What games did you complete in 2021?

[mondblut]

Very deep, much art, wow.

Who?

Weirdo who made a few cult hits and then made it into the big time with a sexy android game https://twitter.com/yashafluff/status/1221168359640793091

That was a rhetorical question. I really don't care whoever he or his games are. How's that for trolling?

Bitch looks fuckable, what's her onlyfans?

 

[Humanophage]

People seem to be playing quite a lot of actiony games.

 

[El Pollo Diablo]

Cadence of Hyrule I'ts like Crypt of the Necrodancer but easy. After beating the story mode I ended up mostly playing ironman dungeon mode which offers a decent challenge.

Dropsy A solid old school adventure game

Hitman 1/2/3 Played with quest compass (Opportunities/Stories) turned off. Was OK, but playing all 3 instances in sequence was probably a bad idea as the missions get kinda samey after a while

HuniePop 2 A sequel that's worse than the original in every way.

Into the Breach Replayed with some squads I haven't played much before. I still find it too easy (even on hard difficulty).

VirtuaVerse A really good all school adventure game. Folks criticized the puzzles here but I actually liked them a lot and thought even the ones I got stuck on were hard but fair. My personal GOTY

Spelunky 2 It's more Spelunky. Not much more to be said.

Menzoberranzan Played it when I was younger and didn't really know how to play RPGs. I found it it too hard back then which is kinda funny cause now it seemed way too easy. Also the map design leaves something to be desired.

Helheim Hassle A charming and pretty unique puzzle game with a decent amount of content. A pleasant surprise of the year.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection A hard as nails old school platformer. Playing on the Legend (hardest, default) difficulty is certainly an experience.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister Unity engine: the RPG. I don't mind it being combat focused but it all just felt clunky as hell. Don't get me started on the camera.

Garlic A precision platformer that tries to be like other great games in the genre without realizing what made them great in the first place

Sam and Max Hit the Road I played it ~25 years ago and had to use a walkthrough, figured I forgot it sufficiently (except one puzzle) that I can do a reasonably fresh replay. I might get some hate for this, but I still find it the weakest of the LucasArts classics.

Dungeon and Puzzles A decent puzzler

Loop Hero Omg the game plays itself, so innovative

Crash Bandicoot 4: Its About Time The folks that made it nailed the cartoony look, they certainly have good artists. Wish I could say the same for their programmers, this is the only game I played where I actually wanted to leave the controller vibration on, just to have some collision feedback. Was still OK overall though.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Was mostly me curious about what I missed since I never owned a PlayStation. Again, it's OK but nothing spectacular.

Galador - The Prince and the Coward An old school adventure game with puzzles that are somewhat random

Slasher's Keep Love the idea and the gameplay, but with it being roguelite it ends up being too grindy than I'd like. Wish there were shortcuts to unlock or something.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Completed:

Immortals Fenyx Rising
Watchdogs Legion
Assassins Creed Valhalla
PathFinder Wrath of the Righteous
Encased
Solasta
Kingdoms of Amaluar Re-reckoning
Hitman 3
Star Wars BattleFront 2
Spellforce 3 Fallen God
Abzu
Haven
Crysis Remastered
Journey to the Savage Planet
Werewolf the Apocalypse Earthblood
Shadowrun Returns
Shadowrun Dragonfall
Shadowrun HongKong
Bugsnax
A few VNs

Currently Playing:

Far Cry 6
Riders Republic
Atom RPG Trudograd
Fatesworn DLC for KoA RR

 

[lycanwarrior]

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.

Since I now work from home 100% of the time, I can play during my lunch breaks.

Not to mention during down times (but don't tell the boss!) tee hee...

 

[Belegarsson]

Ghostrunner : I think I played it either this year or in the final days of last year. Ghostrunner continues the "Live.Die.Repeat" gameplay style of Hotline Miami and Katana Zero, incredible movement system, clever level design, great pacing, boss fights kinda eeeeeeh but a very slight tainted spot on an otherwise great game. If I have to make a trilogy of best modern challenging games, that would consist of Ghostrunner, Doom Eternal and Spelunky 2.

