Alba: A Wildlife Adventure	The Wild at Heart	Ocean's Heart
Monster Sanctuary	Death's Door	Cozy Grove
Subnautica: Below Zero	Dorfromantik	Garden Story
It Takes Two	Mini Motorways	Omno
Marco and the Galaxy Dragon	Pathway	Supraland

Like I said in the intro, the stats are less awful than I initially anticipated, because I somehow still managed to control what I added to the backlog. Still not a victory over the backlog, but a better ratio than last year.

That being said, I'm not really happy in the progress I made in the challenges I had set for myself or with the way I went back to old bad habits of starting a lot of games and not finishing them despite loving them. More on how I intend to try and fix that in the next section.

---

Progress in 2021

Won on SteamGifts

Jan 1st (173 games) vs Dec 31th 2021 (175 games)

Gifts & Other Wins

Jan 1st (395 games) vs Dec 31th 2021 (428 games)

As I said, I've gone back to the bad habit of not finishing what I start, not because I don't like the game but because I get distracted by something else. As a direct consequence, some of my favourite games I played this year didn't make it to my Top 15. I think Skatr's 20/22 challenge is such a great idea. I am definitely gonna adapt it to my needs (and probably only pick from my unfinished games). I'll post about that in the next days and insert a link here when it's ready. The masterpost has been made.

My other pet peeve about how the backlog fight went is how little progress I made in the Tag Challenge despite picking games I really wanted to play soon. I'm gonna try to focus more on those and make better progress on it than this year. We'll see how it goes, but I have to be able to do better than 2, right? RIGHT ? *sweats*

---

State of the Targets on January 1st 2022 (for tracking purpose)

Won on SteamGifts 175 games

Gifts & Other Wins 428 games

Added in 2021 80 games

Played	Finished	Completed	Backlog+	Achievements
11	3	1	13	34 + 1

• Inscryption
  

  9 hours playtime

  11 of 30 achievements

• DemonCrawl
  

  343 hours playtime

  107 of 172 achievements

• Moonglow Bay
  

  14 hours playtime

  7 of 37 achievements

• Wytchwood
  

  10 hours playtime

  14 of 14 achievements

• Wolfstride
  

  4 hours playtime

  3 of 20 achievements

• Cozy Grove
  

  77 hours playtime

  55 of 62 achievements

• Townscaper
  

  15 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
  

  16 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  

  316 hours playtime

  no achievements

• It Takes Two
  

  15 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Lake
  

  3 hours playtime

  1 of 10 achievements

• Wytchwood
  

  10 hours playtime

  14 of 14 achievements

• Townscaper
  

  15 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• It Takes Two
  

  15 hours playtime

  no achievements

• The Survivalists
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 42 achievements

• TOHU
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 21 achievements

• Not For Broadcast
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 43 achievements

• Wytchwood
  

  10 hours playtime

  14 of 14 achievements

• Wolfstride
  

  4 hours playtime

  3 of 20 achievements

• Sunless Skies
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 31 achievements

• TOEM
  

  0 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Eastward
  

  0 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Noita
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 14 achievements

• Townscaper
  

  15 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Days Gone
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 61 achievements

• Assemble with Care
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 14 achievements

• The Last Campfire
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 22 achievements

Played	Finished	Completed	Backlog+	Achievements
10	3	1	3	47

• Diablo III
  

  47 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Unpacking
  

  6 hours playtime

  25 of 25

• Spire of Sorcery
  

  6 hours playtime

  14 of 16 achievements

• DemonCrawl
  

  268 hours playtime

  84 of 172 achievements

• Moonglow Bay
  

  11 hours playtime

  5 of 37 achievements

• Down in Bermuda
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• House Flipper
  

  15 hours playtime

  6 of 61 achievements

• Inscryption
  

  48 minutes playtime

  3 of 30 achievements

• Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
  

  16 hours playtime

  15 of 49 achievements

• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
  

  14 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Diablo III
  

  47 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Unpacking
  

  6 hours playtime

  25 of 25

• Spire of Sorcery
  

  6 hours playtime

  14 of 16 achievements

• Moonglow Bay
  

  11 hours playtime

  5 of 37 achievements

• House Flipper
  

  15 hours playtime

  6 of 61 achievements

• Inscryption
  

  48 minutes playtime

  3 of 30 achievements

Played	Finished	Completed	Backlog+	Achievements
15	2	0	4	42

• Luna's Fishing Garden
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Diablo III
  

