Top 10 BEST Games of 2021

For Gaming Industry 2021 was a big year from the beginning of a new console generation to several surprise hits to the launches of numerous games that fans had been anticipating for years the last 12 months were marked by a number of momentous occasions as we look back on the year and all that it brought with it there's no shortage of excellent games to celebrate and here that's exactly what we're going to do join us as we count down gaming bolt's favorite games of the year starting our game of the year for 2020. note all entries and rankings were decided by an internal vote held among the entire gaming community.

Number 1: Game Of The Year Final Fantasy 7 Remake

 So in 1997 square Enix released final fantasy 7 on the PlayStation and changed the face of the industry setting a new standard for strong characters storytelling in games and what a globetrotting epic adventure can look like in this medium in 2005 Enix toyed with the hearts of millions when they showed off a glorious tech demo of a reimagined final fantasy 7. To show off what their new tools could accomplish on the PlayStation 3 and demand for a remake grew that demand grew to epic proportions over the course of the next decade and in 2015 the promise was made at last after five more years of restless anticipation final fantasy 7 remakes.  Finally came out in 2020 and really there was no way the game could have lived up to all of the hype and yet that's exactly what it did final fantasy 7 remake is incredible. 

we can say that without any reservations it makes the bold decision to only cover the first five hours of the original game and spread them out over a full-fledged 30-hour long rpg it makes the bold decision to make some shocking changes to the original story with twists that you will not see coming it makes bold decision after bold decision and impossibly enough it never misses a beat final fantasy 7 remake looks gorgeous it tells an excellent story that keeps both newcomers and veteran fans on their toes it has a spectacular combat system that is the culmination of years of attempts to blend action and turn-based fighting it brings its cast of characters to life in a way that surpasses even our wildest expectations it has a brilliant soundtrack there is just so much to love in this game so much that refuses to buckle under the weight of 15 years of anticipation so much that should not have worked but works like a dream it's the best final fantasy game in years and a dream come true for everyone who was waiting for this moment for literally over a decade.

Game Treasure:

" Hey are you okay I'm fine here this is for you huh  a flower that's right it's a gift you know for scaring those things away what things never mind think of it as a memento just my luck I heard that you know how much well that depends on the customer in your case it's on the house lovers used to give these when they were reunited look I'm involved in things dangerous things oh I'm sure you so so keep your distance"

Number 2: Ori in the will of the wisps

So ori in the will of the wisps alongside the likes of axiom verge and hollow knight ori in the blind forest has often been credited for bringing about the resurgence of the metroidvania genre in recent years its sequel ori in the will of the wisps does what most sequels can only ever dream of doing it blows its already legendary predecessor out of the water in almost every way imaginable blind force burrowed its way into our hearts thanks to its beautiful visuals and music its tight platforming and intricate level design and of course its unexpectedly moving storytelling will of the wisps does all of that but does it much much better but it's not satisfied with just those iterative improvements it also brings in a completely new and significantly improved combat system one that is constantly flashy and thrilling and shines bright as a star on more than one occasion especially in the spectacular boss fights the world you explore is also much larger the level design much more intricate the new progression system much more layered and engaging the side activities just as engaging as the critical path itself ori in the will of the wisps is an unrelenting triumph that firmly establishes moon studios as one of the best metroidvania developers in the industry calling it one of the best games in the xbox one's library and one of the best games to have ever been published by microsoft would not be an exaggeration in the slightest 

Number 3: Demon Souls

 From software changed the industry in 2009. in most cases a statement like that is a tad hyperbolic at best and a gross exaggeration at worst but when it comes to demon souls that's a cold hard fact remaking a game with that kind of a legacy would be a daunting task for even the most talented developers in the world but as blue point games have proven over the years they are never ones to back down from a challenge and just as they did with shadow of the colossus in 2018 they have developed an excellent recreation of demon souls in 2020 that grueling challenge that sense of elation when you overcome an insurmountable obstacle those thrilling boss fights those gothic and beautiful environments all of those things that made the original demon soul so iconic are present and accounted for in the remake they are in fact even better than before on top of that as the only major next-gen exclusive game we've seen so far demon souls is also a visual showcase that hints at exciting technological advancements for the medium in the years to come

Number 4:  The Last Of Us 2

The last of us part two there are many who say that the last of us didn't really need a sequel  and for a while it seemed like naughty dog agreed with that notion the first game ended on such a strong note that capped off its story in such spectacular fashion that a sequel seemed completely unnecessary when naughty dog did decide to go ahead with that sequel they could have very easily just given us more of the same and everybody would have been more than happy with a game like that but they decided to take a risk and though there are many who feel it didn't pay off we feel it absolutely did the last of us part two tells a bold story and it tells it in typically impactful and confident fashion yes it falters every now and then and it's not as airtight as its predecessor was but it's incredibly ambitious and the net result is still a massive win beyond that on the gameplay side of things this is easily naughty dog's best work ever excellent ai immaculate level design tense stealth and scrappy combat all come together to make for one of the best linear stealth horror games we've ever played just as they did with the last of us naughty dog have sent the ps4 off with a staggering achievement in the last of us part two and we cannot wait to see what they do next 

