What games did you complete in 2021?

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (SNES Remake)　＝　
Good start of one of my favorite series. Becomes somewhat tedious about halfway through, but some of the ideas (like a floating city that can move between dungeons to save time) were pretty nice.

Sabotain: Break the Rules　＝　
Cyberpunk 2077: Rusjank Edition. Mediocre, but cyberpunk/rusjank enthusiasts will have some fun with it.

Project IGI　＝　
Nice shooter that manages to be tense as hell due to lack of mid-mission saves. Unfortunately the game loves to throw you into bullshit situations and respawn enemies from time to time, ruining your plans.

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II (SNES Remake)　＝　
A massive improvement over the first game and probably my new favorite in the entire franchise.

The Quiet Man　＝　
So bad it's entertaining.

Starfire　＝　
Decent, but suffers from simplistic combat and a bullshit difficulty spike about 1/4 through the game, which can botch your entire playthrough.

Adios　＝　
Nice story-focused adventure that lasts about an hour and a half.

Fairune　＝　
Good homage to Hydlide with simple, but elegant design.

SaGa Frontier　＝　
Good game, good remaster. Makes me wish more devs explored the Free Scenario System.

RAGE　＝　
Good ideas, bland execution.

Mirrors　＝　
Not a big fan of visual novels, but this one was very good. The atmosphere is top notch, and I recommend playing through it at least once.

Tokyo Xanadu　＝　
Fun Action RPG and a good time waster. Initially looks like it borrows a few beats from Persona, but at least it didn't borrow emo shit. The card minigame is surprisingly addictive.

Ryu ga Gotoku Zero　＝　
A good brawler and a nice introduction to the Yakuza series.

Xanadu Next　＝　
Short but sweet hack'n'slash with a few neat ideas and nice music. Pacing is a bit uneven and you'll have to grind a lot, but it manages to not overstay its welcome and remain fun until the end.

Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure　＝　
Expected a 'so bad it's good' FMV game, got a decent adventure with a few schlocky sequences that reminded me of cheap horror games. Still managed to be fun and funny quite often.

Ryu ga Gotoku Kiwami　＝　
See Ryu ga Gotoku Zero.

The Last Remnant　＝　
Pure comfort food with fun combat. Don't listen to crybabies about the level scaling, you'll be fine as long as you challenge enemies of your level or stronger.

.hack//G.U. Last Recode　＝　
Good time waster with cringy story and delivery that gets pretty good starting with the second volume. Unfortunately, it's piss easy.

.hack　＝　
Superior to the sequel in many ways, but suffers from clunky combat and sometimes bullshit amounts of grind. Bosses battles are surprisingly good in terms of difficulty and feeling like you're fighting the unknown.

Virtua Cop 2　＝　
Bigger and more bombastic than the original, pure mindless fun.

Sudeki　＝　
Western take on JRPGs that doesn't overstay it's welcome. Manages to mix third-person hack'n'slash combat and first-person shooting in a good way.

Giga Wrecker　＝　
Very good puzzle-platformer, but the last hub almost made me drop it, and physics sometimes feel too wonky for this type of game.

Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz　＝　
Fun detective VN. I went in expecting an entertaining shitshow, but ended up with a decent adventure.

EDIT: expanded my post

 

[karoliner]

Fallout 4
Complete disaster.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World
Extremely faithful to the original genesis game.

Wasteland 3
Turned out very good. Writing is bad some times but it mostly works.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water
Way too repetitive and not scary at all. Ghost marriage this, ghost marriage that. Black water this, black water that. But it has Hasshaku-sama so is not all bad.

Fuga: Melodies of Steel
It's a well done game and very cute but the gameplay and story are very simple. It takes place in the same world as Tail Concerto and Solatorobo. Don't play it if you hate furries.

Persona 5
Sometimes it is a and others times a
At its core there is a great game but it needed a editor to cut out all the extraneous text and bullshit. These fucking characters will simply not shut up. I specially dislike Futaba, i'm 95% sure she has autism or aspergers. Plus some really antiquated game design. Oh well i can't truly hate a game that lets you beat up Char Aznable and Senator Armstrong.