  14 hours playtime

  no achievements

• The Coma: Recut
  

  3 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Metroid Dread
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Tetris Effect: Connected
  

  3 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Mad Father
  

  4 hours playtime

  20 of 21 achievements

• Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
  

  15 hours playtime

  13 of 49 achievements

• Despot's Game: Dystopian Army Builder
  

  8 hours playtime

  no achievements

• DemonCrawl
  

  240 hours playtime

  82 of 172 achievements

• Mini Motorways
  

  15 hours playtime

  40 of 70 achievements

• Encased
  

  9 hours playtime

  4 of 44 achievements

• Spire of Sorcery
  

  2 hours playtime

  10 of 16 achievements

• Cozy Grove
  

  76 hours playtime

  54 of 62 achievements

• Dorfromantik
  

  5 hours playtime

  9 of 81 achievements

• The Voice of Cards
  

  1 hour playtime

  no achievements

• Luna's Fishing Garden
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Mad Father
  

  4 hours playtime

  20 of 21 achievements

• Heaven's Vault
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 44 achievements

• Mad Father
  

  4 hours playtime

  20 of 21 achievements

• Despot's Game: Dystopian Army Builder
  

  8 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Spire of Sorcery
  

  2 hours playtime

  10 of 16 achievements

  ?

Played	Finished	Completed	Backlog+	Achievements
11	5	0	0	45 + 13

• Cozy Grove
  

  75 hours playtime

  54 of 62 achievements

• DYSMANTLE
  

  37 hours playtime

  14 of 34 achievements

• Superliminal
  

  3 hours playtime

  7 of 27 achievements

• Insurmountable
  

  6 hours playtime

  15 of 26 achievements

• Mini Motorways
  

  14 hours playtime

  37 of 67 achievements

• Crown Trick
  

  2 hours playtime

  13 of 48 achievements

• The Artful Escape
  

  3 hours playtime

  9 of 12 achievements

• Rain on Your Parade
  

  3 hours playtime

  10 of 22 achievements

• SkateBIRD
  

  9 hours playtime

  9 of 12 achievements

• I am Fish
  

  1 hour playtime

  4 of 29 achievements

• Necrobarista Final Pour
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Diablo III
  

  3 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Superliminal
  

  3 hours playtime

  7 of 27 achievements

• The Artful Escape
  

  3 hours playtime

  9 of 12 achievements

• Rain on Your Parade
  

  3 hours playtime

  10 of 22 achievements

• SkateBIRD
  

  9 hours playtime

  9 of 12 achievements

• Cozy Grove
  

  75 hours playtime

  54 of 62 achievements

Nothing!

Played	Finished	Completed	Backlog+	Achievements
14	7	4	5	61 + 19

• Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
  

  5 hours playtime

  9 of 9 achievements

• Analogue: A Hate Story
  

  6 hours playtime

  14 of 14 achievements

• Cozy Grove
  

  70 hours playtime

  51 of 62 achievements

• The Ramp
  

  64 minutes playtime

  9 of 12 achievements

• Mini Motorways
  

  13 hours playtime

  37 of 67 achievements

• Draft of Darkness
  

  7 hours playtime

  5 of 35 achievements

• Garden Story
  

  19 hours playtime

  16 of 21 achievements

• DYSMANTLE
  

  23 hours playtime

  8 of 34 achievements

• Road 96
  

  10 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
  

  4 hours playtime

  37 of 37 achievements

• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
  

  80 minutes playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Mario's Picross 2 (GameBoy)
  

  65 hours playtime

  27 of 33 achievements

• Necrobarista Final Pour
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Katamari Damacy Reroll
  

