Games That I Own and Know I’ll Love, but Didn’t Make Time for in 2021

5) Retunal

This section is gonna hurt because I’m gonna mention some consensus Game of the Year candidates. But trust me, I promise I’ll talk more about why I didn’t play these obviously great games. But let’s start ripping off the bandaid with this first game, a game that, on paper, I have every reason to love. Back on the PS3, I liked a lot of Housemarque games, with Super Stardust HD and Dead Nation being my favorites from them. People have been comparing this game to Risk of Rain 2 thanks to its sci-fi aesthetic and roguelike structure. And the story seems to account for that repetitive structure in fascinating ways from what I’ve heard.

So, why haven’t I sat down to give Returnal a shot? Well, it’s simple, it seemed challenging. I’m not one to back down from a challenge if the gameplay is fun enough (I did adore The Surge 2 last year). But this year I just never found myself in the mood to tackle any game that threatened to delete hours of progress if I couldn’t keep up. I do own it, and now that I’ve expanded my storage, I have plenty of room on my PS5 for it as well. But one of these days when I have the energy to give it all of my attention, I will certainly get to it, as I’m sure I will love it.

 4) Psychonauts 2

This one is a bit of a long shot considering I have so little experience with the franchise, but I’ve been interested in Psychonauts 2 ever since hearing the impressions from those who have played it. The platforming already seemed like a blast, but the narrative and level design seemed to be truly next level. Just from the videos I’ve seen, it seems like there’s so much variety in the themes and settings in the game that I can’t imagine getting tired of the ride the game would take me on. Hell, I even started the original game back on PC ages ago to prepare. But alas, I’ve yet to finish, or even the PSVR side story that I also picked up. But I hope to get back to this series soon because the sequel sounds like one of the most well-written games of the past year.

3) Life is Strange: True Colors

Y’all know how much I love Life is Strange. The original game is my 11th favorite game of all time and I adored Before the Storm after finally getting around to it last year. But for whatever reason, I never quite got around to True Colors. I am interested in it, and the return of Steph definitely had me sold. But I’ve heard talk about the game and the story seems to be…a bit of a rollercoaster. I don’t mean that people have implied that the narrative fluctuates in quality, but more that the story has some devastating moments alongside its cozy atmosphere and welcoming characters. That just seems like it’d extract a lot of emotional energy from me, energy I just didn’t have for most of 2021. So, yea, I will get to it eventually, and likely love it, but I just haven’t yet.

2) Severed Steel

This is a more egregious one for me personally, even if it isn’t an entry in a franchise I already love. Take two games I never shut up about, Max Payne 3 and Titanfall 2, and combine the slow-motion action of the former and the parkour gunplay of the latter. That’s what you get in Severed Steel, a game I’ve had my eye out for since playing its demo several months ago. Well, I’ve yet to play it simply because I didn’t even pick it up until the final few weeks of 2021. And by then, I had already started working and planning for both my Video Essay listicle and our GOTY Deliberations. So, it wasn’t meant to be this past year, but I will certainly get to it, as it looks to be a shorter game with gameplay I already know I’ll love.

1) Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

This one is my highest priority, though to be honest, I almost never gave it a shot. Guardians of the Galaxy looked mediocre in pre-release footage and trailers, and the fact it was coming from the same publisher that released Marvel’s Avengers to middling reception wasn’t a great sign either. But once it dropped, many praised it for its incredible story and characters. So, thanks to that buzz, and some excellent Black Friday sales, I picked it up finally and am now halfway through it at the time of writing this. I’m actually enjoying the narrative just as much as everyone said I would, and tonally it has so many similarities to Saints Row IV that I’m actually upset someone didn’t use that fact to sell me on the game more aggressively beforehand. But I still haven’t quite seen all that the game has in store for me, so I included it here despite having a few hours of playtime in the game. Unlike other titles, like Deathloop, I don’t intend to leave it behind at all, and I may very well wrap it up within the next few weeks. But for now, I have to leave it on the backburner.