The Best Video Games Of 2021 So Far

You might think Hitman 3 is a stealth game, or an action game, or a third-person shooter with delightfully wacky weaponry. You’d be wrong. Hitman 3 is actually a puzzle game—and a brilliant one, at that. Over the course of six wide-open, wanderlust-stoking levels, you’re tasked with taking out a target (or set of targets). From there, the game stops holding your hand. How you score each kill is up to you. Maybe you prefer the old-fashioned way: poison or a sharp blade. Maybe you prefer something fancier, like luring your marks into a grape press. Whatever the solution, cracking the puzzle is always a thrill. Better yet, those who own the first two games in the “World of Assassination” trilogy—2016’s Hitman and 2018’s Hitman 2—will get an extra kick out of it: You can import all of your purchased levels into Hitman 3. Yes, they look a whole lot prettier.

Playable On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch (via streaming), PC

Rough Average Playtime: 10.5 hours

Wildermyth is a love-letter to Table-Top Roleplaying games, but instead of filling itself with references to the genre, the team at Worldwalker Games has chosen to systematize it through a surprisingly deep tactical RPG that involves a light choice system and some of the best procedurally developed characters and stories we’ve seen. Wildermyth is not a game about moments though, it’s a game about how people’s lives shift over time—which is why its unique generational structure makes it so damn good. Seeing young heroes go out into the world, suffer tragedy and triumph alike, and then go on to develop relationships with one another and the next generation of heroes before retiring, is one of the best feelings in video games this year.

Playable On: PC

Rough Average Playtime: 56 hours

Kotaku has already deemed Halo Infinite one of the best shooters of the year. It’s also, and this should come as little surprise, one of the best overall games of the year—a terrific shooter, yes, but also an impressive evolution of form for one of gaming’s totemic series. In a first for Halo, the game features wide-open areas muttered with collectibles and optional objectives. But it also goes small by eschewing the lore-heavy exposition in favor of an intimate narrative focusing on the bonds between three characters. And that’s to say nothing of the multiplayer mode, which came out of nowhere three weeks ahead of the street date and has positively exploded in popularity since. (If you haven’t heard, it’s irresistibly entertaining.)

Playable On: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Rough Average Playtime: 16.5 hours (for the campaign)

We weren’t expecting much from Guardians of the Galaxy. And yet, weeks after release, it’s stuck in our brains like an earworm. It’s one of Zack’s favorite games of 2021, thanks in large part to its stellar writing and acting (and all the cool aliens and weird planets he got to visit). And while it is for sure inspired by the recent flicks in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy at times exceeds those films in scope and heart. So yeah, none of us expected much from this game when it first showed up at E3 this year. But now, after playing it, we’re hungry for more. Hopefully, we get some DLC or even a sequel in the not-too-distant future...

Playable On: PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Rough Average Playtime: 19.5 hours

You never see the main character of Unpacking, but that’s precisely what makes this cozy puzzle game such a brilliant exercise in narrative design. From an isometric perspective, you unpack the belongings of one woman over the course of several pivotal moves: childhood room, starter apartment, first significant other, et cetera. The “puzzle” aspect simply consists of finding space, in the broadly appropriate area, for the toys and clothes and tchotchkes she’s brought with her—or left behind—from place to place. Like a coloring book, Unpacking gives you the outline. It’s up to you to fill in the rest.

Playable On: PC, Switch, Xbox One

Rough Average Playtime: 4 hours

Unsighted is, depending on who you ask, an impeccably designed Zelda-like or the best metroidvania of the year. Either way, it’s a phenomenal game about community, disability, and finding meaning at the end of the world. The game is built around an anxiety-inducing time limit, which adds depth to the metroidvania genre’s signature backtracking and increases the narrative pressure in some really impressive ways. Couple all of this with a satisfying but simple combat system, and you have one of the best games of the year.