Shin Megami Tensei V
Despite its flaws i think this is the highlight of the year and the game i recomend the most. It somewhat has the opposite problem of Persona 5. There is no story or characters you have one short cutscene and then hours of grinding before the plot advances a little.

 

[Butter]

Deus Ex -
Replayed with GMDX mod. Every time I play this I find new things. It's a shame developers haven't really learned from this game in 20 years.


Age of Decadence -
Assassins Guild playthrough. Probably my most completionist playthrough to date, and there are still secrets I haven't uncovered.


Dungeon Rats -
Did a solo run. It's fun out-levelling the enemies, and you never worry about rations.


Fallout -
Have you guys heard of this game? It's pretty good.


Fallout: New Vegas -
It's 5/5 with mods, but they really pushed the limits of what you can do with Bethesda jank.


Sleeping Dogs -
This is probably the best GTA-like of the past 15 years. The gameplay is what you'd expect, but the focus on martial arts combat is cool and the setting looks really good.


Knights of the Chalice -
Lacking in race and class options, but the combat is so good it makes up for it. It also has better aesthetics than pretty much every other indie RPG.


Suzerain -
Pretty fun VN. There's clearly some good replayability in here, but I have to take a break from it because the early game plays out essentially the exact same every time.


DOOM -
Great level/weapon/enemy design, but the lack of proper 3D holds it back.


The Dark Heart of Uukrul -
Best game I played this year. Fantastic level design, puzzles, atmosphere, UI, and magic system. It's kind of long, but it stays varied throughout.


Quake -
Design-wise it's a little worse than DOOM, but it's got proper 3D and NIN music.


Curse of the Azure Bonds -
This is an improvement from Pool of Radiance in every way. UI, encounter design, more classes/dual-classing, QoL, shorter and filler-free.

 

[Mark Richard]

Decided just to stick with a summary. Honourable mention to Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The finish line is in sight, but those side quests were like a siren's call.

Suzerain – Making a return from last year's thread, a steady stream of updates has improved upon what was already a highly replayable and well-written political CYOA.

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition – Between GTA and Saint's Row sits this spiritual successor to the True Crime series. With a cracking story about an undercover cop struggling to hold onto his sense of self, and a robust hand-to-hand combat system peppered with environmental executions, Sleeping Dogs may be one of the last big budget open world titles worth playing. It came out in 2012 to narrowly avoid the industry's micro-transaction blitzkrieg and restrictive cultural decrees that have since double-killed AAA gaming.

Fantasy General II + DLCs – Turn-based strategy with persistent units that carry experience and equipment across maps. Consider this a treat for the Fantasy Wars fan who doesn't want to be blinded by abusive bloom effects. The vanilla campaign is excellent, but the DLCs 'Empire Aflame' and 'Evolution' are a mixed bag. Empire Aflame wears out it's welcome with an exhaustive campaign cobbled together from existing assets, while Evolution adds sorely needed new units and environments.

Terminator: Resistance – Fits neatly into a special category of games so sublime in their presentation (Warhammer: Mechanicus, Witcher 3) that they elevate the otherwise mundane gameplay. The crisp sounds of plasma fire, recreations of future war sets, and renditions of iconic music all tie together to form the most faithful adaption of the franchise since Terminator 2.

Butcher – A brutal 2D shooter with short levels and extreme lethality. It's a decent palate cleanser, but victory requires the reflexes of Bruce Lee on an all-night cocaine binge.

 

[curds]

In roughly chronological order:

Planescape: Torment. Replay. Not much to say about this game that hasn't already been said on this site. 9/10.

Half-Life: Opposing Force. Replay. The better of the two HL1 expansions, I like OpFor as much as the base game. Very short, about three hours in length. 7/10.

Demon's Souls, completed for the first time after a couple of dropped playthroughs in 2020. Very good game, but DS1 improves upon it in every way. 8/10.

Dark Souls. Replay. Beat it once on PS3 and twice on PC. Perfected the formula of Demon's Souls, and is the closest to a flawless game that I've played. Game mechanics, level design, presentation of the story, art direction, and music are all superb. 9.5/10.

Arx Fatalis, completed it for the first time. Excellent, atmospheric dungeon crawler with great exploration and interesting story and quests. 8/10.

