My Top 10 Games Played in 2021
Plus Some Lowlights!
1. Project Zomboid
For anyone who’s wondered how they would fair in a zombie apocalypse, this game can answer that question. You start out with a choice of former profession and set of traits to choose from. There’s a lot of variety in the character creation that keeps playthroughs feeling fresh. For example, you can be an overweight burglar who drives too slowly and needs a cigarette every now and then. All your starting choices have an impact on how your life in the apocalypse will play out. When you spawn in, you will be in one of a few spawn locations dotted across Knox County. This is one of the more impressive aspects of the game. Knox county really feels like a real-world county in scope. This map is huge and designed with a sense of realism. Take the below screenshot for example. The highlighted region is a small cabin that is buried in the thick of the wilderness. Imagine being desperate and coming across this needle in the haystack. This is an aspect of exploration that makes it so daunting yet potentially rewarding. I made the mistake in one of my first playthroughs of escaping a hoard by running into the woods. By other games logic, I was expecting to come across some other points of interest instead I got lost in a dense forest and slowly died of starvation. There was a one in a million chance I came across that cabin, but regardless my decision was not the smart one. This is not to say survival in the woods alone is not an option, it was just not something I or my character was prepared for, therefore that was the end of our apocalypse.
Sevastromo
Why is Project Zomboid #1:
Project Zomboid is the ultimate zombie survival sandbox experience. It’s the first open world, survival, crafting game I’ve actually stuck with and enjoyed. Because of the novelty and the fantastic setting, it takes the top spot.
2. Resident Evil 2 (2019)
Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil Remake are my favorite games of the expansive Resident Evil franchise. Both are fantastic remakes of their originals, staying true to the classics while enhancing the player experience by being accessible on modern platforms and having modern visuals and controls. REmake represents the pinnacle of what the original trilogy was: fixed camera angles, beautifully detailed 2D backgrounds and 3D character models, memorable level design, a mix of true horror and shlocky action, restricted inventory space, puzzle solving, and tough combat with a limited arsenal. RE2R picks up on everything REmake accomplished aside from the fixed camera angles and 2D backgrounds. The fixed camera angles are replaced with a more modern 3rd person view and the world is now rendered fully in 3D without compromising on any detail thanks to modern hardware. So, while I’ll miss the original’s fixed camera angles and 2D backgrounds, the only detail lost is those choice camera angles that either hid information intentionally from the player or were just stunningly beautiful. The image on the left is REmake, an obviously curated camera angle that utilizes the foreground while providing a detailed backdrop with its own sources of light and reflections. On the right I took a stab at creating a “fixed camera angle” with the free cam mod. While it is an amatuer attempt, it does illustrate that thanks to modern hardware we can get 2D background level of detail in a 3D environment.
Resident Evil 2 Remake is not ground-breaking, but it does accomplish being a faithful remake. RE2R sticks to the strengths of the original Resident Evil trilogy while presenting itself as a beautifully detailed 3rd person survival horror game.
Sevastromo
Why is Resident Evil 2 (2019) #2:
2021 is undoubtedly the year of Resident Evil, so let’s recap the absolutely nonsensical amount I played this nonsensical series and provide some context to the entries on this list.
Prior to 2021, I had played the remakes of 1 and 2 and enjoyed them both but hadn’t given them much of a second thought. Coming into 2021 I think there was some hype behind Resident Evil Village, and I ended up getting the 3rd remake ahead of Village’s release and this is what followed. I ended up playing the Resident Evil Remaster 3 times, Resident Evil 2 and its remake 5 times, Resident Evil 3 and its remake 3 times, Resident Evil 4 once, Resident Evil 7 once, Resident Evil Village twice, and Resident Evil 0 Remaster once. After reading that you might think I am sick of this series but that’s only kind of the case. Yes, you probably won’t catch me playing 0, 3 remake, 4, 7 or Village again, but Resident Evil 1 and 2 and their remakes set the bar for the survival horror genre.
3. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat (Gunslinger Mod)
COP is a gameplay, atmosphere driven experience with the Gunslinger mod bringing the first-person view into this decade. The main story is pretty forgettable, something about crashed helicopters, but it was enough to keep me moving from one area to the next. I recommend this game-mod combination to anyone wanting a vanilla S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experience with just visual upgrades…
Sevastromo
Why is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat (Gunslinger Mod) #3:
The world and atmosphere of Stalker truly sticks with you. Even though it is singleplayer and I’ve seen everything thing the campaign/side quests have to offer, I find myself searching for reasons to return to the zone. I’ll never forget this game.
