Red Pages Podcast
Red Pages Podcast Games of the Year 2021
Another year, same pandemic. The line-up of games this year was incredibly strong, but we must soldier ever onward, choosing the cream of the wheat. Here are this year's winners:
Blackhaven
Developed by Dr. James Coltrain, a American historian, game developer, a currently professor of game art at the University of Connecticut, Blackhaven is a walking sim style game where you play as Kendra Turner, working at her internship at a famous historical site dedicated to the (fictional) legacy of one of America's forgotten founding fathers, Thomas Harwood. As you play, Kendra discovers more about Harwood and his family than the public knows. The game deals with the very real issues that historians deal with every day: how are historical narratives told and presented to the public? Whose stories are privileged, and whose voices are silenced? In any retelling, certain ideas are always going to be given prominence over others; who gets to make decisions about what is highlighted and what is downplayed (or even hidden)? Blackhaven is not a flawless or frictionless game in how it plays, but it is a game I would recommend whole-heartedly. These are big subjects that a mature artistic medium absolutely should be tackling, and this game does an excellent job in that regard. Also, it's free. $0. Check it out.
Gnosia
I've been talking about Gnosia since it released in Japan as a PlayStation Vita exclusive in 2019, but 2021 was the year that it finally saw a worldwide release on Nintendo Switch. A game with staggering depth to its play, you're tasked with playing a version of the classic party game Mafia... except in a time loop, on a spaceship. There's a lot going on here, and any of your crewmates might be an imposter, a horrifying life form known as Gnosia. I still haven't played the other wildly popular Mafia-in-space game, but this one is aces, delivering a solo narrative experience and a cast of excellent characters that really sell the world. I cannot imagine what the conditional dialogue trees in this game look like. They must be mind-bending.
Runners-Up
- I don't have much to say here about Metroid Dread that hasn't already been said. Mercury Steam finally has hit their stride and made an excellent Metroid game. There's not much new here, but you get exactly what it promises on the box: Metroid.
- Another "exactly what it says on the box" game. I haven't been big on this franchise in the past, but this was some pure entertainment that got in and got out without a lot of bloat. Also features gaming's cutest baby.
- These mystery adventure games are pretty clunky by modern standards, but they're influential classics that, much like Gnosia, are finally seeing release internationally. I really love what this says about the way western gaming markets are evolving - a few years ago this would have had no chance of a global launch. Check them out if you can handle some aged design.
- I didn't actually play this but I got so much joy reading about other people playing it. Consider this a runner-runner-runner-up, but not for the game itself.