The Witcher. Completed for the first time. Starts very slow, which put a stop to my previous playthroughs, but I pressed onward this time and was rewarded with the discovery of one of my new favourite RPGs. It's up there among PST and Gothic II for me. 9/10.

The Witcher 2. Completed for the first time. A huge leap from TW1 in terms of technical advancements and presentation, but I enjoyed the lower-key tone of the first game more. RPG elements and alchemy are sadly simplified, too. Still, I enjoyed this immensely, enough to complete it in two 12-hour sittings. Also has some of the coolest looking armours of any RPG. 8/10.

Dark Souls II. Replay. Dark Souls 1 but with more stats, more weapons, more spells, and just much more variety. Sadly the variety comes at the cost of some of the coherence that really elevated the first game. DS2 is still an amazing action RPG, however. 8.5/10.

Dark Souls III. First time completing this. Decent game, but manages to both lack the width and variety of DS2 and the atmosphere, coherence and "makes-senseness" of DS1's world. Mechanics were streamlined from previous entries but I think it works in the game's favour in this case. Has some excellent level design. 7.5/10.

Pretty sure that's all I completed this year, but will update if I remember anything else.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

SNES remakes from Kyuuyaku or Famicom untranslated originals?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

SNES remakes from Kyuuyaku or Famicom untranslated originals?

Should've specified that I'm talking about the SNES remakes. Famicom originals do have translations now btw.

 

[Ryzer]

Completed:
World of Xeen :
Somewhat fun if you skip the FedEx quests(And there are a lot) and resolve enigmas in towns and dungeons. The combat system is fun.

Dying light -:
Level design is good, and the game relies on movement, which is nice. However, combat system is crap, quests are fetch and Main story is bad

Theme Park :
The original, I had some fun with. It gets repetitive and tiresome.

Dropped:
Dragon age Origins -:
Boring story, boring main quest, MMO-style combat system, obnoxious trash encounters, uninspired main plot, poor consequences of choices. Typical Bioware game.

Not completed :
Gothic 2 NOTR ++ :
Extreme attention to detail and NPC interactions. The world is lively, NPCs react to your behavior and choices. Such a shame, it has such a terrible combat system with atrocious tank controls. The story is shit though. It's a much better game than Morrowind, for sure.
(I will probably rate it higher with time. The beginning is frustrating)

Elex + :
Good game if you can endure the jank

 

[Humanophage]

I generally don't care if I finish games or just play a lot of them. It's often a bother to return to a game after you haven't been playing it for a while.

Finished:
Disco Elysium ...................................... 8.2 Solid writing, memorable characters, not too pushy about ideology, refreshing setting. Will play again since I played the pre-EE version. Had a good "traditionalist" run.
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante ....... 7.4 Archetypal CYOA, more straightforward than Suzerain. Essentially, medieval Alter Ego.
Suzerain .............................................. 7.8 An original mix of CYOA and strategy, being a "political simulator". Fairly diverse outcomes. Oddly memorable.

Played a lot:
Imperator: Rome .................................. 7.9 Completed a few runs. I somewhat liked the POP system, which is something Paradox games desperately need. Clunky interface though. Played it as I listened to Herodotus' Histories (separately).
Civilization 4 ......................................... 8.6 My default go-to game.
Football: Tactics and Glory ..................... 7.5 Looks like a mobile game, but it's actually good tactics, and it's more challenging than Football Manager 2019 (which has too many superfluous elements that artificially extend playtime, yet the gameplay is exploitable).
Conquest of Elysium 5 ........................... 7.6 I like it a bit better than Dominions. Good at connecting strategic gameplay with emergent narratives.
Thea 2 ................................................. 8.4 Quite deep with good replayability. Here's what I think in a mini-review. I actually came to like it a bit more than the first game.
ELEX .................................................... 8.3 An excellent heir to Gothic/Risen. Splendid exploration. As always with Gothic, gets a bit unexciting towards the end, so I dropped it for a while and have not yet returned.
Tyranny ................................................ 6.2 Pretty boring, and the combat gets too easy but also finicky towards the end.
The Last Spell ....................................... 6.8 Fun little tactics game. Near-perfect interface.
Dungeon Rats ....................................... 7.6 Needs to be a lot more diverse with the builds, but great core gameplay.
Crusader Kings 2 ................................... 8.2 Currently playing as Wallachia. It's atmospheric, although it really needs to be a lot more complex when it comes to population.

