The best indie games of 2021 made us think and feel as yet another strange year passed by, giving welcome solace, warmth, and a welcome search for personal meaning.
2k2k++ CYBERMONKEY HAS DIED REMYX
The internet used to be this beautifully surreal place. Webpages filled with unknown wonders abounded. You rarely knew what to expect from place to place. 2k2k++ CYBERMONKEY HAS DIED REMYX captures that sense of exploration and meandering through a delightful unknown in a way that only Nathalie Lawhead could do. It’s hilariously funny, deeply thoughtful, utterly mystifying, and terribly sad all at once, and makes for a lovely time spent exploring what the internet used to be, and the feelings I still wish it contained.
“It’s a colorful, delightful place that made me feel excited to be on the internet for the first time in ages. It feels so powerfully human and creative and bright that I just want to keep seeing what other magical things lie inside it. It’s honestly a real gift to start the year with something so beautiful and wonder-inducing. Please, please go get lost in its pages for a while.”
Read our review of 2k2k++ CYBERMONKEY HAS DIED REMYX.
Lonely Harvest
Lonely Harvest is a sharp game of making the most of your time to harvest fields, all while you await the birth of your child. It’s a sleek, streamlined experience that will keep you occupied with the best way to tackle your fields (gotta rack up combos of similar-colored grains) to get the most money, which you can then turn into upgrades that will help you keep making more money. It’s just complex enough to be fun and interesting, but leaves enough mental space for you to contemplate that kid that’s on the way. It captures those tumultuous times before a new child arrives, capturing that feeling of trying to concentrate on work while a new life is about to change your entire existence.
“Lonely Harvest was a quick, delightful game that engaged my tactical mind while also bringing me back to the busy times before the birth of my child. I could imagine what was going through the protagonist’s head – swirling questions, worries, joy – as they worked at their task. It’s a strangely specific moment, but this mixture of work, emotional whirlwinds, and tactics made for a vivid snapshot of my life not too long ago.”
Read our review of Lonely Harvest.
30XX
20XX was a solid take on a procedurally-generated Mega Man X, but it wasn’t quite perfect. Movement didn’t feel quite right. The art style was nice, but not quite what I wanted. 30XX nails both, offering a really great sense of weight and control to movement, a visual style that just feels right, and adds some great power-mixing abilities to add some fun experimentation (and a little chaos). Playing this game co-op with a pal is an incredible experience, offering near-endless stages for you to blast through together. As my favorite action game this year, it really deserves to be among the best indie games of 2021.
“The procedural level composition creates challenging layouts, each area feeling like it was thought out and carefully designed. Movement and action just plain feel great, rewarding risk and speed and finesse that make you feel amazing as you work through them. The abilities really felt like they added to your character’s play style, making them feel unique to how you want to tackle the game. I loved 20XX, and this one somehow just feels eons better.”
Read our review of 30XX.
No Longer Home
No Longer Home is about saying goodbye when you don’t want to. A long goodbye, drawn out over hangouts with friends and late-night talks. The kind of goodbye that hangs over both of your heads, trying to poison what little time you have left. Bitter as it may be, though, it can also make you truly treasure the time that remains, too. It’s a complex feeling of being forced to walk away from living with a loved one, and this game handles these complexities with grace and care.
“No Longer Home conjures up some sad memories of past connections, but I’m happy it exists to help players come to terms with their feelings in times when they have to move away from someone they’ve come to care about.”
Read our review of No Longer Home.
Adios
Adios makes the list of best indie games of 2021 as it asks us to consider the price of our convictions. When faced with death, what are we really willing to hold on to? What are we willing to fight for when it really counts? What will our conscience not abide? Is our survival more important than doing the right thing? And what would it feel like to try hold on to your conscience as you talk with the person who is here to kill you over it. It’s fraught with tension and filled with questions that will rattle around your head for a long, long time after you’re done playing it.