4. Darkwood
As much as I love Resident Evil games, especially the classics, Darkwood better exemplifies the genre Resident Evil invented, survival horror. This is the best game I have played that melds survival mechanics with horror. The survival mechanics involve light crafting, base defense, weapon durability and repair, scavenging, limited inventory, and a brutal day-night cycle. I’m not the biggest “open-world survival” game fan, but these elements are done intuitively and never feel like artificial gatekeeping. In-game items are found, built, and repaired in a grounded, real-world manner that gives a genuine sense of scarcity and vulnerability to the player. The house you stay in feels tacked together, the shovel you hold is barely functional, the pistol you found has no magazine. All these sensations generated by the survival mechanics add to the horror element of Darkwood.
Sevastromo
Why is Darkwood #4:
Darkwood is an innovative twist on the survival horror genre. It executes on a crisp, memorable player experience that melds the worlds oppressive atmosphere with streamlined survival mechanics achieving gameplay-worldbuilding harmony. #4 feels really low for this outstanding title. But I’d say 1-4 this year are fairly interchangeable with all being truly great experiences. Meanwhile, 6-10 are very shaky entries to say the least.
5. Rimworld: Ideology
The Ideology expansion gave me another reason to jump back into Rimworld and start another colony. This alone earns it high praise, but it also added some cool mechanics, so I guess I’ll mention those. Rimworld has always been a game that I start up, begin a colony, and ~100 hours later decide to start working towards a victory path. Each of those colonies had a distinct character recognized by the colonists, the biome, the style of base, etc. At some point designing the colony and growing, you have ideas on how you could do it differently. I’m rarely motivated to start a new colony after a long playthrough of another but I always have new ideas for a different approach in the future. Ideology makes building a unique colony easier by providing a lot of potentially distinguishing features to the game. The ideology mechanic adds character to each colony you design through choosing memes. These memes can greatly change the gameplay and the visuals of your colony. For my first ideology playthrough, I chose a meme structure of darkness-tunneler-transhumanist. My colony was a massive cave structure with a bunch of advance technology installed. My colonists loved the darkness and were decked out in advanced bionic body parts. We loved fighting underground, so we had a lone entrance to our cave base and would fight enemies there in the dark. We relied on large underground mushroom fields for our food and power. Making fine meals and chemfeul from raw nutri-fungus meant we never had to leave the cave. Outside our cave, the jungle was littered with mechanoid clusters. Normally a serious threat for other colonies, these clusters protected us from outside threats like raiders. All these memorable aspects of my colony weren’t necessarily added by ideology, but they were enabled. While I am not playing Rimworld right now, I am looking forward to when I start a new colony as it will be almost entirely unique.
Why is Rimworld: Ideology #5:
Ideology is an expansion that adds game-changing and thematic variety to each colony. It’s great for mixing up playthroughs and for an expansion, that’s exactly what I’m looking for.
6. Resident Evil Village
Village claims to be a survival horror experience. There may be survival horror sections, but a better descriptor would be an action-adventure spectacle with dash of horror. Village is split into several wholly different areas with a village hub. These areas are reminiscent of collecting the lord souls in Dark Souls and adventuring to the underground lava caves of Lost Izalith, or Seath’s castle called the Dukes Archives. These disparate biomes make for memorable areas with clear themes as the bosses, enemies, and set pieces all serve the cohesive vision of that segment. The level design draws obvious comparisons to the classic action-oriented predecessor Resident Evil 4, but that’s not the only connection. Game mechanics like the briefcase inventory system, the vendor that showing up in weird spots throughout, hidden gems and collectibles, and buying weapon upgrades are all stripped directly from RE4 and utilized here. If you loved RE4, Village is for you, if you’re looking for a survival horror experience, look elsewhere. Even the one pure horror segment has zero survival elements and is more akin to the likes of Amnesia or Outlast. I had a similar but different problem with RE7 not feeling like a Resident Evil game and that game had clear survival horror elements. I think, after two entries playing as Ethan, he may be the weak link. Ethan as the guy who went looking for his wife, who also got in over his head worked the first time. But for me, I have zero connection to this character. His one-liners are corny, exacerbating profanities, and the ending reveal just fell flat for me. The developer’s devotion to not showing his face is bizarre and I feel if they went this route, he should have just been a silent protagonist. With all this being said however, Village is a fun action-adventure spectacle while having a little bit of influence from almost every Resident Evil and other horror contemporaries sprinkled in. This one I recommend, but I don’t know how long I will keep playing these games if they continually push towards action and away from survival horror.
Why is Resident Evil Village #6:
An entertaining action-adventure (not a lot of survival, some horror) extravaganza. A fun game, but I’m very unsure about the future of Resident Evil.