 

[Grotesque]

Diablo 2
A good game for it's time but visibly outdated even to a casual arpg player.

you managed in the mast minute, to steal the award of the dumbest statement of the year.

CONGRATS!

 

[Zanzoken]

Games I finished for the first time

Gothic
Rating:
Summary: Loved the melee combat, world design, and character progression. Somewhat lackluster in terms of story, characters, and pacing (especially toward the end). But for its age, to play as well as it does in current year even to first-time players like me, is truly inspiring. I think it's earned its place as an all-time classic action RPG.


Games I replayed

Bastion
Rating:
Summary: Casual action game with beautiful graphics, fun hack-n-slash gameplay, and kind of an interesting story. Short (only about 6 to 8 hours) so it doesn't overstay its welcome.


Games I spent significant time with but didn't finish

Gothic II
Rating: tbd
Summary: Initial playthrough stalled out because I didn't like the expansion difficulty and content, but currently giving it another try with just the base game, no NOTR.

Doorkickers
Rating:
Summary: Decent tacticool game, kind of like a top-down version of the old Rainbow Six franchise, but I got stuck on one of the levels and couldn't progress.

Outward
Rating:
Summary: Interesting survival RPG with some innovative systems, but fails to anchor you in the world with a strong sense of goals / purpose, and greatly overburdens you with tedium and grind.

No Man's Sky
Rating:
Summary: Very nice presentation and effectively designed systems, but its downfall is an utter lack of unique and interesting content.

Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus
Rating:
Summary: Another tacticool which benefits from deep 40k lore, but the gameplay is too easy and soon gets repetitive.

Wasteland 3
Rating:
Summary: The gameplay is okay, but I despise how Wasteland's identity is based around being a caricature of serious post-apoc settings like Fallout.

The Outer Worlds
Rating:
Summary: Obsidian's attempt to clone Fallout 4 i.e. an FPS pretending to be an RPG. Boring and uninspired in all regards.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Hmm. I'm bad at tracking my played games, especially when it comes to year played, so I'm sure I'm going to include a few from 2020 here as well as forget a few. Just listing games I completed for the first time. Will add more if I think of any. There are many, many others that I dropped part-way through, or completed for the umpteenth time.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker /10: This was my third playthrough, but the previous two times I stalled out around Pitax. There's not much to say here other than that, up until Pitax, the game is an unqualified masterpiece. I didn't hate House at the Edge of Time as much as I expected to from its reputation, but Chapter 7 was truly excruciating and hands-down the worst section of the game. It's a real shame it limps across the finish line, but even so the strength of the first 3/4s puts it solidly in my Top 10 RPGs of all time.

Assassin's Creed Origins /10: Weird to see this show up in so many poster's lists this year. There's not much to say here either; it's an aggressively stupid game in terms of design philosophy and systems, but I really enjoyed it due to its setting and likeable protagonist. Desert settings are my number 1 favorite in vidyagames, and there are relatively few games out there that use them. Absolutely agree with others that it overstays its welcome, especially considering the DLCs (although the Egyptian afterlife one had some cool environmental art).

Rise of the Tomb Raider /10: This was my second time trying to play through this after moderately enjoying its predecessor. I don't know why I forced myself to complete it. I hated it. A lot. One of the dumbest games I've ever played, with one of the most unlikeable protagonists, and completely irredeemable QTE heavy "gameplay". Would have been my most hated gaming experience of 2021 were it not for:

Bioshock Infinite/10: One of the worst games I've ever played to completion. The fact that I completed it and its DLCs makes me think I should maybe take myself to a neurologist to test for serious brain damage. Just fucking horrible. One troll for generally competent environmental art (although this unfortunately also has the effect of drawing attention to the atrocious character models).

Resident Evil 4 /10: I made a thread about this where I was mostly mocked and called a retard, but I didn't think this game was very good. The castle section was largely excellent, and if the entire game had been on par with it I would probably give it an 8/10, but unfortunately the village and the island were a boring slog that I had to force myself to play through. All in all not a terrible game, but certainly overrated.

