As I sit here in January trying to figure out how I want to start this article, I am struck with wondering why am I doing this? Why do I want to write this article? What compels me to write a game of the year list in a year when playing video games was not very important to me? Why am I spending the time to write something hopefully meaningful and reflexive besides the fact that that is just what people do?
An easy answer is that it is fun to be able to look back and see how I ranked and felt about a game in the year it came out. There is a certain level of satisfaction in contextualizing media in that way and yeah, admittedly I do go back and sometimes read what I wrote about a game from 2018. But as I’m sitting here writing this introduction, I realize the better benefit of this endeavor is taking a moment to pause and reflect on a hobby and what it means to me, especially in a year when it took a backseat in my life.
When I think about 2021, in a lot of ways it feels like an extension of 2020. I know it’s obvious to say but changing the calendar isn’t as much of a clean break with the past as we want to believe. New year, new you is a little harder to swallow when you realize you’re not starting with a fresh slate, you’re starting with the same old you. Clearly, I am not alone in feeling like 2021 was 2020 on loop with the sheer amount of games we had that featured time loops in their gameplay or narratives (i.e., Deathloop, Returnal, Twelve Minutes, Inscryption, Loop Hero, etc.).
But as these “loop games” emphasize, with the repeating cycle of the loop comes knowledge, perspective, acceptance, and, hopefully, change. Yeah, 2021 felt like a horrible time loop in a lot of ways, but things were different and things have changed. I moved cities and started grad school, which is a huge life change and a change that was prompted in many respects by my experiences in 2020 (it also meant that from September to December my time for playing games was more or less nonexistent but it is what it is). Of course not everyone had changes in their life as dramatic as I did last year but if there is anything we can take away from all these loop games, it is that through raw, lived experience, we learn what we can and can’t control, we grow, even in failure, and we are always in the process of becoming. Just something to think about as we start the new year.
Anyways, here are my top ten favorite games of 2021:
10) If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers (PC)
Dead Idle Games
If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers is a short, point-and-click adventure game with “horror elements” (I use quotes here because I think it delves into some pretty horrific themes). Set on a mysterious train in 1929, the narrative follows four characters as they recount the events in their lives leading up to them waking up on the train, unsure how they got there. As the characters relate their lives, it quickly becomes clear that If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers is a game about prejudice and marginalization. What the narrative excels at is showing the horror of marginalization and how that horror consumes peoples’ lives both directly and indirectly. The artwork in this game is also stunning, which is saying something since I’ve seen a lot of great pixel art in games over the years. Chapter 2 (“The Slow Vanishing of Lady Winterbourne”) has an amazing visual effect that cleverly conveys the character’s mental state and the utterly surreal direction the game goes in with Chapter 3 (“The Nameless Ritual”) is outright chilling. It’s astonishing to me that this game is free (yes free!) and it absolutely deserves more attention.
9) Little Nightmares II (PC, Switch, PS4/PS5, XBONE/XBSEX)
Tarsier Studios
Little Nightmares II sticks to what made the first Little Nightmares notable, for better or worse. The style and tone of this game are incredibly well executed. It conjures up horror that is grotesque and disturbing without being outright gory or violent, akin to the nightmares of childhood. And with the characters themselves being unnaturally small and the environments being rather open, the game excels at making you feel vulnerable in every action, every step you take. However, like its predecessor, I found it to be a game that was often more fun to look at than to play. Clunky controls and “gotcha” deaths plague Little Nightmares II, just like the first, but the mystery of the game’s world, its arresting visuals, and the desire to know the fate of its protagonists pulled me through to the end.
Inkle Studios
Overboard! is a tight, smartly written “reverse murder mystery” narrative puzzle game. You play as Veronica Villensey, who, while on a voyage from England to the United States, takes advantage of an opportune moment to push her shitty husband overboard. The next morning, Veronica must figure out who saw what, cover up any evidence, and frame another passenger before the ship docks in New York City. Using its brevity to its advantage, the game allows players to easily tweak decisions and explore scenarios as they come to realize the ideal sequence of events needed for Veronica to get away with it. All in all, Overboard! is fun and snappy, and, like any good puzzle, hooks you and begs to be unraveled.
