Your Games Completed of 2021

Yakuza 6

Sad dad has a phenomenal finale. Fuckin' outstanding.

Unpacking - absolutely loved this. Never played anything like it. The gentlest, most chilled game out there, and a masterpiece of subtle storytelling.

I kind of got scared of Unpacking. My brain's so poisoned by other indiegames that I'm expecting like- some terrible 'and then everything went wrong in her life' twist or something.

Exo one

Really surprised by how good this was. The feel of it, the look of it, the sound of it. The whole package. A very pleasant surprise that I'd recommend to everyone here.

I played some Unpacking this morning, just to get some fast achievements for the reward programme. Being told by a game that my kettle is in the wrong place… pfffft, fuck you game. I'll put my kettle where I DAMN WELL PLEASE.

Ghost of Tsushima
Golf Story
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Superhot: Mind Control Delete
Monster Hunter World
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Astro's Playroom
Monster Hunter Rise
Streets of Rage 4
Murder By Numbers
Hollow Knight

Control

Really glad I waited to play this one on the PS5, as I imagine it would've chugged a bit on the PS4. The themes and setting are exactly the kind of weird shit I like, and I very much enjoyed it, to the point where I got the Platinum and did all the DLC, but something (appropriately) intangible keeps it 'Really Good', rather than 'Great', I think.

The plot is laughable and it's all so….. bland. But chucking things at things is great and the feel of the pistol on PS5 is incredibly satisfying. I sort of do small bits of it, get annoyed, stop, play other things, then go back and play another small chunk of it. A weird game.

Ys: Memories of Celceta
Ys: Lacrimos of Dana
Ys Origin
Ys I
Ys II
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Tokyo Xanadu Ex+
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
Atelier Ryza
Tales of Eternia
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Tales of Xillia 2
Lunar: the Silver Star Complete
Disco Elysium
Wild Arms 3
Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
Hajimari no Kiseki
Dragon Quest 11
Skies of Arcadia
Xenogears
Suikoden
Tales of Arise
Suikoden 2

Shin Megami Tensei V
After a few hours of not even being sure I liked it (second area almost got to me) in the end I can say for sure this is a great SMT game, I don't think it's a better game than Nocturne but it's combat and boss fights are for sure. I also think it's both easier and harder than Nocturne overall.

The plot is laughable and it's all so….. bland. But chucking things at things is great and the feel of the pistol on PS5 is incredibly satisfying. I sort of do small bits of it, get annoyed, stop, play other things, then go back and play another small chunk of it. A weird game.

Yeah. It also manages to feel both satisfyingly weighty in some areas (the aforementioned chucking), and also still have that standard floaty Remedy feel. The world-building is quite good, but only really if you read all the files you pick up. It all feels a bit AA in places, but then some of the effects are really impressive.

It is, as you say, a weird game. Which is, again, somewhat appropriate.

Unpacking

In a year where I've played games where Yakuza soldiers fist fight helicopters, space wizards lightning bolt thousands of enemies and an orb rolls through planets on a journey back in time Unpacking presents a truly fantastical idea of a person owning a house before they're 45.

It's nice, calming and… my brain's really badly poisoned by indie games. I was expecting it constantly to do the indie twist of 'suddenly the game is incredible sad.'

Glad it didn't.

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Metroid: Zero Mission
Down in Bermuda

September
Super Metroid
Metroid Fusion
Flynn: Son of Crimson
The Artful Escape
Metroid Dread

October
Psychonauts 2

November
Hitman (2016) - As discussed in the main thread. A few little bits to clean up, then it's onto Hitman 2.

Last Of Us Pt 1. Longer than I was expecting and I am now fully aware of people's…. problems…. with many aspects of the game, the choices and story progression. But, that aside, it's still brave, very pretty, does a lot of interesting stuff and tells a good yarn that kept me entertained to the finish, so, a solid 8/10. A solid two of those marks are because it demonstrates the importance of antibiotics.

Next Space Rebels

A Game of the Year contender for me right up until the last 10 minutes. So disappointing that it can't stick the landing (lol) but a really, really cracking game none the less.

Kill it with Fire

It's a good game, just don't be a completionist on it or the joke'll wear out.

