The 2021 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Awards Nominees for Gaming

December 22, 2021, 6:00pm

The ComicBook.com annual Golden Issue Awards are here, and for the third year in a row, we have extended the awards to gaming. In the modern era, a “bad year” for gaming doesn’t exist. There are levels of greatness, but long gone are the days of yesteryear where weeks and weeks could painfully pass without a single compelling new game to play. While 2021 may not be remembered as a juggernaut year for gaming, it boasts its fair share of great games.

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Just like 2020, 2021 was a year of uncertainty. Also, like 2020, nobody could buy the new next-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles. At times, even the Nintendo Switch was challenging to buy, and you had to be willing to lose both your arms and legs to get your paws on the latest PC innards. Synchronously, games were hard to buy because they kept getting delayed. From start to finish, 2021 earned its reputation as the “Year of Delays.”

The last time PlayStation and Xbox released hardware, the following year was considered a “slow year” defined by cross-gen releases reflective of an industry in transition. 2021 was basically 2014 Part II in this regard. Despite this, we found plenty of great games to play and rave about this year.

Keep reading to check out all of the nominees for ComicBook.com’s 2021 Golden Issue Awards featuring the games we deemed to be the best of the best, and check back with ComicBook.com later this month as we reveal the winners!

Best Tabletop Game

Obviously, gaming can extend far beyond your favorite console or device, with an ever-growing number of tabletop games to take players into immersive worlds. The world of tabletop gaming has hit a fever pitch — and this year’s crop of titles were no exception.

D&D: Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons
Marvel Villainous
That Time You Killed Me
Unfathomable
X-Men United

Best Ongoing Game

Like many, we spent most of our time this year playing games that didn’t release this year. This category celebrates not just the games we keep coming back to, but games that continue to evolve over time thanks to excellent post-launch support and community management.

The nominees are:

Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment)
Call of Duty: Warzone (Raven Software)
Final Fantasy XIV: Online (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Genshin Impact (miHoYo)

Best Multiplayer Game

Whether it’s playing on the couch with meemaw or hopping online for a late night with the boys, 2021 had you covered with great multiplayer games. Between the triumphant return of a hibernating giant and titles pioneering both emerging genres and those thoroughly worn, there was a great variety for those who prefer to play with others.

Call of Duty: Vanguard (Sledgehammer Games)
Chivalry 2 (Torn Banner Studios)
Halo Infinite (343 Industries)
It Takes Two (Hazelight)
Valheim (Iron Gate Studio)

Best Single-Player Game

A few years ago, there were worries that single-player, narrative-driven experiences were dying to make way for online, live-service games. 2021 is the latest proof that suggests otherwise. This year was another great year for those who prefer the good ol’ days of getting lost in games all by themselves.

Deathloop (Arkane Studios)
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal)
Metroid Dread (Nintendo)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games)
Resident Evil Village (Capcom)

Game of the Year

Nobody needs an introduction to what “Game of the Year” means but in case this is your first rodeo, the games above and below are the aforementioned best of the best 2021 had to offer. Like every year, picking five games wasn’t easy and every game nominated survived a great gauntlet of rigorous criticism.