Borderlands 3 : massively better gunplay, diverse locations, Nekrotafeyo is lowkey my most favorite planet of the franchise scenery-wise. Story is horribad, I still cower in my manly blanket, tremble and emotionally scarred whenever Ava and the twins open their mouths.

Yakuza 3 : UNDERRATED, best vibe, dad Kiryu = best Kiryu, if you don't vibe with Rikiya then go screw yourself, Mine is unintentionally hilarious but at the same time a weirdly compelling villain even if his motivation makes negative sense. Yakuza 4 : incredibly conflicted as the Kamurocho fatigue finally kicked in, and even though I loved the cast and their journeys, this is the only game that I forced myself to finish quickly. Yakuza 5 : easily my third most favorite installment, the writing while still has cocaine-fueled insanities actually feel down to earth compared to 3 and 4 thanks to it's main message, new cities = muahhhh, Shinada = best boi. Yakuza 6 : also incredibly conflicted, the Hirose boys = best bois, the main story captures the hard hitting reality of Kiryu's journey, but I felt that it missed the mark on closing a lot of hanging threads from previous games in a satisfying way, and there's a noticeably lack of minigames/features here.

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante : basically the "I must suffer" Russian literature meme, but nevertheless an interesting dark age CYOA with intriguing world building and memorable scenarios. I don't replay games often but this is one of the rare titles that I bothered to get all endings.

Mafia: Definitive Edition feels like the Oldboy US remake of OG Mafia, very flashy, somewhat understood what the game went for, but presented it in a very schizophrenic and urgent way. I just didn't feel anything after finishing it, and I frankly think both Mafia 2 & 3 are much better.

Amnesia Rebirth a powerful story about motherhood let down by safe puzzles and trite horror.

Solasta my first Kickstarter game and I'm kinda mixed about it. Good combat, good encounter design, but everything outside of it feel half baked. Still not sure why they picked close up cinematic dialogues.

Resident Evil Village : went into it with a lot of high hopes since RE7 got me into the franchise. This one is kinda weird, it mixed the ambiance and gameplay of RE4 and 7, the result is something that's really good in short bursts, boss fights are memorable, each segment has their own high point and the level design in the factory nearly reached the masterpiece that is RCPD. But as a whole I never found the tension on the same level of 7, the mind blowing zigzag gameplay of 2, and some dumbed down mechanics really made the game too linear for its own good.

Mundaun is the real horror star of the year for me. Pencil art, surreal Switz mythology influence, story about sins of the father and what it takes the late generations to redeem them, light on combat, heavy on traversing and imageries. Thanks to this game I'm still afraid of mountain goats.

Hitman 3 : has some of the highest and lowest points in the trilogy. Dubai? Oustanding. Berlin? Chief's kiss. First playthrough of the mansion? Say no more. And then, we've got the next playthroughs of the mansion feels more boring because it definitely was made with the detective quest in mind, and Berlin without the lack of target info never felt the same. The final level is genuinely terrible. Would have been 4 trolls but the Epic shenanigans ruined the launch for me, I pretty much forgot about it because it's not in my Steam library.

Biomutant : some occasional charms drown inside an Ubisoft-like framework, loose combat that doesn't feel fun to participate in, and the world isn't fun to traverse. Heavy let down.

Hunt: Showdown - maybe not "completed" since this is multiplayer but this thing seriously took over my life in July. A cutthroat Tarkov style PvPvE game that promotes the dirtiest, trickiest playstyle ever and also generates shit tons of salt and satisfying moment, also featuring very gross Eldritch creatures. I suck at it and I love it.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is everything I loved about the trilogy but in a better setting and features much more complex relationships and fun archetypes. I still don't like how dialogues in these games tend to be long winded and characters repeat themselves a lot, but the story full of conspiracies and revelations all made up for it. Susato > Maya, that's a fact.

