Blake Reno's 2021 Games of the Year: Games That Will Get You Through the Year

Blake Reno, Contributing Editor

I played MLB The Show 21 for 532 hours this year. The game came out in April. Saying baseball, particularly in the form of a video game in which you can collect cards of players surrounded by the mystique of the sport, is a comfort to me would be an understatement. 2021 was a weird year for everyone, not to mention it being a weird year for the gaming industry. I felt like this was one of the weakest years for new releases in a long time, no thanks to the numerous delays. Of course, I would rather a game be delayed than released in an unfinished state, particularly with the current working conditions in the industry. With that said, there were a few games that had enough pull to disrupt my desire to constantly play a baseball video game.

So instead of writing a “Top 5” list for 2021, I want to present five games that had stories that absolutely made me feel things despite my baseball-induced apathy. I’m presenting these games without ranking and in no particular order, because I’m of the opinion that it is difficult to comparatively evaluate story in a medium like video games. So much is in play, between the writing, visuals, dialogue, voice acting, audio design, etc. that there’s simply no reasonable way for me to rank the stories.

Before I begin, I’d like to note two “honorable mentions”. First, Ikenfell, which will be getting its own write-up in the near future. Second, What Remains of Edith Finch. Edith Finch would have made the list, but our own Christian Haines has already written about it.

Psychonauts 2

If I had to pick my favorite game that I played this year, it would be Psychonauts 2. Ironically, in a year with so many delays, a game myself and many other people never thought would happen was finally released. It was absolutely worth the wait. What was so brilliant about it is not only how it deals with mental illness, but how well those matters are incorporated into the gameplay and storytelling. The game is about going into individuals’ brains and solving their anxieties. I particularly want to note the Bob’s Bottles level and how seamlessly every aspect of the level treats alcholism. The level begins on islands, demonstrating Bob’s isolation, and the player sails to different islands, entering into bottles, which take the player on a tour of Bob’s life and how the neglect he felt as a child and his fear of losing the love of his life forces him to isolate himself via alcohol in order to feel a sense of familiarity and safety.

Every level of Psychonauts 2 shows an uncompromising level of care and depth. Seeing redemptive stories in which accomplished people suffer, despite their successes, helped convince me that where I was this year was okay. Everyone suffers in their own way. It’s still possible to come out on the other end okay: the key is finding the language to do so and talking about it.
 

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

A playable, cinematic experience of psychosis, Hellblade is part puzzle game, part action game. It pulls off both tremendously without losing sight of mental health concerns. The puzzles have you looking for symbols formed from the environment, such as a rune that can be seen in the intersection of two trees when looked at from a particular angle. The combat is, in gameplay terms, somewhat weak, but it was still the most interesting part of the game to me. The combat is heavy. While that doesn’t lend itself to the enjoyment of say, a Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, the heft of Hellblade’s combat is thematically compelling. Playing as Senua, you are fighting the demons of her past, which gives credence to why the combat should feel heavy. There are moments where you are surrounded and you truly feel helpless as waves and waves of enemies crash over you. If that’s not enough, the game’s audio design, which features the voices that haunt Senua add another layer to the game’s incredible representation of psychosis. There is no experience in gaming quite like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.
 

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

If Ori and the Blind Forest hadn’t already proved it, Will of the Wisps offers indisputable proof that Moon Studios is the Pixar of gaming. Featuring a villain that exists because of how their disability was treated by their peers and a cast of characters whose animations make them brim with life, Ori is about just how powerful friendship can be. Certainly, there are ecological readings of Ori to be done, but Ori’s story is a raw look at not only the power of friendship but the sacrifice and sadness that comes with our deepest need to care about others.

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered

This was my first time playing Final Fantasy VIII. I was aware that this game’s story was particularly big on the relationship between Rinoa and Squall, so I was expecting a ham-fisted and unnecessary love story that drags down the rest of the game. What I got instead was one of the least overwrought love stories I’ve seen in a game. It never felt forced and it never swallowed up the whole story. Instead, it built over the course of the story so that some of the game’s final acts crescendo into a recognition of this love’s deepening. Rinoa and Squall’s relationship grows with the game’s story instead of the game’s story being 30 hours of “will they or won’t they?”

In addition, I wasn’t ready for the brilliance of Squall’s relationship with his rival/friend Seifer. Their stories are reflective of one another; they share mirrored facial scars given to each other in a duel and are almost too similar. Seifer is an antagonist for most of the game, but Squall doesn’t bother trying to convince him to give up his cause because Squall knows how similar he is. Squall is accepting of Seifer’s reasoning for his cause, and the two have a type of love that is just as powerful as that between Rinoa and Squall by the end of the game. Squall isn’t trying to defeat the sorceress Seifer serves just to save the world but also to save his friend.

Haven

Haven is such a unique game. It’s part survival, part RPG, part dating simulator (where you play both characters), and part adventure game. The story of Kay and Yu is that they escaped from their home, the details of which are filled in as you play the game. Your initial goal is to rebuild your ruined ship, but eventually things get more complicated.

Haven is the inspiration for this list. Kay and Yu are incredible characters. I’ve never seen such humanity in video game characters. They act, joke, laugh, bicker, poke fun, and flirt like actual human beings.

The game’s exploration also gives an unbridled feeling of freedom: you essentially have jet boots and can jet everywhere and jump off cliffs, while trying to clean up the rust that pollutes the islets of Source. But it’s how Kay and Yu are constantly doing things like critiquing each other’s jumps off of cliffs or holding hands while floating through Source that demonstrate how it’s their relationship combined with the game’s feeling of freedom that makes Haven such a remarkable experience. Life in Haven really does feel like you’re living a life removed from the issues that plague your home planet. What’s more, the game has an absolutely remarkable soundtrack (and this is coming from someone that does not listen to electronic music). I didn’t realize just how incredible Haven was until the game informed me that I was entering the point of no return; it was in that moment that I was overcome with a great deal of sorrow that these were the last moments I’d get to spend with Kay and Yu, and how much I was going to miss them once the game was over. Spoiler alert: I still think about them quite a bit.