2021 was a year unlike any other. If 2019 was the last of the Before Times, and 2020 was pure isolation, 2021 was a strange hybrid of trying to reincorporate into society, while still being cautious and safe. Social rules are still being updated on a daily basis. If it had any effect on the games I gravitated towards this year, maybe it's that having to make moral decisions and weigh risk on a daily basis means that I chose games that required logical thinking and creative solutions. In short, puzzle games took center stage.
If my favorite game of the year has to be pulled from those released in 2021, the weighty melancholy and emotional exploration in Life is Strange: True Colors would carry the day. But like I said, rules are constantly being updated, and if I truly want to showcase the game I loved this most this year, I have to pick one that was released in 2018.
Lamplight City takes place in 19th century America, but a parallel one, in which a lot of steampunk elements are present in everyday life. It's a classic point-and-click adventure style game, in which you play as Miles Fordham, a recovering alcoholic who wants to make good. When his partner is killed on a routine burglary call, he vows to find the killer, even as the voice of his dead partner haunts him (and serves as omniscient narrator). The graphical style is much like earlier games like Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, but with updated gameplay, like branching storylines based on your deductions and decisions. It was a thoroughly engrossing story, with terrific voice acting.
Also on the puzzle front, I've only just scratched the surface of Lost in Random, which appears to have been designed with me in mind, specifically. You play as a young girl on the trail of her missing sister, and the game incorporates story elements of powers based on randomness, like dice throws and card draws. I'm very much looking forward to playing more.
Though I explored plenty of new video games this year, when it came to tabletop, I stuck to the familiar. Dungeons & Dragons and the Arkham Horror card game remain stalwart favorites, with forays into the Pathfinder card game campaign as well.
For the rest of games I finished or am still playing (or at least tried out) during 2021, here's a list, in the order they made the biggest impact:
Mass Effect 2 (remastered)
Solasta
Procession to Calvary
Mass Effect 3 (remastered)
Mass Effect (remastered)
Fran Bow
The ABC Murders
Hercule Poirot's First Cases
Final Fantasy VII (remake)
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise
When the Past was Around
Newfound Courage
Whispers of a Machine
Avengers
Mother's Embrace
Baldur's Gate 3
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