Most Anticipated Games Of 2021
2021 is here and with it comes a whole bunch of new games to be excited about this calendar year. I imagine this year we’re going to see a lot of cross-generation games as Sony and Microsoft have recently released their new machines and probably don’t want to leave their huge customer bases behind. However, hopefully in amongst the big AAA releases we’ve seen some interesting and exciting indie offerings this year too. The following is a look at my most anticipated games of 2021.
Let’s dive right into the games I’m excited about for 2021.
Monster Hunter Rise
Monster Hunter is coming home to Nintendo Switch after very successful outings on PC and last-gen consoles with Monster Hunter World and Iceborne. Monster Hunter is an action RPG and is all about slaying huge monsters and then forging armour and weapons out of their remains, then doing it all over again to fight bigger monsters.
Capcom has added some nice new features this time including the Wirebug, which is like a grappling hook you can use pretty much anywhere. Palamutes have also been added, which is a new canine mount that you can ride around on and use to traverse the environment at speed. Palamutes also help out in combat, which is going to come in handy. There’s a demo going to be made available for this in January 2021, so keep your eyes and ears open for that news hopefully very soon.
Release Date: 26th March 2021, Nintendo Switch
Twelve Minutes
Twelve Minutes is described as ‘An interactive thriller about a man trapped in a time loop’. It has a great A-list cast with Daisy Ridley, Willem Defoe and James MacEvoy on board, so they’ve spared no expense when it comes to the actors.
You play the husband in the game, and you’re having a romantic night in with the wife. Unfortunately, the cops break down your door, accuse your wife of murder and beat you to death. You’re then brought back to life to relive the moment the cops break-in, and you have to break the 12 minutes time loop leading up to your death. The game is played from a top-down perspective and looks to be one of the years most interesting entries.
Release Date: TBD, Xbox and PC
Horizon Forbidden West
Aloy is back in one of the most anticipated sequels coming to PlayStation. Picking up from where Horizon Zero Dawn left off Aloy again has to explore, fight bigger machine and meet new tribes in the lands of Horizon. Life on Earth is rapidly approaching another extinction and no one really knows why. Together with old friends Aloy must piece together the clues and hopefully save the day.
The initial trailer for the PS5 reveal looked great, one of the best looking games we’ve seen. We thought this might be a PS5 exclusive, but this one is going to be available across platform for PS4 and PS5. This is another huge open-world and it looks like we’ve got some new mechanics in there too including underwater swimming. There’s definitely going to be new and bigger monsters to fight in the last game, in one of 2021s most anticipated games.
Release Date: TBD, PlayStation 4 and 5
Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite was originally scheduled for a November 2020 launch alongside the Xbox Series S and X. You can still see the Chief on promtional material for the new Xbox console range. Unfortunately Halo Infinite needed a little more time in the oven and was pushed back to Autumn 2021. After what happened to Cyberpunk 2077 last year that’s probably a wise move.
Master Chief is back this time around. The trailer depicted a Halo world that was much more like Halo: Comabt Evolved than Halo 5. 343 Studios also announced that mutliplayer would support 120fps and would be free-to-play for all players when it releases, which is probably a good move considering the competition this game faces with Fortnite, Warzone, Apex and Destiny… there’s not much room for error in there.
Early feedback from fans wasn’t great when it was initially shown, so hopefully a little more time in development will help. I’m not sure if this is last chance saloon time for Halo, but we’re approaching that territory for sure. All the same, having spend much of my early 20’s playing Halo 2 and 3 I’m excited for this one.
Release Date: Fall 2021, Xbox and PC
Hollow Knight Silksong
Silksong is the follow up to 2017’s Hollow Knight. Originally planned as DLC, this turned into a full on sequel. Hollow Knight is perhaps the gold standard action-adventure game developed by Team Cherry.
This time we follow the new protagonist of Hornet. There’s plenty of new enemies to fight, over 150 infact. There’s new moves and abilities to learn and new friends to make along the way. Silksong has a huge weight on it’s shoulders to live up to Hollow Knight. However, the team have taken their time and haven’t been forcoming with too many details.
Release Date: TBD, Nintendo Switch, PC
Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart
Ratchet & Clank blew everyone away when this was first shown at the PlayStation games unveiling back in the latter parts of 2021. Ratchet & Clank seamlessly jump in and out of worlds in seconds, showing off the power of the PlayStation 5. The textures and graphics shown off in the trailers had everyone coming away from the showcase excited about the game.
This one is being developed by Insomniac Games, part of the PlayStation Studios family. This blends action and 3d platforming, plus a range of crazy and over the top weapons. The key feature of this game though is the ability to jump between dimensions.
Release Date: TBD, PlayStation 5
Solar Ash
Solar Ash is the second game from Heart Machine, creators of 2016’s game Hyper Light Drifter. Players will find a surreal, vivid and highly stylized world filled with wild high-speed traversal, endearing characters, and massive enemy encounters.
This is another beautiful looking game. Hyper Light Drifter was a sleeper hit and one of the best games of that year. It was also very hard, so looking forward to seeing more details about this one hopefully coming very soon.
Release Date: TBD, PlayStation 4 and 5
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
This was another one that caught the eye during the summer showcase of new games in 2020. Kena: Bridge of Sprits is a story driven action-adventure game set in a charming world with fast-paced combat. You play as Kena, a young Spirit Guide travelling to a village in search for a sacred mountain shrine.
As Kena you gather a team of spirits known as the Rot. You have to enhance your companions abilities, create new ways to manipulate the environment and uncover secrets in a lush, overgrown forest. Gameplay looks focused around team building, exploration and combat and this game’s art style and music look and sounds absolutely amazing.
Release Date: TBD, PC and PlayStation 4 and 5
New World
New World is an MMO coming from Amazon Game Studios. It’s a game I got my hands on in 2020 and took part in one of their public alpha tests. This is a MMO but with a ore traditional action-battle system. The game is set in the mid-1600s and players colonize a fictional land modeled after colonial America.
I didn’t expect much going in, but I reeally enjoyed my time with the game. You start out as a character with nothing, washed up on a beach. Zombie-like creatures roam the lands, which feature as the main PVE element to the game. Massive PVP battles can take place too as well as guilds, cities, trading and crafting. The difference making is most likely the action combat in the game. I played an early alpha build where it was still a little rough around the edges, however, I think with a little more polish, testing and user feedback this one could be big. This one is being released as a paid for release, which means no subscription for the time being.
This was originally set to release in 2020, however was delayed a couple of times, with Amazon being burnt by their other release Crucible, which went from released, back into beta to cancelled in a matter of weeks.
Release Date: May 2021, PC
There’s some of the games I am looking forward to the most in 2021. There’s a couple of games I’d like to mention too being Breath of the Wild 2 and Elden Ring. However, it’s not certain at this stage that Breath of the Wild 2 is coming, even though this year is Zelda’s 35th Anniversary and I am sure Nintendo have something big up their sleeve. After a fairly chilled 2020 it’d be great to see Nintendo come back with one of their biggest franchises.
Elden Ring is another I’d love to see, but I imagine that is a few years off yet… much more like a 2022 or 2023 game. I’d be happy if I was proved wrong, but I think the latest offer from FromSoftware is much more likely in 2022 or later.
Let me know what you think down in the comments.
That’s it for this look at my most anticipated games of 2021.