2021 has been a… weird year. There have been some big letdowns and some interesting surprises. So, without further ado, here is our GOTY 2021 list. Do note that these are the games we enjoyed the most. They are NOT the most optimized PC games of 2021. Our list for these games will, most likely, go live tomorrow.
Spencer‘s GOTY 2021 – Psychonauts 2
A sequel I’d been awaiting for some time and was somewhat concerned about given it’s origin as a crowd funded title (pour one out for Shenmue 3). I think many of us who enjoyed the first Psychonauts went into Psychonauts 2 with baited breath. Prior to Microsoft’s buy-out of Double Fine I know I was worried about the studio’s ability to make a worthy sequel within such a tight budget. Those concerns would have proven out without Microsoft as it was confirmed that without Microsoft’s funding a significant amount of content would have hit the cutting room floor.
Instead the game we ended up with was imaginative, a strong 3D platformer with clever level design in its own right and some of the more fun I’ve had with boss fights in the genre since 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey. I binged the game across 3 days on a vacation and while I don’t play video games for their writing one would be doing a disservice to bring up Psychonauts 2 and not mention the game’s excellent sense of humor and storyline — still unique 20ish years later. Now we need that Brutal Legend sequel.
Nick McCaskey‘s GOTY 2021 – Nioh 2
Nioh 2 harkens back to a time of pure action gameplay, with the most technically rich and rewarding combat system. Throw in great level design, varied enemy encounters, and a delicious loot system. Anchor it with an optimized game engine, smooth framerates, and nice graphics. Then there’s the Far East mysticism narrative and plenty of ninjas and samurais for style points. On top of all that, you get a trove of content with gameplay modes, extra playthroughs, and a deep end game.
For all the reasons above, Nioh 2 has been my go-to game for 2021 when I want to lose myself for an hour or two in a brutal but fair world that punishes me for sloppiness and pushes me to play smarter and be better. That may not sound relaxing to some, but there is a joy in going at my own pace, knowing that each level conquered is something achieved because of my dedication to learning, growing, and overcoming.
In summary, many games coddle and pamper players. Nioh 2 is like a good martial arts instructor: it grips you to your core and calls you to be more than you were before. I bow to you, masterful Nioh 2!
Pieter Naude‘s GOTY 2021 – It Takes Two
Two-player co-op games have seen remarkable progress over the last decade as several studios have become exceedingly creative in terms of story, gameplay and player interaction. These developers have produced games that feel more like a true adventure you can share with another player, and Josef Fares proved himself as one of the key visionaries pushing those limits of the genre.
His newest masterpiece, It Takes Two, made a concerted effort to incorporate everything we have come to love about taking on a game with a companion and gave players a variety of worlds to explore in glorious detail. Believe me when I say that this shining gem was packed to bursting point with hours of fun excursions. In fact, when Fares and his team at Hazelight couldn’t come up with a story-based reason to include a mini-game, it was added as an optional side activity anyway so boredom is simply out of the question in It Takes Two.
This is why It Takes Two is without a doubt the best game I reviewed in 2021 since it is extremely rare to see this level of polish and refinement go hand-in-hand with so much variety in gameplay. Get your copy, grab a friend and prepare yourselves for something truly special.
John Papadopoulos‘ GOTY 2021 – Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
To be honest, I’ve played and enjoyed a lot of PC games this year. While Halo Infinite had numerous tech/optimization issues, its single-player campaign was great. Similarly, Guardians of the Galaxy and Kena: Bridge of Spirits were pleasant games. Resident Evil Village and Hitman 3 were also some really great games. And, if there wasn’t one particular game, Tales of Arise would have been my GOTY 2021. However, nothing came close to my experience with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.
Yes, this is basically a remaster of an older game. However, this is the first time that Yakuza 6 comes to the PC. As such, we can consider it a new game. And, the fact that an old game has better characters and storyline than almost all the latest games speaks volumes about its quality.