7) Mundaun (PC, PS4/PS5, XBONE/XBSEX)
Hidden Fields
Set in a small remote village tucked away in the Swiss Alps, Mundaun is a fresh folk-horror tale oozing with atmosphere and a strong sense of place. The game has a hand-drawn pencil sketch look to it, immediately giving it a unique and memorable visual style but a style that also reinforces the quaint, place-that-time-forgot vibe of the titular village. The story follows a man returning to Mundaun, his ancestral village, after receiving news that his grandfather has died, despite the added warning that he should stay away. Upon arrival, things get weird and our character becomes embroiled in a quest to free the village from a decades-long curse. The game’s dialogue is entirely in Romansh, a language I had never heard before but apparently is spoken by about only 60,000 people in some of the most remote parts of Switzerland. The scenery, the language, and other small details come together to make Mundaun an experience steeped in Swiss culture, giving it an engrossing, authentic feel.
6) Resident Evil Village (PC, PS4/PS5, XBONE/XBSEX)
Capcom
Mundaun wasn’t the only game set in a remote, snowy European village this year. Resident Evil Village continues the saga of the indomitable Ethan Winters as he seeks to rescue his infant daughter from the clutches of a bizarre cult as he confronts countless werewolves, busty vampires, evil dolls, fatherhood, and more! It’s difficult for long-running franchises to find new ways of reinvigorating their formulas. Village’s predecessor, Resident Evil 7, overcame this problem by returning to the series’s survival horror roots. Village smartly shifts to a more action-oriented and stream-lined direction while also going all in on the camp and absurdity inherent to Resident Evil. So despite not feeling the same level of fear in RE Village I experienced sneaking around the Baker House in RE7, Village remains an enjoyably ridiculous experience. It’s a video game-ass video game that, in the end, nicely sets up fun possibilities for the future of the franchise.
Gateway
Part of the enjoyment I get from exploring small indie games is finding projects seemingly no one is talking about that are nothing like anything I’ve experienced before. Inkslinger, a brief typing text adventure, was one of those experiences. Set in a fictional (and frightfully weird) Victorian world, you play as Yearnmore, a scribe or “inkslinger”, tasked with writing letters, notices, speeches, and other commissions for clients that wander into your employer’s wordshop. The game’s atmosphere is impeccably gloomy, conveyed by the monochromatic, minimalist presentation. Despite being a typing game, Inkslinger is more interested in the power and impact of words rather than accuracy and volume. The emphasis is on consideration and interpretation as you weigh the desires of the client with your own creativity. Words also trigger flashbacks for our protagonist and it is through these sequences we discover how frightfully weird the world of Inkslinger really is. Though short, Inkslinger is a captivating and complex game about the beauty and horror of language, the desire to create, and how that desire is often exploited and corrupted.
4) Monster Hunter Rise (PC, Switch)
Capcom
It’s a testament to how addicting I find the Monster Hunter formula that even after spending 90 hours in Monster Hunter Rise, I still have the itch to jump back in and hunt more monsters and craft more gear. The loop of hunting monsters to make gear to hunt stronger monsters to make better gear that I and so many others were introduced to in Monster Hunter World continued to be an engrossing experience in Monster Hunter Rise. While Rise is obviously a technical downgrade from World, the differences are not as dramatic as you would expect for an action game on the Switch. Dare I say, I think I actually like Rise more than World because of the variety in monsters and weapon designs, which is fundamentally what the series is all about. I also find the new things Rise brings, like the wirebugs and palamutes, to also be welcome additions. At the end of the day, Monster Hunter Rise might be just another Monster Hunter game but that continues to be nothing but a good thing in my book.
