2021 Backlog Thread

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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,066
9,321
136
Playing Pyre at the moment. Supergiant's forgotten gem between Transistor and Hades.

A little quirky, but has that traditional "AAA Indie Game" feel that SuperGiant brings to all of its games.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,422
2,861
126
i have added 1 game to my library, and have not touched it yet, some sort of WipeOut clone.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,657
597
126
January - Hades + Darksiders
February - Darksiders 2
March - Dawn of War Soulstorm + Unification Mod
April - Warhammer 2 Total War, Company of Heroes 2, Trine 4 (not going to play Trine 3 since it's just a flaming pile of garbage)
May - Just Cause 3
June - Shadow of War + DLCs
July - Dishonored, Noita, Darksiders 3 (cont.)
August - Darksiders 3, Ori and the Blind Forest DE
September - Backlog hiatus, Mark of the Ninja Remastered, Deadbolt
October - The Fall, The Fall Part 2: Unbound, Rimworld Royalty DLC, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms + Iron Plague Expansion
November - Rampage Knights, Risk of Rain 2

Risk of Rain 2 needs to be in bold due to how good this sequel has been. I'm currently still playing it, but I've unlocked and seen about 75% of the total content and I feel like I know enough to be able to write a review. First of all, if anyone was a fan of the first game, this should be an immediate purchase. I grabbed it on sale during the early access phase and it still regularly goes on sale and for the content available, it's more than worth the price. Secondly, while the first game was a very difficult 2D side-scroller Roguelite, the sequel is a full 3D game and still just as difficult but with way more content. The characters have been fleshed out so they are all incredibly unique with very different playstyles who all have their own unlocks. On the subject of unlocks, while the game is very difficult, as you learn and progress through, you'll inevitably unlock new items or characters almost every time you play. The upside is that you can go into the Logbook and see the requirements to unlocking new items or characters. Lastly, the sheer amount of hidden content is quite staggering considering how little hidden/secret content existed in the first game so it's always a nice change of pace to discover something completely new after playing for 60+ hours.

I had a lot more I was planning on saying about this game, but I think if there's any RoR fans out there, they likely already know about this game and have already played it, but for anyone who loves difficult indie games that are made by developers who actually care about their games and communities, definitely check this game out. I normally will play through an indie game enough times to see the full story (looking at you Hades, you absolutely gorgeous game), but I can confidently say that I will get 100% of achievements for this game. Not a single one is locked behind co-op and everything is more than doable so long as you just stick with it long enough to learn how to survive with the character that you're playing.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,066
9,321
136
Completed Pyre, will do a write-up later.

What an underrated gem of a game, another one that is luring me with a second playthrough even if replaying games isn't my thing right now.
 

Artorias

Platinum Member
Feb 8, 2014
2,237
1,543
136
Halo CE Anniversary
Halo 2 Anniversary
Halo 3
Homeworld 1 Remaster
Halo 3: ODST
Ruiner
Halo: Reach
Halo 4
Samorost 3

Well looks like I've been side tracked since May. Completed Samorost 3 a couple months ago, fun point and click puzzle adventure however a little on the short side.

2021

Halo CE Anniversary
Halo 2 Anniversary
Halo 3
Homeworld 1 Remaster
Halo 3: ODST
Ruiner
Halo: Reach
Halo 4
Samorost 3
Monster Hunter World
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Just finished Monster Hunter World and the expansion Iceborne. What an epic adventure and awesome expansion, the Iceborne expansion is an entire games worth of extra content. Clocked in at 220 hours to finish the main story but I did do quite a bit of grinding playing around with different weapons. The gameplay is just so damn fun. Apparently the real game only starts once you finish the story haha, a lot of post game content which is great.
 
Reactions: Fenixgoon

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,066
9,321
136
Just completed Expendabros. Its more Broforce, so can't go wrong there.

Its also a standalone item in Steam despite basically being a 1 hour Broforce Demo. Gonna count it as a "cleared game" regardless...

Gotta pump those numbers up to keep up with @Stg-Flame...
 
Reactions: Stg-Flame

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,994
12,350
136
2021

Halo CE Anniversary
Halo 2 Anniversary
Halo 3
Homeworld 1 Remaster
Halo 3: ODST
Ruiner
Halo: Reach
Halo 4
Samorost 3
Monster Hunter World
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Just finished Monster Hunter World and the expansion Iceborne. What an epic adventure and awesome expansion, the Iceborne expansion is an entire games worth of extra content. Clocked in at 220 hours to finish the main story but I did do quite a bit of grinding playing around with different weapons. The gameplay is just so damn fun. Apparently the real game only starts once you finish the story haha, a lot of post game content which is great.
i thought MH:W was more of an open-world/sandbox game and that there wasn't really any story. i may have to pick it up now!
 