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Metroid: Zero Mission
Down in Bermuda

September
Super Metroid
Metroid Fusion
Flynn: Son of Crimson
The Artful Escape
Metroid Dread

October
Psychonauts 2

November
Hitman (2016)

December
Death's Door - I liked it a lot, but not as much as I expected to given the rave reviews and everyone crowing (ahem) about how great it was. I mean, it's good and very clearly just a step up from Titan Souls, but yeah. A few niggles where the game just assumes you'll work stuff out without any kind of help and the lack of a map was a bit annoying, but that's about it. The post-game stuff was nice, though that second ending… well.
Townscaper - I think it took me half an hour to get the achievements, because some of them are a bit obtuse in how you do it. But fine, it was nice to play with for a bit since it's free.

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Metroid: Zero Mission
Down in Bermuda

September
Super Metroid
Metroid Fusion
Flynn: Son of Crimson
The Artful Escape
Metroid Dread

October
Psychonauts 2

November
Hitman (2016)

December
Death's Door
Townscaper
IQDungeon - A silly little mobile game with a bunch of puzzles that try to tell an adventure story with terrible translation. Still, it was something to play.
The Wild At Heart - Nice game. Got some clean-up to do post-completion for achievements, but that shouldn't take too long. I hope.

Completed Journey to the Savage Planet and the DLC, largely in co-op. A lovely little game. Nice combination of Metroid and Outer Worlds. The wackyscifiiiii was actually quite amusing and the play areas had a great use of space and verticality. The art style was solid and original and the entire thing was breezy fun, especially in coop where it's really generous in how it doesn't force you to do anything together and just lets you find your own fun (while sharing upgrades and stuff you find).

Yeah I really enjoyed that.

Absolute dick move by Google to buy the devs and close them down within 12 months. Savage Planet was their first game.

I didn't know that :( Shame, that's bloody impressive for a first game too.

Ghost of Tsushima
Golf Story
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Superhot: Mind Control Delete
Monster Hunter World
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Astro's Playroom
Monster Hunter Rise
Streets of Rage 4
Murder By Numbers
Hollow Knight
Control

Maneater

That was actually pretty good fun. Agreeably silly. Sort of like Crackdown, if you were a shark.

Apparently I did all 15 hours (100%, Platinum, etc) in about 4 days, which was just because I found it quite moreish, and just so easy to get on with.

The Forgotten City - absolutely excellent, knotty little time-travelling game that prioritises puzzle-solving over action and has some of the cleverest writing I've seen for some time. I've managed one of the four endings, and to be fair it wasn't one I'm particularly proud of - there is a lot of stuff that I still need to pick through so I'm going to keep returning until I've worked out how to rescue everyone. Highly recommended.

Well, I called The Forgotten City a bit early! Turns out I'd seen less than half the game when I got my first ending, there was loads of stuff still to uncover including some incredibly mad shit that I really didn't see coming at all. It's got an incredibly well-judged ending too. Really glad I persevered all the way to the end. A minor masterpiece.

Well, I called The Forgotten City a bit early! Turns out I'd seen less than half the game when I got my first ending, there was loads of stuff still to uncover including some incredibly mad shit that I really didn't see coming at all. It's got an incredibly well-judged ending too. Really glad I persevered all the way to the end. A minor masterpiece.

Haha I wondered when you hinted at the ending you got how much of it you'd actually seen! It's a great little game, so much hidden away. Loved it.

It's also - and I don't think I'm over-reaching here - the first post-Covid video game I've played.

There's a line of dialogue right near the start where the player character says "well, that's nothing, I lived through a pandemic!" which kind of stopped me short, but it goes deeper than that:

Spoiler - click to showWith the whole election thing - Malleolus is essentially running a populist campaign where he claims the Golden Rule (which is keeping everyone safe) doesn't exist, and he's promising to give everyone their "freedom" if he wins. When he does win, everyone dies as a direct result.

I haven't really seen anything in any media try and tackle Covid yet, it's something that TV and movies seem to be consciously avoiding for now, so to see such an on-the-nose parallel in a videogame of all things was really quite surprising.

Spoiler - click to showWith the whole election thing - Malleolus is essentially running a populist campaign where he claims the Golden Rule (which is keeping everyone safe) doesn't exist, and he's promising to give everyone their "freedom" if he wins. When he does win, everyone dies as a direct result.

Spoiler - click to show yeah, I loved this. Martha and I played it on the sofa together and referred to him as "Farage" once we'd got past that bit. There was so much cleverness in there though - the senator who was deliberately restarting the day so he could live forever, the suicides, the whole egyptian plot, the crazy horror bit, "Karen" (which Martha spotted about halfway through…) So much thought in there, and genuinely fun to play too. Very interested to see what they can do with a bit more budget behind them.

