In the world of video games, 2021 may forever be remembered as the year of COVID’s great reckoning. 2020 was already rough, but many of its biggest games were mostly completed in a normal development cycle. Projects slated for the following year weren’t as lucky.
Thus, this year’s gaming news was rich with delays, piping-hot launches, unfinished messes, and game publishers scrambling to fill their schedules with undercooked backup plans. And that says nothing about gamers themselves, wondering if crucial chips and parts might ever be plentiful enough again so they can buy the latest in console and PC gear.
Yet against all odds, fantastic games still crossed 2021’s finish line, ranging from big-budget behemoths to surprising indies. This year, in an effort to reduce ranking-based ire and celebrate every game on our list, we’re removing numbered rankings, with the exception of crowning a formal Ars Technica pick for Best Video Game of 2021 at the list’s very end.
This alphabetical-order list includes everything from breathless praise to caveat-filled considerations, but each game’s ability to crack this 20-strong list is, in our opinion, indication enough that each game merits a second look.
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Enlarge / Setting xenos on fire is my new favorite way to pass the time.
Cold Iron Studios
Aliens: Fireteam Elite
PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S | Buy at: Amazon, Best Buy, PSN, Xbox, Steam
If you’re a regular Ars reader with a decently powerful PC or game console and hot opinions about the convergence of Ridley Scott, HR Giger, and Dan O’Bannon, you’ll likely find something to love about the first truly fun co-op game in the Aliens universe. Fireteam Elite keeps it simple: you and two friends use gadgets and big guns to take out waves of even bigger foes, mostly in the form of xenos but eventually with Working Joes in the mix.
How does such a simple pitch compete with dozens of other co-op shooters on consoles and PC? AFE lands on this year-end list not because of refreshing new ideas but because of solid execution. Cold Iron Studios strikes a careful balance between twisty battle-arena design, compelling enemy patterns, interesting co-op strategy options, and variable combat pacing, while stringing together a lengthy, varied campaign with increasingly dire stakes that (shocker) Weyland-Yutani has made a mess of. During each campaign mission, momentum rises and falls in a way that perfectly …….
Source: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/12/ars-technicas-top-20-video-games-of-2021/