The Forgotten City : fun take on time loop genre, too linear for its own sake, and the final "showdown" seems great on paper ended up kinda underwhelming to me. Really nice epilogue though, if you do care about these characters, the ending definitely made good use of them in a satisfying conclusion.

The Artful Escape : play as a young musician under the burden of following his uncle's legacy, very creative setpieces, gameplay is a whole nothing burger as it's not more complex than a walking simulator, but it has a nice message about self-worth that I admit kinda made me teared up a bit.

Psychonauts 2 is also another game that can put water in your eyes. I personally relate a lot to Helmut Fullbear's atrophied identity, and the more the game goes on, the more it kept blowing my mind of how it flexibly mixed fun gameplay into such a heavy subject so respectfully and creatively executed.

World War Z : mindless zombie shooting with not a lot going on, I think the horde in Days Gone are better utilized than this.

And of course Days Gone is easily my most favorite AAA game of the year. Rough around the edges, some hints of cut content, some awkwardly stitched together storylines and cutscenes, but holy shit this thing has heart, has simple but insanely satisfying gameplay mechanics, and the atmosphere is simply fantastic. I thought AAA games only concern with nihilism these days, but this zombie apocalypse game actually focuses more on human resolution and it's just a breath of fresh air to immerse myself in a game full of hope like this. Worst thing about it is I didn't get to feed the Brian Irons-lookalike to a horde.

Inscryption I don't like card games, and I love this thing. The later acts sure are weaker than the first but the way Inscryption spiraled out of control is what made it truly stand out.

Deathloop is a fun, inventive immersive sim mutation in the first 10 - 15 hours, but the more I played the more it felt like a prototype for something more expansive. Regardless, the worldbuilding that continued from Dishonored is nice, and I definitely had some fun kicking people around.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy : I have to admit I have a soft spot for MCU's both GOTG films as they're these zany takes on dysfunctional families but executed in good faith and featured lots of likable characters true to themselves, and this game captured that spirit very well. The gameplay is surprisingly nuanced as a Mass Effect-ish command shooter, lots of fun combos to experiment with, although it ran out of steam at late game and can feel button smashy at times.

Far Cry 6 : fun mayhem with your pets, good sightsee simulator, cringe characters and some changes to existing mechanics (like the armor system) are pretty baffling.

Impostor Factory : good, but didn't hit me as hard as To The Moon and Finding Paradise. A take on time loop that turns out it's actually about lost memories that almost hit the landing, there's a returning character that I felt kinda unnecessary and detracted from the personal touch of these games.

Unpacking : a game where you, uuuuuuhhhhh, unpack your stuffs at a new place. Sound like gen Z bullshit but it's actually surprisingly sentimental, perfectly captured that feeling where the lost of an object makes you ponder needlessly in your mind for a long time. It reminded me when I moved into a new city, my father gave me a smartphone - which isn't much in reality, but actually a lot for him who never cared about me emotionally and for me who rarely received gifts as a child, and I got visibly upset for months after it stopped working after trekking home under rain, not only because it's an expensive device, but it came from my father and it had the only picture of my first puppy which had died from being run over just several months after I moved. Unpacking was meant to trigger memories like that, and thankfully it does have a visible plot going on expressed thoroughly by inanimate objects. A really good and meaningful game.

Moncage is a short 2 hours puzzle game where you look at a cube with each panel displaying a different scene, your job is to piece vague shapes together. Really interesting take on how perspectives make us look at the world in a different way, and the main mechanic somewhat reminded me of Gorogoa.

Sable: a nomad simulator with free form exploration, no combat, free to climb nearly everywhere, breathtaking artstyle, minus 1 troll because the performance makes my eyes roll.

