The Best PlayStation Games of 2021

(#8) Currently a console exclusive on PS5 (though also available now on PC and expected to get an Xbox Series X port in late 2022), Deathloop certainly wasn't the only time-loop game of 2021, but it was the best. Developed by Dishonored creators Arkane Studios—now a Microsoft subsidiary, oddly enough—Deathloop blends stealth and action into what is effectively an elaborate puzzle that is set on the mysterious resort island of Blackreef, a former army base and research center where your character, the assassin Colt, must take out eight different targets over the course of one day. At the end of each day, the island resets itself to the start of the previous day, and no character retains any memories of previous events—except you, which you can (obviously) use to your advantage, building on the knowledge you gain each playthrough. A player-vs-player mode adds even more wrinkles into the formula.

“For all of its complexities under the hood, Deathloop is Arkane’s most accessible game yet and elicits constant satisfaction. The action is a pleasure, while its main drive has you constantly picking up pieces of an unknown puzzle that are pieced together in separate chunks, before the frisson of excitement when the full picture starts to form. What’s extraordinary is how Arkane make it seem so easy. Blockbuster game-making at its smartest and most essential.” —Telegraph