  6 hours playtime

  19 of 21 achievements

• Katamari Damacy Reroll
  

  6 hours playtime

  19 of 21 achievements

• Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
  

  5 hours playtime

  9 of 9 achievements

• The Ramp
  

  64 minutes playtime

  9 of 12 achievements

• Garden Story
  

  19 hours playtime

  16 of 21 achievements

• Road 96
  

  10 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
  

  4 hours playtime

  37 of 37 achievements

• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
  

  80 minutes playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• DYSMANTLE
  

  23 hours playtime

  8 of 34 achievements

• Garden Story
  

  19 hours playtime

  16 of 21 achievements

• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
  

  80 minutes playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Road 96
  

  10 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Superliminal
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 27 achievements

Played	Finished	Completed	Backlog+	Achievements
21	12	5	11	216 + 8

ABC Challenge 2.0 Progress (3/27)

Finished this month: 0

Tag Challenge #1 Progress (2/12)

Finished this month: 0

• Cozy Grove
  

  59 hours playtime

  50 of 62 achievements

• The Silver Case 2425
  

  5 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Pathway
  

  18 hours playtime

  47 of 75 achievements

• Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2
  

  7 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Mario's Picross 2 (GameBoy)
  

  47 hours playtime

  20 of 33 achievements

• DemonCrawl
  

  222 hours playtime

  82 of 172 achievements

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  

  315 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Popup Dungeon
  

  34 hours playtime

  17 of 65 achievements

• Beasts of Maravilla Island
  

  3 hours playtime

  31 of 31 achievements

• Mitoza
  

  35 minutes playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• The Solitaire Conspiracy
  

  5 hours playtime

  18 of 20 achievements

• Omno
  

  6 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

• Wanderlust: Travel Stories
  

  9 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Mini Motorways
  

  10 hours playtime

  32 of 67 achievements

• Death's Door
  

  20 hours playtime

  21 of 24 achievements

• Draft of Darkness
  

  46 minutes playtime

  1 of 35 achievements

• The Ramp
  

  1 minute playtime

  no achievements

• The Touryst
  

  7 hours playtime

  8 of 10 achievements

• Wanderlust: Transsiberian
  

  53 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Donut County
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Analogue: A Hate Story
  

  4 hours playtime

  11 of 14 achievements

In an attempt to reduce that orange section of my backlog pie, I picked up Pathway again. Originally, I was very excited for it but the balance at launch (in 2019) was so awful that it was making the game extremely non fun to play. I'm happy to report that it has since been fixed. The game is really fun to play, a great mix of exploration and turn-based tactics with a huge Indiana Jones vibes. As a bonus, the devs are really nice and helpful people. I had a minor bug where the game kept running in the background after I shut it down (the playing time in this one is probably innacurate since it took a few hours before I realized). I casually asked about it on their discord and one dev contacted me in private and the team tried really hard to solve my problem.

I'm a little bit torn about this one. I really enjoyed it and it's what I wish Pokemon Snap would have been about : you walk around in a paradisiac island and take photos of lots of strange creatures and plants. My playthrough went smoothly and all was fine. But then I gifted a copy of it to polsdestrella and her playthrough was ridden with bugs and glitches, to the point that she encountered a game breaking bug towards the end and we had to edit her save file manually comparing it with mine, which after some trial and errors let her bypass that point and actually finish her game. Which wouldn't even have been possible if we didn't have an actual non buggy save file past that point. So it's hard to recommend even though I loved the game.

More than a game it's a toy that you interact with to see the different outcomes. Some are super weird, but I liked it. It's short and free.

Probably the best solitaire game I've ever played, and it has a story. I really loved it.

One of the 3 best games I've played this month, and might end up in my end of year top. It's relatively short but it's both visually super pretty and it's a very zen overall game. It reminded me a bit of Journey, but with a cat companion, so clearly superior. And you can surf. 11/10. For those who have the gamepass it's on there too, give it a try.

Another one of my top of the month. It's the sequel to Mini Metro, visually in the same style but with different mecanics on the same basic concept. Here you have to design the road infrastructures to link people's houses and their place of work and avoid traffic chaos. If you liked Mini Metro, you'll most likely love this too. Easy to pick up, hard to master if you wanna reach the top scores. I might be slightly addicted but is it really a problem? :sweat:

My most satisfying finish (mostly because it was longer and more complex than the two previous ones). A beautiful and dark action-adventure game. A bit of a Zelda-like were you play as a young crow reaper who gets involved in a dark plot while just trying to do his job. I really LOVED this game and 100% it (the save file, not the achievements) in 20 hours across 5 days. I couldn't wait to see more of it and put all of my free time of those days into it. Very strong recommend for the fans of the genre. Note for the cheevo hunters : you might want to check the missable cheevos. The ones I'm missing would have been more or less easy to acquire (maybe minus one) if I had actually known they were a thing.