 

[CootKeeper]

Completed:
Wasteland 2 Not a bad game. The combat is hard but satisfying. After a while I was fed up of fighting robots. I think the game would've been more fun if they focused on 1 world map instead of having 2, and making the one world map more polished (more side-quests, bigger buildings and cities).

Sorcery! 1
Sorcery! 2
Sorcery! 3
Sorcery! 4 I'm a big CYOA fan. My younger self played over 100 CYOA books and this series was my favourite. I thought they did a really good job of porting the books and adding seamless content to them.

State of Mind My first Daedelic adventure game. I enjoyed it very much, although I can understand if the art style does not suit everyone.


Played or unfinished:
Numanuma unfinished and tedious game. I'm upset I haven't finished it so I'll probably try again this year

Shadowrun Dragonfall OK game. It felt like playing a iPad game and I just lost interest after a while.

Papers Please played a couple playthroughs to check the different possible endings. fun game.

Alan Wake played the game a month before the re-master was announced. too much filler combat, I gave up after 4 hours of playtime.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

RPG's

For the first time:

-Solasta: Crown of the Magister
It didn't overstay its welcome and the turn based combat was ok. It's also easy to go back to since the mechanics are pretty straightforward, shallow if you will. But I was quite busy when I started it so it was a good fit.

-Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Decent rpg if you like build porn. Too long for my tastes, I don't see myself replaying this mammoth any time soon since I finish games that I start. I don't enjoy playing around with builds in vacuum. The choice and consequence it offers also doesn't motivate me since the writing isn't good. The overland army game is also a slog. But playing it once is recommended.

-Elex
Pretty good. I had my doubts about PB games and the praise for Elex here but its the first open world game in a long time that I liked. I am looking forward to Elex II while my memory of the first part is still fresh.

Replays

-Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
My first time trying the enhanced edition but I've played the original in the past so I consider it a replay. Still good, the enhanced edition didn't change that.

-Gothic
Used some graphic mods and enjoyed it a lot. My favorite Piranha Bytes game in size and content.

-Gothic II
Also great but a bit too large for my tastes. I played it for the first time with night of the raven and I must say that I prefer the original version without the addon.

Other games

For the first time

-Control
Nice to look at. A bit repetitive but more than worth the 10 bucks that I payed. Remedy did create some impressive visuals and the destructible environment was also well done. Overall a competent style over substance game.

-Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries
Not great but there aren't many alternatives out there. It's not as bad as I feared but also nowhere near a high point of the series.

-Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
Finally gave it a go after having it for some years in my library. The campaign is decent and the gameplay is also ok. Its is also rather shallow and feels underdeveloped but visuals, the campaign and gameplay aren't too bad for some ~10 hours.

-Borderlands 3
Finished it in coop over the hollidays and had a good time. The gameplay is improved over the predecessors. And I don't give a fuck about the story in a dumb coop shooter.

Replays

-Requiem: Avenging Angel
Nice little shooter. Only downside are the bullet sponge bosses.

-AquaNox
Good short campaign in a rarely used setting. And there aren't many six-degree-of-freedom shooters anyways so I like to give it a go once in a while.

-AquaNox 2: Revelation
Overall worse than AquaNox but still ok.

-Thief: Deadly Shadows
Nowhere as good as the predecessors but a decent stealth game. Mods help to remove some of the worst aspects due to "consolization" but won't fix the weaknesses in level design.

-Sacrifice
Excellent game, still one-of-a-kind.

-Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, the base game campaign and Winter Assault
Great rts game and decent campaigns. I am really starved for some good rts games like Command&Conquer, Warcraft/Starcraft, Age of Empires and Dawn of War. The rpg genre is a spring of life in comparison to the rts genre.

-Wolfenstein: The New Order
Gameplay is good, and the setting is also fun. If only they hadn't tried to give Blazkowicz more character by having him yammering about his feeling. He would have worked perfectly as straight-forward action hero like Duke-Nukem.

-Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
The same as above except that the negative aspects are even more pronounced. I should have skipped New Colossus.

