While it was far from a normal or easy year, 2021 ultimately ended up delivering plenty of great experiences for gamers. Though there were plenty of delays and underwhelming launches, the year was full of exciting announcements, surprise hits and long-awaited sequels that hit the mark.
Unlike 2020, when games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Last of Us Part II dominated the conversation, 2021 doesn't have a clear frontrunner for game of the year. In a way, the year may better for that, as it shows that the games that launched and were able to grab gamer's attention were as diverse as the people who play them, representing a wide variety of interests, playstyles, themes and stories.
Honorable Mentions
With so many excellent titles that deserve attention, it was hard for us to narrow it down to a top 10. Metroid Dread was one example of a great game that, while it didn't make our final list, is absolutely worth playing. Nintendo shocked fans at E3 when it revealed the first brand-new 2D Metroid in almost 20 years, which also happened to be a game that was thought to be canceled for over a decade. Another standout Nintendo Switch exclusive was Monster Hunter Rise, which earned plenty of praise when it launched early in the year. Rise is sure to get a boost in 2022 with its PC port and the upcoming Sunbreak expansion.
Turtle Rock Studios' Back 4 Blood was a huge surprise this year. The spiritual successor to the beloved Left 4 Dead franchise, Back 4 Blood is instantly familiar, but just enough has been improved to make it feel fresh. There's a ton of replay value thanks to the card system, though the actual campaign levels are on the short side. Fortunately, that should be addressed with the upcoming waves of DLC, and it doesn't detract from how much fun the game is with a full squad of zombie-hunting friends.
2021 also continued the trend of remasters and rereleases, with Mass Effect Legendary Edition standing out among those for delivering an experience that enhances the beloved original. A new trend this year was marketing upgraded ports or expanded rereleases as Director's Cuts. To that end, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut excelled, with the PlayStation 5 version included the expected enhancement along with a new area called Iki Island that's filled with story content, new challenges and more collectibles.
Finally, indie game developers continued to impress with surprising innovations, and GoodbyeWorld Games' deserves a nod for integrating literal blink-and-you'll-miss-it storytelling in Before Your Eyes. Players who plug in a webcam can move the story along with their blinks as they relive the most important moments in the life of a recently-departed soul, uncovering a story that's as powerful as its mecahnics are unconventional. - Noelle Corbett
10. Halo Infinite
The Halo series has long been a fan favorite, but it's hard to deny that it was starting to show its age. No matter how interesting you made the plot, no matter how solid the gunplay and no matter how addictive the multiplayer, more and more fans were saying the same thing: we've seen this already.
Halo Infinite radically changed the plot, though. A massive time skip, a missing UNSC and a gorgeous open world to explore were the breath of fresh air Master Chief needed. The enemies are genuinely terrifying, the world is very much alive and the multiplayer is as addictive as ever. Not only that, but Infinite finally made Halo's first-in-class online multiplayer free for everyone, regardless of their Xbox Game Pass membership status. Infinite is a genuine evolution for the franchise and the next step for where all FPS franchises should go. - Christopher Baggett.
9. Persona 5 Strikers
Though the ongoing Persona 25th anniversary has fans chomping at the bit for Persona 6 news, Persona 5 diehards got a well-deserved summer vacation with the Phantom Thieves. Persona 5 Strikers was a huge surprise when it dropped earlier this year, proving that there's a market for the IP beyond RPGs, fighting games and dance-offs.
Strikers succeeds where similar titles have failed, blending the fast-paced, button-mashing action of the popular musou genre with the Persona franchise's landmark characters and narrative. The result was a fun side adventure with characters you already knew and loved, mixed with gameplay familiar enough to pick it up quickly but challenging enough that you mastered it. Coupled with unforgettable new characters and perhaps the series' best Persona Awakening to date, Persona 5 Strikers was a clear game of the year contender right out of the gate and an experience that left us wanting more. - CB
8. It Takes Two
Couch co-op games are finally seeing something of a resurgence through quirky party games like Overcooked and Moving Out, but Hazelight Games' It Takes Two offers something fresh: a deep gameplay experience where teamwork is key to both the mechanics and the story. The winner of The Game Awards 2021's highest honor, It Takes Two is, as its title suggests, exclusively a two-player game where players must team up locally or online to solve a variety of different puzzles and make it through various stages.
Of course, plenty of other games have included co-op, puzzle-solving and platforming, but what It Takes Two does so brilliantly is blend elements from different genres and integrate them into the levels and their theming. The sheet number of ideas and mechanics introduced throughout the game could have felt gimmicky or unfocused, but they're incorporated so well that they keep players engaged in the adventure. While its overall story and message regarding relationships and divorce is worth criticizing, It Takes Two's gameplay alone makes it a great experience for any duo. - NC
7. Chicory: A Colorful Tale
The word "charming" gets thrown around a lot when it comes to indie games, but perhaps there's no better fit for it than Chicory: A Colorful Tale. While it's a game whose primary mechanic is painting and that sometimes involves drawing or recreating works of art, you don't need artistic skills to play Chicory, just a willingness to try. The majority of the game involves exploring the coloring book-style world of Picnic, solving puzzles to get around and interacting with a quirky cast of characters.