Following Lengray's recommendation from last winter, I bought this (and the DLC, see below) during the summer sales. My condition was that I was gonna play it this month and not let it rot in the backlog. It was a very nice travel VN and I enjoyed the stories overall. However something in one of the stories itched me the wrong way. It was only one sentence so I guess it's not too bad but one of the protagonist describes while passing the border from France to Spain contemplating the Alps (the chain of mountain between the 2 countries is the Pyrenees, the Alps are between France and Italy for those who don't know). It bothered me in the sense that if your game is all about travel and geography, please double check your facts. And mostly because I didn't know if in the other stories there were the same kind of errors (because I'm not good at geography or familiar with the other places, so I don't know). However overall it was still very enjoyable.

The standalone DLC to the main Wanderlust game. It only follows one story but the protagonist is one of the main game character so they're kind of linked. I really liked this one too.

It was a fun little exploration/puzzle game. I mostly played it because it was leaving the gamepass today and I was intrigued so I thought I might as well try. Cute concept but some of the sequences of plateforming were just infuriating because of the perspective.

Nice short game that I would describe as a reverse Katamari Damacy. You're in control of a hole in the ground and have to absorb everything around. The only critic I'd have is that the gamepass version on PC won't let you unlock the achievements for some reason (it seems to be common with Annapurna's games on the pass). Other than that, fun relaxing game.

A sneaky octopus stuffed this in my backlog, and I was curious enough to take it. I guess since I wasn't really expecting anything of it, I was pleasantly surprised. It's a sci-fi VN where you unfold the story by exploring some log files in the computer of an empty space ship, trying to figure out what happened to its former inhabitants. Note that my first playthrough ended in about 10 minutes because I'm an idiot. Anywho, my actual "full" playthrough took about 3h30 and then some reloading to explore different branches of the story. I might go back to sweep the 3 cheevos I'm missing and read what I didn't discover. Nice surprise.

• Beasts of Maravilla Island
  

  3 hours playtime

  31 of 31 achievements

• Wanderlust: Travel Stories
  

  9 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Wanderlust: Transsiberian
  

  53 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 36 achievements

• The Solitaire Conspiracy
  

  5 hours playtime

  18 of 20 achievements

• Omno
  

  6 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

• Mini Motorways
  

  10 hours playtime

  32 of 67 achievements

• Death's Door
  

  20 hours playtime

  21 of 24 achievements

• Draft of Darkness
  

  46 minutes playtime

  1 of 35 achievements

• The Ramp
  

  1 minute playtime

  no achievements

• Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 9 achievements

Played	Finished	Completed	Backlog+	Achievements
14	2	2	3	63

ABC Challenge 2.0 Progress (3/27)

Finished this month: 0

Tag Challenge #1 Progress (2/12)

Finished this month: 0

• Cozy Grove
  

  52 hours playtime

  49 of 62 achievements

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  

  313 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Golf Story
  

  5 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Hokko Life
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• The Wild at Heart
  

  21 hours playtime

  29 of 29 achievements

• Ring of Pain
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• King of Seas
  

  29 hours playtime

  12 of 29 achievements

• Cloudpunk
  

  10 hours playtime

  44 of 79 achievements

• Slay the Spire
  

  220 hours playtime

  25 of 46 achievements

• Wasteland 3
  

  49 hours playtime

  24 of 74 achievements

• Pathway
  

  3 hours playtime

  9 of 75 achievements

• Mario Golf Super Rush
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2
  

  5 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Subnautica: Below Zero
  

  35 hours playtime

  13 of 13 achievements

One of my favourite game I've played this year. I had loved the demo last summer and the final game was everything I hoped and some more. Gameplay-wise it's using a mechanic similar to Pikmin (the protagonists are followed by a group of little creatures of different types that you have to use to solve different puzzles as you explore), but better in my opinion. The graphic style is absolutely adorable and very detailled, the story is nice. I had an overall great time and I strongly recommend it if the gameplay appeals to you. For those who have it, it's on the gamepass.

