Eventually, my character unlocked an ability called, hilariously, “brain drive,” which might be the single most impressive visual feat I saw all year: The world melts away into a sublime synth wave of euphoria, replete with ludicrous damage boons. The combat is bananas our psionic freedom fighters fling massive payloads of rubble toward apartment-size monsters before diving in with their deadly cyber-katanas. I am usually not a huge fan of the cutscene-heavy JRPG, with a cast of teenage weirdos who spout dialogue that is entirely composed of elliptical exposition, but Scarlet Nexus is so brazen in its attempt to create a new multiverse-filled, Attack on Titan–like empire that I couldn’t help but give myself over. Oh, also, the story is divided up into two different, hefty, crisscrossing campaigns, starring dueling protagonists who both need to be completed in full before achieving even the faintest grasp of the narrative. There is definitely some time-travel stuff in there, and I think the moon is important somehow.

It has something to do with our brains, the encroaching authoritarianism of personal tech, and the macabre corporations that may or may not be turning people into horrific Escherian abominations beyond the city walls. I am hopelessly incapable of explaining the Scarlet Nexus plotline. Scarlet Nexus (PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X) Will 2021 be remembered as one of the great years for video games? Probably not, but it might go down as one of the most memorable.ġ0. Instead, we watched as the community circled around the oddball underbelly of the Steam charts - inventive shooters wistful RPGs a dodgeball game, of all things - stuff that would’ve been beaten into submission if a new Breath of the Wild were hanging over us. This year did not contain anything major from Rockstar or Naughty Dog or Nintendo. Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring both come out in the same week! How will any of us survive?Ĭataloguing our favorites of the year, we were again reminded of how the evacuation of certain canonical, discourse-sparking games afforded other, smaller players in the industry the chance to thrive.

Peering over the edge into 2022, we’re already bracing for the absolute gauntlet in January and February. In a year in which the calendar was unclogged by various COVID-related delays, we’re all still underwater. Huge triple-A releases like Age of Empires IV, Forza Horizon 5, and Halo Infinite just made landfall, and indie studios continue to keep pace with Inscryption, The Artful Escape, and Sable. But it’s now December, and I, at least, am once again hopelessly behind. We kicked off 2021 expecting a dry year for video-game releases, finally giving us all the time to chip away at our backlogs. Photo-Illustration: Vulture Photos by Devolver Digital, Turtle Rock Studios, Torn Banner Studios, Bethesda Software and Consumer Soft Products

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