Where Chicory really goes above and beyond, though, is with its story, which anyone who has ever struggled from self-doubt or imposter syndrome will relate to. With its bright colors and sometimes dark themes, Chicory tells the tale of people trying their best and figuring out where they fit into the world, and it does it in a way that encourages creativity, kindness and self-love. - NC
6. Shin Megami Tensei V
While the Persona spinoff series has long overshadowed the larger Shin Megami Tensei franchise, SMT got its time in the spotlight in 2021. In addition to a remaster of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne that brought a PlayStation 2 classic JRPG to modern hardware, Shin Megami Tensei V was an impressive addition to the main series that balanced the complexity and storytelling returning fans expect with quality-of-life improvements that make the game more approachable for newcomers.
Shin Megami Tensei V doesn't reinvent the franchise, but it instead tries to introduce its excellent existing formula to a wider audience without isolating returning fans. That's a hard needle to thread for any series associated with hardcore difficulty and dark themes, but SMT V accomplishes this by sticking to its identity and refusing to hold back where it matters, while also simplifying some of the more tedious elements of previous SMT games. - NC
5. Loop Hero
There are plenty of indie games that borrow elements from roguelikes and deck-building games, but Loop Hero is the rare example of a title that incorporates popular (perhaps overused) mechanics and turns them into something totally new. In an era of sequels and spiritual successors, studio Four Quarters created a game that's truly unlike any other. Blending the procedurally-generated worlds and risk of roguelikes, strategic deck-building, an auto-battle system and even some match-three puzzle elements, this is a fresh take on an idle game -- though one you probably won't want to look away from for too long.
Loop Hero is simultaneously a simple game that anyone can pick up and a complex one that requires players to master its many systems if they want to make it further. Getting the hang of Loop Hero's mechanics and understanding its three heroes is incredibly rewarding, and its literal gameplay loop is so engaging and distinct that it can be hard to walk away from. - NC
4. Resident Evil Village
2021 marked Resident Evil's 25th anniversary, and while this year's anime and film adaptations fell flat, Capcom delivered another great entry in the franchise that invented the survival-horror game genre. Resident Evil Village was far from a surefire hit. After all, its immediate predecessor successfully revitalized a series that had been struggling with its identity by putting horror back at the forefront. Village incorporating more action into Resident Evil 7: Biohazard's formula was a huge risk that, luckily for fans, paid off.
Village maintains the first-person perspective that made RE7 so tense and immersive and marries it with frenetic action of Resident Evil 4, resulting in a game that benefits from the best elements of both. Between its exploration of various horror elements, the return of Chris Redfield and (of course) the introduction of breakout character Lady Dimitrescu, it's no wonder that Resident Evil Village is one of the most enduring games of the year, remaining in the minds of fans since its release back in May. - NC
3. Returnal
Perhaps the biggest knock against Metroid Dread is that Returnal beat it to the punch. Housemarque's roguelike/shooter hybrid was a somewhat quiet release, thanks to its PlayStation 5 exclusivity. What it wound up being, though, was the first genuinely next-gen experience and the game that gave non-PS5 owners their first taste of FOMO.
Everything Dread advertised it was going to do, Returnal did better. The gunplay is smooth and satisfying, the environments are terrifying, the monsters are challenging and the bosses will leave your palms sweaty. Plus, the twisting narrative of Selene, an astronaut stranded in a time loop on the planet Atropos, only gets more engaging the more time you spend with it.
Returnal's difficulty curve may have cost it a few points with many players, but the creepy atmosphere and exceptional sound design only served to make it a truly unforgettable experience, fueling countless hours of "just one more run" gameplay that we haven't seen since Hades. The only thing holding Returnal back from being one of gaming's most iconic titles is the lack of a wide release it so sorely deserves. - CB
2. Life Is Strange: True Colors
If it wasn't for one other surprise hit game in 2021, Life Is Strange: True Colors would have handily been our pick for game of the year. The fourth entry in Square Enix's emotional adventure series throws back to its roots in all the best ways, offering players a genuinely heart wrenching tale that builds on what came before it.
In many ways, True Colors is an evolution for Life Is Strange, a maturation that the series -- which had to this point focused on young teens and high school students -- was sorely in need of. It's bolstered by the unbelievable performance of Erika Mori as Alex Chen. Alex has so much personality and is so immediately likable, and it's all thanks to the nuance of Mori's performance coupled with some of the best writing in video games. If you're looking for an ultimately feel-good story that will leave you crying your eyes out along the way, True Colors is the best we've found yet. - CB
1. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
What can we say about Marvels' Guardians of the Galaxy that hasn't already been said? A dark horse contender in an era of superhero games defined by last generation's one-two punch of Marvel's Spider-Man and Marvel's Avengers, Guardians kicked the door down in October to rave reviews and a seemingly endless amount of praise. The game sat so well with us that we deemed it the best comic book game since Arkham Asylum -- and we're still standing by that statement today.
Guardians may well be the definitive take on these characters, so much so that we found ourselves preferring them to their Marvel Cinematic Universe counterparts. Eidos-Montréal did the work to get the tone of this game just right, perfectly nailing the feeling of playing as a team of losers who are down on their luck, tasked with saving the universe. From the rocking soundtrack to the engaging combat, Guardians was hands down our favorite experience in 2021 and the new standard for comic book games. - CB