-Call of Juarez
Great game that mixes glorious dirty western shooter with adventuring elements. The best western game that I know of.

 

[Xelocix]

I completed Fortnite story mode (with thanos skin) :D

 

[Great Deceiver]

You people sure have a lot more patience than I do. Then again, I'm old and everything is even more shit with each passing year.

Most of my actual playtime this year was done on emulators on games that you can't really "finish" - shmups and the like. I 1CC'd old games from my youth, but those don't count.

I think all games I actually finished this past year were Dark Souls 3, Sekiro and Metroid Dread. At least I can't recall any others.

Metroid Dread was fun, 3/5 - can't match Super Metroid in terms of atmosphere, but it controls well and has way better boss fights. I would have given it 4/5 if not for the EMMI sections, which were garbage and by far the weakest part of the game.

Sekiro is a solid 4/5, best bossfights in any From Software game.

Dark Souls 3 is 3/5, I would have scored it lower due to formula fatigue and uninspired levels (bosses are ok), but current games are so shit that it's still much better than 90% of them.

 

[Reina]

The good:
Hearts of Iron IV
Imperator: Rome
Hades
Cities Skylines
Vampire the Masquarade: Bloodlines

The replays:
Gothic
Gothic II
Diablo 2 Resurrected

The bad (AKA unfinished):
Humankind
Venus Blood: Frontier
Rome Total War Remastered
Pathfinder: WoTR (but I'll be back soon bby)

 

[toughasnails]

Ar Luminae - Low score due to technical issues (and dumb boss fight). The creator of this recommends lowering the resolution to 720p and considers 30 fps an acceptable framerate for Doom.

This would be forgivable if it was some slower paced, atmosphere focused wad, but Ar Luminae is p intense and difficult stuff so the framerate is indeed extra painful. It's impressive but it's also an overkill.

Speaking of the peak mapper autism, for me nothing can outdo what this did back in the day


Go right for 9:30 for extra insanity.

 

[samuraigaiden]

METAL SLUG

The Expendabros

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

The Static Speaks My Name

Gunman Clive

Lords of Xulima

Bejeweled 3

Triennale Game Collection

Akalabeth: World of Doom

Soul Blazer

Ultima

Ultima 2

I also beat LEGO Marvel Super Heroes with my kid, but it's really not something I'd be playing on my own. This was a weird year for me (and everyone else, I guess). I went through both periods of binge gaming and dry spells. Currently I have a Ultima 3 playthrough going, although I haven't touched in a while, and I'm back to playing Just Cause 2

 

[El Pollo Diablo]

I 1CC'd old games from my youth, but those don't count.

Not sure why they wouldn't count, I'd consider 1CC of arcade games the same as "completing" them. Anyway, I'm curious what those are - I'd be interested to know which arcade games are possible to 1CC with regular human abilities.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I 1CC'd old games from my youth, but those don't count.

Not sure why they wouldn't count, I'd consider 1CC of arcade games the same as "completing" them. Anyway, I'm curious what those are - I'd be interested to know which arcade games are possible to 1CC with regular human abilities.

Some of the arcade games I 1CC on a regular basis, but this year specifically off the top of my head (there may be more):

- Black Tiger (Capcom, 1987)
- Gladiator (Taito, 1986)
- Double Dragon (Technos, 1987 - a retard could do it though)
- Batsugun Special ver. (1 loop only - Toaplan, 1993)
- Deathsmiles (easiest route - Cave, 2007)

I also 1CCd Life Force on the NES because I love the music in that game and it brings me the feels. I think it was my first shmup 1CC, definitely recommend it.

One thing to keep in mind is starting on the novice modes of difficult more recent STGs, like Mushihimesama and Crimzon Clover - no shame in going for the 1CC in those and working your way up. I've 1CCd the novice modes of Mushihimesama, Mushi Futari and Crimzon Clover World EXplosion this year. Still can't 1 CC the main games though, not even close - takes me an average of 5-6 credits to finish Mushi Futari for example. I'm not methodical enough for a lot of these games, but I really enjoy playing them and don't really care that much as long as I'm not credit feeding and bombing my way through.