Resident Evil HD Remake /10: I liked it a lot. I'm a big fan of PnC adventure games and games with soft-fail states, both of which this has elements of. The last third is unfortunately quite a bit weaker than the first two, the story is nonsense, inventory system is bullshit, and the combat mechanics leave quite a bit to be desired, but the atmosphere is top-notch, art is good, and the puzzles are terrific. Look forward to replaying this one in a couple years.

Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition /10: Another game that it's weird to see on so many peoples’ lists. Very definition of good-for-what-it-is AAA game. Part of my positive opinion is likely due to the fact that I got it for literally $3, but still. Story is a well-done pastiche of John Woo flicks, Hong-Kong looks great, and the game is mercifully free of the shitty mini-game bloat that has infected GTA-clones in recent years. A very pleasant surprise.

Jedi: Fallen Order /10: I grew up on the SW OT and the EU of the 90s. This game is objectively not the greatest, but damn does it nail the vibe of the pre-prequels pretty much perfectly. If you have nostalgia for a time when Star Wars was thematically mystical and aspirational I recommend it. If not, skip.

Psychonauts 2 /10: A competent, if unspectacular, sequel. I expected it to turn out much worse. Not as good or as humorous as the original (and much darker overall), but a decent "more of the same" follow-up.

Metroid: Dread /10: A way better 2d Metroid game than I ever would have thought we would get in 2021. It's not flawless, and nowhere near as excellent as Hollow Knight, but it's very good. If you have a Switch then this is a no-brainer purchase.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I only finished one game in 2021 and it took me like over a year when I started it in 2019.

it was Divinity original sin 2 - I imagine it gets shit on at the Codex but the numerous ways you could solve quests was pretty cool. Dialog and story was shit and I could barely pay attention to it but I still liked it because of all the creative ways to do things.

wasteland 3- it was kind of okay still seemed lack luster and I gave up after 40 hours when I had the choice to kill someone or let them live and when I decided to let them live they killed themselves anyways. Some things never change in RPGs. Anyways the special soundtracks during some fights was cool.

prey - felt a bit like System Shock 2 which is cool but still gave me a hint of an ass taste and I dropped after 9 hours.

deus ex: mankind divided - like human revolution I tried to love this game in my ever ending chase of that dragon after loving the original Deus Ex but it’s meh. It’s like it wants you to sneak but then when you fail that you realize it’s much easier to just shoot people. The hacking mini game can go fuck itself and die, it still takes the immersion out of any game. I quit at the last boss fight when I realized my chase for fun wasn’t coming.

disco Elysium - lol give me a break. If you want a story game sure I guess but it’s super fucking linear and you don’t have a lot of choice I feel like. I know all the kids love it but when my special option in having a unique story is I notice something like a flower pedal drifting in front of me where I had to roll to unlock that I just roll my eyes. Every play through might be unique but only in the same way you are on a roller coaster and and you change how many fingers you have in your asshole when you ride.

I also tried replaying Vampire Bloodlines but felt like nostalgia was having too big a roll and I didn’t want to smoke that.

 

[toro]

Arx Fatalis
Deus Ex: HR
Deus Ex: MD
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Gothic 3
Loop Hero
Lacuna
Ruiner
The Ascent
Encased
Death's Door
Crying Suns
Guardians of the Galaxy

 

[octavius]

Playing chronologically 2021 was a slow year for me; I went from June 2001 to October 2001.
I think there may be a thing like "the seven year itch" for CRPGs, for I felt compelled to re-replay some of my old favourites.
I also spent lots of time on Age of Wonders user-made maps. I played quite a bit of AoW some about 15 years, but can't recall there was that many good maps.
In the end the only "new" (to me) AAA game I completed was Arcanum.

Dungeon Master (replay; still great)
Might and Magic 2 (ditto)
The Earth Lords (very obscure, but surprisingly good indie CRPG)
OpenXcom (replayed on highest difficulty and playing Ironman, but I had to cheat a bit with save files)
Arcanum (good game despite atrocious combat system and encounter design)
Phantasie 1-3 (using an ST emulator it was a bit of a rough ride thanks to too many bugs)

Lots of great user-made content for Age of Wonders (my most played game in 2021), HoMM 3 and Thief 1-2.