Playable On: PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One

Rough Average Playtime: 11.5 hours

Lost Judgment adds almost nothing to the tried-and-tested Yakuza formula, and you know what? It doesn’t have to. Not every game has to be about constant innovation and reinventing the wheel. Sometimes you just need to tuck in once a year with your favorite long-running soap opera, and that’s exactly the kind of guilty pleasure Lost Judgment affords. Only in this soap opera you’re smashing bikes over dude’s heads.

Playable On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Rough Average Playtime: 49.5 hours

Forza Horizon 5 does the one thing every good open-world game needs to do: It shows you the horizon, then gives you the tools, and the freedom, to go there. Rather than swords or guns, the tools in this case happen to be an impressive array of cars that effortlessly top 200 miles per hour. (Forza Horizon 5 features more than 500 uniquely functioning vehicles.) Set in a fictionalized pastiche of Mexico, Forza Horizon 5 is debatably the prettiest game on the market today—especially if you’re on a Series X or a high-end PC. But the selling point isn’t the eye-popping visuals or the sheer variability of racing events. It’s quite simply that this racing is nothing short of a blast at every turn.

Playable On: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Rough Average Playtime: 23.5 hours

Boyfriend Dungeon is a mix of two genres that don’t sound like they’d go well together: roguelike dungeon-crawling and visual-novel-style dating sim. In practice, the two gel seamlessly. Boyfriend Dungeon casts you as a newcomer to Verona Beach, a fictional but very California-looking town. In Verona Beach, some people can transform into weapons. You then team up with those people/weapons to work your way through progressively more difficult dungeons (“the dunj,” in game parlance) viewed from an isometric perspective. When you lose, you’re sent back to the start, though options to start runs at midway checkpoints reduce the potential for grind. The more often you team up with a person/weapon, the greater your bond will grow, which unlocks new powers and, at higher levels, lets you kiss them (on the lips). Boyfriend Dungeon is a thoroughly delightful game that’ll challenge your dexterity as much as it warms your heart.

Playable On: PC, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Rough Average Playtime: 8 hours

Psychonauts 2 isn’t just a really good platformer with some great-looking levels and fun combat. It’s also an emotional and moving piece of art that has a lot to say about how people change, how there’s a touch of darkness buried in all of us, and how there’s hope that no one is truly a lost cause, that even the most evil assholes might be worth saving. (Well, maybe.) It’s the kind of game we don’t get very often and it should be played ASAP, even if you only care about jumping and fighting. Because, as mentioned, that part of it is very good too.

Playable On: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Rough Average Playtime: 20 hours

Opus: Echo of Starsong is a roughly 10-hour game that feels like a 40-hour game, which is absolutely a compliment. Its lore and characters are so well-written that its world feels a lot larger than it really is. This cinematic space opera puzzle game will have you crying multiple times before you hit the final chapter. The audio-based puzzles are simple and intuitive, and they feel meditative instead of frustrating. The evocative soundtrack toes the line between gorgeous and haunting, too. If you routinely comb over Destiny wikis and you enjoy being emotionally punched in the diaphragm at least five different times, then Opus: Echo of Starsong is the game for you.

Playable On: PC

Rough Average Playtime: 7 hours

No More Heroes 3 is the latest trip from Goichi “Suda51" Suda, who directed, designed, and wrote the game. The folks at Grasshopper Manufacture inject every game they make with layer upon layer of symbolism, surrealism, and absurdity, and No More Heroes 3 is no different. Aliens have invaded Earth and it’s up to Travis Touchdown to demolish their hierarchy rank-by-rank in an exercise that’s part game, part life-or-death battle. Like previous games, No More Heroes 3 provides a steady barrage of chaotic ultra-violence punctuated with sophomoric, slapstick humor. No More Heroes 3 is bursting with all the creativity one would expect from a Grasshopper Manufacture project thanks to the passion the studio so obviously has for making games. And while not perfect on the technical front, tight combat and aesthetic flourishes make it one of the most engrossing and self-assured releases of the last decade.

