Resident Evil Village has unanimously won EarlyGame's Game of the Year for 2021. Who were the nominees, who were the runners-up, and why has Resident Evil triumphed?
The year 2021 has been an interesting one, and that goes especially for all of us here at EarlyGame. It also goes especially for those of us whom hold a love and admiration for the video game industry. There have been a limited number of high quality games, far fewer than usually, and this has a lot to with the elephant that seems to be filling all of our rooms: Covid-19.
Now, this is one of the most fascinating factors in this year's selection of releases. So many games have been affected by the development hazards, precautions, and difficulties that come with making games during a global pandemic. In some cases, we've seen this having influenced the quality of games – for example, games like Call of Duty: Vanguard and Battlefield 2042 have been developed predominantly during the pandemic, and that didn't turn out very well for them.
All this being said, of course, the pandemic does not give excuses to developers and publishers for producing poor-quality games. Look at Halo Infinite, look at Resident Evil Village, look at Eastward, look at It Takes Two, all of these games are absolutely fantastic and have spent a large portion of their development time under covid-related restrictions. It might be the giant shade that hangs over the gaming industry this year, but it hasn't been a disaster.
How Did We Choose EarlyGame's Game of the Year 2021?
This year, we decided to do something different. Unlike our Game of the Year for 2020, which ended up being a "Top 10 Games of the Year" article, we decided to present an award to the best game that came out in 2021. Now, here's the catch: we didn't decide on EarlyGame's 2021 Game of the Year, our audience decided on that. After surveying a wide selection of EarlyGamers, we can up with a pretty fantastic selection of results, and thus a selection of runner-ups. Here's the data...
So, there you have it! What are the key takeaways? Well, Resident Evil Village is the clear winner here, and for good reason (we'll get into this below). Halo Infinite, Metroid Dread, Forza Horizon 5 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart all came in at a solid second/third. It was a surprise that all four of these games received the same score, but what was absolutely clear was that – with almost a third of the vote – Resident Evil Village is clearly our Game of the Year!
All this being said, though, with our runner-ups for second and third all tied, we decided to use our expertise to determine the rankings of our top games of 2021:
- Resident Evil Village
- Halo Infinite
- Metroid Dread
Our first, second and third place games. This might have been a weird year for games, but we can assure you that these are a reasonable selection of games. In fact, we would say that if you don't have a chance to play anything else, make sure you have checked out at least these three games...
Resident Evil Village is EarlyGame's Game of the Year for 2021!
Resident Evil Village, otherwise known as Resident Evil VIII, was an absolutely incredible gameplay experience in 2021. Full to the brim with atmospheric and gorgeously rendered environments, Capcom's latest entry in the Resident Evil franchise was astoundingly varied. Whilst the game did not have the same horror legs as its predecessor, Resident Evil Village did well to shake up the gameplay, bringing a fantastic blend of horror and action to the experience.
Now, yes, Lady Dimitrescu was not in the game as much as we had hoped, and at times the game did lean a little too hard on the action stuff. In the end, though, it's about what the people liked the most, and in this case, Resident Evil Village undoubtedly deserves the title of EarlyGame's Game of the Year in 2021. It has been a wild ride this year, and this game was an absolute joy. So? What now? Well, now it's time for 2022! Thank you for reading EarlyGame this year, we'll see you in 2022...