Ion Fury

It's a build engine game from a few years ago that's really rather good. It outstays its welcome, and some of the later levels are far too baroque for its own good but if you want some pure old school boomer-shooter it's good.

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Metroid: Zero Mission
Down in Bermuda

September
Super Metroid
Metroid Fusion
Flynn: Son of Crimson
The Artful Escape
Metroid Dread

October
Psychonauts 2

November
Hitman (2016)

December
Death's Door
Townscaper
IQDungeon
The Wild At Heart
The Gunk - Ugh. That was a game I finished in 2021.

May
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

December
Crackdown 3 - Good fun, no surprises but solid gameplay throughout. Didn't outstay it's welcome.

May
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

December
Crackdown 3

Firewatch - Well that was definitely a game. Which I played.

I didn’t enjoy Firewatch either.

If you’re in the mood for that kind of narrative adventure, try Last Stop - also on Game Pass.

Thirded on non-enjoyment of Firewatch, filed it swiftly under 'Indie darlings which aren't actually all that great' after about two hours of play.

I liked Firewatch okay – finished it in one sitting, the week it came out, ordered my disposable camera photos and everything. Never felt the need to replay it, though. The ending didn't really hang together, so I think it undermined any temptation I might've had to see any alternative routes or other details I missed.

Thirded on non-enjoyment of Firewatch, filed it swiftly under 'Indie darlings which aren't actually all that great' after about two hours of play.

I should have done the same. The scenery was nice and I liked the way it changed with smoke pouring through at the end but any tension in either the fire or the plot was completely undermined by the fact that it was clear the game was never going to give you another human to interact with or any fire to run away from. What you are left with is a bunch of journeys across a not-huge environment and a lot of uninspired conversation. Oh, and a mystery which didn't actually make any sense at the end.

My boss has been taking a very specific approach to try and whittle down his backlog in 2021 and I think I'm going to do the same in 2022: namely, giving any game played an hour to prove its worth. If it hasn't grabbed me in 60 minutes, it gets deleted forever and never returned to. Brutal, certainly, but it means the ones that do make the cut are at least enjoyed to the point that it's worth the effort.

Definitely think I'll be clearing a lot of space on my Switch in the first few months of the year.

I don't think one hour is always enough some games you would still be in tutorial mode. Something like 10% of the predicted play time is probably sensible. 10 hours max though.

Ys: Memories of Celceta
Ys: Lacrimos of Dana
Ys Origin
Ys I
Ys II
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Tokyo Xanadu Ex+
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
Atelier Ryza
Tales of Eternia
Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Tales of Xillia 2
Lunar: the Silver Star Complete
Disco Elysium
Wild Arms 3
Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
Hajimari no Kiseki
Dragon Quest 11
Skies of Arcadia
Xenogears
Suikoden
Tales of Arise
Suikoden 2
Shin Megami Tensei V

Lunar 2
Hands down one of the best RPGs on PS1, improvement on the first game in every way and a game that really captured that classic adventure and good vs evil feel, with a romance plot too. I think I said this when I beat Lunar 1 but the only other RPG I think captures the spirit of Lunar is Skies of Arcadia, if we don't ever get Lunar 3 we can always say we got Skies.

Anyway…that's the last RPG I will beat in 2021 and depsite it not being a great run because I started super late, this is the end of my RPG focused year. I love RPGs a lot but I think I'm going to play a lot of Visual Novels next year. My only real regret isn ot getting to Persona 2 but if you'vep layed Persona 2 you'd know why tbh.

I don't think one hour is always enough some games you would still be in tutorial mode. Something like 10% of the predicted play time is probably sensible. 10 hours max though.

Good lord, no. If a game is still in tutorial mode after an hour, that's horrid. Granted, I get a game can continue to expand its mechanics over time and evolve the gameplay, but come on… any good game should be obviously good in an hour or less. If it's not, that's just shit design.

Think of it in demo terms: you wouldn't expect a demo to last 10% of the full experience. Every game I'm playing is a demo until I decide to stick with it.

I think an hour is enough to determine whether I want to continue with something or not. I might still be in tutorial mode by then but I should at least want to continue.

Games like Anno or Evil Genius are essentially always in tutorial mode - the campaign is a massive intro to all the mechanics you’ll need for the sandbox mode. That’s fine, I’ll still know after an hour if I’m intrigued enough to continue.

One of the unsung benefits of Game Pass is deciding something is shit and uninstalling it without the guilt of having actually spent money on it.

I think an hour is enough to determine whether I want to continue with something or not. I might still be in tutorial mode by then but I should at least want to continue.