Red Candle Games
Devotion is a supremely good Taiwanese horror game filled with culture, a sense of place, and…wait, didn’t this game come out in 2019? Well yes, technically it did but the game was only available on Steam for one week until it was pulled from the storefront following the discovery of an Easter egg likening Chinese president Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh. The game was completely unavailable for purchase until March of 2021 when the developer, Red Candle Games, launched their own storefront, allowing people to finally purchase and download the game directly. It’s a shame that Devotion was unavailable for so long because it’s truly a fantastic little game rich with striking visuals, history, culture, and emotion. The game, set in the 1980s, tells the story of the Du family and takes place in a surreal, nightmarish version of the family’s tiny high-rise apartment. As the story progresses, the game focuses on the idea of devotion, whether to family, to tradition, or to religion, and explores how devotion can be warped and destroy the very things we care most about. The tragedy that befalls the Du family is horrific but the themes that run through it are familiar and affecting.
Daniel Mullins Games
Oh boy, how can I even discuss this game without spoiling some of the delightful mysteries and revelations of Inscryption? But for the record, Inscryption is a deckbuilder roguelike where you are trapped in a spooky cabin in the woods playing a deranged card game against an ominous, shadowy psychopath. Yep that’s it! Nope, there’s absolutely nothing else going on here! Joking aside, Inscryption is a trip and the journey of what it starts as and where it ends up was so enthralling I remember staying up countless nights dying to see where this game would take me next. The horror of Inscryption and how that horror transforms as the game goes on also kept pulling me through all the twists and turns. The atmosphere is eerie and unnerving and though I wouldn’t call this game scary, it constantly kept me on the edge of my seat. Add in the escape room puzzle elements, the “meta” layers, the ARG, and Inscryption is a game I’ll be thinking about for a long, long time. But besides all that, the card game of Inscryption also whips. The way you are encouraged to strategize your moves and synergize your deck scratches such a particular itch, and the way you can use the game’s mechanics to fundamentally break the game is immensely satisfying.
1) NieR Replicant ver. 1.22 (PC, PS4, XBONE)
Square Enix
Is it unfair to call a game that really came out in 2010 my 2021 game of the year? Maybe. Yes, NieR Replicant ver. 122 is a remake of 2010’s NieR and it does add some new content (which fits in wonderfully with what was there in the original) but by and large, it’s not only the same story from 2010 but also the same experience. Final Fantasy VII Remake this is not my friend. I find it sometimes difficult to explain why I like this game so much. Like yes, the music is amazing and I would die for any of the characters, but NieR is also a game with a lot of friction. It’s a slow game, the gameplay is not especially interesting, it’s full of anime-esque melodrama, and the repeated playthroughs of the back half of the game to unlock the final ending can grow tiresome, and yet somehow NieR transcends and manages to be more than the sum of its parts. For a game with a lot of meta-commentary on the history of video games and the altruism of video game protagonists, there still manages to be a lot of warmth and care put into its world and narrative. It’s a game that is critical but not cynical, making the second half, and all the tragedy and heartache therein, all the more potent.
This brings me back to the game’s quirk of repeating the second half multiple times to unlock the final ending, something NieR has become quite famous for since its original release. I don’t know if I would earnestly call NieR a loop game, but upon playing this remake I was struck by the fact that you only repeat the second half of the game following a time jump where the protagonist noticeably ages from a young teenager to a young adult. That first half, with all the simplicity and naivety, becomes more and more distant as you continue to pursue the game’s endings. The first half really becomes the time before tragedy that you can never return to. Looking at the game’s structure in this way, NieR asks us if repetition, if knowing the larger context of your actions, if having a different paradigm, can really change the outcome or are we simply longing for something that wasn’t meant to last? And I think the way NieR is able to invite this kind of discussion and position these ideas, not just directly in its narrative or characters but also through its very structure and design, is what makes it a great game.
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Thanks for reading!
Nerds at Large 
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