characters in the game also be people of color. Plus it's still just a blast to swing around that city.

Snowrunner - This was my main twitch streaming game this year, and I had a really good time hopping on stream and getting stuck in the mud with a big truck and complaining about capitalism.

Genshin Impact - I'm always this close to just going all in on Genshin Impact. Instead, I turn it on when I need a bright, chill, colorful world, but never dive too deep. I mostly ignore the free-to-play nonsense, and just do a few quests. It's nice.

Destiny 2 - The Destiny seasonal story stuff actually got good this year? I'm still a very casual Destiny player; I hop in, I do the new story stuff, and that's about it. I've still never done a raid or a dungeon, but I love the lore, love the game feel, and I'm always pleased to return when they've added a new chapter of weird proper nouns for me to try and comprehend while I shoot the aliens.

Final Fantasy 13-2 - Last year I replayed Final Fantasy 13, a game I had already played through before, and this year I restarted Final Fantasy 13-2, a game I had bounced off of pretty quickly at launch, but which I find endlessly interesting now. It's a weird, convoluted time-travel story that feels like fan-fiction of the previous game, while also actively trying to undo its history. I'm still somewhere in the middle of it, but hopefully I can find some time to push through it later in 2022.

Risk of Rain 2 - I love the vibes of Risk of Rain 2, I wish I wasn't awful at it.

Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider - I found myself replaying these games again this year for some reason? It was therapeutic to shoot dumb mercs with arrows and solve ancient puzzles at like 2am when I'd had too much whiskey after stressing about being unemployed. They still hold up.

Injustice 2 - Speaking of holding up, Injustice 2 is still good! I also played a bunch more Mortal Kombat 11 this year, but at some point the bloody ultra-violence of MK11 wasn't what I was in the mood for, so I suddenly found myself reading all of the Injustice comic books, playing through the story modes of Injustice 1 and 2 again, and then spending a lot of hours grinding out multiverse tournaments to level up Starfire. Injustice 2 is still good!

Yakuza: Like a Dragon - I've mentioned before that I bounced right of Yakuza 0 the two times I've tried to play it, but Yakuza 6: Like a Dragon kept my interest for a lot longer. I love the main character, he's so relatable and likable, and the turn-based combat is just more my speed than the beat-em up mechanics of the main series. I'm still probably only half-way through, but hope to get back to it at some point.

Fortnite - My most played game two years in a row was probably once again Fortnite. I put more hours into it than any other game on Nintendo Switch this year, and I definitely played it more on Xbox than Nintendo Switch? So I played it a lot, is what I'm saying. I mostly only played duos with my girlfriend—we both leveled up three battle passes past 100 in 2021, I think. I don't enjoy everything about Fortnite, but the amount of energy and resources they put in the game means that there's always something new, and that keeps us coming back.

Parasite Eve - I went on a real Parasite Eve kick this year. I played through the first game twice? I read a translation of the Japanese novel that the game is a sequel to? I don't know, in Pandemic Year 2 I got overwhelmed by the virus and obsessed on a weird story about mutant mitochondria and organ transplants gone wrong. I really want to make a nice long YouTube video about Parasite Eve, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe in 2022.

Anyway, those are the big ones. Real quick, here's a list of games that came out in 2021 that I wish I'd gotten to, but didn't:

Boyfriend Dungeon

Nier Replicant

Returnal

Loop Hero

Sable

The Forgotten City

SMT 5

Psychonauts 2

Chicory

Life is Strange True Colors

Boomerang X

I guess that's what 2022 is for.

Like I said, 2021 was a weird year and a weird year for gaming. Weird couple of years. Hope 2022 is less weird. Or weird in the cool ways with cool games. There's some new games that might come out that I'm excited for (Breath of the Wild 2 and Starfield? Maybe?) and I have three handheld gaming consoles preordered that are supposed to land in my mailbox by the end of the year (Valve's Steam Deck, an Analogue Pocket, and that yellow console with the crank). Here's hoping there's all of that, less weird NFT things, and a whole lot less global pandemic.