I didn't make much progress on my chronological play list this year. I wonder how far I would have progressed by now if I didn't replay old favourites and if I ignored user-made content?

 

[MaskedMan]

Completed for the first time:
- A Plague Tale - Innocence - : Kind of ok, I like the setting. Linear as hell and I'm not a fan of unnecessary crafting systems. Nice graphics and art direction though.
- Astro's Playroom - : Better than I expected, maximum nostalgia bait and I like all the REFERENCES. Good showcase for what games for the PS5 would be capable of if they actually bothered making them.
- Control - : I really like Remedy games and this was better than the last couple ones. Enjoyed exploring the Bureau and actual enemy variety. Didn't bother doing much of the grindy expeditions stuff. I look forward to Alan Wake 2 now.
- Judgment - : Played this before any of the other Dragon engine games, so it was all new to me despite being a spin-off. Might have given me a more favorable impression than it would otherwise, because there is a lot of reused stuff from the older games here. Yagami and pals are great and I hope the series doesn't get killed because of the PC port troubles.
- Kami no Rhapsody - : Eushully game with no rape. But is it an RPG?
- Muramasa Rebirth - : Beautiful game with too much padding, having to finish all the bosses with both the characters in the main game for all the endings is one thing, but having to basically play through the whole game again with each of the DLC characters is bullshit, so I only did the cat DLC. The tanuki boss sure is something though...

Spoiler

- Rayman Legends - : Great game, wonderful music and art direction. Love the local co op. Second player actually helps out, unlike in some other platformers, but the highlight of the game is still seeing who gets first out of the gate on the running levels, cause whoever is last is absolutely fucked.
- Resident Evil VIllage - : I expected a bit more after Resident Evil 7.
- Resident Evil Revelations - : I like the cruise ship setting, feels a bit more like an older RE game. Annoyed that the Switch eShop page for this had trailers for both of the Revelations games which led me to believe that it had split screen co op like Revelations 2.
- Resident Evil Revelations 2 - : Fun split screen co op, at least if you're player 1 and get to laugh at player 2 playing a set of totally fucking useless characters whose abilities are limited to waving a flashlight around and ...pointing at the enemies. Switch version has atrocious loading times. Raid mode is an excellent pick up and play time waster.
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider - : It's a nuTomb Raider., but more streamlined than the previous two. Don't really remember much about this one.
- STAR WARS Jedi - Fallen Order - : Nice to play a Star Wars game again. The copy pasted Souls elements are kind of pointless. Got some mileage out of this cause I compulsively have to run through the entire fucking game every time I get a new ability to see if I have unlocked any new areas.
- Starless: Nymphomaniac's Paradise - : Too much poop. Sometimes restoring cut content is a bad idea. Not much of a game here.
- The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope - : Good for a playthrough in "pass the controller" mode, but worse than the previous one. Short and in no way worth the asking price. I wish they would make a full "game" like Until Dawn again.
- The Song of Saya - : Interesting premise, fairly short and linear story without too many routes.
- The Surge 2 -: Better combat than the first one but the game world didn't feel as cohesive and the story was kind of crap. Tons of useless armor and weapons.
- Trample on Schatten!! - : Meh. Persona VN porn rip-off without any of the actual gameplay.
- Yakuza 0 - : Like a "best of Yakuza", sets up a lot of stuff for the sequels without feeling too forced. It does feel a little weird when mechanics from this one, like all the different fighting styles, are missing in the later games.
- Yakuza Kiwami : Good but a little short for a Yakuza game?
- Yakuza Kiwami 2 - : I kind of prefer the Dragon engine so I really enjoyed this. Playing Yakuza 3 right now and I see some stuff that has been lost along the way, so I might end up with a different opinion.
- Yakuza Like A Dragon - : Great transition to turn based combat and a likeable new main character. A little too much fanservice with the old characters, but it stands on its own legs well enough. Got too easy towards the end. And then it got too hard.