Playable On: Switch

Rough Average Playtime: 15 hours

When Deck Nine revealed it would take over the Life is Strange series after Dontnod developed the first two mainline games, many fans were likely concerned whether the latest entry, Life is Strange: True Colors, would live up to the series’s legacy. Well, Life is Strange: True Colors might be the best in the series. It recaptures what its predecessors got right with a compelling story and characters, an excellent soundtrack, and a unique supernatural ability (basically, heightened empathy) that roots its gameplay. But it does each of these things better than the previous games while changing things up. Gone are the months-long waits for episodic releases and the cringe-filled dialogue now associated with the franchise. It’s a short game you can finish in 10 to 15 hours, making it easy to check out. And you definitely should, especially if you loved the first game but were lukewarm on the second.

Playable On: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Rough Average Playtime: 11 hours

Deathloop is a messy first-person shooter with a lot going on—too much perhaps. To say it’s flawed would be an understatement. To just say that it’s only great would be, too. Deathloop is a grindy affair that’s easy to lose your way in but, once you find your footing and overcome the limits of its time-loop concept, there’s no shortage of things to explore, uncover, and marvel at. Arkane’s latest immersive sim deploys stunning art direction and clever world-building, then lets you run amok in it with some weighty, top-notch guns and an even more thrilling array of physical maneuvers and paranormal powers. It’s not the best game out this year, but it is one of the most exhilarating. You’ll keep thinking about it long after you’ve put it down.

Playable On: PC, PS4, PS5

Rough Average Playtime: 17.5 hours

The best thing a roguelike can do is make you feel like a badass. Even when you die—and you will die, no question—Returnal drives home the notion that you could single-handedly take on an armada of malevolent glowing tentacle monsters. You probably just need to be a bit more careful next time. Returnal casts you as a wayward interstellar scout and drops you on a shape-shifting planet. Every time you die, you’re zipped back to the room you start in, all of your gear absent. Then, it’s back to the grind, a mixture of shooting, looting, jumping, dashing, and hook-shotting that feels so good you can’t help but kick off one more run, whether it’s 3:00 p.m. or a.m. And that’s to say nothing of the genuinely brain-tickling things it does with the fancy DualSense controller.

Playable On: PS5

Rough Average Playtime: 28 hours

At first glance, Scarlet Nexus looks a whole lot like it belongs in Bandai Namco’s long-running Tales series. To be sure, the art is similar. As are the overarching themes and even the music. But Scarlet Nexus is more fucked up than anything in the Tales series, thanks to a twist-packed plot full of rival nations and nightmarish mushroom monsters that love nothing more than a warm meal of human brains. And that plot unfolds across a dual storyline, each seen from the perspective of one of two equally compelling characters. In Scarlet Nexus, both plotlines are essential. Plus, the battle cocktail—a dizzying alchemy of hack-and-slash combat, real-time party commands, and thrilling psychokinetic abilities—is so potent that it remains a delight from start to finish.

Playable On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Rough Average Playtime: 31.5 hours

The puzzle game Maquette challenges your heart as much as your head. Set in a dreamlike, San Francisco-inspired realm nested between smaller and larger versions of itself, your goal is simply to pick things up and put them down, which is a whole lot more complicated than it sounds. Any changes you make in the “small” world affect the “big” world and the “normal” world, too, turning every puzzle into a multi-pronged spatial problem. Throughout, you’ll get a front-row seat to a narrated yarn about a couple (voiced by IRL couple Bryce Dallas Howard and Seth Gabel) during every stage of their relationship. Yes, Maquette is at its core a love story that strives to say a lot—about how easily a small spark can ignite a roiling romantic fire, how that fire can burn incandescently and nigh indefinitely, how it consumes all the oxygen in the room until, one day, that oxygen’s all used up and the fire goes out, leaving nothing but an unlit space, almost comforting in its cold grace—and succeeds in doing so. Killer soundtrack, too.

Playable On: PS4, PS5, PC

Rough Average Playtime: 4 hours

Resident Evil Village is amazing because it knows exactly what it is. Sure, “what it is” is a hectic, uneven rollercoaster ride involving werewolves, vampires, frankensteins, and (of course) stand-ins for the survival horror series’ requisite zombies, but Capcom leaned so earnestly into those tropes that it’s hard not to respect the chutzpah the devs showed in just Going For It.