I'm currently working on a Thunderforce AC 1CC, it's a lot easier than TF4.

 

[Keshik]

Mostly old stuff from my backlog

Nexus The Jupiter Incident - this game was way harder than I remember playing when I first got it
Act of War - serviceable RTS, the first one has nice C&C-esque camp, wasn't a fan of the expansion
Secret Files series - these were fun, nothing great but nothing terrible, puzzles weren't awful.
Deponia series - I still hate Rufus.
Lost Horizon series - 1 was fun and enjoyable, 2 I did not care much for.
Caesar 3 (again, but economic) - Fun as always, having to exploit the mechanics by using warehouses are intermediate granaries between road networks was an idea I was proud to have thought up by myself
Battletech - finally finished this campaign after much procrastination and that stupid mission with the artillery spotters (farming for a Grasshopper was not that fun)
King's Bounty Crossworlds - Great fun, even if I wasn't too sure what I was doing, heh.
Rebel Galaxy - Good enough game, sort of like Diablo in space, heh.
Deserts of Kharak - finally fixed that bug in mission 4 so motored through that, thumbs up from me.

Newer stuff was

Hardspace Shipbreaker - Is EA, but carving up ships is surprisinly enjoyable, good game to relax to.
Gamedec - this was ok,probably paid too much for it but I had fun and burned 15 hours
Control - Enjoyed this a lot, the DLCs were a bit hit and miss for me, the second one where it's just Alan Wake teasing was weaker of two.
Star Wars Squadrons - Sort of enough to scratch the TIE Fighter itch
Whispers of a Machine - glad I got this cheap, didn't really enjoy this all that much, was a lot more they could have done with the premise.

 

[HansDampf]

Its shit design that would rightly be called out if he was anything other than japanese.

Yoko Taro hates the completionist mindset and thus trolls the fuck out of everyone who wants to complete everything in one of his games. You have to learn to move on.

I'm not even talking about optional quests, btw, but being underleveled against main bosses and later quickly getting overleveled without even trying, just by playing the content the game has to offer. The latter is worse because when I'm underleveled, I have at least the option to spend a few hours grinding. But when my level is too high, I can't "ungrind" it anymore. And it gets really bad. At the end of Route B, my level was 58 (without having gone out of my way to farm XP). The final boss is 48. At the end of Route C, I was over 70 and the final boss is level 50! What kind of progression is this? Otoh, there are optional arena fights and an optional super boss that suggest you should be level 99 to tackle those. No, thanks.
I have to agree with NKB's video that the entire leveling system only hurts the game. All it does is inflate stats, and it becomes impossible to properly balance everything.

 

[Bigg Boss]

PoE 1 - It was good
PoE 2 - It was good
Wasteland 3 - It was good
Baldur's Gate EE - It was good
Baldur's Gate 2 EE - It was good
Titan Quest - It was ok
Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara - It was fun
Eldritch - It was cheap
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - It was cheap

I feel like I am missing some. I did play Sunless Skies a bit but did not beat it because I got bored due to me liking the first game a little more.

 

[baud]

Path of Exile (Started in 2020) - finished the main questline (by killing Kitava) and stopped there, like I usually do with ARPGs. Gameplay fun, char building a little too complex and grindy for the time I wanted to put into it. Liked the story and art style
Van Helsing 3 - More of same. Less technical/weird science, more supernatural, so slightly better in that regard. I still like the ghost companion
Faery - Legends of Avalon - Old Spiders game. Short, jrpg-style combat, but tries to be ME in the dialogues and with the party. Coolest feature is being able to fly all around the level. Also had nice levels (giant tree, ghost ship, Middle-East city built on the back of a scarab)
Portal 1 - (replayed) Still fun, but I think 2's better.
Machinarium - Point and click, I liked the graphics, but dislike some of the puzzles.
the room 3 - puzzle games where it's nearly all puzzles and no story, centred around strange contraptions. First one is still my favourite
Guile & Glory - puzzle game crossed with tactical RPG, had quite some fun, more puzzle than tactical RPG due to limited enemy behavior
Wildermyth - storyfag SRPG game full of randomness focused on the randomly generated characters; played some of the campaigns
Inquisitor Martyr - 40k ARPGs. Had loads of fun burning up heretics, aliens and deamons.
Strangeland - GOTY loved the writing, puzzles, liked the graphics, replayed a second time with the commentary