Yakuza 6 is an incredible experience and I really don’t want to spoil anything about it as it’s, more or less, the end of Kiryu’s saga. It has numerous side-quests, interesting characters, and an amazing story. It also plays great with the Keyboard & Mouse, so that’s a big plus for the PC version.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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My goty ashes 2063. Also play terminator resistance its similar and got a dlc recently.
Aha! If mods count, in that case, yes, it’s definitely a major one.
Along with a few others. It was a great year overall for Doom mods.
what others? All i do is play old games and mods these days.
Can they commercialize the game with freedom wad?
Yakuza series is a GOTY for me as well.
i wish we could play Judgment or Ishin on PC.
Where is Cyberpunk? https://media1.giphy.com/media/VtwHD2fcAmhJ6/giphy.gif
2020 game
And non GOTY material
Everybody has already forgotten this disaster.
best atmosphere: Resident Evil Village
best story: The Medium
best graphics and scenery: The Ascent
best indie game: In Sound Mind
everything else sucked big time, horrible year for gaming
ah crap i forgot about sound mind.
Yakuza 6 Was very underwhelming to me aside from the final fight which was incredibly badass
but the story was surely a stepdown compared to 0 and Kiwami 2 if you ask me.
Like a Dragon is master race now though
Rough year.
YAKUZA 6? O NO michi.
before i read https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvJ91D-N29g
While the west continues to descent in incompetence and laziness koreans are making the machinimas that people in the west made 10 years ago.
I liked it. Not that bad.
“koreans are making the machinimas that people in the west made 10 years ago.”
Including the outdated graphics? My modded Stalker looks better than that. It was interesting tough, but nothing amazing, it’s just a showcase of features in the franchise, i have seen better fan based movies.
REVIII was ok.
It was a decent game. But I felt kind of disappointed. I really like RE7 and being a continuation of that game it just wasn’t as good.
I like the Ascent the most. The game feels like an upgraded version of alienation(ps4).
yes!! Pretty good game!
It is a great games but it needs much more polish and yes it’s like a Housemarque game like Dead Nation and Alienation, I stiil want Dead Nation 2 I loved that game.
for me :
1-chivalry 2
2-ready or not (early access though)
3-deathloop/resident evil : village
4-it takes two
5-psychonauts 2
6-halo infinite
GOTY 2021: The Indie Game scene
Tetris Effect on Steam, The Riftbreaker, Valheim, Inscryption, Rimworld: Ideology, The Ascent were my fav release’s this year.
Still struggling to understand the hype/review scores for Halo Infinite. That campaign was so damn uninspired. Walking through copy/paste lifeless boring hallways. The open world part was decent for a bit. But it didn’t feel like anything new. Then it just went downhill again. Glad I only spent a single dollar on a trial of game pass to play it.
Is Halo, they will praise regardless. Sames goes for every first party Nintendo series, Or Kojima game.
I completely agree!
Seems to be the case.
Halo infinite campaign looks quite underwhelming from what’ve seen so far. Not Bungie’s level of quality for sure.
The lack of variety in enviroments and situations, the lack of coop even with the delays….343 didnt evem try this time. But the hook is new!!! (a fine addition, but nothing mind blowing)
I forgot about the hook when playing.There isn’t really any reason for it. How the hell were they going to release this last year. And still… they couldn’t even copy and paste co-op campaign code from all the previous games and bring it over. What an embarrassment of a game release.
it was not broken trash or a looter shooter at a time that evey game is just that.
Halo and Forza once again and they both got a pass for being the same exact games.
I really dont understand the praise for Forza 5, when is exactly like 4 with slightly better visuals. Same cars, the biomes aren’t that different even in Mexico…i guess people likes tacos.
Oh you can pick your non binary pronoun of course!
“Walking through copy/paste lifeless boring hallways.”
Was they trying to appeal to nostalgia?
Most of the latest AAA games aren’t worth your time.
Glad to see It Takes Two made this list.
