Best 2021 Games You Might Have Missed

With the deluge of game releases these days, you tend to miss a few you’d probably love! Today, we here at Siliconera are recommending what we think are the best 2021 games you might have missed. Maybe you’ll find a new favorite!

Gnosia is still a solid pick for people who think the concept of Among Us is interesting, but don’t want to get together with other people and be mean. There are so many secrets to uncover! And they only come up if you keep going through the time loops. Want answers? Keep playing and hoping for the best. Also, it might sometimes be more difficult to appease these fake people than real people in a multiplayer social deduction game. — Jenni

No Longer Home remained my most anticipated game of 2021, and for good reason. As a semi-autobiographical story by the developers at Humble Grove, it navigates the uncertainty of immigration and a fear of the future with perfect balance. It isn’t necessarily a long game, and functions are something of a point and click riddled with magical realism. But the journey is very much worth the hours spent. — Kazuma

Mischief Games’ Adios isn’t a big game by any means. Clocking in at maybe three hours if you like to putter around and look at everything, it’s the kind of title that you lose in the shuffle of big productions and flashier indies. That said, it punches quite a bit above its weight and wastes none of the space it has on fluff.

It’s about a farmer who no longer wants to dispose of bodies for the mob, and the conversation he has with the man sent to kill him. That’s all I can really say, and it’s not a spoiler (it’s right there in the store page!), but it’s quite the conversation, and one I’d say is well worth experiencing. — Josh

Subway Midnight kind of dropped out of nowhere in the second half of 2021. You play a kid who gets chased by an ominous creature while taking a midnight subway. On the surface, it looks like a cute, quirky indie game with some horror appeal. It’s more than that, though. Without spoiling the story, Subway Midnight is essentially a collection of smaller games wrapped into one. Some parts of the game are purposefully vague as to what its portraying. Others will mimic metagames like IAMSCARED. It’s creepy, unsettling, borderline terrifying at times. And I loved every second of it.

In a year filled with lengthy JRPGs, it was nice to occasionally play a less demanding title. Bonfire Peaks is an extremely simple puzzle game with a chill soundtrack and the much-appreciated ability to immediately switch off your anxiety. The main character is a guy who wants to just set all of his stuff on fire, and while any actual story is scarce in this title, it’s easy to empathize with a character who just wants to let the past go. If voxel art is your aesthetic, consider that an added bonus. — Carley

2021 didn’t see a Fire Emblem release, but it did manage a game that scratches that itch quite well. Dark Deity is smaller in scope and presentation, but its gameplay ideas are worth a look! Especially if you, like me, find your appetite for the tactical RPG genre quite insatiable. — Graham

What are the best 2021 games you think most people missed? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter! And read our other handy roundtables for more thoughts from the Siliconera team.