Artorias

Platinum Member
Feb 8, 2014
2,237
1,543
136
i thought MH:W was more of an open-world/sandbox game and that there wasn't really any story. i may have to pick it up now!

There is a story but that's not the main attraction, it's there as an excuse to hunt monsters mostly.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,066
9,321
136
F'ed around with a couple different games in a bid to close out the year with one more under the belt.

Don't Starve - Charming graphics and fun concept, but the roguelike elements were wearing on me fast. Looks like a fun game to sit down and really go deep on, but that's just not my gaming habit nowadays.

Blood Bowl Legendary Edition - Warhammer + Football + Turn Based Strategy all sounds like it would be my thing, and it likely is, but the Tutorial involving dice rolls and dozens of rules with dozens of modifiers just made my eyes glaze over a bit. I'm sure it's another fun one to just play and learn on the go.

Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath - probably the last good command and conquer we'll ever get, pretty lite on overall playtime focusing on quality over quantity. Thinking this is the game I settle on for December.

Downloaded Titan Quest Anniversary as well. Been a while since I've powered through a good Diablo-like, but game length made me take pause on this.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,994
12,350
136
I'm not sure I actually beat Tainted Grail: Conquest, but I'm going to say I did because I want to move on to Horizon Zero Dawn.
Tainted Grail is a card game meets roguelike/lite (whichever). Each run you can open up new classes, new buffs, new cards, etc. And of course the game is ripe for hyper optimization (which I'm not good at) if you're one of those people. Onto HZD!
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,066
9,321
136
Got a surprise game completion today: Castle Crashers by Behemoth.

Played the game years ago on my friend's Xbox360 and loved its sense of humor and couch co-op gameplay. Picked up the game on Steam years later as a nice co-op game to play with my then 3-4 year old daughter. We've picked at the game slowly but steadily over the years (would sometimes play another Behemoth game BattleBlock theater when we got stuck in CC). In the interim period my son was born, and he's now 5 and my daughter is 9. He started playing with us as soon as he could hold a controller (and actually inadvertently got me an achievement for going through the entire first act of the game without attacking anyone).

After getting stuck on the dragon sock puppet boss for while, over the last few months we have quickly progressed as the game has snapped for my son (daughter has been there for a while) and we just blasted through the last quarter of the game today. This is really patient gaming, this game completion has been in the works for literally 12-13 years.

First game I've ever beaten with my kids, no less. Certainly won't be the last!
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,066
9,321
136
Closing out the year strong by wrapping up Command and Conquer 3: Wrath of Kane.

Its more Command and Conquer 3, ain't nothing wrong with that. Story is a bit disjointed and was obviously meant for a major launching off point for C&C 4 that never really came (from what I understand).

Doubt I'll get another game completion in here before the end of the year.

Funny, I thought I'd have less time to game this year and it turns out more the opposite has been true! Holding out hope for 2022!
 

JujuFish

Lifer
Feb 3, 2005
11,388
1,026
136
Yeah, I failed again. I did at least *try* most of my list. I didn't get to Celeste, Grimrock, Indivisible.

On a related note, I played more new games this year than I usually do. Favorites were Psychonauts 2 and Metroid Dread.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,994
12,350
136
Horizon Zero Dawn!

Started up Metal Gear Solid V - my brother purchased this forever ago. but it's definitely not going to make the 2021 cutoff lol
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,657
597
126
About six hours late but...

January - Hades + Darksiders
February - Darksiders 2
March - Dawn of War Soulstorm + Unification Mod
April - Warhammer 2 Total War, Company of Heroes 2, Trine 4 (not going to play Trine 3 since it's just a flaming pile of garbage)
May - Just Cause 3
June - Shadow of War + DLCs
July - Dishonored, Noita, Darksiders 3 (cont.)
August - Darksiders 3, Ori and the Blind Forest DE
September - Backlog hiatus, Mark of the Ninja Remastered, Deadbolt
October - The Fall, The Fall Part 2: Unbound, Rimworld Royalty DLC, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms + Iron Plague Expansion
November - Rampage Knights, Risk of Rain 2
December - Chronicon, Far Cry 5, A Valley Without Wind, Torchlight 2

Total games + Expansions completed - 26.

