Games of the Year 2021 - Biggest Surprise

Starting off with a bit of a different format this year, our Games of the Year 2021 are going to start in a bit of a reverse order keeping the best for last, so without further ado, here are our staffs picks for their biggest surprise of 2021!

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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Pierre-Yves: The Vale: Shadow of the Crown

The Vale: Shadow of the Crown was perhaps my biggest surprise because I really didn't think that it could be done this well. Very limited in the terms of titles out there at the moment like it, The Vale is an audio based action adventure where there's nothing to look at on the screen. Designed to be put into the shoes of the protagonist, you are as blind as they are and are reliant on nothing more than the sounds around you and how fast you react to them. The development team did an amazing job here and I really hope to see more accessible titles like this one in the future.

Check out our full review of The Vale: Shadow of the Crown by developer Falling Squirrel Inc. and publishers Falling Squirrel Inc. and Creative Bytes Studios for the Microsoft Xbox Series X.

Richard: Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

I won't lie, the only reason this is in Biggest Surprise and not Game of the Year for me is because I hadn't heard of it. Ender Lillies is a wonderful blend of Metroidvania and soulsborne gameplay, with a heavier lean towards metroidvania, and I loved every second of it. This was the Metroidvania I had been missing in my life, and I can't express how thoroughly I enjoyed all of it except the chains and waterfalls that look like the background but aren't.

Check out our full review of ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights by developers Live Wire, adglobe and publisher Binary Haze Interactive for the Sony Playstation 4.

Susan N.: Mini Motorways

Sometimes simple is better, as is the case with Mini Motorways. I had been introduced to its sister title Mini Metro a while back and I really wasn’t convinced about the game. However, when given the opportunity, I jumped at the chance to give Mini Motorways a shot and I enjoyed every minute of it. The game strips away all of the cosmetics that hide any potential flaws, which is something that certain titles do and manages to challenge the players in an organic way. Mini Motorways is an incredibly simple game that can be frustrating at the same time and it shocked me as something that I would enjoy. Maybe it was the simplicity or maybe it was the increasing difficulty level, but regardless I was surprised by Mini Motorways. The game is perfect for a wide range of ages and I love the challenge of beating my high score.

Check out our full review of Mini Motorways by developer and publisher Dinosaur Polo Club for the PC (Steam).

Nick: Wingspan

I’m not sure if Wingspan qualifies as a ‘surprise’ when it came out of nowhere for me. I knew next to nothing about this title when it first released, and I came into it with almost no expectations. What I found instead was a surprisingly deep card game, based on a board game, with a charming nature aesthetic and tons of replay value. 

Check out our full review of Wingspan by developer and publisher Monster Couch for the Microsoft Xbox One.

Robert: Star Citizen

In rare form, seemingly perpetual technical alpha, “Star Citizen” by Cloud Imperium Games has managed to break away from their more traditional mold releasing quarterly patches that, since Alpha 3.7 have largely just been downhill- however, with the rebalancing of ship-borne weapons, capacitor gameplay, medical gameplay, a slew of new straight-to-flyable ships, the release of the long-awaited Crusader Mercury Star Runner and Aegis Redeemer, and a slew of technical achievements, that 2021 though rough at times for CIG, he been a standout year for the independent gaming giant. From new missions that introduce new loops, or the first implementation of the long-talked of “Death of a Spaceman”-based mechanics (which tie nicely into the new Actor Status that tracks metrics like hydration, oxygen levels, heart rate, G-forces/force reactions, etc.). Each and every year Star Citizen keeps growing- is it becoming too big to fail? We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Wingspan - XB1 Review

Wingspan by developer and publisher Monster Couch—Microsoft Xbox One review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Wingspan is the digital adaptation of the popular boardgame that takes a bit of time to learn the ins and outs of, but once you do get the hang of its various rules, proves to be well worth the effort. The visuals and sound are charming, the gameplay is surprisingly deep and far too often I found myself taking that ‘Just one more game’ approach that kept me up quite multiple nights in a row.

Boardgames brought to PC and console are hardly new, but it feels as though developers have been getting better and better at it over the last couple of years. Wingspan is one such example of how a surprisingly deep card game can still translate well to the digital medium. This is ably assisted by a fantastic tutorial. I am no stranger to card games, but Wingspan took me a little bit of time to fully wrap my head around. The systems in place are unique, but also quite well-balanced once you understand how they work with one another.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, my quick rundown here will likely not do Wingspan’s depth any true justice, but I’ll give it a go. Essentially, Wingspan is all about playing birds. This is a card game with resource management at its heart. So when you first play, you pick from a handful of random bird cards, objective cards and food resources. Food is used to summon most birds (there are a few exceptions that don’t require a food cost). There are three rows where you can play birds, each one a different habitat. The top habitat is woods, the second fields and the bottom watery. This is important because the first bird you play in each habitat has the least amount of cost – you have to pay food and nothing more. However, as you add additional birds, you have to use another resource to play them: eggs. As you play more birds, the cost in eggs go up. However, as you play more birds, what each habitat provides also goes up.

Not only does each of the three habitats provide different places where you can play birds (some birds can only be played on a particular type of habitat. Other birds can be played on two or even all three habitats), but each one provides a different kind of resource. When you play the forest habitat, you draw food for summoning birds. When you play the middle habitat, you gain eggs to place on your birds. Lastly the water habitat is how you go about drawing new bird cards. You can however, only play a power from a single habitat or cast a single bird (in most instances) in a single turn. It is a pretty dense game overall, and I haven’t even touched on other aspects such as the four different rounds (each comprised of multiple turns) and their related, randomized goals, the scoring system or even how laying eggs on birds works. Suffice to say, Wingspan is a dense game with far greater depth than I would have guessed when learning about its premise.

The aforementioned tutorial is a big help however, in learning the basics. And like many boardgames, I went into my first couple of games thinking I knew what I was doing, but in reality was simply learning more nuance about the various systems and mechanics. The AI is pretty sharp here as well. Even on easiest setting, I found the 1-on-1 matches to be pretty challenging. You can have multiple live and computer players in a game. To be fair, I found the larger games of five players to be more fun, even with just four AI opponents, because the gameplay was considerably more unpredictable. If there’s a gripe here, it’s that the turns do feel just a bit bogged down when you start adding more players (especially if they’re people versus AI, but both situations slow the proceedings).

In terms of the presentation, the word ‘lovely’ comes to mind when I think about Wingspan. The visuals have a nicely hand-drawn quality to them, and the animated birds on the cards are certainly a nice touch you wouldn’t see in the actual boardgame. The music is slow, soft and fits the mood of trying to build you preserve as well. Summoning a bird gives you a brief audio clip giving you some information about it, and often leads to a series of quick, realistic bird chirping sounds. At least, my cats thought they were realistic enough. One of my kittens was perched on my lap snuggling as I played, and about two out of every three bird summonings caused her to poke her head up and look around with wide-eyed curiosity. It cracked me up, to say the least.

Summary

Wingspan is an interesting game. There is a good deal of strategy to it, and a lot of depth to the gameplay. It is certainly a more relaxing, less directly competitive type of game than many of them out there, making it one I particularly enjoy in the evenings when I am trying to wind down. Being based on a boardgame, there is an element of random luck in there that can subvert even the best strategies, but careful planning can certainly help pave the path to a win. All in all, Wingspan is a charming game that strategy fans should enjoy.

Score: 8 / 10

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