Number 5:  Half-life: ALYX

Half-life Alyx half-life 3 still isn't confirmed but this year valve gave us half-life 3 in all but  name after a torturously long hiatus not just for the series but for valve as a aaa developer as well they returned to the spotlight with half-life Alex and predictably enough they stole the show making a long-anticipated full-fledged half-life sequel that is playable exclusively in VR was a bold choice but you only need to play the game once to know that alyx really would not have worked out as well as it does any other way it tells a typically strong story in true half-life fashion it combines first-person shooting and horror expertly but what's most impressive about this game is how immersive and interactive it feels in its intricately developed VR environments the gravity gloves are a perfect encapsulation of valve's unbridled genius and the painstaking detail that every single room and environment in the game exhibits tells you all you need to know about why we had to wait so long for the next great half-life game and yes it was absolutely worth the wait

Number 6: Dreams 

Dreams media molecules the little big planet franchise was always at its best when it was focusing on its play create share mechanics the actual platforming itself was mostly rather unremarkable dreams has been in the works in some form or another for nearly a decade and while that might seem like an unusually long amount of time anyone who's played this game if it can even be called a game would tell you that that was time well spent the sheer breadth of creation tools at your disposal here is staggering but what makes them even more impressive is that dreams manages to present those tools to players in surprisingly accessible and enjoyable ways it's a game development engine that's also a game a game that shows that creating games can be just as fun as playing them and what's most impressive about dreams is that it's a platform in and of itself one that will hopefully continue to be fostered and continue to grow and improve even further for years to come

Number 7: Persona 5

Persona 5 royal most developers would be satisfied with releasing a 100 hour long rpg that's widely considered to be one of the greatest games ever made atlas is not most developers atlas took that 100-hour long seminal RPG and turned it into a 130 hour long unabashed masterpiece persona 5 royal improves upon the vanilla persona 5 so convincingly it pretty much makes the original game meaningless in retrospect from combat to dungeon design to countless little quality of life improvements that make the game's slice of life mechanics even better persona 5 royal is brimming with enhancements that build on each other in significant ways on top of that there's a huge chunk of new content here for both newcomers and returning fans to experience and that content is probably some of the best that the persona team has ever produced which is high praise indeed yes it is a massive time investment but like all good investments it's also an incredibly rewarding one

Number 8: Animal Crossing

Animal crossing new horizons do you want to play a game about watering flowers catching bugs and paying off loans you don't, yeah you do  you really do animal crossing is all about doing that mundane stuff ad nauseum and it somehow made that formula work for years on end and it works better than ever in new horizons there's a magical quality to animal crossing's charm that cannot be put into words and that shines through brighter than ever in this year's switch outing as you begin setting up shop on your very own deserted island you might not be expecting to have much fun but new horizons like all animal crossing games creep up on you out of nowhere and boom before you know it hundreds of hours have passed and you're obsessing over buying that one couch that will fit perfectly in the living  room of the house that you've spent hours and hours paying off exorbitant loans for we know that doesn't sound fun but it is way more than it should be  numbers more easily are always welcome you also have more screen space to work with thanks to party member icons being less intrusive along with all of the old content receiving a graphical facelift and other quality of life changes there is new story content to experience dubbed future connected this is essentially an epilogue taking place one year after the events of the base game

Number 9: Hades 

Hades supergiant games have never missed the mark with any of their games starting with bastion then with the underrated transistor then with the unique pyre they have constantly driven to develop fresh and unique experiences and each time they have done justice to their ideas with stellar execution with hades however they have ascended to altogether new heights that very few developers can hope to reach roguelike games have struggled with things such as constant sense of progression and storytelling for as long as they've been around but hades leaps over those struggles with surprising ease almost as if those issues should never have existed in the first place and it's not just impressive on that macro scale every second of hades is an absolute blast thanks to its beautiful art style frantic and empowering combat and the unique challenge that each of its vast variety of enemies and bosses pose more than anything else hades is yet another game that proves that you don't need a thousand people and millions of dollars to make a world-beating video game you just need an excellent idea and a crazy amount of talent to turn that idea into a reality

Number 10: Ghost of Tsushima

Ghost of Tsushima sucker punch was clearly sick of Ubisoft's unwillingness to give us an assassin's creed game set in feudal japan because with the ghost of Tsushima they decided to take it upon themselves to deliver that experience but calling ghost of Tsushima an assassin's creed clone would be highly reductive what we have here is a game that definitely toes the line between traditional structured open-world design and more diegetic and organic exploration of course what helps is the fact that the island of Tsushima is absolutely gorgeous and full to the brim of scenes of majestic and exaggerated beauty that will take your breath away thanks to visuals that stand tall in the industry from both artistic and technical standpoints add to that stellar combat a captivating narrative an excellent soundtrack and stealth mechanics that essentially let you play as a 13th-century Japanese version of batman and what you have is a game that was well worth the years of anticipation