Yes to this.

Games like Anno or Evil Genius are essentially always in tutorial mode - the campaign is a massive intro to all the mechanics you’ll need for the sandbox mode. That’s fine, I’ll still know after an hour if I’m intrigued enough to continue.

Yes to this too.

One of the unsung benefits of Game Pass is deciding something is shit and uninstalling it without the guilt of having actually spent money on it.

Also yes to this. Except I'm also hard applying it retroactively to 'the stack' and not going to actively spend on new titles*. So that should save a pretty penny.

(* I expect this won't last, but one can only try at least)

I'm trying to remember which games I didn't like at first but I was glad I stuck with them. Right now I can't remember any, so I'll conceed the point and go with 1 hour to get good or gtfo.

Pretty sure someone (Gar?) said one of the Final Fantasy games (the one with Lightning in?) gets good after about 24 hours. A full day of play, just to enjoy that. Hoo boy.

Ultimately, I'm just going to be more critical and cutthroat with the 'Actually, this isn't fun' realisation. Done it a few times of late and feel all the better for it. Long may it continue.

I liked FF13 from the start and wouldn’t have stuck with it if I hadn’t. But lots of people criticised it for being too linear, and it does dramatically open up after about 25 hours so that’s what that’s all about. It’s become a bit of a joke, or a meme, but I think it’s a good game all round.

Literally under the wire for 2021…

January
Blasphemous

February
Horace
Agent A: A Puzzle In Disguise
The Burnable Garbage Day

March
Nothing

April
A Way Out
FEZ

May
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Call of the Sea
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

June
Tick Tock: A Game For Two

July
There Is No Game

August
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
Metroid: Zero Mission
Down in Bermuda

September
Super Metroid
Metroid Fusion
Flynn: Son of Crimson
The Artful Escape
Metroid Dread

October
Psychonauts 2

November
Hitman (2016)

December
Death's Door
Townscaper
IQDungeon
The Wild At Heart
The Gunk
It Takes Two - So much to say about this, but I don't have the time now. Made sure I finished it though, so my thoughts could be justified, rather than countered with 'But you didn't get to the end'. How the hell this was voted both Family Game of the Year AND Overall Game of the Year at the Game Awards though, I'll honestly never work out. People are fucking awful.

I experimented with the first level of ITT to see if it was something my non-videogaming partner might be capable of playing. Apart from the awful cinematics it is almost straight into peak videogame, so I've left it for now. Over Christmas we stuck to Mario Kart 8 and Astrobears.

Yeah, It Takes Two is not a casual game at all really. You need some familiarity with right-stick camera control at the very least.

I'm surprised you're so down on it, though, Mart - I thought it was inventive and fun. The cut-scenes are too long, the characters unlikeable and that bit is horrendously misjudged, so I don't think it's the classic it's made out to be, but it's a very decent 3D platformer with loads of variety and the co-op mechanics are often quite clever.

I'm surprised you're so down on it, though, Mart - I thought it was inventive and fun. The cut-scenes are too long, the characters unlikeable and that bit is horrendously misjudged, so I don't think it's the classic it's made out to be, but it's a very decent 3D platformer with loads of variety and the co-op mechanics are often quite clever.

The 'game' is solid and inventive, and my partner and I enjoyed playing together, so I agree with the bolded bit. But the story, the custscenes, the characters are just AWFUL and not from a 'Oh, I'm not enjoying this' perspective, but rather a 'I genuinely pity the people who wrote this, given their take on how relationships actually work must be the worst ever' approach. Like I said, there's too much here to unpack and I'd need a lot of time to formulate thoughts properly. But as an example, the mum, May? Totally my ex-wife: manipulative, selfish, blames everyone else for everything and generally an utterly hateful person. The dad's just as bad. And the book, don't even get me started on that. The premise is regularly combative, mean-spirited and generally poorly considered. The whole thing made me feel sick to my stomach.

The game needs an option where you can remove all the story, custscenes and any part where the three main characters talk. Then it might be close to okay.

Yeah. I was going to say that maybe it's not aimed at people who have recently gone through an acrimonious divorce; but that's quite a few people overall, really, isn't it?

And then I started thinking about a version of It Takes Two where the two characters actually get along together from the start, and work together to solve the various problems in a "Honey I Shrunk The Parents" kind of a way, and it would be pretty much the same but much better, wouldn't it?

I really do think a lot of people play games and just automatically skip every cutscene, though. In this case that would probably be the recommended way to play.