In the world of video games, the year of COVID's great reckoning may be remembered as 2021. Many of the biggest games of 2020 were mostly completed in a normal development cycle. Projects slated for the next year were not as lucky.
This year's gaming news was filled with delays, unfinished messes, and game publishers scrambling to fill their schedules with undercooked backup plans. It doesn't say anything about the gaming community, wondering if crucial chips and parts might ever be plentiful enough again so they can buy the latest in console and PC gear.
Against all odds, fantastic games still crossed the finish line. In an effort to reduce ranking-based ire and celebrate every game on our list, we're removing numbered rankings, with the exception of crowning a formal Ars Technica pick for Best Video Game of 2021, at the list's very end.
Each game's ability to crack this 20-strong list is an indication that each game deserves a second look, even though this alphabetical-order list includes everything from breathless praise to caveat-filled considerations.
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Setting xenos on fire is my favorite way to pass time.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
Buy at: Amazon, Best Buy, PSN, XBOX, and Steam.
If you're a regular Ars reader with a powerful PC or game console, you'll find something to love about the first truly fun co-op game in the Aliens universe. You and two friends use gadgets and big guns to take out waves of bigger foes, mostly in the form of xenos, but eventually with Working Joes in the mix.
How can a simple pitch compete with so many other co-op shooters on consoles and PCs? AFE lands on the year-end list because of solid execution, not because of refreshing new ideas. Cold Iron Studios is careful in its design of battle-arenas, compelling enemy patterns, interesting co-op strategy options, and variable combat pacing, while stringing together a lengthy, varied campaign with increasingly dire stakes that Weyland- Yutani has made a mess of. During each campaign mission, you can leave your mic on and catch up with your squadmates between intense firefights, while class-specific perks and weapons force teammates to keep tabs on each other and interact meaningfully.
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In Back 4 Blood, a 2021 co-op combat candidate that struggles to organize collaboration between squadmates, the latter quality stands in stark contrast to the lonely feeling I get. I need more reasons to play with my online gaming teammates. Even if its difficulty spikes will push your squad to die-and-retry extremes, AFE gets this right in a nicely executed package.
Sam Machkovech is the Tech Culture Editor.
The lifestyle of the Cruis'n Blast is to flip past a dinosaur in a blue sports car.
There is a blast.
Best Buy, Target, Nintendo eShop are where you can buy the Switch.
Racing games have crises of identity, they commit to neither realism nor ridiculousness and end up nowhere. This is not the case with the arcade, which is loud, garish, and playful. The game was originally developed as an arcade exclusive and was released on the Switch in September.
The focus of the blast is on speed. You don't have to remove your finger from the gas pedal. When you hit a wall, you don't stop; your car does a spin and keeps pushing onward. The only direction you can go is forward even when you are turning. You can still zoom straight at 145 miles per hour in this game. You can drive a tank or hammerhead shark and race through jungles or alien cities. You can drift and pop wheelies in a stealth chopper. You can roll a barrel.
There is a split-screen option for up to four players, which Ars appreciates, but there is no online racing. Forza Horizon 5 is a better bet on that front. Every race has scripted events that occur right on cue, and the artificial intelligence has a heavy rubber-banding effect. Winning involves using your nitrous oxide at the right time and doing Mario Kart drift-boosts as often as possible, not taking turns correctly. The two-minute burst of effects and colors and chaos is what makes the game so fast. The game never pretends to be something it isn't. It is a big dose of unreality.
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Death's Door is a 2021, gaming delight that will include Isometric traversal, puzzles, and combat with gorgeously rendered creatures.
Death's door.
Buy at: GOG, Steam, Nintendo, and XBOX.
You can find other games that breathe more life into the same things as Death's Door by scrolling through this list. By the time you get through 15 minutes of this top-down adventure game, you'll probably be able to tell that it's a mixture of a lot of things, including a mix of brutal battles, dodge-and-attack mechanics, and dead enemies' spirits as currency.
We at Ars couldn't let go of Death's Door as a top-notch spit-shine of both concepts, much in the way that 2017's Hollow Knight took our breath away as a familiar-yet-brilliant retread. Death's Door has a Tim Burton-esque plot about faking like the grim reaper, but the real fun comes from how the studio Acid Nerve combines masterful combat controls with gorgeously rendered stop-motion-like worlds and monsters. If it's familiar, what if it's gorgeous to look at?
Death's Door was released on PC and Xbox earlier this year, and has since been released on Nintendo's Switch console in a 30 frame per second port. If your year-end gaming plans will mostly be spent on the Switch, Death's Door is a better choice than the re-release of Skyward Sword.
Sam Machkovech is the Tech Culture Editor.
