What was the best game of 2021? We thought about it, mulled it over, discussed it, debated it and couldn’t arrive at a consensus answer. It’s a hard question any year: With so many great games representing a range of genres, how can you even compare them? What qualities make a racing game better or worse than a shooter? And while video games represented a respite from the pandemic in 2020, in 2021, they were a reminder of its disruption, as pandemic related delays pushed many highly anticipated titles to 2022. And so, in a year that lacked a definitive No. 1 title like last year’s “Hades” from Supergiant Games, we’ve opted for a different approach.
Instead of crowning one game above the rest, we’ve selected several as best games of the year.
Presented in alphabetical order, the titles listed below are The Washington Post’s picks for best video games of 2021.
— Chicory: A Colorful Tale. In a weird year like 2021, puzzle adventure game “Chicory: A Colorful Tale” is a soothing balm for the mind. “Chicory” discusses mental health and how it’s OK to say no to the many demands of others. You play as an anthropomorphic dog, which you name after your favorite food, who learns to paint with a magic brush. The gameplay is about returning color to the world, one brushstroke at a time.
“Chicory” imparts the lesson that being an artist is not about striving for perfection. It’s okay to paint recklessly, outside the lines, or to carefully fill up each shape with love and care. “Chicory” is a game with massive range, from beautiful music to satisfying sound design. Above all, it sends a gentle message: Take care of yourself.
— Shannon Liao
Available on: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
— Forza Horizon 5. “Forza Horizon 5” might be the greatest racing game ever made. While the racing genre typically isn’t “prestige” game of the year award material, that thinking needs to change. Racing games have traditionally been video games’ most welcoming on-ramps into the medium, and the more we celebrate great racing games, the better the genre will get.
The fifth Forza Horizon game doesn’t break the mold, but it does fine-tune its accessible and pleasant open-world formula to fit the player’s fancies. It helps that it’s gorgeous; this title may be the most stunning game of the new console generation so far.
— Gene Park
— Halo Infinite. “Halo Infinite” is the best-playing multiplayer shooting experience of the year, and it’s arguably the best Halo campaign in the 20-year history of the series. While the story is no exception to a series known for hammy writing, it’s the gameplay that rockets “Halo Infinite” to the spot of my favorite game of 2021. No other game offers this much variety of play on a moment-to-moment basis.
No other big-budget experience this year gives this much agency and power to the player to tell their own story. “Halo Infinite” is simply the best version of one of the greatest, most influential shooting games ever made.
— Gene Park
— Hitman 3. The Hitman games are the closest one can get to playing a James Bond simulator, so it’s a good thing developer IO Interactive has been tapped to make those next. In the meantime, “Hitman 3″ will show you why IO Interactive was trusted with the 007 license. The game’s second level allows protagonist Agent 47 to become the lead detective in a slow-burn Agatha Christie novel. Two levels later, he’s being stalked by fellow hit men.
The Hitman series, which deserves more recognition, also remains remarkable for being among the most nonviolent action games. You are encouraged (and required) to only kill your targets, but everything else is either collateral damage or a prop used for players to achieve this goal.
— Gene Park
Available on: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Google Stadia
— Metroid Dread. I’ve finished this game eight times. In those runs, I discovered a pristinely designed classic experience for adventure and exploration. It’s stunning just how much “Dread” gets right about the classic Metroid games, including how it encourages players to create their own shortcuts by using the game’s tools. Bosses can be defeated in many different ways, some of them as secret as the breakable walls all over the game’s maps.
While 2-D Metroid-like games have won critical and commercial success over the years, “Dread” reminds us why Samus Aran, the first lady of gaming, is still queen of the genre.
— Gene Park
Available on: Nintendo Switch
— Psychonauts 2. Nothing is quite as strange as the human mind; no wonder, then, that the twisted psyches of people make for captivating settings in a video game. “Psychonauts 2” continues the adventures of Raz, a kid who can plunge into the minds of people and confront the mental constructs that structure their outlook on the world. As a junior member of an international spy ring of psychics, Raz must ferret out a mole and stop the group’s old nemesis, Maligula, from settling some scores.
The follow-up to one of the original Xbox’s most beloved titles is a masterpiece, arguably the greatest work yet produced by the game’s developer, Double Fine Productions.
— Christopher Byrd
— Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. When everything in “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart” — from the story to the characters to the game’s PlayStation 5-aided movement — just feels good, what’s not to love?
The game tells the story of a felinoid alien, Ratchet, and his diminutive robotic sidekick, Clank, as they’re sent spinning through an inter-dimensional crisis. Along the way, they encounter a range of impressively nuanced characters; even the supervillain, Dr. Nefarious, is surprisingly sympathetic (and progressive).
From start to finish, the game delivers a fresh, funny and wholesome package that’s enjoyable for both kids and adults.
— Mike Hume
— Sable. Imagine exploring a desert planet whose beauty soothes the spirit. That’s the promise of “Sable,” an adventure game about a woman who leaves her nomadic tribe to discover who she is and what surrounds her on the planet of Midden.
Zelda aficionados will recognize the ways “Sable’s” developers have iterated on the puzzle-exploration formula. “Sable’s” strongest asset is that it conveys a sense of the joy of travel itself.
— Christopher Byrd
Available on: PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, PC
— Valheim. Everyone who has played “Valheim” remembers their first troll. That first glimpse of the big, blue shape in the woods. The curious “Wait, what’s that?” slowly transitioning into a squinting “I think it’s moving toward me” and then faster and more frantically shifting gear to “Oh God, oh God, oh God” as the beast comes into focus.
“Valheim” is challenging and at times unintuitive — two unavoidable descriptors that, counterintuitively, work in its favor. Upon release, the game was just unwieldy enough to be compelling. “Valheim’s” spartan approach to tutorialization imbued its quirk-filled systems — from home building to animal husbandry — with a profound sense of achievement. Success in “Valheim” feels earned.
— Mikhail Klimentov
Available on: PC
— Wildermyth. “Wildermyth” is a storybook of infinite possibilities. Every time you start a new campaign, the turn-based strategy game procedurally generates a new cast of heroes, each with their own histories, tendencies, passions and flaws. How your band of misfits spend their precious time — all characters age, grow old and eventually retire (or die) — is up to you.
“Wildermyth” manages to tell unique stories that are emotionally affecting whether your characters are saving the world or making bad puns with each other. There’s nothing quite like it.
— Nathan Grayson
Available on: PC
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