PC Gamer Annual - UK (2022)

(Maropa) #1
29
CRUELTY
SQUAD
RELEASED 2021 | LAST POSITION New

James: A monstrous immersive sim, a
game held together with duct tape and
bad vibes. As a gig economy assassin
killing men who pose a threat to a higher
order of immortal CEO gods in a
hypersaturated mess of jagged polygons
and screaming textures, it’s difficult to not
feel bad. But using my guts to grapple up
to a sniper nest above the Cancer
Megamall? This is a shit jawbreaker with a
dense pleasure chemical core. Cruelty
Squad isn’t cruel. It’s just honest.

DESTINY 2


RELEASED 2017 | LAST POSITION 14

Tim: A mere four years into its life on PC, I
did not expect to see Destiny 2 climbing
this chart on the back of its storytelling.
Once rightly derided for hiding its rich lore
in grimoire cards and armour flavour text,
over the last year Destiny 2 has quietly
reinvented how to create ongoing narrative
in a live service game, using a combination
of choreographed NPC conversations and
the occasional cut-scene, a soapy plot
develops from week to week, complete
with twists, heel turns, and Saturday
morning cartoon cliffhangers.
We’ve seen major characters killed off,
big bads come and go (or have they?), and
finally had the sense that the guardians are


actually part of an evolving universe. And
it’s working: keeping players interested in
what’s happening rather than just grinding
for god-tier weapons. It also helps that the
mix of matchmade activities, exotic quests
and hidden missions has been refined to
the point that any variance in quality is way
less wild than it used to be.
And if you’d rather not pay at all, there’s
still an incredibly robust game entirely for
free, including endgame content such as
the Vault of Glass raid or the Trials of Osiris
elimination mode. The only reason
Destiny 2 isn’t even higher here is that the
PVP side of the game has been neglected
to the point of abandonment.

31


26
STARDEW
VALLEY
RELEASED 2016 | LAST POSITION 52

Mollie: The recent 1.5
update turned an already
great game into an
excellent one. The addition
of tons of late-game
content and quality-of-life
improvements has made
owning a farm, marrying a
reformed alcoholic and
owning a small army of
truffle-sniffing pigs better
than ever.

27
ROCKET
LEAGUE
RELEASED 2015 | LAST POSITION 46

Rich: I’ve literally spent 100
days (2,400 hours) of my
life playing this. Some of
that would have just been
the game idling but... wow,
time to rethink my life
choices. A perfect game,
and has been since launch:
once the controls and
rhythm get their hooks in,
you’ll never look back. Put
it on my gravestone: my
name was Richard Stanton,
and I drove a rocket car.

28
HUNT
SHOWDOWN
RELEASED 2018 | LAST POSITION New

Jacob: You might be
wondering why Hunt:
Showdown has only now
made its way into our Top
100, many years after it
first launched. The reason
being this PvEvP shooter
has only gone from
strength to strength in
2021, incorporating steady
updates, improvements,
and, finally, a new and
immeasurably entertaining
new map.

FE ATURE


30
DEEP ROCK
GALACTIC

RELEASED 2020 | LAST POSITION New


Robin: For me this is quietly the most
exciting co-op shooter in years. There’s
so many parts of it I want to talk about.
Like its incredible procedural generation,
churning out fresh, fascinating, and
frequently beautiful levels every session.
Or the satisfaction of working together
to build, dig, and demolish your way to
success. Or the way it makes managing
light a core part of the experience in a way
that adds so much drama to exploration.
Oh no, I’ve run out of words again.

Free download pdf