2020 was a rough year for everyone. So rough, in fact, it was a nominee for MonsterVine’s “Dumpster Fire Moment of the Year.” 2020’s shadow still looms over us as we move forward, but there’s a lot to anticipate in 2021 (even if only because the last year was so terrible). Here are our most anticipated games in 2021.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Samantha: I’ve only played the first Ratchet & Clank so far, but the trailer for A Rift Apart made it look like it’ll be a lot of fun. By the time I play through the other games in the series, maybe I’ll have a PS5…
Will: As the last remaining Sony character action platformers from the PS2 era, I’ve only grown to love Ratchet & Clank more over time with its continued visual evolution and dedication to movie animation quality. With the PS5, Rift Apart is going to unlock new ways with the rift-bending gameplay that I can’t wait to mess around with. Into the multiverse!
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Will: Kena was shown off at the PS5 Reveal Event and it has captured my attention since then with its visual animation, gorgeous locales, and the fuzzy moss creatures called Rot. The combat looks frenetic and it appears the Rot will play an integral role in unlocking new powers and abilities to defeat the horrific spirits that infest the world.
Little Devil Inside
Will: Little Devil Inside began life as a Kickstarter funded project but has since emerged with a captivating story trailer from the PS5 Reveal. You take the role of a college professor investigating paranormal activities and the game is all about survival elements. Viewing the trailer, it captures a Victorian-style aesthetic with Monster Hunter combined with an Inside/Limbo feel. Bonus points for the violin score.
Stray
Will: Described as a cat adventure video game, Stray has you take the role of a lost cat in a decrepit, neon-soaked cyberpunk city. I’m intrigued by the setting but the fact also not many games explore this realm as a furry feline. A small indie studio in France is developing Stray and I am curious what adventures await.
Season
Will: In Season, you play as a young girl going for a bicycle ride while also documenting, taking pictures, and collecting artifacts. The premise has a mystery-based adventure mixed in with slice of life moments that has surely peaked my attention. Season gives off a Studio Ghibli look and I can’t wait to see more of it this year.
Goodbye Volcano High
Will: High school vibes, cinematic storytelling, and a kick ass soundtrack was all that is needed to sell me on Goodbye Volcano High. It reminds me of the first Life is Strange game, where the ultimate storytelling leads to a world ending choice. Of course, Goodbye Volcano High features dinosaurs and you know how that all went historically.
Solar Ash
Will: Ok everyone the Hyper Light Drifter developers made a new game and it’s like if Gravity Rush and Journey had a baby. Now go watch the trailer. End sentence.
NEO: The World Ends With You
Samantha: I love The World Ends With You. It is one of my favorite games, a must-play I recommend to everyone. Ever since I played the original, I wanted a sequel. I remember the countdown that ended only in a mobile port. I remember the anticipation after the mobile port ended in a tease that came to nothing. I remember hoping that the Final Remix released for the Switch would pave the way for us to finally get a sequel. Now, after all this time, it’s really happening. I was watching live when the countdown ended, and even though I’d been hoping it would be a sequel announcement, I was still stunned to see it become a reality. NEO: The World Ends With You looks incredible, and I can’t wait to see more of it. The first game’s Secret Reports opened up some interesting sequel possibilities, so it should be interesting to see if this expands on that or goes in a new direction. If NEO: The World Ends With You even comes close to being as good as the original, it’ll be a GOTY contender for me without a doubt.
God of War sequel
Samantha: Before 2018’s God of War, I’d never played a single game in the series, but I marathoned through them after seeing all the praise for the new one. It’s an incredible game in a great series, and the ending left me dying to see what will happen next. As a mythology fan, I have plenty of theories, too. The new God of War might be the first game to tip the scales in favor of me buying a PS5, because I want to play it as soon as it comes out.
Psychonauts 2
Samantha: Psychonauts is a hilarious, fun game with some really inventive ideas, and it’s another game I recommend to just about everyone. For it to get a sequel is a dream come true. I backed the crowdfunding campaign for Psychonauts 2, and although I had some concerns about whether it could live up to the original, the footage they’ve shown has that wacky Psychonauts feel I was looking for.
