BEST ONGOING 2021
APEX LEGENDS
★ Nat Clayton: Apex Legends has always been good. But for those first few years it felt like Respawn was still figuring out how to run an ongoing battle royale. But in 2021 the studio nailed it. Season 9 is the clear standout, bringing us not only a strong new character in Valkyrie, but a new Arenas game mode – a distinctly Respawn take on Counter-Strike that lets you immediately get into a fair fight. Arenas proved that Apex has legs beyond battle royale, cementing the game as not just a good BR, but one of the best team shooters around.
But it also feels like Apex is just so much more confident this year, both as a game and as a world. Respawn’s storytelling has gone into overdrive, bringing in community artists and animators to help flesh out the world, while leaning fully into voice lines and BR downtime to bring the game’s cast to life. Apex is a soap opera now, and every new season escalates the drama between our sci-fi buds.
The game’s latest season, Escape, has only reinvigorated my excitement for the game after a somewhat lacklustre tenth season. Like Olympus, Storm Point is a gorgeous reimagining of what an Apex map can look like, and Ash is a strong initiator who managed to be more than mere Titanfall 2 nostalgia. But at the end of the day, Apex is still the best and only shooter for punting yourself down a hill at 400mph as a floating Scottish lass. What more could you ever ask for?
EACH NEW MAP MANAGES TO BRING ITS OWN PERSONALITY
Phil Savage: There’s a lot of personality in Apex’s maps, and – as each gets tweaked and upgraded over its seasons and through Town Takeover events – plenty of history too. King’s Canyon has covered its vast empty spaces with new attractions, and World’s Edge is breaking apart at the seams. Despite this, each new map manages to bring its own personality. The most recent, Storm Point, feels like a strong reaction to earlier maps, with more clearly defined routes that funnel players into conflict in interesting ways.
The strength of Apex’s third year is that there’s always something new to learn. But the enduring appeal of Apex as a whole is that it’s built on such an enjoyable foundation. Try sliding into a teamfight, SMGs blazing, and tell me any other battle royale is worth your time.
PERSONAL PICK
Robin Valentine
DORFROMANTIK
This year I was really looking for videogames to be my calm, chill escape from an increasingly weird and stressful reality. So you can understand why I fell so in love with this gentle puzzle game about building idyllic little countryside towns, one tile at a time. I’m terrible at actually scoring points, but I’m always completing the true objective: creating a place I’d love to go on holiday.
PERSONAL PICK
Wesley Fenlon
CRUELTY SQUAD
Surely the result of a food poisoning fever dream, Cruelty Squad also gleefully aims to depict what rancid sushi does to your body as a first-person shooter. Playing CrueltySquad is bathing in wall-to-wall puke textures and embracing the filthiness of a hypercapitalist existence where you sell body parts on the stock exchange and use your own intestines as a grappling hook. The open-ended missions are a genuine treat to puzzle out.
BEST CO-OP 2021
BACK 4 BLOOD
★ Before it released, we were concerned that adding aim-down-sights to the formula would slow it down too guns are silky in your hands, containing nuance that exceeds their appearance.