It also helps that Resident Evil Village is just an all-around good video game. Ethan learned a thing or two about fighting off monsters since his trip to the swampy Baker homestead, making for an experience that imbues the effectively creepy atmosphere with the best aspects of the series’ action-heavy games. Even if the last few months hadn’t seen such a dearth of releases, we’re sure Resident Evil Village would still stand among the best we’ve seen. — Ian Walker

Playable On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Rough Average Playtime: 11 hours

An intentionally brutal mix of fleet strategy and arcade action, Highfleet is what happens when you cross Sid Meier’s Pirates! with the 1992 Dune adventure game. Which is a sentence you probably never thought you’d read, but then Highfleet is unlike any other game you’ve played, either. It’ll kick your ass, and annoy you, and frustrate you at every turn, but you’re being asked to pilot rusty old airships through a desert warzone. That’s just how it goes.

Playable On: PC

Rough Average Playtime: N/A

Cozy Grove is one of the most delightful games out there. It follows in the footsteps of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. Like the latter, the game operates in real time, changing as the day turns to night. Cozy Grove invites you to check in each day, but it’s much better about not overwhelming players. There are certain objectives you can do each day, but once that’s done, it’s easier to put the game down rather than sinking hours into it and burning yourself out. The objectives also give the game so much heart. You’re tasked with helping spirits on the island of Cozy Grove, getting to know each of their stories, failures, regrets, and successes. Even snippets of conversation are impactful, and the game keeps a funny wit about it without getting too heavy.

Playable On: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS (also via Apple Arcade)

Rough Average Playtime: 72.5 hours

Existing in the barely explored realms that lie between the visual novel, interactive fiction, and RPGs, Scarlet Hollow is a slow-burn horror adventure set in the backwoods of South Carolina. Arriving in town to attend an estranged aunt’s funeral, you slowly find yourself embroiled in a peculiar tale of suspicious locals, family rivalries, and unnerving nighttime creatures. What’s so impressive here isn’t just the stunning writing and meticulous illustration by comic creator Abby Howard, but the degree of variety on offer. How you experience so much of the story is based on the special skills you choose at the start—you might be extremely attractive or strong, “mystical” or able to talk to animals. Then there are all the dialogue choices you make, the way you behave to certain people, and decisions you make that determine if certain characters live or die. Two chapters are out now, from a total of seven that will release between now and 2023. Developers Black Tabby Games are showing Inkle (Sorcery!, Heaven’s Vault) levels of skill here, with a spooky story that’ll pull you deep in.

Playable On: PC

Rough Average Playtime: 2 hours

Would you believe that the co-op game It Takes Two is actually many, many different games in one? Well, it’s true. Sort of. See, what makes this co-op only adventure so much fun is the sheer amount of variety it tosses at you. One moment you’re fighting enemies with nails and hammers, the next you’re flying around a giant tree, then you’re flung into space. It’s a treat to play and, because you have to play with another person (the game doesn’t have a solo option), you get all the benefits of experiencing this wonderful game with someone else. You’ll have stories to tell and inside jokes for days after playing It Takes Two. Just try to ignore some of the uh…darker story moments. Like the part with a bear. *Shivers* That shit was fucked up.

Playable On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Rough Average Playtime: 13 hours

Bravely Default 2 is a turn-based RPG that corrals four plucky heroes into saving the world by collecting a bunch of crystals. In other words, yes, it’s made by Square Enix. The high-risk, high-reward battle system of prior entries returns. It’s built out by a Final Fantasy XII-esque job system with more than 20 jobs, each of which features different skills, perks, and weapon affinities, and gels differently across your party. As such, mixing and matching jobs and sub-jobs across characters is a brain-bending game unto itself, particularly for players who tend to obsess over the tiniest differentials in numbers. All told, it feels like a classic JRPG, made in 2021. What is old is new again, and it rules. There’s only one problem, and it’s likely only a problem for some: This game never freakin’ ends.