Replayed:
- Bloodborne - : Continued a playthrough I rage quit in 2017 on a chalice dungeon boss, got the last ending I needed and all the trophies. Might be my favorite souls game cause I love the city and the faster gameplay, and I'm lazy and don't like making build choices so the lack of build variety doesn't really bother me. Still triggered by the door you can't unlock.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Mass Effect, Legendary Edition. If you like Mass Effect, it's the same exact game except with better graphics and much better combat. The Citadel is just as great as I remembered it and remains one of my favorite zones in any video game.

I'm pretty bad at completing games, I always get near the end and stop playing because I don't want it to end. I also play a lot of games that don't really have an ending like Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress so, I guess they don't go on the list.

Games I played but didn't finish because I didn't like them:
WotR
Vagrus
Dysmantle
MGSV
FFXIV

Games I played but didn't finish/don't really have an ending and I really liked:
Star Wars Galaxies
Rimworld
Project Gorgon
Guild Wars
Exoplanet First Contact(Early access)
Divine Divinity(Replaying, not finished yet.)
Secret World, started not too long ago, actually really good.
Endless Space 2
Buck Rogers Matrix Cubed

probably other stuff I forgot

 

[Twiglard]

Horizon Zero Dawn : an innovative action-adventure game. The sequel is going to be terminally woke, but this one has tolerable levels of liberal mind-poison. Great main quest writing, mediocre side quests and world lore (except for what happened before the Big One). A unique combat system, at least I haven't before played a game where shooting off parts of any non-boss enemy had a consequence beyond hit point loss.

Highfleet : a real fucking classic. Don't be fooled by the side-scrolling presentation for the shooting parts of the game. Borrows heavily from flight sims, particularly Falcon 4.0. Great art and sound direction. Good writing and unusual setting.

Ride 4: didn't finish. A simcade motorbike racing game. Decent tire physics. Mostly bad AI, but none of the rubberband crap. Constantly jumping between motorbike classes and sizes. There's no good controller for the genre (due to leaning being part of going into turns on sport bikes), and for that reason everyone is nearly forced to play in third person. The game looks AMAZING in first person though.

Underrail : for the first time finished on Dom.

Cyberpunk : badly dumbed down, but there are still distinctive remains of a good game screaming to get out. Also, good writing and architecture.

 

[Malamert]

Not as many as last year, unfortunately, but in my defense, some of these games were a lot longer and jam packed with content. Even replayed a few on NG+ to experience their extra content.

Brigador
Avencast: Rise of the Mage
Kingdom: Classic
Hero of the Kingdom
Eschalon Book 1
Eschalon Book 2
Eschalon Book 3
Full Throttle Remastered
Lords of Xulima
Dungeons of Dredmor
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Mary Skelter Nightmares
Mary Skelter 2
Mary Skelter Nightmares Switch Remake
Death end re;Quest
Death end re;Quest 2
Dragon Star Varnir
CRYSTAR
Resonance of Fate
Shining Resonance Refrain
Panty Party
Zanki Zero: Last Beginning
Sorcery Saga Curse of the Great Curry God
Xanadu Next
Mary Skelter Finale
Tokyo Xanadu eX+
Trials of Mana
Secret of Mana
Legend of Mana
Children of Mana

 

[Gamezor]

Man, you guys sure manage to play a lot of games. I may be missing some, but here's what I remember playing. Not sure how to do the codex rating graphic. I basically never finish a game.

- Blasphemous (Switch). 4.5/5. Great art, enjoyable exploration and platforming. I did not get all of the secrets and some of them are a bit too obscure is only ding. Also, did not actually beat final boss like a pussy but played up to that. Switch version has some issues with slow down, but as long as I let the Switch turn fully off and then on it fixed the issue.

- 13 Sentinels on PS4. 4/5. Gameplay was OK but story was great, and art was beautiful on the big screen. Not sure I could recommend unless you really like VNs. Actually finished this.

- Old World. I played maybe 10 hours, but decide to give it a break until devs keep working on it. Interesting 4x with a lot of good stuff in it. Innovative way to get rid of ICS. I just think it needs a little more work, especially on the AI, and I'll return to it.

- Gloomhaven. (NR) It's fun and great adaption of the board game. Unfortunately for me, after about 10 hours I started to see why the board game is best played with other people and not pure solo. You really lose a lot of the dynamics of the design if you play by yourself and I don't want to deal with internet randos/have no interested friends.