Tales of Arise
Samantha: I love what I’ve played from the Tales series, and the reveal of Tales of Arise blew me away. It’s a little concerning that we’ve seen barely anything about it so far, but I’m hopeful it’ll be a great game like its predecessor.
Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After
Samantha: I got into the Muv-Luv series after seeing all of the praise for it online. It’s one of the most highly-rated visual novel series ever. Well, it might not be my personal top favorite, but it deserves its reputation. After playing the originals and then the two side story collections that followed, I found myself wondering what Muv-Luv story would next be available in English. The answer is Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After, which should be coming out any minute now. It follows a dark timeline that I’m pretty interested in seeing more of, so I’ll be eagerly waiting for its release.
Nier Replicant ver. 1.22474487139
Samantha: I played the original Nier for the first time in 2019 because I wanted to experience it before moving on to Nier Automata. I loved it, and the upcoming Nier Replicant remake should be great. The combat looks so smooth and fluid… Normally I wouldn’t want to play a remake of a game I beat so recently, but in the case of Nier, I can’t help but be tempted.
Nick: I love Yoko Taro’s work when it’s not a gacha cell phone game and even though I’ve played the original Nier, I can’t express how excited I am that we’re finally getting brother Nier stateside. The combat in the original never really bothered me but I am so down to get a remaster of the original with a graphical and combat upgrade. I am just so damn excited for more Nier.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD
Nick: Nocturne is my least favorite Shin Megami Tensei game. It’s still a really good game but my first time playing it was in 2019 and it struggles to hold up. My anticipation for this title is wholly based on whether or not they continue to spruce up the Japanese version. Hearing that they fixed skill inheritance gives me a lot of hope, and makes me oh so eager to get my hands on Nocturne HD.
Loop Hero
Nick: Getting to preview Loop Hero has me really excited for the release, whenever it is. For some reason I really love management sims and always wanted a game like Loop Hero. I love the idea of sending a hero out to fight enemies and move lil’ pieces around to see how best I can exploit the game. Ugh, release it now!
Death Loop
Brian: Death Loop caught my attention last summer as something totally original. The protagonist, Colt, is stuck in a time loop and has to remember the actions and events going on around him each time the loop resets. It’s a clear avenue for intricate puzzle solving a la the Hitman series and (hopefully) provides a clever take on death in video games.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Brian: I still don’t fully know what Ghostwire: Tokyo is supposed to be about, but damn is that mystery alluring. It gives off vibes similar to Silent Hill and Prey though, so what’s not to look forward to?
Horizon Forbidden West
Brian: Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my favorites. There’s something about battling those giant animal mechs that never fails to satisfy. So, of course, I’m excited to see what’s in store for Aloy’s next adventure, and how the developers at Guerrilla Games craft it beautifully for the PS5.
Shin Megami Tensei V
Nick: I have a lot of thoughts about SMT V and I’ll likely put them in a feature ahead of the release but they could put out a lame spin-off game and I’d still be excited. Instead, Atlus just keeps kicking out the jams and making me excited for every release. A modern, console SMT V has me very excited and I’m pretty confident it’s going to be a truly excellent game. I haven’t met an SMT mainline game I didn’t like.
The Medium
Tom: I like the spooky, the weird, and the communist. I myself am spooky, weird, and communist. So when you’re telling me a bunch of Poles put together a psychological horror game where you’re a psychic mystery-solving mysteries and running into ghosts? You’re singing my song and it sounds a lot like Bela Lugosi’s Dead, which is one of my favorite songs. Everybody gothic dance! But seriously, weird Eastern European horror set in a run-down communist resort? It’s like they made it for me and it’s not even my birthday.
