For many people, the year was a tougher slog than 2020 at times, but luckily, we were spoiled with creative releases on every level and format—books, comics, TV, film, music, games, the lot!
Here are 5 video games from 2021 that helped me through the year that I returned to repeatedly and found could wrap us up in a comfort blanket of interactive storytelling while rocking us gently into a fuzzy stupor when we needed it most!
1Loop Hero
Developer: Four Quarters
Publisher: Devolver Digital
An evil Lich has destroyed the world, plunging everything and everyone into amnesiac darkness! You play the “hero,” scrabbling around, trying to remember your world, battling monsters of various kinds, and trying to survive the madness. Sometimes, a bit of mindless repetition is no bad thing, and Loop Hero has made that a key element of its gameplay.
Things are knitted together with resource management on two main levels – your hero and the landscape they trudge through on each level. Many times. Until you’re either strong enough to face a boss battle OR you run off back to your camp with all your resources and improve your living quarters, thus making your hero stronger for the next run-through. And so it goes.
There’s some good, steady world-building and story development here as you gradually learn and remember more about life before the Lich came along. It is tied together with a nice 8/16-bit retro graphic style. It’s a great little game.
2Inscryption
Developer: Daniel Mullins Games
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Another game from publisher Devolver Digital, like Loop Hero, Inscryption has a refreshing take on deck-building games of the Slay the Spire ilk. It combines roguelike deck-building gameplay that sees you wandering through a forest, finding new cards and helpful (and hurtful) treasures, and fighting many weird and terrible creatures. The game has found-footage film and escape-room elements, wrapping it all up in a creepy, weird setting. Will you ever escape the log cabin where a faceless tormenter is holding you?
To explain more about the gameplay and where the game takes you would be major spoilers. Needless to say, Inscryption was not what I expected, and I say that in a very good way. It’s an absolute treat of a game that I will happily play through many times. It is one of the rare games I already know I will pick up on other platforms when it (hopefully) gets further releases.
3Psychonauts 2
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
The original Psychonauts game from 2005 is easily one of my favourite games of all time, with level design so good it was used in game development textbooks due to its excellence. The first title from Double Fine Productions, it immediately established them as a top-quality creative games dev – despite not selling the numbers it was expected to, and should’ve done! I’ve been eager to play a sequel (a ‘proper’ sequel, not counting the VR game – Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin) for a looooong time, and am happy to say it lives up to expectations and easily fills the original game’s boots.
At its core, Psychonauts 2 is a tightly designed 3D platform game but it takes you in many creepy, funny, weird, emotional, and fantastical directions. It continues the story began back in 2005 and is set very soon after the end of the original, as well as Rhombus of Ruin, though there’s no need to have played that. We see the Psychonauts HQ – the Motherlobe – in all its glory as well as learning more about characters we’ve grown to love alongside a raft of new faces. Sure, it’s a 3D platformer so can be frustrating at times, but I love it. Chicken soup for the soul.
4The Gunk
Developer: Image & Form
Publisher: Thunderful Publishing
A latecomer to the list, having only been released on December 16th, The Gunk comes with a strong pedigree. Made by Image & Form, the team behind the extremely popular Steam World series of games, The Gunk sees Image & Form take what they’ve learned from years of excellent 2D games design and apply it to a big, new, 3D world for us to play in. Not only are they successful, but it’s a gorgeous alien world, too.
You play as one of a couple of scavengers who have just discovered an alien planet that appears to be polluted with the titular gunk. Luckily, you’re equipped with a power glove that can suck up the gunk and restore beauty to the planet! The Gunk drip feeds you the story, mainly via conversations between the two scavengers, Rani and Beck, as well as your own discoveries.
It is a nice, fairly chilled-out affair for what boils down to an “investigating an alien world/Metroidvania style” game. It also reminds me of Beyond Good & Evil for some reason… and Super Mario Sunshine… which is no bad thing!
5Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Developer: Nintendo EPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Although Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out in 2020, many of us have still been escaping to the world of Animal Crossing throughout 2021. Some might even class it as one of the ultimate examples of escapist gaming there is. As well as all the content updates released throughout 2020, the big deal in 2021 was the release of the “Happy Home Paradise” DLC, which is practically a whole new game.
Drop-in, end up owing Tom Nook huge amounts of cash/bells, tune out to the real world, and relax whilst picking fruit, deep-sea diving, doing lots of interior design, chatting to neighbours, and paying off debts. It’s a bit like the real world, but a lot cuter!
So, those are my picks for 2021, but which games had you hooked throughout the year? Let us know in the comments and all the best for 2022!