Playable On: Nintendo Switch

Rough Average Playtime: 67 hours

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart doesn’t exactly upend Ratchet & Clank fundamentals. But man, are those fundamentals in fine form. It is still, as ever, a rock-solid, light-hearted action platformer with razor-sharp wit. The series’ penchant for creative, out-of-the-box weapons hasn’t gone anywhere. (To wit: A gun that shoots a pair of murder fungus bots, or one that turns all of your foes into plants.) There’s now a rift mechanic, which allows you to zip across battlefields in a literal blink. But best of all, there’s a new character, Rivet, who expertly takes center stage from the timeless Lombax—and who serves as an easy onboarding for newcomers, a stand-in for those trying to quickly get up to speed on a long-running series.

Playable On: PS5

Rough Average Playtime: 15.5 hours

Who knew watching a little 8-bit-lookin’ sprite walk around in a circle could be such a thrill? There are a bunch of ways to describe Loop Hero because it borrows from a bunch of different genres, but in isolation none of those descriptors do it justice. It’s a turn-based RPG where you manage risk and reward, a roguelite where random chance breeds long-term success, and a deck-builder that lets you continually create new worlds—and then smash them into bits. It’s also much more than any of those things: a dread-filled, magic-fueled Rube Goldberg machine where strategic nudges and new discoveries unlock the potential to not just save the world but craft a better one.

Playable On: PC

Rough Average Playtime: 36 hours

Pokemon Unite is a toughie. The monetization, which allows players to buy item upgrades to improve gameplay, sucks. The level cap ensures it’s a temporary problem, but still, it’s there.

But hiding underneath that is a stellar tactics game that takes the most compelling aspects of a MOBA, streamlines them, and makes them fun. Gone are the long and messy matches common to the genre where you feel like you’re staring into the abyss. Teamwork is still crucial to getting the objective, but filling roles is actually awesome. Every Pokemon is compelling to play, so it’s easy to gain a new appreciation for underrated monsters like Eldegoss and Crustle. And TiMi Studio Group seems committed to treating this as a full service game, complete with weekly patches and hotfixes, along with regular additions like characters and cosmetics. Couple all of this with an extensive reward system that helps you unlock new fighters and embellishments, and you’re bound to find a new daily go-to with Discord pals.

Playable On: Nintendo Switch

Rough Average Playtime: Hahahaha

In Chicory: A Colorful Tale, you play as an adorable anthropomorphic dog who suddenly finds themselves shouldered with the responsibility of restoring color to a colorless world. Using a magic paintbrush that turns the world into your canvas, you can carefully color within the lines or (way more fun!) splatter the land with big, bold streaks and splotches. In response, the world comes alive. Plants and trees flourish, elevating you to new heights or flinging you to otherwise unreachable areas. Chicory is full of endearing characters to aid and quests to complete, but it’s also a game that revels in the act of creative play for its own sake. The narrative and gameplay mesh perfectly to create a game with surprisingly profound things to say about the subjectivity of art and beauty, and the bravery it takes to trust yourself enough to create something of your own and put it out into the world.

Playable On: PS4, PS5, PC

Rough Average Playtime: 13.5 hours

Acid Nerve’s minimalist riff on The Legend of Zelda creeps up on you. Death’s Door is slow, lonely, and a hundred shades of gray at first. But then its rich world and the subtle secrets hidden therein begin to unfurl like a carefully wound clock in the way only a small indie game crafted by fewer than a dozen people can. You play as a workaholic crow in a bureaucracy of grim reapers collecting the souls of creatures both big and small until you’ve built up enough of an arsenal to unlock one final door that will shed light on the truth about existence, mortality, and regret. Heavy stuff encased in a beautifully arcade-action wrapper that makes staring into the abyss fun. Lots of games try to do what Death’s Door does, but almost none of them do each individual part as well, or culminate in a maze that’s as rewarding to get lost in as it is to finally escape.

Playable On: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Rough Average Playtime: 10.5 hours