Absolutely phenomenal game and one of the most well executed split-screen/co-op games ever made.
Glad to see your crappy taste.
Par for the course that you think this game is crappy. It requires friends to play after all.
It also requires your friends to be gay in order to play it.
I don’t think you need to worry about that if you don’t have friends.
I think you have plenty to worry about tho’.
You’re right, I worry about you.
Awwww…
Any mod to restore Nyotengu tetas?
Fair. there were 0 good game released this year and 0 good game will be released in 2022.
The Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos
For me It Takes Two was the most unique experience, beside that Guardians of the Galaxy and Returnal where awesome games specially GOG.
Good thing virgins like yourself have a lot of spare time to catch up on that backlog.
I’m someone who’s felt a womans touch, you should try it. Your mother doesn’t count.
Aw, typical virgin comeback. Very cute. I understand though, it must be really frustrating. Good thing you have DSOG to vent. Happy new year!
nioh 2 is bloated imo it is fun but the game size for what you get is crazy. And have a very good pc because all the on screen junk flying etc takes a lot of power, it’s fairly buggy but I was able to finish the version you’re talking about. Codex probably has a few updates since then though. Sekiro is a more focused higher quality in the similar vein.
Resident Evil: Village, Tales of Arise and Trails of Cold Steel IV are my top games. Nothing else stands out to me.
Only time will tell about Kingdom Come 2.
How the hell can anyone say It Takes Two is ‘excellent’ with a straight face? It’s the epitome of casual fodder.
25 brain-dead mini-games (zero seconds given for the player to think, everything is literally spelled out for you) separated by 2-minute pure digital cancer cutscenes. Irredeemably annoying characters, Horizon Zero Dawn’s level of feminazi (we get it, the guy is a clueless idiot and the woman is Einstein Incarnation, no need to spell it out after every damned mini-game), stupid premise and an even stupider plot. And of course, a terribly written story cannot go without a sh*tty ending.
Then you see all that praise and start wondering, WTF happened? How do people have standards so low that trash passes as ‘masterpieces’ nowadays?
Nowadays the most trash pozzed stories get the most praise, just look at the walking sim games hailed for their pozz ridden story: Life is Strange, Undertale, Hellblade, etc.
Any mod to restore Nyotengu t*ts?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrSMHnwWZWM
My favorite games in 2021 :
– Encased – A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG
I guess this is the one I enjoyed the most, although it left me wanting for more. I hope they’ll work on a sequel, but more content is coming, apparently! It definitely needs more quests. Definitely the best Fallout 1/2 alternative since Atom RPG.)
– Tennis Elbow 4 (early access!)
I play tennis games since the Megadrive and this is the best and most realistic tennis game ever made. Ultra-addictive for us tennis fans. ?)
I don’t count the countless remakes/remasters which came out.
(still waiting for Exhumed and Kingpin remasters)
Not counting mods either, like Black Mesa – Blue Shift (not finished, I think), or Doom – Ashes 2063.
Overall, it has been one of the poorest years ever, though.
I think I have never seen in my life as few good games being released.
Now I have a question for you all : What game are you waiting for release the most in 2022? ??
Game of the year is Hunt Showdown. That game f*king rules.
Deathloop is probably the best game released this year but it has crashes that ruin the game because of the way it saves.
Hunt Showdown is a fine game but it came out in 2018 so it doesn’t belong on this list.
Warhorse got bought out by (((THQ Nordic))). KCD 2 will be pozzed. I highly doubt it won’t they even were harassing the main guy for not including n0gs and f4gs in the game.
Just like ELEX II. I think they added some poz into it.
To me the most memorable and fun games to come out in 2021 were indies like ender lillies, unsighted, sable, grime, unpacking, cyber shadow, skul and deaths door but they are niche for sure. I liked pyschonauts 2(about half way atm), nioh 2 and yakuza 6(although my least favorite besides 7). What about FH5? have not played it yet.