- Kenshi. 4/5. This isn't a game you really finish, and honestly I really only dipped my toes in the water of what it offers. I really like the developer's vision and idea of what they wanted to create. The issue I was running into is that the game is hard, which means you are strongly encouraged to play optimally. But playing optimally is a freaking drag and tedious. Really needs an ultra ultra fast forward option. I will probably come back to this at some point. I spent hours just fucking around with my character enslaved or in jail, which is a real testament to how interesting and different the game is.

- MGS V (PS4). 4/5. I was playing this a lot, then we moved and I stopped for whatever reason during all of the moving hassle. I'm still very early in it. Will pick it back up again when home theater in new house is done. I've played through almost all of the other games in the series. It's fun, but will probalby get a little bit easy if I somewhat optimally. I suck at stealth games, so that probably won't be an issue.

-Axiom Verge. 4/5. Cool Metroidvania. Got stuck half way and quit--may come back to it.

-NWN Swordflight. 5/5. I realized this was last year, but AMAZING NWN module. Really good encounter design, tense resource management. Really well designed, probably better encounter/dungeon design in Act 1 than any commercial RPG I can remember playing. Played Act 1 and maybe half way through Act 2. Only stopped playing because my build is borked. I strongly recommend this one.

That's all I can think of. Also tried and bounced off a few other games.

 

[tindrli]

none i think

 

[Jinn]

Always love these threads. It's great to see what other people have been playing through the year, and it's also a really good place to check if you're searching for something new to play.

Here's my list in reverse-chronological order with difficulty, little details, and playtime where necessary (whatever can't be logged in steam). Soul Blazer was the last game I beat this year. Was hoping to add Chronicles of Myrtana to the list too, but it's way too big of a beast to take down in less than a month.


Soul Blazer (SNES)

Nehrim: At Fate's Edge [50-65 Difficulty|The Villain] (PC)

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin (PC)

Katana Zero (PC)

Ganbare Goemon 2: The Strange General McGuinness (SNES)

Metroid Planets [Normal|77% Items|89% Map] (PC)

Xenogears [2.0|54H] (PS)

NieR Replican ver.1.22474487139... [Ending A, B {Hard}, C, D, E {Normal}] (PC)

Tales of Arise [Hard] (PC)

Dragon's Dogma [World Difficulty|Normal] (PC)

Drakengard [Ending A] (PS2)

Yakuza 4 [Hard|SS 59/62] (NES)

Romancing SaGa 3 [Mikhail] (PC)

Thief Gold [Hard] (PC)

The Surge (PC)

Dragon Quest (NES)

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice [Immortal Severance Ending] (PC)

Nioh 2 [Dream of the Samurai] (PC)

Necromunda: Hired Gun [Hard|Class C Avg.] (PC)

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)

The Messenger (PC)

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV [Nightmare->Hard] (PC)

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard [Normal|Mia] (PC)

Yakuza 3 [Hard|SS 74/120] (PC)

Dark Souls Remastered [Replay|Co-op|Dex|Dark Lord] (PC)

Brigador (PC)

Pathfinder: Kingmaker [Chaotic Good|Bard] (PC)

Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition [Hard|85%] (PC)

Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity [Ending A] (PC)

System Shock: Enhanced Edition [2nd Difficulty] (PC)

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III [Nightmare->Hard] (PC)

Darkwood [Hard] (PC)

Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon (PC)

 

[curds]

Beat The Witcher 3 just now, not including the expansions. 6.5/10.

Guess that's technically for next year's thread, though.

 

[Lagole Gon]

XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen
Some very old and very short VN's

Finished Heroes of Might and Magic III: Horn of the Abyss - I completed some scenarios in 2020 probably. I might have skipped a map or two.
Still trying to complete Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Uh... that's it? I guess I spend too much time posting on Codex to have time for gaming.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

Atomicrops
Avernum: Escape From the Pit
Steamworld Dig
WH40k Inquisitor Martyr
Dark Souls 3 w/ Cinders mod
Devil Slayer Raksasi
Enderal
DoS2 w/ too many mods the only way I could bear the game
Nioh 2
bioshock 1+2
Arthurian Legends
Mundaun
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
Streets of Rogue

Nioh 2 was easily the best game of out of the year.