Chronicon - It's an indie dungeon looter in the vein of Diablo 2, Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, etc. with a rather robust skill system that is completely overshadowed by the fact that the game is built around speed. If you're a speed-runner, then this is the game for you. If you're the type who loves to traipse around a dungeon so you can find every last bit of treasure, then this is definitely not the game for you since you gain more bonuses the faster you kill and the longer you keep killing. At first, this isn't an issue and it's actually incredibly fun to piece together a build that can clear entire dungeons with relative ease and it's also really exciting to see how high you can get that kill counter, but once you realize you now have to backtrack across the entire goddamn level just to collect your loot or press forward for higher bonuses, the allure for speed and bonuses quickly turns into a chore because you're not 100% sure, but you think you saw a legendary item drop back at the start or you may have missed a portal or chest lingering in one of the side-rooms and now you have to make the decision whether or not to go back and look for loot or keep going for higher bonuses. I had to really push myself to finish this game because if you take it slow, you'll be lacking in levels and if you take it fast, you'll be spending 75% of your time backtracking. Fun game for a while which wears really thin really fast which is also a huge travesty considering the end-game is where you finally see your skills really shine.

Far Cry 5 - **** this game.

AVWW - Incredibly weird game that I picked up ten years ago because a guy I met in Team Fortress 2 told me he was creating an RPG and from the way he described it, it sounded amazing. What we got was... difficult to explain. All I can say is that the trailer at the time I picked it up looked great but 99% of the features in the trailer were half-implemented or scrapped entirely. I've played it multiple times but never finished it and even though I finally completed it a couple weeks ago, I still can't really explain it because it doesn't really fit into any genre. The entire game is confusing from start to finish and you just have to meander around until you figure things out. Don't spend money for this game.

Torchlight 2 - I'm kinda cheating here in that I haven't technically beat the final boss though I have fought him a few times (technical issues arose and I'm not pushing my GPU at the moment with extended sessions), but I don't feel like I experienced enough of the game to do it justice. It seems like a type of game that needs to be played with multiple classes to be able to give it a fair review. TL2 is a game I played when it first came out, but I put it down after about 10 hours and every subsequent attempt at playing always lead to the same result of getting to the second area/act and just getting bored. The glitches were numerous back in the day but they seem to have fixed all of the major ones I remember so that's a plus. I can also say that playing as the Embermage feels like flicking the "Easy Mode" switch because from the very start of the game, there was never a single enemy or boss that made me utilize any form of strategy. Hell, I don't think I used any health potions out of necessity the entire game because everything just kept exploding off-screen. I'd watch my pet start to aggro in a direction, fire off a few prismatic bolts, then walk over and collect some loot. I'll definitely do a second play-through with some heavily-recommended mods to give it a proper testing, but I think this can wrap up 2021.

I also continued to play Escape From Tarkov through the entire year but since that game is still being made and it's more akin to a MMOFPS, you can't technically beat the game so I can't count it yet.

Oddly enough, this was actually far more enjoyable than just doing my normal thing. Actually pushing myself to complete a game once I started it was a different challenge, but also gave me a goal to work towards instead of just playing something until I wanted to play something else.
 
Reactions: Fenixgoon

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
8,066
9,321
136
Dead Space (Completed)
The Talos Principle (Completed)
FarCry 3: Blood Dragon (Completed)
Metal Dead (Completed)
Inside (Completed)
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
(Completed)
Broforce (Completed)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Completed)
Dishonored 2 (Completed)
Pyre (Completed)
Expendabros (Completed)
Castle Crashers (Completed)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Awakening (Completed)
Shadowrun: Dragonfall (Completed)
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
(Completed)
Darksiders (Completed)
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
(Completed)
Ori and the Blind Forest (Completed)
The Banner Saga (Completed)

- My final headcount is 19 games completed in 2021, which is a god damn miracle for a married guy with a mortgage and two kids (none of which are on the rocks). Think I've written a review on each and every one , so no need for me to go into details here, but if there was a game of 2021 for me, it would be Pyre.

Supergiant games just knows what they're doing in the story telling department, and they're no slouches at making compelling gameplay either. While their tight focus and scope are their strengths, I would love to see a "full length" proper RPG from them at some point. It would stand to be the next Chrono Trigger or Secret of Mana.

Broforce also deserves an honorable mention just because it really embodies a lot of modern gaming trends: a drive toward clean, simple, fun gameplay/graphics/mechanics. Its no Farcry 6 or Halo Infinite or Battlefield but you never hear anyone bitching and moaning about it either. More or less have to love it for what it is.

On to 2022 then...
 
Reactions: Stg-Flame
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