Top 10 video games of 2021
It’s not the shooting, or the running and the jumping. All those things are fun, of course, and make up the basics of a number of video games, including several of my favorites from 2021.
“Psychonauts 2” is in many ways a classic 3D platformer, or jump-and-run game. “Halo Infinite” is the modern shooter at its most refined.
But when I look back at the games that meant the most to me last year, I think of emotional experiences, games that asked me to rethink how I interact with a digital text, or left me with questions to ponder.
They’re quests for identity rather than collections of puzzles. They’re conversation starters. Such, after all, is the joy of the interactive medium.
1. “The Artful Escape” (Xbox consoles, Windows)
Wailing guitar gods, largerthan-life rock ’n’ roll personas — all these things seem a bit passe in our more personalized social media era in which music genre boundaries are elastically fluid. But “The Artful Escape” isn’t a celebration of an era; it’s a love letter to the idea of dreaming, an ode to the transcendent power of art and an interactive lesson in conquering self-doubt.
An animated reverie in which turtles have warp powers, giant fish revel in the power of dance, and we run and jump among forests that transform into neon-lit galaxies, “The Artful Escape” is part “Fantasia,” part “Yellow Submarine” — and all wonder. Its soul, however, is its story, one young person’s quest to find a personal voice and grow comfortable in his or her own skin. Don’t worry about the rock ’n’ roll imagery. There are guitar solos, yes, but jazz, pop and alien rhythms too. “The Artful Escape” wants to dance with anyone who has ever had the thought, “I’m dabbling with the idea of becoming someone else entirely.”
2. “Psychonauts 2” (Xbox consoles, Windows, mac)
A game about mental health that’s funny, often challenging and full of outlandishly drawn set pieces — just get past the larger-thanlife dental imagery in its opening sequence. The sequel a decade and a half after the original, “Psychonauts 2” is a triumph because it understands the wackiness and silliness inherent in run-and-jump video games, placing our hero in the sort of ridiculous scenarios that make sense only in games and animation. Soar on a giant letter around someone’s cranium? Sure, why not? But it’s through these exaggerations we see how fragile all of our minds can be.
3. “Sable” (Xbox consoles, Windows)
“Sable” handles two existential questions — who are we and what kind of person do we want to be — in a most relaxing, thoughtful manner. Set within a “Dune”-like desert landscape — only here there’s no war — we hover around on a quest of discovery. Along the way we encounter others, and
helping and talking to them is a way to get to know our own character’s desires.
4. “Chicory: A Colorful Tale” (PlayStation consoles, Windows, mac)
On the surface, “Chicory” is an adventure game inspired by “The Legend of Zelda,” in that we travel among forest towns and caves on a quest to heal the land. But it’s also a game about believing in the power of one’s own creativity, the surprise or astonishment that comes from an attempt to draw or paint, and the sometimes paralyzing stress of having to live up to others’ expectations for ourselves.
5. “Unpacking’ (Windows, mac, Nintendo Switch, Xbox consoles)
“Unpacking” is a beautifully restrained and relaxing game that at its most basic is about the puzzle of organization. Ultimately, it’s a story about growing up, with life’s changes told through the items we own, the items we acquire and the ones we hold onto but keep just out of sight.
6. “Last Call” (Windows)
This autobiographical game from Nina Freeman and Jake Jefferies is described by the creators as a “poem exploration game.” It provides an opportunity to get inside someone’s mind, in this case a young woman — a survivor of domestic abuse — on the verge of a move. We must speak into our computer microphones to advance, letting our protagonist know we’ve heard her and we’re there for her. We may not fully relate to her experience, but forced to pause and vocalize our thoughts, we come to understand the emotional havoc that has transpired.
7. “Overboard” (iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Windows, mac)
This narrative experience starts with an act of extreme violence: A woman in an unhappy marriage tosses her husband into the ocean. We spend the game talking to others on the boat, trying to charm our way out of being caught for murder. It’s a thriller at its most delightful.
8. “genesis Noir” (Windows, mac, Switch, Xbox consoles)
A jazzy, often abstract game about romance, moving on and how we dwell on the past. The game’s art style — part hardboiled detective tale, part malleably drawn comic — constantly takes flight, running our character through multiple dream-like cosmos.
9. “Halo Infinite” (Xbox consoles, Windows)
“Halo Infinite” embraces itself as sci-fi gobbledygook — wrapping a warm hug around its cheesy dialogue and reveling in the weirdness of its core storyline of one man’s relationships with artificially intelligent female holograms. Throughout, it soars as pulpy, timeless, space opera fantasy.
10. “Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery” (iOS, Android, Windows, mac)
Think of “Behind the Frame” as an interactive animated film in which light puzzles jog the memory of the protagonist. Moments of potentially high drama are resolved quickly — this isn’t a game with problems to solve or objects to hunt. “Behind the Frame” wants to focus on the delicacy of its characters’ relationships, the beauty in sharing a conversation and also how life’s obligations result in most connections being ephemeral.