Game of the Year 2021 (Playlist) (Patreon)

Hello!

As is customary on the Patreon, your Playlist for December is a Game of the Year round-up of my ten favourites from the last 12 months. So we’ll do that, and then get into some honourable mentions.

Sound good? Then let’s get to it. Video above, article below.

Hitman 3

I started the year off with a bang, as one of 2021’s biggest games was released right then and there in January. It’s Hitman 3.

Now, this Hitman trilogy has been an absolute joy from start to finish.

Okay, sure, not much changes from game to game. You’re always a bald-headed bloke who dresses up in disguises to slip through security. All so he can assassinate some unlucky target in a comically over-engineered way. Then you’ll do it again, and again, looking for different ways to do it - while slowly uncovering more efficient routes and solutions.

That bit never really needed to change. All we needed was more missions, and Hitman 3 delivers a bunch of brilliant ones. An Agatha Christie style murder mystery in a Dartmoor mansion. An underground base, hidden beneath a Chinese megacity. An opulent party in a Argentine winery.

But my absolute favourite has to be in Berlin, where Agent 47 is being hunted by 10 ICA agents. You only need to knock off five of them, so you’re given a huge amount of freedom in how you go about your mission - meaning no two playthroughs will feel overly familiar. It’s definitely a top 10 level for the franchise.

Now the game’s not perfect - a big lean into narrative constrains some of the fun - culminating in an awful final level. But overall this is a fitting end to one of my favourite video game franchises of the last few years. Bravo, 47.

Bowser’s Fury

A month later and I got a fantastic surprise. You see, I wasn’t too bothered about the Switch port of Super Mario 3D World, but it turns out it was hiding one of the most joyful and compulsive treats of the year. It’s called Bowser’s Fury.

So this bonus add-on is a mix of Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild. It’s a 3D platforming collect-a-thon - but in a single, contiguous open world. All of the platforming challenges are on tiny islands on a giant ocean.

So what ends up happening is you clamber up the obstacle course on one island - using all sorts of clever gimmicks, platforming moves, and ideas. Only to spy another island in the distance that looks rather intriguing. So off you pop - only for the process to repeat. And repeat. Until you’ve collected every single Cat Coin in the game.

There’s also a rather clever mechanic where Bowser shows up every now and again, turning the luscious level into a nightmarish hellscape. Though, you can use Bowser’s fireballs to help you break blocks and uncover more coins. This is pretty cool, though it can be frustrating for Bowser to appear when you really don’t want him - and to have to wait for his appearance when you DO want him. Come on Bowser, ya big burk!

Overall, this was just a joy to play and hopefully a prototype for where Mario might head next. I’d be down for an open world Mario game.

It Takes Two

A month later, in March, and it was time for some co-op hijinx in It Takes Two.

So, this game comes from Hazelight who made the very enjoyable splitscreen adventure A Way Out. That game was fun, but It Takes Two just blows it out of the water.

The word of the day with this one is “variety”. There is a non-stop cavalcade of new ideas, across a surprisingly long campaign. So every level is completely unique, whether its a snowy mountain, a castle, or a space station. And in each level, you’re given a new mechanic - like growing and shrinking, or stopping time, or flying. And that’s then removed at the end of the stage.

And within each stage, there’s an endless collection of new ideas, mechanics, toys, situations, and obstacles. It is a frankly Nintendo-esque influx of creative and delightful ideas that just made the whole thing near impossible to put down.

Now, I didn’t much like the story: I found it a bit silly and irritating. But just in terms of sheer enjoyment, little can beat this one.

Returnal

In April, the PS5 was graced with a big exclusive game: Returnal. So this is, I think, the first full game to bring the roguelike experience - typically the exclusive domain of the indie dev - to the triple A space.

So it’s got random levels and permadeath and loot and perks and all that fun stuff - but in the body of a slick third-person shooter, with cinematic cutscenes and more particles than you’d know what to do with.

I found this game absolutely enrapturing. I just had to keep pressing on to push further and further into this mysterious alien world. I really enjoyed the combat, which is full of last-minute dodges and proper projectile attacks and weirdo weapons. And the boss fights were a good time, too.

Now, there’s some stuff that I think Returnal gets wrong about roguelikes. The big one is that there’s nothing pressuring you to move forward, so there’s nothing stopping you from scooping up every item in the world and getting a tad overpowered. But there’s also a lot I do like: it finds a way to give you permnant progression in a roguelike - so you’re not starting from zero every single time - but not at all in a grindy way. That marks a good middle ground between games like Spelunky and games like Rogue Legacy, if you ask me.

All in all, a game I couldn’t put down until I hit the ending. Which wasn’t actually the ending. So I had to keep playing for many more hours after that. Which was a-okay with me.

Before Your Eyes

Also in April, we saw the release of a very innovative game: Before Your Eyes. This is a game that you can play - primarily - by blinking into a webcam.

How’s that work, then? Well you play as the recently deceased Benjamin Brynn - who is on the way to the afterlife. Before you get there, though, you’ll need to revisit your life story by watching the key moments of your life. From being a baby, to going to school, to taking piano lessons, and more. Every time you blink, you go forward in time.

I don’t want to spoil the story, but let’s just say it’s bittersweet and heartbreaking at times. And that’s why the input method is so smart: you want to stay in the moment, to savour each story and each opportunity to be alive again. But then you blink - because of you course you blink - and it’s onto the next one. It’s just a lovely, memorable, and clever game worth playing.

