With the holidays coming up, it seems like a good idea to help people who are looking for just the right new game to enjoy. So, we are making The Best Of lists: the best games that we know in a genre! Tried and tested by ourselves!
So these are some of the Best Steam games that have been released on Steam in 2021. All have been reviewed at one time or another on LadiesGamers and received our highest score of Two Thumbs Up. This list isn’t in any particular order, so let’s begin!
Ender Lilies Quietus of the Knights (Steam, Windows, Switch, PS4 & Xbox)
Ender Lilies Quietus of the Knights is a dark fantasy 2D action RPG about unravelling the mysteries of a destroyed kingdom. On this sorrowful journey, encounter horrific enemies against whom a moment of inattention could be fatal. Overcome these hardships and seek the truth with the help of fallen knights.
Set in ‘Lands End’ which doesn’t sound suspicious at all…. The world has descended into ruin thanks to the ‘Rain of Death’ which transformed living creatures into hideous undead nasties called Blighted. All hope truly looks lost and the world is a dark place. But in the deepest darkness is always the smallest spark of light.
That light comes in the form of Lily, the main character of this adventure. When she awakens from her slumber, Lily has the power to purify the land of the Blighted. However, she is not a fighter. Fortunately, an immortal knight is at hand to defeat enemies for Lily allowing her the opportunity to purify specific enemies, recruiting them to your side and continuing her quest to bring hope to this tortured land. You can read our review of Ender Lilies Quietus of the Knights here.
The Wild at Heart (Steam, Windows, macOS, Switch, PS4, Xbox One & Xbox SX)
Wield an ever-growing herd of quirky creatures to rebuild broken paths, battle perilous beasts, and solve peculiar puzzles in a rich, interconnected world. Join two young runaways as they unravel the mysteries of a lost realm in this nostalgic storybook fantasy!
As the game begins our young protagonist, who is fed up with his home life, writes a note for his father and runs away from home, he sets off to join his friend Kirby in the woods. Leaving the house via the back door, Wake wanders off into a strange place in search of his friend Kirby.
Soon, the pair find themselves in a world known as the Deep Woods, home to the Greenshields. A strange breed of folk. There is the Crazy Cat lady named Litterbox, who has mislaid her cats, Paper Planes, who can’t talk but can make cool paper planes and old Grey Coat who seems to be the leader, and many more. You can read our The Wild at Heart review here.
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective (Steam, Windows & Switch)
Adapted from the bestselling children’s book series Pierre The Maze Detective, play as Pierre in this adventure/puzzle game and recover the stolen Maze Stone. Journey through breathtakingly hand-drawn illustrations, meet eccentric characters, and solve puzzles to save Opera City!
The infamous Mr X has stolen the Maze Stone, a magical artefact. The artefact has the power to turn the whole of Opera City into a maze. Oh no, that can’t be allowed to happen, or has it already happened since the whole place is a maze already? Anyway, in this adventure puzzle game, you will be challenged with tracking down the elusive villain Mr X in an effort to save the day. You can read our review of Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective here.
Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag (Steam, Windows & macOS)
Master the powers of three Celtic Heroes in this hand-drawn action platformer! Solve challenging puzzles, slay unworldly demons, and cross beautiful landscapes by swapping instantly between characters. With an all-original Celtic soundtrack. You’ve never heard of it, so it must be mythical!
Clan O’Conall is a 2D action-adventure game set in the mythical land of Hibernia. Once upon a Celtic time, the humans and Fae Folk were at war. But peace was brought about and the two sides unified with a special crown made from both people known as the Crown of the Stag.
Unfortunately, peace never lasts forever and generations later the Mother of Demons Caoránach has kidnapped Chief Arden who is frozen in ice. You can read our Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag review here.
Road 96 (Steam, Windows & Switch)
Summer 1996, Today is the day! You hit the road. Adventure. Freedom. Escape. Run. Flee the Regime. Try to survive. Hitchhike your way to freedom in this crazy procedurally generated road trip. No one’s road is the same!
The game is set in 1996 in the fictitious country of Petria. The country is ruled by a tyrannical president known as Tyrak. The youth of the country have had enough and several teens are making their way to the northern border in the hopes of a better life.
Before a run, a news report plays and you get to choose one of these missing teens to play as. Each has a starting amount of money, stamina and is a set distance from the border. So you can either think carefully about your choice or just do what I did and randomly pick one and accept the fate the rogue gods give you. You can read our Road 96 review here.
OCO (Steam, Windows, macOS, iOS, & Android)
Immerse yourself in the minimalist audio-visual platforming world of OCO. Solve fast-paced platforming puzzles, create and share your own designs, join the OCO community, and compete to top the global leaderboards.
OCO is a puzzle game where you are in control of a little white dot as it travels around the puzzle collecting yellow dots. Using one-touch controls by pressing the mouse button you have to guide the dot to the end of the puzzle. All the puzzles are circular and set in a minimalistic world. Your response with the one-touch controls generates a soundtrack and it changes depending on how you play. You can read our OCO review here.
