Another year, another end of year awards post. 2021 was the first full year of the new-gen consoles, so how was their year? Quiet. Not many major releases came out in 2021, there was a fair few, but not many. Delays continued throughout the year like last year, many new cool looking games announced, but mostly 2023 and beyond. There's things to get excited about in 2022, but I thought that about this year.
The plan this year was to have a new award. '2021 Game of the Year' - The main reason for this is because in my awards the game of the year goes to a game I completed for the first time, so a game released in 2014 could win for example, so it seems like a good idea to award a specific award for the current year. This of course only will apply if a game from the current year did not win.
Best DLC: Batman Arkham Knight: Most Wanted
I finally got around to playing Arkham Knight's DLC after saving it for so long, it was always top of my DLC to do list, so I'm not surprised one of them was my favourite.
Most Wanted introduced a few extra missing villains like Killer Croc, Mad Hatter and a couple more. Each one has a few extra missions before eventually being locked up in GCPD.
I loved the GCPD jail, it was a like a collectable of all the Batman villains and you could interact with them. I loved how this DLC was added to the main game, so all villains could be locked together and not a separate add on.
Worst DLC: Ghost Recon Wildlands: Narco Road
Christ. What the fuck was this? This may even be the worst DLC I've played, most DLC I tend to dislike, but this is just god awful.
All the gang bosses are over the top and dumb, but worse you have to do side missions to unlock them. I know that's nothing new, but these side missions are vehicle stunts...
So make sure you do the drifts and stunt jumps because you can't progress without them, god forbid Ubisoft cut the pointless, grindy shit out of their games for once.
Best Co-op Game: The Escapists 2
Runners up: It Takes Two, The Forest
I enjoyed all three of these games, but I loved the original Escapists and now they've added co-op it just made it that much better.
Having a crew to help you fight, craft and find items to escape is much more fun. Even getting into fights with your friends is fun, showing them who's boss when you max out your stats.
With the DLC adding three more prisons there's plenty of enjoyable content here. Even with help some prisons can be difficult to escape from. I really enjoyed it and can only hope we get a trilogy of games.
Most Surprising Game: Donut County
Runners up: Carrion, Grim Fandango Remastered
I can't even believe how much I loved this game myself. For such a simple premise of just swallowing everything up in site into a sink hole, I had a blast.
I love the art style, the humour and the characters. A talking raccoon who doesn't even care and just laughs in the faces of the people he chucked into the sink hole. Simple games can be fun when done well, and this is a game I'd recommend to anyone one.
I look forward to see what else comes from developer Ben Esposito, I won't be opposed to a sequel. Now to buy this one every available platform to have an excuse to keep replaying.
Most Disappointing Game: Cyberpunk 2077
Runners up: Fallout 76, Outriders
The urge to rant about Fallout 76 is strong, but I'll rant hopefully not too long about Cyberpunk.
The most hyped up game in the history of video gaming I've ever seen. Long in development, I was interested of course, but then the mistake of buying into the hype occurred days upon release.
What did we get? A disaster. Now I won't lie, my experience was riddled with bugs, but nothing I couldn't just plough through and finish the game, but why should I? Why should I play through a clear broken game I paid full price for? Why couldn't they just release a game that wasn't you know, broken?
The company who can do no wrong, Project CD Red did wrong, and all their worshipers could do nothing but realise and finally admit they're not perfect. It's well documented all the troubles they faced since, but as soon as the golden child Witcher 3 port for new-gen comes out, they'll be perfect company again, thus once again, showing how forgiving the video game community is even after constantly being taken advantage of.
"Oh please CD Project Red, take my money for a game you've already sold me twice before. May I please kiss your ass on the way out?"
Now, I delayed playing 2077 for almost a whole year. So was the game in a better state? No. My experience was exactly the same twelve months later, riddled with minor, frustrating bugs. Maybe the people who had the game breaking issues had their problems resolved but not me.
Ok, ok, let's pretend the bugs don't exist if you can, would there be any game left in that scenario? Anyway, is the game even good? Honestly, it's incredibly average. Up until you meet Keanu Reeves' character, the story was interesting. I very quickly stopped caring and just ran through the story to finish.
I wasn't too bothered about all the cybernetic upgrades, but for the sake of the world I'm in, I may as well delve in. "Ooh mantis blades? About the only interesting upgrade there is, can I have that please?".
"Yeah sure, have you fulfilled the requirements of grinding our bland story and generic side missions until you get your street level up? No? Didn't think so".
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it. Like the award says, it's disappointing. If you put this as your worst game of the year, I wouldn't argue.
Most Anticipated Game of 2022: Stray
In Stray you play as a cat set in a dystopian world filled with robots. I was sold on that alone, after suffering a delay I was disappointed, but after seeing the gameplay I confident I'll love it.
Add the fact that Annapurna Interactive are involved only improves my confidence after the fantastic list of games they've already published such as Donut County, Edith Finch and Twelve Minutes.
This can't come soon enough, not official date as of yet, but I'll pre order at whatever cost right now.
Worst Game: Ghost Recon Future Soldier
Runners up: Road Bustle, Fallout 76
Future Soldier would've been a whole lot worse had it not been co-op. Even so, the game was just not enjoyable in any way.
Playing on the hardest difficultly most likely made the struggle to get through it a lot harder, not specifically that it was hard, just tested our patience more. It felt broken at times, AI team mates would switch between helpful and outright useless.
Ugly looking character models, poor characters and voice acting, dull story, decent gameplay, but didn't help too much when bugs occurred, hindering progress. Just very bland and not worth playing. Only jumped the queue due to the server closure, thank god co-op is done before it's solo only.
Game of the Year 2021:
Disco Elysium The Final Cut
Runners up: Deathloop, My Friend Pedro
Ever since Disco won game of the year back at the Game Awards a few years ago, it's been top of my list to play. Day one purchase on PlayStation and it lived up to my expectations.
I don't want to spoil much of the game because figuring it out for yourself is much better. You play as an unnamed detective tasked with solving a murder. Problem is you're suffering from a bout of amnesia, not knowing your name, rank, past or anything really.
You soon meet your new partner in solving the crime Lt Kim Kitsuragi, a complete professional, which contrasts brilliantly with your ability of knowing pretty much nothing. Given choices on your actions and dialogue allows you to basically reinvent yourself in to whatever cop you want to be, seeing as you don't remember your old self.
I loved the relationship between yourself and Kim, for all the dumb stuff you do or say throughout the game, Kim will stick by you to solve the case. I respected Kim so much, I did my best to be competent and stay on his good side.
There a some great quirky characters, brilliant voice acting from the narrator and the voices in your head, plenty of side quests to delve into and a relatively nice sized area to explore.
I spent hours going out of my way to get the platinum trophy when I started playing, I just couldn't keep off it and it was all I thought about for days. Make sure you complete the sing karaoke quest, it was my favourite and I was surprised to learn there was another route it could go, following a second playthrough.
So there you have it, as Disco Elysium The Final Cut also released in 2021, it's the official 2021 GotY as well as my played game in 2021. I thought as a little extra I'd do a top ten games that released this year, there is no order here, just ten of the best.
1. Back 4 Blood
2. Deathloop
3. Disco Elysium The Final Cut
4. Guardians of the Galaxy (Not yet finished, but belongs here)
5. Hitman 3
6. It Takes Two
7. Little Nightmares 2
8. The Medium
9. Resident Evil Village
10. Twelve Minutes
Happy 2022!