popamole

Space Marine video game - smashed orks and heretics. Fun
Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands - nice platforming (I'd say hardest of the Ubisoft PoPs), but combat is hard decline (just waves of trash mobs)
Halo 4 from the MCC - combat is more of the same, new enemies aren't there yet and story is meh
Mini Ninjas - Brain dead but cute action game. Super easy (made for kids).
Blades of time - Action aventure, played mostly because the main character is wearing hot pants. Not very good, has a time rewind a la PoP, but just for puzzles.
Blood Knights - action aventure, not very good: limited gameplay, story tries to offer choice of going vampire or not, but is very weak because of it), played mostly for the "assets" of the second main character
CoD BO 1 & 2 (replayed): 1 is way better at both gameplay and story, though 2 has the nice innovations of loadout selection and (slightly) branching story
Lego Ninjago videogame - just like all the other Lego game; got this one for free.

(there's also a bunch of games I played that I didn't finish and that list would be at least twice as long, with some that are still on the backlog)

 

[Metronome]

Hack - Pretty forgettable, but then I beat this earlier in the year. Good old roguelike though. Good level of challenge.
Moria - The big game of the year. I had a lot of fun (and pain) getting through with this one. Terrible grinding from hell but some interesting mechanics.
Zangband - Good gameplay. One last roguelike to finish off the year with. Randarts were fun.
Loop Hero - Good gameplay and a fun gimmick. I was almost a completionist but decided against it.
Wario's Woods - Great challenge but could have had more variety. Later levels were tough. A good test of my reflexes.
I'm Kid Dracula - I think I finished it in 2021. A lot of fun and not too challenging. Just about perfect difficulty in my opinion.

I also beat Super Mario Brothers 2 several times but that's not a first. I beat Dr.Mario once again too. I also beat Gearhead RPG again. I think I am actually running out of new roguelikes to play. I will attempt to complete Rogue this next year though. If I can do that I think I will take a long break from the genre, though it is pretty addicting for me.

 

[Wunderbar]

Thac0 what was that supposed to mean?

 

[dacencora]

I finished:

• Persona 4: Golden - Really enjoyed it. Very fun overall. It's extremely anime, so probably not a big hit on Codex.
• Fire Emblem Echoes - The gameplay was different because it was not the typical rock-paper-scissors of most FE games. I really enjoy the rock-paper-scissors gameplay of most FE, so this one's combat was just okay, rather than great. The story was serviceable enough, and the maps were mostly just okay. It was fun enough to finish, but I probably won’t replay it.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV - Excellent gameplay. One of the most fun combat systems I've ever played. The overworld sucked and the dungeon crawling was pretty terrible, but the combat was top-notch. Fusion and negotiation were pretty standard SMT fare.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - I'm a big fan of A Link to the Past, so I was probably pretty predisposed to liking this one, as they share the same overworld. Excellent combat, excellent bosses, excellent puzzles, excellent music. I really enjoyed this one. The main weakness is the item renting, which I didn't care for at all. Having all the items available so early was disappointing as well. The other positives more than make up for it, in my mind.
• Bowser's Fury - Very fun little 3D Mario game. Felt a little like a prototype for a bigger "open-world" Mario. It was a blast to go through and trying to find the secret bells was great.