Death’s Door

Fast forward now, to July. And I had a great time with Acid Nerve’s ode to Zelda and Dark Souls: Death’s Door.

So this is an isometric adventure about exploring teeny fantasy worlds, brawling with baddies, and taking down boss monsters. Admittedly, the game doesn’t do much new, and cribs many of its best ideas from other games - like I said, there’s a whole lot of Zelda and Dark Souls in here.

But I can’t deny the fun I had with this one: the crunchy combat, the charming character designs, the clever level layouts, and the top notch boss fights. It’s just solid as heck, and kept me playing until the credits rolled.

The Forgotten City

Also in July - a really rather bizarre one: a Skyrim mod, remade from the ground up in Unreal Engine. It’s called The Forgotten City.

So this is a time-loop detective game, where you try to uncover the secrets of a strange Roman city. It’s a non-linear and open world game, so it’s up to you how to proceed. You’ll interview characters, explore, track down leads, and make accusations.

It reminds me of Outer Wilds and Paradise Killer and Disco Elysium and Return of the Obra Dinn. Except… like I said, this is a Skyrim mod from way back in 2015, so it predates all of those games.

But it has similar feelings: of uncovering information, of being trusted to figure things out for yourself. And it does this with aplomb, with clever design that gives you a lot of freedom in how you solve things - while also ensuring you never feel overwhelmed or lost.

If there’s one metric I use to help me decide if I truly loved a game, it’s “could I put the game down?”. And considering I played through all of The Forgotten City in a single day, I guess that’s a big green tick right there.

Unsighted

Jumping to September, and it’s time for another Zelda-inspired game: Unsighted. I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that I like games modelled after Zelda.

So this one is about exploring a big ol’ overworld, and diving deep into dungeons to fight bosses and recover… I dunno, some MacGuffin you need to find to save the world. The dungeons are actually fab: each one explores some fresh idea, gives you a cool new item to use, and have some proper spatial reasoning puzzles to solve. Great!

The combat is also very good - and it will certainly keep you on your toes. You’ll be swapping between close-quarters brawling and hang-back shooting from moment to moment. There’s also a satisfying parry move to knock-out enemies before you head in for a finishing blow.

There’s also a clever, overarching system: as the clock ticks down, every character is running out of “Anima”. And if they hit zero - they disappear for good. And that includes yourself, your Navi-like companion, your pals, and even shopkeepers and quest givers. So you need to spend Meteor Dust, which can top up Anima, carefully - on those who need it most.

I don’t want to spoil anything there, but it did make me make a decision that was… effective, but pretty, uh, immoral. And I still feel bad about it now. Oops. Good game.

Metroid Dread

Onto October, and this spooky season gave us a dreadful time… in Metroid Dread.

Okay, so if you saw my Boss Keys video you’ll know that I found some aspects of Dread disappointing. As a Metroidvania, Dread didn’t really do it for me - the game just uses so much tricks and techniques to guide the player that I almost never felt like I was exploring or navigating the world for myself. And if I tried to… the game would, essentially, tell me off.

So that is annoying. But that’s not the only reason I play Metroid games. Dread is still a killer game, mostly thanks to just how good it feels to play. Samus Aran is one of the most crunchy characters in games - she’s just so fast and nimble and fun to play as. And with the parry move and the slide attack - combat just feels great in this game. Especially the boss fights. Turns out I like boss fights quite a bit?

It also has great vibes and cool music, there are plenty of good upgrades to play with, and the EMMI bits were, uh, mercifully short!

Unpacking

Finally, in November - I had a great time with Unpacking.

Okay, so this is a bit of an odd premise for a game. You’re in a house - a cute, isometric, pixel art house - and you have to take items out of cardboard boxes and put them into the appropriate places in said house. Socks? Drawer in the bedroom. Bug spray? Hmm, cupboard under the sink. Gamecube? Under the TV. And so on.

Sounds a little silly, but it’s actually just a lot of fun? Especially to play with a partner, as you argue about the proper place to put things. My wife and I had a great time just organising the protagonist’s sock drawer and making her kitchen all neat. Turns out, we’re way neater in video games than in real life.

But the real joy of this game is seeing how it uses this kooky gameplay to tell a story. We follow one character’s life - from her childhood bedroom, to her dorm room, to moving in with a boyfriend, and so on. And in each little vignette, we can grasp character development from things like how much space she’s given for her stuff, or what items she’s brought from house to house, and so on. It’s just really cute and clever and I enjoyed it a great deal.

Okay! That’s the ten games right there. As ever, I didn’t get to play every game I wanted to this year - but, alas, time is a cruel beast.

Honourable Mentions

As for some honourable mentions.

I really liked Cyber Shadow, which is a very competent throwback to NES-hard platformers. I quite like Wildermyth, the tactics game that generates D&D style stories for your cast. 

Narita Boy was a memorable experience, if a little janky. I definitely dug Resident Evil Village, though I had more fun playing a few minutes of Resi 4 VR on my brother’s Oculus Quest.

Quite enjoyed Psychonauts 2, but it simply didn’t reach the highs of the first game. And Myst! Loved Myst, but this is a console port of a VR remake of a game from the 90s - so that’s kinda stretching the definition of of a 2021 game.

Anyhoo, that’s me done for the year. See you in 2022!