“…this game asks us what the price of our conscience really is, and to think on it as an assassin tries to get us to reconsider. Adios is built on an incredible premise that makes us ask ourselves some questions we might not want to know the answers to. What’s your price? Could you stand up for your convictions if your life was the price? At least this game lets you explore those thoughts from relative safety.”
Read our review of Adios.
Before Your Eyes
Before Your Eyes is a beautiful, heart-wrenching reminder of the limits of the time we have. How the days may feel like they stretch endlessly, but you’ll soon blink and find yourself looking back on them. Perhaps fondly, perhaps with a happiness that the days are gone, but still, you’ll feel that this time all passed so quickly as you look back on it. It’s a reminder to grab onto those times that are special and wonderful when they happen as best you can, as it won’t be long before they’re just a memory.
“Before Your Eyes is a compelling look at our memories and the fickleness of time. It captures how everything we cherish is fleeting, and even as we feel certain days will never end, nor would we want them to, that one day they’ll just be a tiny moment in our memories. That we should treasure what we have when we have it, as it will all be gone the moment you close your eyes.”
Read our review of Before Your Eyes.
Moonglow Bay
Moonglow Bay‘s peaceful life in Eastern Canada in the 80’s is a wonderful, compelling experience. Being able to share in this small town’s restoration, fishing for all manner of sea life with your friends and loved ones, and living through the touching story of following your partner’s final wish – all of these things have created an unforgettable experience that we keep coming back to.
“Learning to fish with a rod, traps, and nets, as well as doing so in all kinds of temperatures and conditions, would make for some lonely work all by yourself, wouldn’t it? Thankfully, the game features drop-in/out co-op, so a pal can join you on your sea travels. Can’t hurt to find double the fish while out catching, to be honest. And since you’re fishing in a video game, you only get the good parts of fishing (spending time with friends) and not the bad parts (being eaten alive by insects, actually having to go fishing).”
Read our review of Moonglow Bay or check out our list of the best slice of life indie games, best indie games on Xbox Game Pass, and best indie couch co-op games, all of which feature this game.
Ambition: A Minuet in Power
Ambition: A Minuet in Power hums with tension with every decision you make in it. As a pretender in the French court, you have to use your cunning, looks, and fashion sense to make political moves, steadily guiding the course of history and revolution. And you never forget that you’re pretending at power the whole time, wondering which decision will give you away. What movement will make the wrong enemy. Your entire plan feels like it’ll fall at any moment, but there’s this continual pull to push harder. To keep playing and manipulating your enemies. It’s intoxicating to play these people like puppets, perhaps BECAUSE it’s all so dangerous. An incredibly devious, compelling experience.
“Ambition: A Minuet in Power gives you the ability to amass all kinds of power and influence if you know how to talk, dress, and strategize. It’s a lethal tightrope to walk the entire time, but the ability to shift political movements and help the people of France with your words alone is hard to turn down.”
Read our review of Ambition: A Minuet in Power.
Critters for Sale
Critters for Sale is the most impressive horror title we’ve seen in years. It’s a game that, through its story, sound, and visuals, creates an unease in you at your very existence within its world. Simply occupying its digital space is to feel an unnamed and unknown terror, as if you’re intruding on some monstrous reality. It captures that unknowable fear that so many horror games strive to describe and weave, but have never ACTUALLY created. It’s exquisite, and easily one of the best indie games of 2021. Even if a part of me fears that playing it may open me up to forces I cannot begin to understand.
“Eroding this sense of belief in reality and that we can be safe somewhere within it gives Critters for Sale a potent ability to crush you with fear and uncertainty. I am in dread every moment I’m playing it, even when I cannot tell you why. It’s like a fear beyond sense and logic is created by the work. It’s really something special, even if it chills me to my core.”
Read our review of Critters for Sale.
This isn’t all of the titles we feel were the best indie games of 2021, though. Tomorrow, we’ll be sharing our Game of the Year. Hope to see you there when we unveil this well-deserving title!
Got your own favorites from this year? Please share them with us in the comments or on our socials! We’re always on the lookout for wonderful things we’ve missed!
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