10 video games we can’t wait to play in 2021
If 2020 was a great year for video games, 2021 is shaping up to be just as fantastic. We break down 10 of the games we’re most excited to play in 2021.
Video games were our saving grace in 2020 with how much time we all spent stuck in our houses, apartments, condos, or indoors generally. We had a slew of fantastic games that came out throughout the year to keep us entertained.
And the great video games aren’t stopping in 2020, because the slate for 2021 is just as jam-packed as 2020. Plus with both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 released, the amount and quality will be top-notch. And exciting!
Here are our ten games we can’t wait to play in 2021, in no particular order because we’re just that excited.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was one of the highlights of the PlayStation 5 showcase, solely for the load time. It’s still incredibly impressive, just watching the video above and seeing absolutely no lag moving between worlds
Of course the load times aren’t the only reason we’re excited for Ratchet and Clank. It’s also a new game in the series! Their last release was in 2016, so it’ll be a nice return to these characters. Not much is known about the plot, only that you’ll be traversing alternate realities to stop the villain from destroying the multiverse.
Rift Apart is set to release sometime in Q1 of 2021.
Halo Infinite
The gameplay reveal for this game over the summer left the majority of fans and critics disappointed in the display of graphics, especially after everything the PlayStation 5 showcase demonstrated. It wasn’t soon after that the game was delayed from Holiday 2020 to the latter half of 2021. And with how Cyberpunk 2077 has gone, this was definitely a smart move.
Halo Infinite will bring about the return of Master Chief and will be the third chapter in the Reclaimer Saga as he tries to save humanity. From what we’ve seen so far, it also looks like The Banished are the enemies in the game. We’re just excited to see a developer take their time with something and actually listen to feedback.
Outriders
Square Enix does really well with RPG games, and their next outing (in conjunction with Polish developer People Can Fly) is Outriders, a third-person shooter with RPG elements. Humanity’s efforts to colonize the alien planet Enoch (no relation to the Agents of SHIELD character) went south as an energy storm surged across the lands.
Of course, that storm granted superpowers to Enoch’s inhabitants and the colonists. You can choose from four different classes for your character and the variation in weapons is overwhelming. Plus utilizing skill trees and having enemies that are both human and insane monsters just sounds like it’s going to be one heck of a good time. We’ll just have to see if they deliver a strong story to go along with all the action.
Outriders is currently set to release on February 2, 2021.
Horizon Forbidden West
Since Horizon Zero Dawn came out in 2017, fans have been champing at the bit for a sequel, and Sony delivered a first glimpse in their PlayStation 5 showcase.
The sequel takes Aloy to the arcane frontier of her post-apocalyptic world to find the source of a plague that destroys everything it infects. The world building in the first Horizon was wonderful and gorgeous, and the sequel looks like it’s going to continue in that same regard. We’re going to see plenty of varying ecosystems, and I can only imagine the different skills and weapons the game will give us.
And the fact that Ashly Burch seems to love voicing Aloy makes us all the more excited to see where this game takes us. Anything Ashly Burch does makes us happy.
Horizon Forbidden West is slated to come out in the second half of 2021.
Little Nightmares 2
If you didn’t play Little Nightmares, you’re missing out on about six hours of tense and creepy gameplay.
Little Nightmares 2 picks up where the first ended, with Six escaping from the Maw. Instead of exploring and leaving the Maw, you’ll work with a second character named Mono and try to navigate through the Pale City. It looks like the world is very television-obsessed rather than the food-obsessed monstrosities on the Maw.
But that doesn’t make it any less creepy. And if you played any of the DLC for the first video game, you’ll recognize some characters that will pop up. Tarsier Studios has come out and said that the sequel is also longer than the first. We’re excited to see just how crazy things get.
Little Nightmares 2 releases on February 11, 2021.
NieR: Replicant Ver. 1.22474487139
NieR Replicant came out in Japan only in 2010 and was an alternate version of the original NieR game. And not to be confused with the sequel NieR: Automata that came out in 2017.
NieR: Replicant Ver. 1.22… is a remastered version of the alternate Japan game from 2010. Humanity faces extinction and it’s up to NieR to help preserve human life. You’re trying to find a cure for the mysterious disease ravaging mankind and also trying to figure out where all of these crazy machines came from.
It also appears as though the combat has been completely overhauled from the original game. And if it’s similar to the combat in Automata, I’ll be incredibly happy because that combat system was fun as heck.
NieR Replicant Ver. 1.22… comes out on April 23, 2021.
Deathloop
I cannot wait for this game. Bethesda’s next game looks so good, and we’ve really only seen the trailer from the PlayStation 5 showcase over the summer.
Deathloop has you play as Colt, an assassin who is stuck in a time loop on Blackreef. You’re tasked to assassinate eight targets across the island before midnight. If you leave even one of them alive, the time loop starts over again. If you die before you take out all eight targets, the time loop starts over again.
But don’t worry, because there’s an agent tasked to take you out in order to protect the time loop. If you play the multiplayer part of the game, you can even play as her. It looks creative and exciting and we can’t wait to get our hands on it.
Deathloop releases on May 21, 2021.
God of War: Ragnarok
Technically I don’t think this one actually has a name yet, but the tag title card of Ragnarok is coming on the PlayStation 5 reveal led people to make assumptions.
Regardless, the sequel to the 2018 God of War is hotly anticipated for gamers. We know pretty much nothing about this game. The assumption is that we will see the start of Ragnarok in the universe, which is the huge event that kills plenty of Norse gods and ushers in the end of days. Sounds great!
Right now, it’s slated to come out in 2021, but with nothing being revealed, I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets delayed until 2022.
Hogwarts Legacy
We don’t know much about Hogwarts Legacy just yet, but what we do know sounds like everything a Harry Potter fan has wanted in a video game.
Set in the 1800s, you get to pick your Hogwarts student character and what House you want to join. You’ll attend classes and explore Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and it’s open world, meaning if you just want to wander off and explore the Forbidden Forest, you absolutely can. You just may want to attend enough classes so you have some spells at the ready.
There’s not an official release date yet for the game, all we know is that it will be sometime in 2021.
Stray
This one just looks adorable. The PlayStation 5 showcase gave us plenty to marvel at, but some of the best Twitter reactions were about the cat wearing the backpack.
Not much is known about this game yet. You play as a cat in a robot-occupied city and we can only assume it’s a game around exploration. Will you solve mysteries? Will you encounter other backpack-wearing cats? Are there any actual human beings? Will the city mysteriously run out of catnip?
I have no idea, but I’m willing to play and find out. Stray releases sometime in 2021.
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