Hellish Quart
Tom: I put my titles on this list, then forgot about it until they started asking me things like “Why haven’t you filled out the list? When will you fill out the list? Is the list filled out yet?” Then I looked at this title and went “What a weird title, who put that down? Probably some idiot. Wait a second, it was me, wasn’t it?” Dear reader, it was me, an idiot. But if you embrace the weird title, what you will find is a wonderful concept: take a fighting game, but add in motion captured sword fighting and fencing techniques. It’s basically Mortal Kombat with sword duels and that includes the blood, limb removal, and ragdolling, but with added motion capture and real swords.
Nebuchadnezzar
Tom: Alright, everybody who remembers the ancient city builders like Caesar and Pharaoh put your hands up! Not all at once! Anybody besides the old guy in the back! Please? God, I’m old. Anyway, back when they built the pyramids, there was a genre of game where you built and ran ancient cities. Maybe you played Walk Like An Egyptian while you did because you were in touch with pop culture! Ha ha! Anyone? Oh god. Anyway, Nebuchadenezzar is hard to spell, but looks to be a throwback to the classic isometric city builder and as someone who loves nothing more than carefully planning monuments, setting up a small city economy, and fretting about my peasants, I’m pumped. You’ll see when I build my sarcophagus to carry me to my eternal glory. YOU’LL ALL SEE!
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
Tom: I don’t want to put too fine a point on it but Disco Elysium is the best video game ever made. See above notes about me being a depressed communist, but this is even better because you can be a depressed communist. It includes more weird quests, more weird locals, and an entirely new extra area and it will be a free upgrade for all existing owners, so it can hook right into your existing experience or you can start all over from scratch. Who doesn’t love an RPG about obscure communist politics? God knows I do!
Stronghold Warlords
Tom: The castle simulator was another “genre that was more popular before your HALO and your Fortnite” so this is another pick hotly anticipated by me, Monstervine’s Oldest Living Fossil. Firefly Studios returns to the Stronghold series with Warlords where you build and manage castles and, as the title cunningly employs, recruit and manage your warlords. Warlords takes us to Asia, so you get to build some sweet Japanese and Chinese-style castles, where you may lord it over all the peasants you know. Warlords is also introducing gunpowder siege weapons just in case they need a little more reminding who is the real warlord around here.
Outriders
Sean: The forgotten Polish developer has been on one hell of a journey in the last decade or so. Their Painkiller series was a love letter to old-school FPS before it was cool, becoming a cult classic soon after its release. Their follow-up titles included the Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgement, both working with Epic games with the latter bizarrely being re-released under Gearbox’s ‘indie’ label. For a time, People Can Fly would be rebranded Epic Games Poland, before splitting with the company and going solo once again, but still helped with an unknown game called Fortnite.
Outriders is their first new IP since all that happened. Going back to their FPS roots, Outriders looks fast, visceral and a possible return to form. That alone makes it worth keeping an eye on.
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin
Sean: If someone said a Quake 3 engine game would be something worth looking forward to in 2021…you’d be absolutely fine with that. After Ion Fury showed how old-tech can still do great things, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin looks set to flourish. Fast, gritty and showing promising signs in Early Access. Give us the full version and let’s be done with it.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
Sean: The first Bloodlines is a cult-classic. With some of the best writing and world-building in the industry, it’s hard not to fondly reflect on the doomed project from way back in 2004. Bloodlines 2 won’t be Bloodlines 1, it’ll try its damn hardest but already carries all the marks of a possible disaster. But hey, Troika made magic from a mess, so who knows!
Chivalry 2
Sean: Swing swords, make heads roll. Will probably be the victim of name calling at some point, but no one cares when there’s a battle axe to master.
Shadow Warrior 3
Sean: Shadow Warrior goes Doom Eternal. That’s cool.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Sean: Vermintide in Space. But not with Space Marines. That’s enough for me quite frankly.
Stalker 2
Sean: This thing is never coming out and most people have no idea what S.T.A.L.K.E.R is anyway. If anything, use this hype to play the originals (skip Clear Sky) and mod the living Breeki out of them.
