Top Ten 2021-Hell year 2 suffering cont...

Caveats and stuff

Endwalker-I mostly couldn’t play this game when it came out due to queue times and errors kicking me out of line. Once I finally got in I was greeted by a very typical mmo expansion starting quests i.e boring tedious discussions and errands that have little to nothing to do with the story I care about. However! As always they are beginning to pay it off here at about the 40% mark which is exciting but I haven’t played enough to judge and won’t until well into the year I think.

The other ff game integrade- I honestly think I bought this and just didn’t play it because it’s on my console and I forgot about it. I fully intend to play it though it looks fun.

The rift breaker, forgotten city, and solar ash are also games I'm really interested in but either didn’t get to or played just a bit of and don’t have any opinion on but wanna play or play more.

10. Hunt Showdown- A late addition that Knocked knock out city off the list, as fun as that was I always liked playing Hunt but the improvements they made have caused me to LOVE playing Hunt now, the additional progression benefits as well as loadouts and more weaponry options spread through the ranks a bit better *chefs kiss* The superb second to none sound design has only improved as time has gone on and overall it just provides a truly unique multiplayer experience. Seriously how many youtubers have to tell you this game is great before it gets popular?!

9. Valheim- This thing hit at just the right time for it to explode and sort of take over all my free time for a weirdly long time considering it was an early access release with plans to add a lot of stuff onto what I think is already a really green, might even say blue foundation (this is joke that you will only get if you played valheim!). As with a lot of these things playing with friends made the experience transcend good and veer into highlight of the year territory with some of the moments made while playing. Thank you for being such a great hijinks factory, see you again soon.

The reveal trailer is very good if you haven't seen it, highly recommend.

8. Back 4 blood- The left 4 dead devs come back and bring the variety of experience up a bit and some fun set pieces. As with most of these games they are at their best when they are a hijinks factory for you and your friends and that’s why the games here because playing it with the lads was a fun time but I mostly dislike the card system because it’s largely irrelevant and the difficulty curve is more like a cliff. The versus mode is a neat idea but it’s not ultimately as good as the campaign versus. But sometimes you just have to freak out as you get vored with the boys.

7. Genshin Impact (Inazuma Update)- Ugh this game is so difficult to discuss. Problematic fave should make a return for this one. This is a game that I really really enjoy for a lot of different reasons at different times. I might be enjoying the actually pretty good story that’s better written (mostly) than it has any right to be. I might be enjoying the shockingly deep combat that has some of the most flashy best feeling moves in any arpg. I might be enjoying buildcrafting with the gear I have at my disposal or making a fun new team. I might be enjoying the stellar exploration and scenery of the game, just getting distracted by some barely glimpsed treasure chest or appealing view. I will tell you what I won’t be enjoying however….and that’s the resin system which gates my access to gear I want, which on its own isn't that bad but the gear is mired in 4 layers of RNG to be what I actually want it to be. I won’t be enjoying pulling for a character and getting something I didn’t want or need, getting a blue weapon which has essentially no value at all to my account. This game is finely tuned and crafted to extract money from you and honestly the hardest part of Genshin is trying to tell if you are getting one over on the game with some of it or if the games playing you. Buyer beware.

6. Returnal- I’ve always been a bit of a mark for house marque or a house marque mark? Anyway I’ve really liked all their games with the retro sensibilities combined with a cutting edge coat of paint. All had a really fun gameplay loop and obviously killer looks so I wasn’t surprised when the game they announced was stunning to look at for their PS5 debut. What I was surprised by was how well their formula translated to a 3d environment, a true 3d environment with verticality being a huge factor. It was a blast to dash around in my Astro suit! More shocking was the compelling and trippy narrative they drip out even if the ending was a bit predictable…or was it?! (It was)

5. Guilty Gear Strive- I hadn’t played guilty gear since I rented it from blockbuster, to give you a timeframe on that, and even still when I did play it I just wanted to make ino do the win pose where she ripped her shirt off.

I was too young and too stupid to fully appreciate what I was seeing other than it was metal and cool as hell. So obviously when they showed the new guilty gear and not only was it still pretty metal and cool but it also was one of the most visually appealing games I’d ever seen I was stunned, I also just happened to be getting back into fighting games with some friends here and there so it was sort of a perfect storm for strive.

4. Deathloop- I was scared deathloop would suck because the parts where you have to engage in all out combat are usually a little lackluster for Arkane games in my experience. The tweaks they made to the combat were enough to kick those fears off a steep cliff. I love this games personality more than any other Arkane game, the text in the world and the radio chatter genuinely made me laugh aloud many times, the writing and performances of the main characters were both incredible and interesting throughout the story. Arkane also somehow managed to sidestep one of immersive sims biggest issues with save scumming by making the entire game one big save scum and removing all consequences, the tighter focus and smaller levels also help this but that also sort of brings us to the games biggest fault in my eyes and it’s the lack of a real “sim” part of the game, it’s immersive enough but outside of a very few moments it never much feels like this clockwork world is connected to anything not within eyeline. The ending of the story also felt quite abrupt and a little bit of a letdown. Honing my skills through repeated runs through the levels and testing my various equipment and abilities out was so enjoyable as were the main cast I did not mind. Not sure why this has multiplayer either.

3. Inscryption- the tone and atmosphere of the first act were so surprising and effective, then slowly you realize this seemingly simple game has some layers which are really interesting and open for creative breaking. It lends itself to those “check out THIS” moments with people and that was great. I wish I liked the second act as much as some others but i honestly found it off putting and was glad to move into the third which I found obviously not as wonderful as act 1 but still enjoyable. I agree with many the overall narrative was a let down but I am here for that first act shock and awe. The pain is temporary

2. Halo- Specifically I’m awarding the multiplayer and the campaign gameplay here and NOT the story. The multiplayer getting a massive boost from coming out in a surprise early release and being free was huge for it and playing it with fully 14-18 people at a time was for sure a highlight of my year (not in high competition but still) the campaign is extremely “Ubisoft” which might sound like a diss but it is not for me, I’ve played countless hours of assassins creed and far cry and this sandbox was honestly just as enjoyable if not more so. The busted ass backwards progression and extremely limited modes may have turned me off playing the multiplayer on a regular basis but this thing seems to have legs, I doubt I've thrown my last batch of grenades.

1. Resident Evil 8- They sold this game as a sort of horror version of an anime thumbnail, the nerdy and inept Ethan Winters surrounded by 3 hot vampire girls and all of them being towered over by the humongous lady D who we all know. We all know ok? This nightmare harem was maybe the highlight of the game but not by any great margin, I genuinely was thrilled and chilled by pretty much every one of the games bespoke almost demons souls areas. Each area was not only distinct in its exploration and scenery but also had a dramatically different gameplay feel, from an upgraded RE7 feel, to silent hill, to dare I say RE4 with bombastic action? I found RE7 to be just good not great so I was not expecting to come away with re 8 being one of my favorite games of the year, but cut my hand off and call me Ethan if it isn’t!

I also just personally love when franchises go out of their way to retroactively explain some of their incredibly DUMB stuff, *looking at you Metal Gear Solid 5*, and this game does that in a fantastic way that I simply did not see coming. So from the jump this game surprised me on every front and I loved it and devoured it.