With major studios slowed by the pandemic, indie video games from smaller publishers have taken the spotlight this year. luke_winkie writes on 2021's best offerings
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Devolver Digital, Turtle Rock Studios, Torn Banner Studios, Bethesda Software and Consumer Soft Products We kicked off 2021 expecting a dry year for video-game releases, finally giving us all the time to chip away at our backlogs. But it’s now December, and I, at least, am once again hopelessly behind.
Deathloop Arkane Studios has been trying to create its masterpiece for decades, and it almost pulled it off with Deathloop. We take control of a hit man adrift in a sumptuous burnt-orange pleasure palace — burnished with linty wallpaper, psychedelic chandeliers, and fluorescent dive bars — and quickly discover that we’re waking up on the same beach, on the same day, over and over again. To break the time loop, we’ll need to assassinate eight targets in a single 24-hour period.
Death’s Door You could make the argument that no game in the history of the hobby has been more influential than The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. So Death’s Door, with its quaint top-down perspective, shrewd puzzles, and chunky mêlée combat, is honoring a tiresome altar. But the two-person team at Acid Nerve revealed a cockeyed, Miyazaki-ish verve that caught me off guard from the jump. We are not controlling a Hero of Time or a Chosen Undead.
Halo Infinite It feels like everyone in the country is playing Halo Infinite right now, likely a result of Microsoft’s bold move to make the game’s multiplayer portion completely free for all comers. All of our favorite toys are right in place: You can puncture shields with the plasma pistol and switch to the battle rifle for a head shot, which is the exact combo I’ve relied on since roughly 2004.
Cruelty Squad Cruelty Squad is a living thing. No game this year, or maybe ever, cashes in on such a profoundly upsetting clarity of vision. Cruelty Squad is Rainbow Six left to fester for decades in the Joker vat. Its color palette is all puke yellow and critical-error red. The world is composed of apocalypse malls, blackened apartment complexes, and peyote-flecked suburban neighborhoods — all rendered through a septic, lo-fi veneer that brings to mind the ugliest PS One days.
Wildermyth Video games are not supposed to be capable of what Wildermyth accomplishes. The six-person team at Worldwalker Games wanted to adapt the ethereal, interpersonal magic of pen-and-paper RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons to code. You could argue that this has been the true north of the industry since the floppy-disk era — a litany of classics such as Might and Magic, Baldur’s Gate, and Ultima were birthed directly from 20-sided dice and grease-stained character sheets.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy $40 $60 now 33% off $40 Buy at Amazon Buy $40 at Amazon Buy @media screen and { .page-header .disclaimer-text_revenue, .section-header .disclaimer-text_revenue { display: block; } } @media screen and { .tertiary .disclaimer-text_revenue { display: block; } } Metroid Dread As the world turns, more people are coming around to a noble truth; Metroid was always better in 2-D than 3-D.
If you’ve never played a Mass Effect game, you owe it to yourself to see if Legendary Edition grabs you. This is a vast sci-fi epic that — like the best space stories — thrives in its quietest, personal moments. As more lost souls join the crew of the starship, you’ll find yourself looking forward to the interstitial phases of straight chilling that come between world-saving moments. Standing on the deck, suspended in the void, chopping it up about life, love, and death with one of your buddies.
It Takes Two $40 $40 Buy at Amazon Buy $40 at Amazon Buy @media screen and { .page-header .disclaimer-text_revenue, .section-header .disclaimer-text_revenue { display: block; } } @media screen and { .tertiary .disclaimer-text_revenue { display: block; } } Monster Hunter Rise There are two ways to play a Monster Hunter game.
All of this likely sounds super-abstruse, and it is. Loop Hero is absurdly meta: a video game about the experience of playing video games. But once you eclipse the learning curve, it has a sublime way of sinking into your skin. There’s an anxious thrill in pushing your hero to the limits — and a calamitous grief after it becomes clear that you’ve gone one step too far. The forces of evil overwhelm the only protagonist this haggard universe has ever known, and it’s all your fault.
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