2022 was another wild year — both in terms of video games and the rest of society. We went through multiple floods and droughts in what felt like three or four years smashed together, but when all is said and done, this is a strong list.
AAA releases struggled, and the releases at Xbox were particularly sparse this year. But what we lacked in blockbusters was more than made up for with smaller releases. After all, larger budgets don't always make for more enjoyment.
You won't see the likes of "Elden Ring" or "Call of Duty" below, but you'll find a list of games that I'm sincerely enthusiastic about.
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Honorable Mention: Saints Row
This much-maligned reboot to the long-running "Saints Row" franchise was pretty darn enjoyable for me. It's less wacky than the last few entries, but it delivered on a likable main cast and some memorable open-world high jinks. That's all I need, honestly.
I played on PS5 at launch, and only ran into very mild technical issues. People playing other places reported much worse, but I simply didn't run into any of the game-breaking stuff. As far as I am concerned, this is absolutely worth playing for long-time fans.
Rated M for Mature.
10. Ghostwire: Tokyo
It's not quite as exciting as we might have hoped after the very pleasant unveiling, but walking around Tokyo with my ghost pal, and collecting hundreds of souls was some of my best time spent listening to podcasts and unwinding this year. And those hand animations? Unmatched.
Rated T for Teen
09. God of War: Ragnarök
After the 2018 soft reboot, the expectations were extremely high here. "Ragnarök" mostly delivers on what we were hoping for, but it can't live up to the spectacle and novelty of that previous entry. Still, it's a gorgeous game with some absolutely superb dialog and performances. Mímir is still one of the best characters ever put to bits. He knows how to get ahead.
Rated M for Mature.
08. Wayward Strand
A delightful story out of Australia where a young girl befriends and interviews elderly folks in an oddball hospital that happens to be an airship tethered to the coast. It's an exceedingly charming clockwork world that benefits from having a map that isn't overly large, but isn't small enough to see everything at once.
If I was to ever move into gamedev, I could very much see myself making a game like this.
Unrated.
07. We Are OFK
Clearly inspired by visual novels and Telltale-style adventure games, "We Are OFK" is a character-driven coming of age story for zoomers, and to some extent, by zoomers. I'm a bit too old to resonate with every aspect of these characters, but there's a lot even geezers like me will identify with.
Better yet, each segment of the game has an interactive music video, and I desperately want that to be more common going forward. The next T-Swift release needs to be a game.
Rated M for Mature.
06. Return To Monkey Island
I grew up with LucasArts adventure games, and they absolutely helped shaped my tastes and sense of humor. So when I heard that creative leads from the original "Monkey Island" games were coming back for a proper sequel, I was absolutely thrilled.
While "Return" is primarily a follow-up to the first two releases, it smartly incorporates elements from some of the other "Monkey Island" games to help it fit seamlessly. It's very much "one of those," but it's about as good as you could possibly hope for. Well done, everyone!
Unrated.
05. Pentiment
Obsidian has really been punching above their weight since being acquired by Microsoft. Not only did they put out "Grounded" as a weird co-op survival game this year, but "Pentiment" is a 2D narrative game that very much echoes what the team has done in releases like "KotOR 2" and "Fallout: New Vegas."
The scope is smaller, and there's no combat to be found, but it's truly a wonderful little game that we never saw coming. Turns out, reformation-era Europe is ripe for gripping stories, and the art style is like nothing we've seen in the medium.
Rated M for Mature.
04. Horizon: Forbidden West
I liked the first "Horizon" quite a bit, and I'm pleased to report that this is an improvement in about every conceivable way. Combat and traversal are more varied, the characters are better fleshed out and the sci-fi plot is red hot.
I always wanted to find out more about where the story was going, but the well-written side-quests kept pulling me away at every new location. After 80 or so hours, I've completed darn-near everything I wanted, and I cannot wait to see where it goes next.
Rated T for Teen.
03. Citizen Sleeper
"Can machines be people?" Yeah, duh. "Citizen Sleeper" rejects your question, and puts you in the position of a persecuted entity simply trying to survive under space-capitalism.
With a dice-based action system, much of your interactions in the world are left up to chance, so there is a real feeling of dread spread throughout the experience. However, you're also meeting struggling folks, helping where you can and trying not to compromise your morals too much to get by. It does a hell of a lot with a very minimalist presentation, and these devs should be very proud.
Unrated.
02. Immortality
"Her Story" and "Telling Lies" made searching databases for video clips wildly enjoyable, but Sam Barlow and friends were running out of room with that mechanic. Scrubbing through live action footage is great, but there's only so many search queries, right?
"Immortality" takes what this crew had built before, and absolutely blows the doors off. No more searching, a much simpler clickable interface was implemented, and the footage is much more complicated this time around. You've got to put together the story from three different era-appropriate films, BTS footage and some hidden stuff that I won't even try to explain here.
Not only are the pastiche genre films made for this game dead-ringers for the real deal, the underlying narrative is delightful once you've started assembling the pieces. And the performances? Top notch. Manon Gage deserves an Oscar.
Unrated.
01. Norco
This game vibrates on my frequency in the way that only "Disco Elysium" and "Kentucky Route Zero" have in recent years. It's about melancholy and the world collapsing around you, sure, but it's also sincerely interested in the people left behind during the collapse.
"Norco" is a rebuke of oil and megacorps ruining communities and the environment, but it's also a love letter to the places and people being ruined. I've never lived in Louisiana, but I feel the same way about Delaware that these folks feel about their home state. Very sad, scared, but madly in love.
Unrated.
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