I had been waiting for a long time for this game to come out of EA, and I was really excited about it with how much I loved the original Subnautica. This game is both similar and quite different as it adds new game mecanics, a new story, a whole new environement and a new protagonist, which I really loved even more than the original one. Oh and of course, new nightmarish fauna, or it wouldn't be Subnautica. I had taken a few weeks break on it to play other things but went back to it a few days ago and dived right back in the addiction. Strongly recommend it to those who enjoyed the first game.

Not counting it as a beaten this month as I only finished the DLC and still need to finish the main campaign but I wanted to say a word about it. I loved going back to Wasteland 3, and recently they had a big patch that added crafting into the base game as well as some very convenient quality of life features. The DLC in itself mostly worked fine for me (I had a few bugs on my first game session but then all went smooth) but some people are reporting lots of bugs. Story wise, it was a nice contained storyline on a separate location. I played with a level 15-17 group which scaled pretty well, I don't know about people who already have completed the game going back for it though. Maybe wait for the second DLC to come out this summer and see what it's worth.

• Tell Me Why
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 30 achievements

• Popup Dungeon
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 65 achievements

• Analogue: A Hate Story
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 14 achievements

Played	Finished	Completed	Backlog+	Achievements
14	3	1	6	126

ABC Challenge 2.0 Progress (3/27)

Finished this month: 0

Tag Challenge #1 Progress (2/12)

Finished this month: 0

• Cozy Grove
  

  37 hours playtime

  41 of 62 achievements

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
  

  312 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Golf Story
  

  3 hours playtime

  no achievements

• World's End Club
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• The Last Campfire
  

  1 hour playtime

  no achievements

• Mario's Picross 2 (GameBoy)
  

  42 hours playtime

  19 of 33 achievements

• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
  

  3 hours playtime

  34 of 34 achievements

• Littlewood
  

  50 hours playtime

  52 of 60 achievements

• Loop Hero
  

  37 hours playtime

  31 of 50 achievements

• DemonCrawl
  

  202 hours playtime

  80 of 166 achievements

• The Slormancer
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Subnautica: Below Zero
  

  19 hours playtime

  5 of 13 achievements

• Insurmountable
  

  4 hours playtime

  12 of 26 achievements

• The Wild at Heart
  

  17 hours playtime

  15 of 29 achievements

So I started the month committing tax evasion :sweat:. It was an overall really fun game, reminiscent of the old 2D Zelda games in the design and gameplay. The writing was really funny, it's full of references and memes and the design is adorable. The only downside is that the game is really short. Worth your time but be aware it's so short.

This was a cool town management/farming/crafting/adventuring game. It was really addictive (I promise, just one more day and I stop playing) and I put a lot of time into it. I've put 50 hours into it, so i'm very happy with it, but I have two small criticism. First, if you want all the achievements, some of them are extremely grindy, to the point that I don't think I'll go for completion. The second problem I had is that the "ending" is very underwhelming to say the least. That being said, that's not the important point in a game of this genre, and that part is done really well. I would recommend the game if the genre appeals to you.

I was very intrigued by this roguelike about mountain climbing. It's a pretty uncommon theme and the idea seemed fun to me. You move your alpinist on an hexagonal map with different elevations and attempt to successfully climb (and descend) 3 summits. For that you'll need to manage different vital stats and use the equipment you can find along the way. I really liked the game even though when I played it, it suffered from a lack of variety in the events. It's been patched since then and more events have been added so I'll for sure play it some more. Recommended if you like roguelikes and the theme appeals to you.

• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
  

  3 hours playtime

  34 of 34 achievements

• Nubarron: The adventure of an unlucky gnome
  

  0 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Little Nightmares II
  

  0 minutes playtime

  0 of 35 achievements

• Insurmountable
  

  4 hours playtime

  12 of 26 achievements

• Hokko Life
  

  0 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• The Wild at Heart
  

  17 hours playtime

  15 of 29 achievements