 

[dacencora]

How did I forget to mention METROID DREAD? Easily the best game I played all year. The movement was incredibly slick, the combat was very engaging, the music and art were excellent and it had a great pace. Highly recommend.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

In order of preference:

Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin : Best game I played all year. I heard that it's the worst of the Souls games, but I enjoyed it. Not better than Demon Souls or the original, but better than DS3. Took 6 weeks to beat.
Dragon's Dogma : This was a replay, but damn I love this game. If you haven't played it, you should. Beat in a couple of weeks.
Dark Souls 3 : Worst Souls game I have ever played. Graphics weren't as gripping as the previous games, although the corruption was a pretty cool surprise. The worst Souls game is still head and shoulders above everything else. Took a month to beat. Got Nioh 1 and 2 and Bloodborne in case I need to get my fix in 2022.
Magnum Rance : One of the better games I played this year. The dungeon crawl aspect was shit, but I did enjoy building up my army of waifus and mixing up the party configuration. Beat in 3 weeks over the course of a business trip.
Persona 3 FES : A good game with a bullshit, emo ending and a couple of cringe party members (like the walking toaster...), but a really awesome end boss. Took more than a month to beat.
Persona 4 : Easier than Persona 3 and a shit end boss, but better party members, tactical control, and main quest. Persona 5 still better than 2, 3, and 4. Took a little less than a month to beat.
Dead or Alive 6 : Yeah, yeah, yeah. I picked up a bunch of old fighting games this year and thought I'd give them a try. I thought DOA was all about the eye candy, but I really had a blast with DOA 6 over the course of a weekend. I think reviewers gave it a low score due to the questionable content, because professional reviewers are morons. I liked the gameplay and the goofy plot way more than I did Soul Caliber IV or Street Fighter IV. I'm surprised too.
Yakuza 0 : I heard it was a good entry into the Yakuza series, and it did not disappoint. Now I know that the series is not really an RPG or a beat-em-up, but is instead a visual novel where the movie scenes are broken up by occasional punching. Still fun for what it is. Would have rated it higher if I could have played more Majima and less Kiryu. Beating up people with his baseball bat never got old. Took me a couple weeks to beat with 22% completion. Playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon because of this game and liking it more.
God of War 3 : Good game and nice ending to Kratos' story... too bad his corpse was revived. Beat it over a weekend.
Street Fighter IV : Meh, It's ok. Played it for a weekend and didn't come back.
Last Evil : Beat it in a week. I got in on sale for a few dollars since it was billed as a Slay the Spire clone (though with sex) and I was curious to know what the Slay the Spire hype was about without spending the 20-30 bucks for it. I don't usually like games with card battles, but this was ok. Definitely a low budget title.
Streets of Rage 4 : Beat it in an afternoon with my brother. He and I are huge Streets of Rage 2 fans. Glad I played it for nostalgia reasons, but was easy and quick. Can't recommend.
Grand Theft Auto V : Just end this series already. The heists were a great idea, but the (attempted) humor and gameplay are feeling stale. Took me 3 weeks to get through.
Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain This game pissed me off. It started out as a nice, solid MGS game, but then it became quickly apparent that it was an unfinished game with tons of filler. But it was a good learning experience. I learned not to trust customer ratings for AAA titles, because newb gamers are fucking retarded and don't know any better. Beat it in a week or two. People who think this was better on par with MSG 3 or 4 are just wrong. Nice graphics though and launching unconscious dudes via balloon was a hoot.
Hunie Pop 2 : Beat over a long weekend. Not sure what went wrong with the development here. The first game was an easy 4/5, but the gameplay was changed for the worst in this sequel and one character was... let's just say not what I bought the game for...

Soul Caliber IV : Piss easy. Jank controls. I'm not sure why this series has fans if this is considered one of the better games. Beat in a couple of hours.

I also played a few hours of the Outer Worlds, but boy that game was shit. I stopped that nonsense after only the first world.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

No Man's Sky.