Games Of 2021

Beautiful but deadly neon lit Night City was full of mesmerizing areas and views to admire. Different kinds of interesting, well written side activities to fill your time with alongside of an intense story and livelies, but time to time weirdest bunch of NPC's fulfill the world I've seen in video game since RDR2.
Loved the character build, vast customizing choices of clothing, weapons and vehicles.
Story took surprising turns, but managed to satisfy at the end with the choices that I made. Which on this case effected on the storyline considerably.
Characters personalities were as colorful as their gear and you could pick your favorites and less favorite ones from them. Which usually is very important when choosing your friends and romance for your journey.
Sidequests and gigs were the best of the kind what mainly CDPR manage to offer in the industry. Many time you lost yourself in them from the main campaign, which surface the true colors of Night City.
Bugs, glitches and crashes were still there, but not as bad as they were on release. CD Project Red has fixed many of them already, so the gaming experience won't suffer as much and it runs as works pretty well by now.

MEDIEVAL SIMULATOR

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the most realistic and accurate game I've ever played in any genre.
Warhorse studio's first game leaned heavily on real historians and details to make its story as accurate as possible, which is taking place during a war in Bohemia in 1403 and gameplay as close to realism as possible.
The main character Henry Of Skalitz is just an ordinary young man who only knows how to live like a young rebellious teenager, make chores and help his blacksmith father on the workshop, while listening his wise words about how to become an honest, wise and above all a good man in this medieval land. This all takes a drastic turn when army of Cuman mercenaries raids the mining village of Skalitz, where Henry and his family as friends are living. Escaping barely and losing almost everything and everyone he knows, Henry needs to start living by his own and learning the ways of a soldier. Learn how to using his brains or muscles or rather both to survive in this ruthless world and ultimately get his revenge. His growth from peasant to soldier throughout the game is carried out greatly and is joy to follow.
From the start the player will notice that this isn't an ordinary FP or RPG game. Gameplay feels challenging and it takes couple of hours, and deaths, to get a hang of it and in time learn the skills of swordsmanship, archery, fist-fighting, riding, reading. Yes. In 1400's was very common that children's of low ranking families couldn't read. Persuade people for your advantage and keeping your appearance, gear and weapons clean as well as sharp. Also there is familiar hunting, mixing herbs, collecting resources, searching treasures and helping people in need who you pump into your travels.
I wouldn't start browsing the whole map through at once, what I normally tend to do in open world games, but take my time in area after area where the story takes us by doing main and side quests because this game is challenging at first. You need to develop Henry's skills with time before charging in highly guarded castles and trying to pick a very hard lock with your low lockpicking skills or stealth abilities.
Talking about side quests. The effort what Warhorse has put in them, reminds me on The Witcher 3. They aren't normal, easily forgettable side quests where you need to pick some meaningless item or kills some mean neighbor who owns someone money for some NPC who's name is different but modeling same like the last dozen people which you've already seen. Side quests are interesting stories to see and usually challenging mission to accomplish. Some of them have effects later in the game and some of them launches new missions. Many times I needed to save before starting them, because many times I either stepped on a branch or someone just happened to walk by on his patrol causing the alarm and me reloading my previous save for completing the mission perfectly. Because I choose to be stealthier and wiser on my playthrough instead of merciless, short tempered killer.
Story is very interesting and it takes its time, but many times it stays hanging on the background because the world itself is so huge and full of interesting activities. Interesting people to meet and important relationships to create as connections to form so you could continue your guests more easily. Or taking a break from all the world's stressing obligations and go hunting at first very challenging bow mechanism but in the end, very addictive.
You will encounter one particular very well developed relationship between your main character and another high-ranked individual which is, on my opinion, one of the best formed relationships in gaming history.
Finally, Jan Valta's chilling and emotional score ties all of this epicness together.
Although this game is amazingly detailed and feels great, it has its flaws. Unfortunately. Loading times are frustratingly long and there are still bugs and glitches than back in its release which caused frustrations among players as well as few low scores from critics. Luckily patches have fixed majority of them so the gaming experience won't suffer almost at all.

A NEW HOME

The original Mass Effect Trilogy has a very special place in my heart. Needless to say it's one of my all time favorite video game franchises with its vast universe, fertile or harsh worlds with interesting alien species and stories to tell, intense missions, impeccable storytelling and lovable as well as memorable characters and that solid dynamic between them.
Andromeda was a nice add to the ME universe and follow up. Although the game had big shoes to fill and didn't quite match up to the high expectations of the fans, but still managed to earn its place among Normandy crew and their timeless Commander Shepard.
The game worked, looked and felt great! Gameplay was smoother than ever in any ME game and the graphics were gorgeously detailed! Many times I stopped to admire the scenary, planets from space or the space itself and take bunch of screenshots. Or striking against an near by crossing enemy squat, 'cause the firefights worked so smoothly and were hooking with a use of short thrusting jetpack doing some tactical maneuvers.
There still were few technical defects, but they've been fixed since the launch. As always, there will be some level of technical problems on launch in every game. So if you want to save yourself from frustration, buy the game at least six months after the release so the patches are available.
Characters didn't reach even near the quality that the original trilogy held, but they were very likable and interesting individuals with distinctive qualities of their own. Few of them sticking out for me. One being Peebee, whose race Asari has always been my favorite race from the franchise with their attractive appearance, high intelligence and biotic powers. Bioware truly managed once again create and maintain an excellent dynamic and humor between the characters, which and who usually builds the emotional connection to the game for me and are the driving forces that keeps my interest high and dedication to the end. Fulfilling the experience you need a great cast to work around the story and more importantly, protagonist.
I liked how green Ryder was and not so strict. Unlike Shepard, who was an experienced marine from the start and have had her/his afflictions on the battlefield already, Ryder's first baptism of fire was excellent beginning for her/his journey and becoming experienced soldier as well as Pathfinder mission after mission. As it was an introduction to the gameplay, graphics and game's AI for the player. You got to learn and experience the ropes with her/him together along the way. Which started with a rude awakening.
After 600 years of travelling through dark space in cryosleep searching for a new home with known races, arriving in Andromeda galaxy our hero crashes in the reality of the mission and possible new home pretty hard. Searching and settling new home didn't turned out to be an easy job. Not even after the first contact and loss helping the cause. But once you touchdowned the first promising livable planet and build your first outpost, creating them more in other planets and dealing every objectives making them as better places to live as possible, the outcomes became pretty rewarding fast.
Not forgetting a bunch of sidequests of course. Which majority of them once again felt useless fillers, but they also were, like always, perfect activities to get to know the planet's people, culture, dangerous wildlife and beautiful sights. And at the same time raising levels, collecting credits as well as resources and gear making you stronger opponent in the process.
The new threat, Kett, was interesting design and enemy to follow Saren, Geths, Collectors and Reapers. Their determined goal reaching made them ruthless and interal feuds dangerous enemy to fight for. Their devastating war with local alien race Angaran helped to forge an alliance and uncover their world and backstory, as gaining their support in the war against common enemy after you've been proven your worthy to them fully.
The journey through familiar hard decisions. Vast harsh lands. Fighting against dangerous enemies. Meeting new friendly and not so friendly faces. Experiencing joyful and sad moments. Loss, love, friendship and buckets of empty thermal clips the journey ended satifyingly.
Inside the game, world, story and characters beats familiar Mass Effect heart. Its predecessor's legend drives the successors on and shows that they can be worthy of them. In their own way.