7. Resident Evil 3 (2020)
I recommend this game with a heavy heart. R3make is a seriously fun game that could’ve been so much more. The remake inspired me to play the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, but in turn made me realize how uninspired the R3make is. In terms of character control, graphical fidelity, and the writing/character development in cut scenes, the R3make makes obvious upgrades over the original. Jill controls wonderfully making combat fluid and dynamic. In cut scenes, Jill and the rest of the cast feel well written and fully realized with some of the most human-like facial animation I have seen. The RE engine renders Racoon City in gorgeous detail but this ties into where the game faulters. Where RE2R went all in on the Racoon City Police Department, sewers, and labs, R3make level design and scope pales in comparison to the original. Racoon City streets are significantly underdeveloped, the sewers and labs feel copy pasted from RE2R, and the infamous clock tower is somehow absent. The hospital level in R3make is the only noticeable improvement, but even that is hampered by a wave defense segment that feels out of touch with the rest of the game. Taking R3make on its own for what it is, the game delivers a very fun and action heavy Resident Evil experience. However, it fundamentally fails as a remake and makes one wish what could have been.
Why is Resident Evil 3 (2020) #7:
Again, a fun game, but unfortunately this time a lackluster remake. This could’ve been so much more…
8. Loop Hero
I had to rewire my brain to learn this game. The gameplay, outside of the meta-progression, is right on the border of original and unintuitive. The game deconstructs what a roguelike is and turns that into a game in and of itself. For example, in Slay the Spire, could you beat the heart if you only ever fought the easiest first floor enemy? Definitely not, the player character needs elites and floor bosses to get stronger. So instead of the game generating these speedbumps that can catapult you to success, the player is responsible for choosing their own speedbumps. That’s the best explanation I can give, there’s more to it, but at its core Loop Hero asks the player to think differently about the roguelike genre.
Why is Loop Hero #8:
A fun roguelike with an original set of mechanics.
9. Fallout 2
After bouncing off the original Fallout, I could see quality but was turned off by the controls, interface, and just a lack of understanding of the GURPS ruleset. So maybe its thanks to a frustrating attempt at Fallout that I had such a good time with Fallout 2. Nevertheless, the story of Fallout 2 just sets you out into an open world to explore, not unlike the first game. Fortunately, the environments, sound design, and characters you meet along the way make exploration the primary draw of this RPG. The stunningly detailed environment depicts a hauntingly dingy and apocalyptic wasteland that is begging to be discovered for the first time. Thanks to this, the locations are super memorable and, in the moment, very immersive. The larger story was good enough, but it was the little moments like finding a rope, figuring out you can build a car, being stuck outside the gates of an oasis, that make this experience what it is. I can recommend this game to anyone who is interested in experiencing a game from different era. I wouldn’t say the whole game has aged well such as the combat and interface, but the aforementioned positives certainly outweigh them and make for unique experience.
Why is Fallout 2 #9:
Fallout 2 feels both innovative and dated. I would love to see a remaster of this title to clean up the rough edges and make it a little more user friendly.
10. Resident Evil 0
Two things hold 0 back from being a great Resident Evil game. First, it’s the infamous decision to not have item boxes… I love tight inventory management in RE games, but this goes too far and becomes very tedious. I'm not even against ditching the connected item boxes. Just give me standalone boxes at each typewriter so my inventory isn’t sprawled out all over the floor. Second is the mansion level. This level just feels like a cheap knockoff of original mansion and is where I lost interest in the game. To the games credit, the beginning train level is phenomenal and has some of the best pre-rendered backgrounds in the series. The two-character mechanic is fun enough and the controls are tight. Overall, a decent entry into the series held back by a few annoying aspects.
Why is Resident Evil 0 #10:
Started out excellent, then faded into obscurity with a lackluster 2nd and 3rd act. Still, it’s a beautiful step cousin to the original trilogy.
Games I Played that Missed the Mark
Resident Evil 4
I understand Resident Evil 4 is a revolutionary classic, but in my opinion it has not aged gracefully. The 3rd person tank controls are awful. The graphics have also aged poorly. It has none of the charm and detail of the original trilogy’s pre-rendered backgrounds and none of the beautiful realism of the RE engine games. I wish I played this when it came out because playing it in 2021 was a 25-hour slog. A good game but unlike many other Resident Evils, one I won’t be returning to any time soon.
Resident Evil 7
The first half of the games structure is very reminiscent of Remake. It has such a fresh setting and set of characters that if not for the title I wouldn’t have known this was a Resident Evil game. I think it’s cool the game stands on its own, not relying on previous material, but part of me also misses the Resident Evil feel. The first-person perspective shift is okay, it’s immersive. But on the other hand, I think this is the Resident Evil protagonist I’ve connected with the least, not sure if that’s due to the perspective shift or writing. A solid game, but the back half of the game drags horribly.
Valheim
Not my kind of game, but it’s okay. I’m definitely keeping it on my radar for the future. I appreciate the streamlined crafting/survival mechanics and the world was very beautiful, calming, and immersive.