Top 5 Games 2021
About this list!
Before I list my top games of 2021 I want to make clear that this is purely a list of the games which I enjoyed the most in 2021. Meaning a few of the games released quite a few years prior. These aren’t reviews, and I will avoid spoilers!
(Here is a full video of this article on my YouTube channel)
# 5. Chivalry 2.
Most nights, when I have time to play games, I don’t have the energy for story heavy or intense gameplay sessions. Chivalry is simply a fun game which I can switch off my brain and swing a sword for 30 minutes (or several hours). Since the release of the first game a few other studios have attempted to recreate the medieval melee multiplayer with various degrees of success. Playing these imitation games felt just like that, a shallow attempt to recapture the initial magic of the first game. But, Chivalry 2 has rekindled my love for this style of game and the simple to pick up and hard to master gameplay is perfect for what I want in this style of game.
# 4. GTA: San Andreas 2004
Back before Rockstar announced that the PS2 era of GTA games would receive “remasters” I had found myself watching a lot of speedruns. One category in particular which I found most enjoyable was the GTA:SA runs at events like GDQ. Remembering that SA’s Xbox 360 incarnation was backwards compatible I picked it back up myself. Not to speedrun, but just to enjoy. I ended up completing about 60% of the main game before the “remasters” were released. Something about these updates coming out killed my enthusiasm for a bit, but I do plan on getting back into this game soon and finishing it off!
Mostly this game is a nostalgia trip for me. I remember when GTA games came out I had to wait for my dad to complete them first to “make sure they were appropriate”, now I realise that he was just wanting to complete the game in peace before 11 year old me hogged the PS2 and messed up his saves.
# 3. Star Wars: Knights of the old republic
Oddly enough, this game too came out around the same time as GTA:SA. As I wasn’t a PC gamer at the time (still not really), nor did I have an Xbox this game never crossed my radar. I am a massive fan of Star Wars, I love episode 1, all 6 movies really, and even read some of the older expanded universe books! Yet, I was never inspired to pick up and try out this game.
Enter the Switch port. This isn’t the perfect place to play this game, but for me a game being on the Switch just makes it more likely that I’ll get into it!
# 2. Persona 5 Royal
When I was going through my played games for 2021 I took a double take when I saw that I played Persona 5 Royal this year. In a strange way this game feels like a life I used to live. Looking at gameplay makes me miss characters more than any other media franchise ever has. Even Morgana grew on me towards the end.
The minute to minute gameplay of Persona is not the most exciting and planning to go study or hangout with friends afterschool is hardly mentally challenging but by the end of a persona game you will have given a lot to the character you play and even after 120 hours you’ll never be ready to leave.
# 1. Hitman 3
IO Interactive have done a beautiful thing with their Hitman trilogy. Making all the levels work in the updated engine was a stroke of genius. Most of my time in Hitman 3 was probably spent in Hitman 1’s Sapienza or else in Hitman 2’s Whittleton Creek levels. The developers still managed to innovate in some interesting ways, such as the murder mystery roleplaying and the VR. The VR worked so much better than I could have imagined too.
Hitman 3 isn’t just a stealth game, it’s a puzzle game. I spent so much time just toying around with mechanics, setting up traps and watching how NPCs react to different scenarios. Shooting a target with a tranquillizer dart and having them fall into a body of water and drown has to be one of the funniest moments in gaming for me. This game really understands its audience
I’ve seen that IOI are aiming to bring us more Hitman content in 2022 and I cannot wait to have more reasons to jump into this game!