Patron (Steam & Windows)
Patron is a survival city builder with a unique social dynamics system. Gather and produce resources, build your fledgling village into a prosperous city and navigate the intricate social tensions before they reach boiling point.
Patron is the mix of strategy and city-building mechanics that make Patron a good choice for players who like to think about their strategic moves.
You must keep an eye on resources, making sure you have enough food and firewood. Keep your population happy by supplying the correct goods, if you don’t, they up sticks and leave your city, or worse, they die. And believe me, I had it happen! You can read our Patron review here.
Cloud Gardens (Steam, Windows, macOS, Xbox One & Xbox SX)
Harness the power of nature to overgrow lo-fi scenes of urban decay and manufactured landscapes. Create small plant-covered dioramas of brutalism and beauty by planting seeds, repurposing hundreds of discarded objects and creating unique structures for nature to reclaim.
Cloud Gardens tasks you with planting seeds in the right places. The seed grows into a plant that spreads over scenes of urban decay on little dioramas. Placing objects, which are mostly rubbish and junk around the seeds makes them grow into a plant that produces flowers/fruits and seeds that can be harvested.
You, in turn, collect the seeds which allow you to grow more plants. Once you have reached the required score for that level you move on to the next level. You can read the review of the Cloud Gardens here.
A Juggler’s Tale (Steam, Windows, Switch, PS4, PS5, & Xbox One)
Lead Abby the string puppet through a bruised, but beautiful fairy tale world in this cinematic adventure. Solve riddles, evade traps and shake off pursuers on the way to find freedom. Can Abby take control of her fate with all the strings attached?
In A Juggler’s Tale, storyteller and puppeteer Jack shows his audience the theatre play of Abby performing on stage. You see, little Abby is an imprisoned circus artiste with visible stings holding her up, she is a string puppet. Of course, you play the part of Abby.
At night after each show, poor Abby is locked up in a cage by the cruel circus master. Abby longs for freedom and to venture out into the wide world. She escapes the circus and starts out on her journey. Alas, after a brief moment of freedom Abby finds herself dragged into the dangers the world has to offer. Ending up in a war-torn, medieval fairytale, surrounded by ravaged, starving citizens and hunted by a relentless cut-throat, Tonda. You can read our review for A Juggler’s Tale here.
A Winding Path (Steam & Windows)
A Winding Path is a hand-drawn adventure game about finding the beauty of the world and enjoying the little things.
In A Winding Path, players are young stick figure that needs to help out everyone around them in order to complete puzzles. In a world filled with cyclopes, trolls, and other mystical critters, you will find the magic you need to heal the forest and the sea with the power of kindness.
Players wander through towns and forests looking for ways to bring the rain back to a parched world. Interacting with others moves the story forward and gives the player quests to help heal the land. You can read our review for A Winding Path here.
Teacup (Steam, Windows, Switch PS4, PS5, Xbox One & Xbox Series X)
Teacup is a short and wholesome narrative adventure game with a focus on exploration and non-linear progression. Help a small and shy frog on her journey to find the ingredients she needs for her tea party!
In this short adventure game, you play the role of the titular Teacup. Teacup is a shy frog who loves nothing better than reading a good book and drinking her favourite beverage Tea. A tea party has been arranged at Teacup’s house, unfortunately, the day before the party is to take place Teacup realises she has a crisis on her webbed hands, she has run out of tea!
Teacup sets out on an adventure through the surrounding area’s to find the herbs and ingredients she needs for her tea party to be a success. You can read our Teacup review here.
Growbot (Steam, Windows, macOS, & Linux)
Growbot is an adventure about a robot saving her home from a dark crystalline force. Set upon a biopunk space station bursting with fantastic plants and aliens.
In Growbot you play as Nara, a little titular robot who lives aboard a biopunk space station. Nara has been sent from her home to begin her training to become a captain aboard the Ventral space station. After Nira’s first night on the space station, she awakens to find everyone is missing and strange invasive alien crystals have sprouted up all over the space station.
You take control of Nara as she tries to solve the mystery of the alien crystals and find her missing friends, fixing machinery, and searching for the captain aboard a space station called Kew. You can read our Growbot review here.
SAMUDRA (Steam & Windows)
SAMUDRA is a hand-illustrated, 2D puzzle game that follows a child’s adventure across a polluted sea. Players encounter underwater creatures to uncover truths about “surface-dweller” actions causing the polluted deep-sea world.
Picture this. In the not-so-distant future, the world has been completely swallowed up by a toxic flood caused by climate change. Nearly all animals are extinct. Most resources are scarce, and there are only a few safe places left on the surface of the earth.
An earth that is occupied by the remaining Surface-Dwellers, who require a breathing apparatus to be able to endure the earth’s toxic atmosphere. But now the Surface-Dwellers have decided to look to the ocean for the resources that they need and are missing on earth. You can find our review for SAMUDRA here.
