Metacritic: The 10 best games of 2021

0


Everyone is said to be a critic. This has never been more true than in the Internet age, where legions of competing voices argue over whether Forza Horizon 5 was “really, really good” or just “really good.”

But even the best critics can be wrong. Voltaire, for example, hated Shakespeare. Roger Ebert didn’t like “Fight Club”. These outliers could be corrected if there was only one way to criticize the critics. That would be a bit of a meta, of course.

After all, there is Metacritic. The rating portal has compiled a list of the games with the best average rating that were published in 2021. In addition, the portal provides an insight into the trends in the industry – just look how well single-player titles performed. In addition, the list provides what is perhaps most important: a stack of important titles for the bucket list.

In order to highlight the really new games, the editors have filtered out all new editions of games that were released before 2021. Sorry, “Disco Elysium” – you are wonderful and so is your “Final Cut”. But at the bottom of their hearts everyone knows you’re a 2020 game.

So here are the top ten most highly rated releases of 2021.

This creature should provide the finest leather for a handbag.

10. Monster Hunter Rise: 88 (Switch)

You won’t believe it – it’s monster hunting again. The basic gameplay loop in “Rise” is tried and tested, the elaborate staging stands out. The landscapes are even more detailed compared to the previous part of the series, “Monster Hunter World”, the music swells in the right moments and most of all, it still feels vital to kill an unknown monster and then out of its entrails to make a new backpack.

9. Metroid Dread: 88 (Switch)

Samu’s long heralded return to the 2D plane – or at least a 3D side world – was worth the wait. Not every game that was teased for the first time in 2005 can say so 16 years later. But there is so much manual skill in the platformer parts and boss fights that “Metroid Dread” lives up to the hype.

The levels are complexly interwoven and do not guide you by hand, but require a careful study of the cards. This is the only way to understand how the room is put together. And all of the basics of the series – the puzzles, the power-ups, and the upgrades – are just perfectly implemented.

The fox-like alien Ratchet and his robot friend Clank.

Ratchet and Clank have had many adventures together.

8. Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart: 88 (PS5)

The comparisons between Pixar films and Sony’s mechanically inspired platformer duo have always been obvious. In “A Rift Apart” the developer Insomniac Games succeeds in creating comedy and pathos like in the big animated films and in telling a heartfelt story between interdimensional shifts and eyebrow flickering that touches everyone. Every.

7. Deathloop: 88 (PS5)

Immersive simulations are all about experimenting and planning, taking different paths and choosing one of many options. The ever-repeating day of “Deathloop” is the perfect prerequisite for this genre. While in “Dishonored 2” all attempts to forge different plans ended at the same quick save point, everything here is canonical.

Speaking of cannons: The gunplay in “Deathloop” is frenetic and determined, there is no mercy for botched executions, but you will be amply rewarded when you finally take out each of the eight targets whose death ends the time warp. Ah, that’s why it’s called that!

6. Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare: 88 (PC)

Didn’t you hear that? Brawls with muscular, sleeveless hoodie owners in 2D are cool again, as are jogging pants and vinyl. And with the “Mr. X Nightmare” expansion, the epitome of cool – “Streets of Rage 4” – becomes more accessible and sophisticated at the same time.

As the? First up, there’s a new workout area adorned with the traditional “Tron” -like lines that tell you, “This is a serious list of moves, focus”. Then there are new characters and weapons to master – and a survival mode where you must apply what you have learned at the highest level.

5. It Takes Two: 89 (PS4)

Fine co-op adventure maker Hazelight is back with yet another critically acclaimed game for two. In “It Takes Two” a couple who are about to divorce are magically placed in the bodies of two children’s toys. This distracts the couple from the argument and leads them into counseling on an equally humanized book called Doctor Hakim.

The interactions between the quarreling couple and the environment are charming and unique. The power of cloning or the freezing of time as a metaphor for the lack of appreciation for the other? This is a change from “jumping”, “using” and “hitting”.

A woman with a power sword fights aliens.

The crew and their enemies from “Mass Effect” have never looked better.

4. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition: 90 (Xbox One)

The editors really tried to keep reissues of existing games out of this list so that the actual new titles don’t get lost in the quagmire, but the “Legendary Edition” of “Mass Effect” is an exception that just has to be let through.

All three groundbreaking sci-fi role-playing games, complete with all DLCs (with the exception of “Pinnacle Code”) and with a contemporary graphic paintwork. That’s hundreds of hours of exciting quests in the company of some of the best characters in the genre.

3. Chicory: A Colorful Tale: 90 (PC)

It takes a lot of ingenuity to get a coloring game into a list of the best titles of the year. “Chicory: A Colorful Tale” does this by combining 2D platforming in the style of Zelda with fresh puzzles. Players have to use a magical brush to dip the monochrome world in the color that has been stolen from them. Some games are really better played than explained, okay?

2. Psychonauts 2: 91 (PC)

“Psychonauts 2” is the long-awaited sequel to the iconic action platformer classic from Double Fine. And to the delight of all fans, it continues exactly where the original left off. The game tells the story of a 10-year-old agent trainee in an airy, light, slightly wacky tone and offers original and intuitive 3D platforming – a welcome change from the many humor-free shooting games of our time. Or to put it another way: the wait was worth it.
A red sports car chases along a motorway.

Have you always wanted to do a car skydive? “Forza 5” delivers.

1. Forza Horizon 5: 91 (PC)

According to Metacritic, the best new game of 2021 takes its users to a comfortable drivable Mexico, where salt flats merge into desert and jungle in the side windows and the local authorities turn a benevolent eye on hypercars with 400 km / h on the speedometer. And, conveniently, nobody is bothered by the “festival” with its tents sprouting up everywhere, from which drum and bass music is blasting at a brute volume. Happy lawn!

Do games still belong to us?



Source link -62